The Velveteen Opera Star

The curtain fell the final time on The Great Magnifica's willowy aria. Oh, how Puccini would have wept to hear his music sung so beautifully! But her time had come. Magnifica would retire, in Majorca, where she had been knitted that long ago day by that idiot savant woman who talked to pigeons, and she would sit in her paper mansion all the live long day until Abuela Niña would chuck her in the rubbish bin with the coffee grounds. But would she rise again like the Velveteen Rabbit? Perhaps, perhaps one day she would be a real diva, a diva who demanded red M&Ms and a bowl full of fresh figs every night, whether or not she was there - and she would have many lovers, one who would give her syphilis, sending her into a fit of madness. How glorious!