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diff --git a/old/chppr10.txt b/old/chppr10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..44d98b4 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/chppr10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14270 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chapters of Opera, by H.E. Krehbiel +#4 in our series by H.E. Krehbiel + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Chapters of Opera + +Author: H.E. Krehbiel + +Release Date: June, 2004 [EBook #5995] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 10, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAPTERS OF OPERA *** + + + + +The HTML version of this text produced by Bob Frone can be found +at <http://www.intac.com/~rfrone/operas/Books/oper-books.htm> +Plain text adaption by Andrew Sly. + + + + + + +CHAPTERS OF OPERA + + +Being +Historical and Critical Observations +And Records Concerning the Lyric +Drama in New York from Its +Earliest Days Down to +The Present Time + +by + +HENRY EDWARD KREHBIEL + +Musical Editor of "The New York Tribune"; +Author of "How To Listen To Music," +"Studies In The Wagnerian Drama," +"Music And Manners In The Classical Period," +"The Philharmonic Society Of New York," etc., etc. + + + +To MARIE--WIFE + +and + +DAUGHTER HELEN + +Who have shared with the Author many of the +Experiences described in this book. + +"Joy shared is Joy doubled." + --GOETHE. + + + +PREFACE + +The making of this book was prompted by the fact that with the season +1907-08 the Metropolitan Opera House in New York completed an existence +of twenty-five years. Through all this period at public representations +I have occupied stall D-15 on the ground floor as reviewer of musical +affairs for The New York Tribune newspaper. I have, therefore, been a +witness of the vicissitudes through which the institution has passed +in a quarter-century, and a chronicler of all significant musical +things which were done within its walls. I have seen the failure of +the artistic policy to promote which the magnificent theater was built; +the revolution accomplished by the stockholders under the leadership +of Leopold Damrosch; the progress of a German régime, which did much +to develop tastes and create ideals which, till its coming, were +little-known quantities in American art and life; the overthrow of that +régime in obedience to the command of fashion; the subsequent dawn and +development of the liberal and comprehensive policy which marked the +climax of the career of Maurice Grau as an operatic director, I have +witnessed since then, many of the fruits of wise endeavor and astute +management frittered away by managerial incapacity and greed, and fad +and fashion come to rule again, where for a brief, but eventful period, +serious artistic interest and endeavor had been dominant. + +The institution will enter upon a new régime with the season 1908-09. +The time, therefore, seemed fitting for a review of the twenty-five +years that are past. The incidents of this period are fixed; they +may be variously viewed, but they cannot be changed. They belong to +history, and to a presentation of that history I have devoted most +of the pages which follow. I have been actuated in my work by deep +seriousness of purpose, and have tried to avoid everything which +could not make for intellectual profit, or, at least, amiable and +illuminative entertainment. + +The chapters which precede the more or less detailed history of the +Metropolitan Opera House (I-VII) were written for the sake of the +light which they shed on existing institutions and conditions, and to +illustrate the development of existing taste, appreciation, and interest +touching the lyrical drama. To the same end much consideration has been +paid to significant doings outside the Metropolitan Opera House since +it has been the chief domicile of grand opera in New York. Especial +attention has been given for obvious reasons to the two seasons of +opera at Mr. Hammerstein's Manhattan Opera House. + +H. E. KREHBIEL. + +Blue Hill, Maine, the Summer of 1908. + + + +AUTHOR'S NOTE TO THIRD EDITION + +For the purposes of a new and popular edition of this book, the +publishers asked the author to continue his historical narrative, his +record of performances, and his critical survey of the operas produced +at the two chief operatic institutions of New York, from the beginning +of the season 1908-1909 down to the close of the season 1910-1911. This +invitation the author felt compelled to decline for several reasons, +one of which (quite sufficient in itself), was that he had already +undertaken a work of great magnitude which would occupy all his working +hours during the period between the close of the last season and the +publication of this edition. + +Thereupon the publishers, who seemed to place a high valuation on +the historical element in the book, suggested that the record of +performances at least be brought up to date even if the criticism of new +operas and the discussion of the other incidents of the season--such as +the dissensions between the directors of the Metropolitan Opera House, +the rivalry between them and the director of the Manhattan, the quarrels +with artists, the successes achieved by some operas and the failure +suffered by others--be postponed for the present at least for want of +time on the part of the author to carry on the work on the scale of the +original edition. + +It was finally agreed that the author should supply the record for +the period intervening between the appearance of the first edition of +"Chapters of Opera" and the present publication by revised excerpts +from the annual summaries of the activities of the seasons in question +published by him in the New York Tribune, of which newspaper he has had +the honor of being the musical critic for thirty years past. For the +privilege of using this material the author is deeply beholden to the +Tribune Association and the editor, Hart Lyman, Esq. The record may be +found in the Appendices after the last chapter. + +H. E. KREHBIEL. + +Blue