Mrs. Georgina Weldon (1837–1914) might have disappeared from history but for the evening she met composer Charles Gounod. Astounded by her voice, he encouraged her to perform professionally. When his home was destroyed in the Franco-Prussian War, his wife left for Paris, and he moved into the Weldon home. Georgina’s husband complicated matters. He kept a longstanding lover and it suited him to have a distracted wife. Some years after Gounod eventually left England, Weldon attempted to incarcerate his wife in a lunatic asylum...