Re: static object in a function: what if the constructor throws?

[code]
class Singleton
{
   Singleton(); // may throw
public:
   static Singleton& getInstance()
   {
     static Singleton instance;
     return instance;
   }
//...
};

int main()
{
   try {
     Singleton& s = Singleton::getInstance();
     //...
   }
   catch(...) { /* ... */ }
}
[/code]

Is it legal for the static variable constructor to throw? Would it
throw during the first call to getInstance, or earlier, or is it
unspecified when? Maybe someone has some other comments on this
implementation of the Singleton pattern?