Hill, Maine, Summer of 1911. + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I + +INTRODUCTION OF OPERA IN NEW YORK + + The Introduction of Italian Opera in New York + English Ballad Operas and Adaptations from French and Italian Works + Hallam's Comedians and "The Beggar's Opera" + The John Street Theater and Its Early Successors + Italian Opera's First Home + Manuel Garcia + The New Park Theater and Some of Its Rivals + Malibran and English Opera + The Bowery Theater, Richmond Hill, Niblo's and Castle Gardens + + +CHAPTER II + +EARLY THEATERS, MANAGERS, AND SINGERS + + Of the Building of Opera Houses + A Study of Influences + The First Italian Opera House in New York + Early Impresarios and Singers + Da Ponte, Montressor, Rivafinoli + Signorina Pedrotti and Fornasari + Why Do Men Become Opera-Managers? + Addison and Italian Opera + The Vernacular Triumphant + + +CHAPTER III + +THE FIRST ITALIAN COMPANY + + Manuel del Popolo Vicente Garcia + "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" + Signorina Maria Garcia's Unfortunate Marriage + Lorenzo da Ponte + His Hebraic Origin and Checkered Career + "Don Giovanni" + An Appeal in Behalf of Italian Opera + + +CHAPTER IV + +HOUSES BUILT FOR OPERA + + More Opera Houses + Palmo's and the Astor Place + Signora Borghese and the Distressful Vocal Wabble + Antognini and Cinti-Damoreau + An Orchestral Strike + Advent of the Patti Family + Don Francesco Marty y Torrens and His Havanese Company + Opera Gowns Fifty Years Ago + Edward and William Henry Fry + Horace Greeley and His Musical Critic + James H. Hackett and William Niblo + Tragic Consequences of Canine Interference + Goethe and a Poodle + A Dog-Show and the Astor Place Opera House + + +CHAPTER V + +MARETZEK, HIS RIVALS AND SINGERS + + Max Maretzek + His Managerial Career + Some Anecdotes + "Crotchets and Quavers" + His Rivals and Some of His Singers + Bernard Ullmann + Marty Again + Bottesini and Arditi + Steffanone + Bosio + Tedesco + Salvi + Bettini + Badiali + Marini + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF MUSIC + + Operatic Warfare Half a Century Ago + The Academy of Music and Its Misfortunes + A Critic's Opera and His Ideals + A Roster of American Singers + Grisi and Mario + Annie Louise Cary + Ole Bull as Manager + Piccolomini and Réclame + Adelina Patti's Début and an Anniversary Dinner Twenty-five +Years Later + A Kiss for Maretzek + + +CHAPTER VII + +MAPLESON AND OTHER IMPRESARIOS + + Colonel James H. Mapleson + A Diplomatic Manager + His Persuasiveness + How He Borrowed Money from an Irate Creditor + Maurice Strakosch + Musical Managers + Pollini + Sofia Scalchi and Annie Louise Cary Again + Campanini and His Beautiful Attack + Brignoli + His Appetite and Superstition + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE + + The Academy's Successful Rival + Why It Was Built + The Demands of Fashion + Description of the Theater + War between the Metropolitan and the Academy of Music + Mapleson and Abbey + The Rival Forces + Patti and Nilsson + Gerster and Sembrich + A Costly Victory + + +CHAPTER IX + +FIRST SEASON AT THE METROPOLITAN + + The First Season at the Metropolitan Opera House + Mr. Abbey's Singers + Gounod's "Faust" and Christine Nilsson + Marcella Sembrich and Her Versatility + Sofia Scalchi + Signor Kaschmann + Signor Stagno + Ambroise Thomas's "Mignon" + Madame Fursch-Madi + Ponchielli's "La Gioconda" + + +CHAPTER X + +OPERATIC REVOLUTIONS + + The Season 1883-1884at the Academy of Music + Lillian Nordica's American Début + German Opera Introduced at the Metropolitan Opera House + Parlous State of Italian Opera in London and on the Continent + Dr. Leopold Damrosch and His Enterprise + The German Singers + Amalia Materna + Marianne Brandt + Marie Schroeder-Hanfstängl + Anton Schott, the Military Tenor + Von Bülow's Characterization: "A Tenor is a Disease" + + +CHAPTER XI + +GERMAN OPERA AT THE METROPOLITAN + + First German Season + Death Struggles of Italian Opera at the Academy + Adelina Patti and Her Art + Features of the German Performances + "Tannhäuser" + Marianne Brandt in Beethoven's Opera + "Der Freischütz" + "Masaniello" + Materna in "Die Walküre" + Death of Dr. Damrosch + + +CHAPTER XII + +END OF ITALIAN OPERA AT THE ACADEMY + + The Season 1885-1886 + End of the Mapleson Régime at the Academy of Music + Alma Fohström + The American Opera Company + German Opera in the Bowery + A Tenor Who Wanted to be Manager of the Metropolitan Opera House + The Coming of Anton Seidl + His Early Career + Lilli Lehmann + A Broken Contract + Unselfish Devotion to Artistic Ideals + Max Alvary + Emil Fischer + + +CHAPTER XIII + +WAGNER HOLDS THE METROPOLITAN + + Second and Third German Seasons + The Period 1885-1888 + More about Lilli Lehmann + Goldmark's "Queen of Sheba" + First Performance of Wagner's "Meistersinger" + Patti in Concert and Opera + A Flash in the Pan at the Academy of Music + The Transformed American Opera Company + Production of Rubinstein's "Nero" + An Imperial Operatic Figure + First American Performance of "Tristan und Isolde" + Albert Niemann and His Characteristics + His Impersonation of Siegmund + Anecdotes + A Triumph for "Fidelio" + + +CHAPTER XIV + +WAGNERIAN HIGH TIDE + + Wagnerian High Tide at the Metropolitan Opera House + 1887-1890 + Italian Low Water Elsewhere + Rising of the Opposition + Wagner's "Siegfried" + Its Unconventionality + "Götterdämmerung" + "Der Trompeter von Säkkingen" + "Euryanthe" + "Ferdinand Cortez" + "Der Barbier von Bagdad" + Italo Campanini and Verdi's "Otello" + Patti and Italian Opera at the Metropolitan Opera House + + +CHAPTER XV + +END OF THE GERMAN PERIOD + + End of the German Period + 1890-1891 + Some Extraordinary Novelties + Franchetti's "Asrael" + "Der Vasall von Szigeth" + A Royal Composer, His Opera and His Distribution of Decorations + "Diana von Solange" + Financial Salvation through Wagner + Italian Opera Redivivus + Ill-mannered Box-holders + Wagnerian Statistics + + +CHAPTER XVI + +ITALIAN OPERA AGAIN AT THE METROPOLITAN + + The Season 1891-1892 + Losses of the Stockholders of the Metropolitan Opera House