Walska pursued a career as an opera singer. The lavish promotion of her opera career by McCormick—despite her apparent reputation as a mediocre singer—inspired aspects of the screenplay for Orson Welles's "Citizen Kane". Roger Ebert, in his DVD commentary on "Citizen Kane," suggests that the character of Susan Alexander was based on Walska. McCormick spent thousands of dollars on voice lessons for her and even arranged for Walska to take the lead in a production of "Zazà" by Ruggero Leoncavallo at the Chicago Opera in 1920. Reportedly, Walska got into an argument with director Pietro Cimini during dress rehearsal and stormed out of the production before she appeared. Contemporaries said Walska had a terrible voice, pleasing only to McCormick.