This memoir records Elsa Respighi's direct involvement with composers, performers, conductors, teachers, audiences, politicians and patrons. The wife of Ottorino Respighi, she was professionally and socially close to such figures as Toscanini, Stravinsky, Richard Strauss, Casals, Segovia, Rubinstein, Ravel, Caruso, D'Annunzio, Puccini and Isadora Duncan. She went to school with Beniamino Gigli, saw Gustav Mahler collapse at the podium, and witnessed Toscanini's defiance of Mussolini's Black Shirts. Her informed narrative establishes a cultural and historical context for the major musical styles of the early 20th century. Performers, composers, students of 20th-century music and history, and those in women's studies should find valuable information and a story written with passion and commitment.