Company + Return to Italian Opera + Mr. Abbey's Expectations + Sickness of Lilli Lehmann + The De Reszke Brothers and Lassalle + Emma Eames + Début of Marie Van Zandt + "Cavalleria Rusticana" + Fire Damages the Opera House + Reorganization of the Owning Company + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE ADVENT OF MELBA AND CALVÉ + + An Interregnum + Changes in the Management + Rise and Fall of Abbey, Schoeffel, and Grau + Death of Henry E. Abbey + His Career + Season 1893-1894 + Nellie Melba + Emma Calvé + Bourbonism of the Parisians + Massenet's "Werther" + 1894-1895 + A Breakdown on the Stage + "Elaine" + Sybil Sanderson and "Manon" + Shakespearian Operas + Verdi's "Falstaff" + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +UPRISING IN FAVOR OF GERMAN OPERA + + The Public Clamor for German Opera + Oscar Hammerstein and His First Manhattan Opera House + Rivalry between Anton Seidl and Walter Damrosch + The Latter's Career as Manager + Wagner Triumphant + German Opera Restored at the Metropolitan + "The Scarlet Letter" + "Mataswintha" + "Hänsel und Gretel" in English + Jean de Reszke and His Influence + Mapleson for the Last Time + "Andrea Chenier" + Madame Melba's Disastrous Essay with Wagner + "Le Cid" + Metropolitan Performances 1893-1897 + + +CHAPTER XIX + +BEGINNING OF THE GRAU PERIOD + + Beginning of the Grau Period + Death of Maurice Grau + His Managerial Career + An Interregnum at the Metropolitan Opera House Filled by +Damrosch and Ellis + Death of Anton Seidl + His Funeral + Characteristic Traits + "La Bohème" + 1898-1899 + "Ero e Leandro" and Its Composer + + +CHAPTER XX + +NEW SINGERS AND OPERAS + + Closing Years of Mr. Grau's Régime + Traits in the Manager's Character + Débuts of Alvarez, Scotti, Louise Homer, Lucienne Bréval and +Other Singers + Ternina and "Tosca" + Reyer's "Salammbô" + Gala Performance for a Prussian Prince + "Messaline" + Paderewski's "Manru" + "Der Wald" + Performances in the Grau Period + + +CHAPTER XXI + +HEINRICH CONRIED AND "PARSIFAL" + + Beginning of the Administration of Heinrich Conried + Season 1903-1904 + Mascagni's American Fiasco + "Iris" and "Zanetto" + Woful Consequences of Depreciating American Conditions + Mr. Conried's Theatrical Career + His Inheritance from Mr. Grau + Signor Caruso + The Company Recruited + The "Parsifal" Craze + + +CHAPTER XXII + +END OF CONRIED'S ADMINISTRATION + + Conried's Administration Concluded + 1905-1908 + Visits from Humperdinck and Puccini + The California Earthquake + Madame Sembnich's Generosity to the Suffering Musicians + "Madama Butterfly" + "Manon Lescaut" + "Fedora" + Production and Prohibition of "Salome" + A Criticism of the Work + "Adriana Lecouvreur" + A Table of Performances + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +HAMMERSTEIN AND HIS OPERA HOUSE + + Oscar Hammerstein Builds a Second Manhattan Opera House + How the Manager Put His Doubters to Shame + His Earlier Experiences as Impresario + Cleofonte Campanini + A Zealous Artistic Director and Ambitious Singers + A Surprising Record but No Novelties in the First Season + Melba and Calvé as Stars + The Desertion of Bonci + Quarrels about Puccini's "Bohéme" + List of Performances + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +A BRILLIANT SEASON AT THE MANHATTAN + + Hammerstein's Second Season + Amazing Promises but More Amazing Achievements + Mary Garden and Maurice Renaud + Massenet's "Thais," Charpentier's "Louise" + Giordano's "Siberia" and Debussy's "Pelléas et Mélisande" Performed for +the First Time in America + Revival of Offenbach's "Les Contes d'Hoffmann," "Crispino e la Comare" +of the Ricci Brothers, and Giordano's "Andrea Chenier" + The Tetrazzini Craze + Repertory of the Season + + + + +CHAPTER I + +INTRODUCTION OF OPERA IN NEW YORK + + +Considering the present state of Italian opera in New York City (I am +writing in the year of our Lord 1908), it seems more than a little +strange that its entire history should come within the memories of +persons still living. It was only two years ago that an ancient factotum +at the Metropolitan Opera House died who, for a score of years before he +began service at that establishment, had been in various posts at the +Academy of Music. Of Mr. Arment a kindly necrologist said that he had +seen the Crowd gather in front of the Park Theater in 1825, when the new +form of entertainment effected an entrance in the New World. I knew the +little old gentleman for a quarter of a century or more, but though he +was familiar with my interest in matters historical touching the opera +in New York, he never volunteered information of things further back +than the consulship of Mapleson at the Academy. Moreover, I was unable +to reconcile the story of his recollection of the episode of 1825 with +the circumstances of his early life. Yet the tale may have been true, or +the opera company that had attracted his boyish attention been one that +came within the first decade after Italian opera had its introduction. + +Concerning another's recollections, I have not the slightest doubt. +Within the last year Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, entertaining some of her +relatives and friends with an account of social doings in New York in +her childhood, recalled the fact that she had been taken as a tiny miss +to hear some of the performances of the Garcia Troupe, and, if I mistake +not, had had Lorenzo da Ponte, the librettist of Mozart's "Nozze di +Figaro" and "Don Giovanni" pointed out to her by her brother. This +brother was Samuel Ward, who enjoyed the friendship of the old poet, +and published recollections of him not long after his death, in The +New York Mirror. For a score of years I have enjoyed the gentle +companionship at the opera of two sisters whose mother was an Italian +pupil of Da Ponte's, and when, a few years ago, Professor Marchesan, of +the University of Treviso, Italy, appealed to me for material to be used +in the biography of Da Ponte, which he was writing, I was able, through +my gracious and gentle operatic neighbors, to provide him with a number +of occasional poems written, in the manner of a century ago, to their +mother, in whom Da Ponte had awakened a love for the Italian language +and literature. This, together with some of my own labors in uncovering +the American history of Mozart's collaborator, has made me feel +sometimes as if I, too, had dwelt for a brief space in that Arcadia of +which I purpose to gossip in this chapter, and a few others which are +to follow it. + +There may be other memories going back as far as Mrs. Howe's, but I +very much doubt if there is another as lively as hers on any question +connected with social life in New York fourscore years ago. Italian +opera was quite as aristocratic when it made its American bow as it +is now, and decidedly more exclusive. It is natural that memories of +it should linger in Mrs. Howe's mind for the reason that the family +to which she belonged moved in the circles to which the new form of +entertainment made appeal. A memory of the incident which must have been +even livelier than that of Mrs. Howe's, however, perished in 1906, when +Manuel Garcia died in London, in his one hundred and first year, for he +could say of the first American season of Italian opera what Æneas said +of the siege of Troy, "All of which I saw, and some of which I was." +Manuel Garcia was a son of the Manuel del Popolo Vicente Garcia, who +brought the institution to our shores; he was a brother of our first +prima donna, she who then was only the Signorina Garcia, but within +a lustrum afterward was the great Malibran; and he sang in the first +performance, on November 29, 1825, and probably in all the performances +given between that date and August of the next year, when the elder +Garcia departed, leaving the Signorina, as Mme. Malibran, aged but +eighteen, to develop her powers in local theaters and as a chorister +in Grace Church. Of this and other related things presently. + +In the sometimes faulty and incomplete records of the American stage to +which writers on musical history have hitherto been forced to repair, +1750 is set down as the natal year for English ballad opera in America. +It is thought that it was in that year that "The Beggar's Opera" found +its way to New York, after having, in all probability, been given by +the same company of comedians in Philadelphia in the middle of the +year preceding. But it is as little likely that these were the first +performances of ballad operas on this side of the Atlantic as that the +people of New York were oblivious of the nature of operatic music of +the Italian type until Garcia's troupe came with Rossini's "Barber of +Seville," in 1825. There are traces of ballad operas in America in the +early decades of the eighteenth century, and there can exist no doubt at +all that French and Italian operas were given in some form, perhaps, as +a rule, in the adapted form which prevailed in the London theaters until +far into the nineteenth century, before the year 1800, in the towns and +cities of the Eastern seaboard, which were in most active communication +with Great Britain, I quote from an article on the history of opera in +the United States, written by me for the second edition of "Grove's +Dictionary of Music and Musicians": + + +Among French works Rousseau's "Pygmalion" and "Devin du Village," +Dalayrac's "Nina" and "L'Amant Statue," Monsigny's "Déserteur," Grétry's +"Zémire et Azor," "Fausse Magie" and "Richard Coeur de Lion" and others, +were known in Charleston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York in +the last decade of the eighteenth century. There were traces, too, of +Pergolese's "Serva padrona," and it seems more than likely that an +"opera in three acts," the text adapted by Colman, entitled "The Spanish +Barber; or, The Futile Precaution," played in Baltimore, Philadelphia, +and New York, in 1794, was Paisiello's "Barbiere di Siviglia." From +1820 to about 1845 more than a score of the Italian, French, and German +operas, which made up the staple of foreign repertories, were frequently +performed by English singers. The earliest of these singers were members +of the dramatic companies who introduced theatrical plays in the +colonies. They went from London to Philadelphia, New York, Williamsburg +(Va.), and Charleston (S. C.), but eventually established their +strongest and most enduring foothold in New York. + + +Accepting the 1750 date as the earliest of unmistakable records for a +performance of "The Beggar's Opera" in New York, the original home of +opera here was the Nassau Street Theater--the first of two known by that +name. It was a two-storied house, with high gables. Six wax lights were +in front of the stage, and from the ceiling dangled a "barrel hoop," +pierced by half a dozen nails on which were spiked as many candles. It +is not necessary to take the descriptions of these early playhouses +as baldly literal, nor as indicative of something like barbarism. +The "barrel hoop" chandelier of the old theater in Nassau street was +doubtless only a primitive form of the chandeliers which kept their +vogue for nearly a century after the first comedians sang and acted at +the Nassau Street Theater. Illuminating gas did not reach New York till +1823, and "a thousand candles" was put forth as an attractive feature +at a concert in the American metropolis as late as 1845. "The Beggar's +Opera" was only twenty years old when the comedians sent to the colonies +by William Hallam, under the management of his brother, Lewis, produced +it, yet the historic Covent Garden Theater, in which it first saw the +stage lights (candles they were, too), would scarcely stand comparison +with the most modest of the metropolitan theaters nowadays. Its +audience-room was only fifty-four or fifty-five feet deep; there were +no footlights, the stage being illuminated by four hoops of candles, +over which a crown hung from the borders. The orchestra held only +fifteen or twenty musicians, though it was in this house that Handel +produced his operas and oratorios; the boxes "were flat in front and +had twisted double branches for candles fastened to the plaster. There +were pedestals on each side of the boards, with elaborately-painted +figures of Tragedy and Comedy thereon." Hallam's actors went first to +Williamsburg, Va., but were persuaded to change their home to New York +in the summer of 1753, among other things by the promise that they would +find a "very fine 'Playhouse Building'" here. Nevertheless, when Lewis +Hallam came he found the fine playhouse unsatisfactory, and may be said +to have inaugurated the habit or custom, or whatever it may be called, +followed by so many managers since, of beginning his enterprise by +erecting a new theater. The old one in Nassau Street was torn down, +and a new one built on its site. It was promised that it should be +"very fine, large, and commodious," and it was built between June and +September, 1753; how fine, large, and commodious it was may, therefore, +be imagined. A year later, the German Calvinists, wanting a place of +worship, bought the theater, and New York was without a playhouse until +a new one on Cruger's Wharf was built by David Douglass, who had married +Lewis Hallam's widow, Hallam having died in Jamaica, in 1755. This was +abandoned in turn, and Mr. Douglass built a second theater, this time +in Chapel Street. It cost $1,625, and can scarcely have been either very +roomy or very ornate. Such as it was, however, it was the home of the +drama in all its forms, save possibly the ballad opera, until about +1765, and was the center around which a storm raged which culminated +in a riot that wrecked it. + +The successor of this unhappy institution was the John Street Theater, +which was opened toward the close of the year 1767. There seems to have +been a period of about fifteen years during which the musical drama +was absent from the amusement lists, but this house echoed, like its +earliest predecessors, to the strains of the ballad opera which "made +Gay rich and Rich gay." "The Beggar's Opera" was preceded, however, by +"Love in a Village," for which Dr. Arne wrote and compiled the music; +and Bickerstaff's "Maid of the Mill" was also in the repertory. In 1774 +it was officially recommended that all places of amusement be closed. +Then followed the troublous times of the Revolution, and it was not +until twelve years afterward--that is, till 1786--that English Opera +resumed its sway. "Love in a Village" was revived, and it was followed +by "Inkle and Yarico," an arrangement of Shakespeare's "Tempest," with +Purcell's music, "No Song, No Supper," "Macbeth," with Locke's music, +McNally's comic opera "Robin Hood," and other works of the same +character; in fact, it may safely be said that few, if any, English +operas, either with original music or music adapted from the ballad +tunes of England, were heard in London without being speedily brought to +New York and performed here. In the John Street Theater, too, they were +listened to by George Washington, and the leader of the orchestra, a +German named Pfeil, whose name was variously spelled Fyle, File, Files, +and so on, produced that "President's March," the tune of which was +destined to become associated with "Hail Columbia," to the words of +which it was adapted by Joseph Hopkinson, of Philadelphia. On January +29, 1798, a new playhouse was opened. This was the Park Theater. A +musical piece entitled "The Purse, or American Tar," was on the program +of the opening performance, and for more than a score of years the Park +Theater played an important rôle in local operatic history. For a long +term English operas of both types held the stage, along with the drama +in all its forms, but in 1819 an English adaptation of Rossini's "Barber +of Seville"--the opera which opened the Italian régime six years +later--was heard on its stage, and two years after that Henry Rowley +Bishop's arrangement of Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro." At the close of +the season of 1820 the Park Theater was destroyed by fire, to the great +loss of its owners, one of whom was John Jacob Astor. On its site was +erected the new Park Theater, which was the original home of Italian +opera, performed in its original tongue, and in the Italian manner, +though only a small minority of the performers were Italians by birth. + +Garcia was a Spaniard, born in Seville. Richard Grant White, writing in +The Century Magazine for March, 1882, calls him a "Spanish Hebrew," on +what authority I am unable to guess. Not only was Manuel Garcia, the +elder, a chorister in the Cathedral of Seville at the age of six, but +it seems as likely as not that he came of a family of Spanish church +musicians who had made their mark for more than fifty years before the +father of Malibran was born. But it is a habit with some writers to find +Hebrew blood in nearly all persons of genius. + +The new Park Theater was looked upon as a magnificent playhouse in its +day, and it is a pity that Mr. White, writing about it when it was a +quarter of a century old, should have helped to spread the erroneous +notion that it was quite unworthy of so elegant a form of entertainment +as Garcia brought into it. It remained a fashionable house through all +its career or at least for a long time after it gave refuge to the +Italian muse, though it may not have been able to hold one of its +candles to the first house built especially to house that muse eight +years later. The barrel hoop of the first New York theater gave way +to "three chandeliers and patent oil lamps, the chandeliers having +thirty-five lights each." Mr. White's description of this house after it +had seen about a quarter of a century's service is certainly uninviting. +Its boxes were like pens for beasts. "Across them were stretched benches +consisting of a mere board covered with faded red moreen, a narrower +board, shoulder high, being stretched behind to serve for a back. But +one seat on each of the three or four benches was without even this +luxury, in order that the seat itself might be raised upon its hinges +for people to pass in. These sybaritic inclosures were kept under lock +and key by a fee-expecting creature, who was always half drunk, except +when he was wholly drunk. The pit, which has in our modern theater +become the parterre (or, as it is often strangely called, the parquet), +the most desirable part of the house, was in the Park Theater hardly +superior to that in which the Jacquerie of old stood upon the bare +ground (par terre), and thus gave the place its French name. The floor +was dirty and broken into holes; the seats were bare, backless benches. +Women were never seen in the pit, and, although the excellence of the +position (the best in the house) and the cheapness of admission (half a +dollar) took gentlemen there, few went there who could afford to study +comfort and luxury in their amusements. The place was pervaded with evil +smells; and, not uncommonly, in the midst of a performance, rats ran out +of the holes in the floor and across into the orchestra. This delectable +place was approached by a long, underground passage, with bare, +whitewashed walls, dimly lighted, except at a sort of booth, at which +vile fluids and viler solids were sold. As to the house itself, it was +the dingy abode of dreariness. The gallery was occupied by howling +roughs, who might have taken lessons in behavior from the negroes who +occupied a part of this tier, which was railed off for their particular +use." + +This was the first home of Italian opera, strictly speaking. It had long +housed opera in the vernacular, and remained to serve as the fortress +of the English forces when the first battles were fought between the +champions of the foreign exotic and the entertainment which had been so +long established as to call itself native. Its career came to an end in +1848, when, like its predecessor and successor, it went up in flames and +smoke. + +Presently I shall tell about the houses which have been built in New +York especially for operatic uses, but before then some attention ought +to be given to several other old theaters which had connection with +opera in one or another of its phases. One of these was the New York +Theater, afterward called the Bowery, and known by that name till a +comparatively recent date. The walls of this theater echoed first to the +voice of Malibran, when put forth in the vernacular of the country of +which fate seemed, for a time, to have decreed that she should remain a +resident. This was immediately after the first season of Italian opera +at the Park Theater. The New York Theater was then new, having been +built in 1826. Malibran had begun the study of English in London before +coming to New York with her father; and she continued her studies with +a new energy and a new purpose after the departure of her father to +Mexico had left her apparently stranded in New York with a bankrupt and +good-for-nothing husband to support. She made her first essay in English +opera with "The Devil's Bridge," and followed it up with "Love in a +Village." English operas, whether of the ballad order or with original +music, were constructed in principle on the lines of the German +Singspiel and French opéra comique, all the dialogue being spoken; and +Malibran's experience at the theater and Grace Church, coupled with her +great social popularity, must have made a pretty good Englishwoman of +her. "It is rather startling," says Mr. White, in the article already +alluded to, "to think of the greatest prima donna, not only of her day, +but of modern times--the most fascinating woman upon the stage in the +first half of the nineteenth century--as singing the soprano parts of +psalm tunes and chants in a small town then less known to the people of +London and Paris and Vienna than Jeddo is now. Grace Church may well be +pardoned for pride in a musical service upon the early years of which +fell such a crown of glory, and which has since then been guided by +taste not always unworthy of such a beginning." Malibran's performances +at the New York Theater were successful and a source of profit, both +to the manager and M. Malibran, to whom, it is said, a portion of the +receipts were sent every night. + +Three other theaters which were identified with opera more or less +came into the field later, and by their names, at least, testified to +the continued popularity which a famous English institution had won a +century before, and which endured until that name could be applied to +the places that bore it only on the "lucus a non lucendo" principle. +These were the theaters of Richmond Hill, Niblo's, and Castle Garden. +The Ranelagh Gardens, which John Jones opened in New York, in June, +1765, and the Vauxhall Gardens, opened by Mr. Samuel Francis, in +June, 1769, were planned more or less after their English prototypes. +Out-of-doors concerts were their chief musical features, fireworks their +spectacular, while the serving of refreshments was relied on as the +principal source of profit. Richmond Hill had in its palmy days been the +villa home of Aaron Burr, and its fortunes followed the descending scale +like those of its once illustrious master. Its site was the neighborhood +of what is now the intersection of Varick and Charlton streets. After +passing out of Burr's hands, but before his death, the park had become +Richmond Hill Gardens, and the mansion the Richmond Hill Theater, both +of somewhat shady reputation, which was temporarily rehabilitated by the +response which the fashionable elements of the city's population made to +an appeal made by a season of Italian opera, given in 1832. The relics +of Niblo's Garden have disappeared as completely as those of Richmond +Hill, but its site is still fresh in the memory of those whose +theatrical experiences go back a quarter of a century. They must be old, +however, who can recall enough verdure in the vicinity of Broadway and +Prince Street to justify the name maintained by the theater to which for +many years entrance was gained through a corridor of the Metropolitan +Hotel. Three-quarters of a century ago Niblo's Garden was a reality. +William Niblo, who built it and managed it with consummate cleverness, +had been a successful coffee-house keeper downtown. Its theater opened +refreshingly on one side into the garden (as the Terrace Garden Theater, +at Third Avenue and Fifty-eighth Street does to-day), where one could +eat a dish of ice cream or sip a sherry cobbler in luxurious shade, if +such were his prompting, while play or pantomime went merrily on within. +Writing of it in 1855 Max Maretzek, who, as manager of the Astor Place +Opera House, had suffered from the rivalry of Niblo and his theater, +said: + + +The Metropolitan Hotel, Niblo's Theater, stores and other buildings +occupy the locality. Of the former garden nothing remains save the +ice cream and drinking saloons attached to the theater. These take up +literally as much room in the building as its stage does, and prove +that its proprietor has not altogether overlooked the earlier vocation +which laid the foundation of his fortune. The name by which he calls it +has never changed. It was Niblo's Garden when loving couples ate their +creams or drank their cobblers under the shadow of the trees. It is +Niblo's Garden now, when it is turned into a simple theater and hedged +in with houses. Nay, in the very bills which are circulated in the +interior of the building during the performances you may find, or +might shortly since have found, such an announcement as the following, +appearing in large letters: + +"Between the second and third acts"--or, possibly, it may run thus +when opera is not in the ascendant--"after the conclusion of the +first piece an intermission of twenty minutes takes place, for a +promenade in the garden." + +You will, I feel certain, admit that this is a marvelously delicate +way of intimating to a gentleman who may feel "dry" (it is the right +word, is it not?) that he will find the time to slake his thirst. + +When he returns and his lady inquires where he has been he may reply, +if he wills it: + +"Promenading in the garden." + + +It is not plain from Mr. White's account whether or not his memory +reached back to the veritable garden of Mr. Niblo, but his recollections +of the theater were not jaundiced like those of Mr. Maretzek, but +altogether amiable. Speaking of the performances of the Shireff, Seguin, +and Wilson company of English opera singers, who came to New York in +1838, he says: + + +Miss Shireff afterward appeared at Niblo's Garden, which was on the +corner of Broadway and Prince Street, where the Metropolitan Hotel now +stands. Here she performed in Auber's "Masked Ball" and other light +operas (all, of course, in English), singing in a theater that was +open on one side to the air; for Niblo's was a great place of summer +entertainment. It was a great New York "institution" in its day--perhaps +the greatest and most beneficent one of its sort that New York has ever +known. It may be safely said that most of the elder generation of New +Yorkers now living [this was written in 1881] have had at Niblo's Garden +the greatest pleasure they have ever enjoyed in public. There were +careless fun and easy jollity; there whole families would go at a +moment's warning to hear this or that singer, but most of all, year +after year, to see the Ravels--a family of pantomimists and dancers +upon earth and air, who have given innocent, thoughtless, side-shaking, +brain-clearing pleasure to more Americans than ever relaxed their sad, +silent faces for any other performers. The price of admission here was +fifty cents, no seats reserved; "first come, first served." + + +Last of all there was Castle Garden. Children of to-day can remember +when it was still the immigrants' depot, which it had been for half a +century. Tradition says that it was built to protect New York City from +foreign invasion, not to harbor it; but as a fortress it must have +suffered disarmament quite early in the nineteenth century. It is now +an aquarium, and as such has returned to its secondary use, which was +that of a place of entertainment. In 1830 and about that day it was a +restaurant, but for the sale only of ice cream, lemonade, and cakes. +You paid a shilling to go in--this to restrict the patronage to people +of the right sort--and your ticket was redeemable on the inside in +the innocent fluids and harmless solids aforementioned. A wooden +bridge, flanked by floating bathhouses, connected the castle with the +garden--i.e., Battery Park. North and east, in lower Broadway and +Greenwich Street, were fashionable residences, whose occupants enjoyed +the promenade under the trees, which was the proper enjoyment of the +day, as much as their more numerous, but less fortunate fellow citizens. +There balloons went up by day, and rockets and bombs by night, and +there, too, the brave militia went on parade. To Mr. White we owe the +preservation of a poetical description written by Frederick Cozzens in +an imitation of Spenser's "Sir Clod His Undoinge": + + + With placket lined, with joyous heart he hies + To where the Battery's Alleys, cool and greene, + Amid disparted Rivers daintie lies + With Fortresse brown and spacious Bridge betweene + Two Baths, which there like panniers huge are seen: + In shadie paths fair Dames and Maides there be + With stalking Lovers basking in their eene, + And solitary ones who scan the sea, + Or list to vesper chimes of slumberous Trinity. + + +The operas performed in the first season of Italian opera in America +by the Garcia troupe in the Park Theater 1825-1826, were "Il Barbiere +di Siviglia," "Tancredi," "Il Turco in Italia," "La Cenerentola," and +"Semiramide" by Rossini; "Don Giovanni" by Mozart; "L'Amante astuto" +and "La Figlia del Aria" by Garcia. + + + +CHAPTER II + +EARLY THEATERS, MANAGERS, AND SINGERS + + +The first opera house built in New York City opened its doors on +November 18, 1833, and was the home of Italian Opera for two seasons; +the second, built eleven years later, endured in the service for which +it was designed four years; the third, which marked as big an advance +on its immediate predecessor in comfort and elegance as the first had +marked on the ramshackle Park Theater described by Richard Grant White, +was the Astor Place Opera House, built in 1847, and the nominal home of +the precious exotic five years. + +The Astor Place Opera House in its external appearance is familiar +enough to the memory of even young New Yorkers, though, unlike its +successor, the Academy of Music, at Fourteenth Street and Irving Place, +it did not long permit its tarnished glories to form the surroundings +of the spoken drama after the opera's departure. The Academy of Music +weathered the operatic tempests of almost an entire generation, counting +from its opening night, in 1854, to the last night on which Colonel J. +H. Mapleson was its lessee, in 1886, and omitting the expiring gasps +which the Italian entertainment made under Signor Angelo, in October, +1886, under Italo Campanini, in April, 1888, and the final short spasm +under the doughty Colonel in 1896. The first Italian Opera House (that +was its name) became the National Theater; the second, which was known +as Palmo's Opera House, when turned over to the spoken drama, became +Burton's Theater; the Astor Place Opera House became the Mercantile +Library. The Academy of Music is still known by that name, though it +is given over chiefly to melodrama, and the educational purpose which +existed in the minds of its creators was only a passing dream. The +Metropolitan Opera House has housed twenty-three regular seasons of +opera, though it has been in existence for twenty-five seasons. Once +the sequence of subscription seasons was interrupted by the damage done +to the theater by fire; once by the policy of its lessees, Abbey & Grau, +who thought that the public appetite for opera might be whetted by +enforced abstention. The Manhattan Opera House is too young to enter +into this study of opera houses, their genesis, growth, and decay, and +the houses which Mr. Oscar Hammerstein built before it in Harlem and in +West Thirty-Fourth Street, near Sixth Avenue, lived too brief a time in +operatic service to deserve more than mention. + +I am at a loss for data from which to evolve a rule, as I should like to +do, governing the length of an opera house's existence in its original +estate as the home of grand opera. + +The conditions which produce the need are too variable and also too +vague to be brought under the operation of any kind of law. At present +the growth of wealth, the increase in population, and with that +increase the rapid multiplication of persons desirous and able to enjoy +the privileges of social display would seem to be determining factors, +with the mounting costliness of the luxury as a deterrent. The last +illustration of the operation of the creative impulse based on the +growth of wealth and social ambition is found in the building of +the Metropolitan Opera House, Mr. Hammerstein's enterprise being +purely individual and speculative. The movement which produced the +Metropolitan Opera House marked the decay of the old Knickerbocker +régime, and its amalgamation with the newer order of society of a +quarter of a century ago. This social decay, if so it can be called +without offense, began--if Abram C. Dayton ("Last Days of Knickerbocker +Life in New York") is correct--about 1840, and culminated with the +Vanderbilt ball, in 1882, to which nearly all the leaders of the old +Knickerbocker aristocracy accepted invitations. "During the third +quarter of the nineteenth century," said The Sun's reviewer of Mr. +Dayton's book, "sagacious and far-sighted Knickerbockers began to +realize that as a caste they no longer possessed sufficient money to +sustain social ascendency, and that it behooved them to effect an +intimate alliance with the nouveaux riches." To this may be added that +when there were but two decades of the century left it was made plain +that the Academy of Music could by no possibility accommodate the two +classes of society, old and new, which had for a number of years been +steadily approaching each other. + +There was an insufficiency of desirable boxes, and holders of seats +of fashion were unwilling to surrender them to the newcomers. So the +Metropolitan Opera House was built in 1883, and the vigor of the social +opposition, coupled with popular appreciation of the new spirit, which +came in with the German régime, gave the deathblow to the Academy, whose +loss to fashion was long deplored by the admirers of its fine acoustic +qualities and its effective architectural arrangements for the purposes +of display. + +The period is not so remote that we cannot trace the influences of +fashion and society in the rise of the first Italian Opera House, if not +in its fall. The Park Theater was still a fashionable playhouse when +Garcia gave his season of Italian opera in it in 1825-26, but within a +decade thereafter the conditions so graphically described by Mr. White, +combined with new ambitions, which seem to have been inspired to a +large extent by Lorenzo Da Ponte, prompted a wish for a new theater: +one specially adapted to opera. The new entertainment was recognized +as a luxury, and it was no more than fitting that it be luxuriously +and elegantly housed. It will be necessary to account for the potent +influence of Da Ponte, who was only a superannuated poet and teacher of +Italian language and literature, and this I hope to do presently; for +the time being it is sufficient to say that it was he who persuaded the +rich and cultured citizens of New York to build the Italian Opera House, +which stood at the intersection of Church and Leonard streets. The +coming of Garcia had filled Da Ponte, then already seventy-six years +old, with dreams of a recrudescence of such activities as had been his +in connection with Italian Opera in Vienna and London. He made haste to +identify himself in an advisory capacity with the enterprise, persuaded +Garcia to include "Don Giovanni" in his list of operas, although this +necessitated the engagement of a singer not a member of the company, and +had already brought his niece, who was a singer, from Italy, and the +Italian composer Filippo Trajetta, from Philadelphia, when his dream +of a permanent opera, for which he should write librettos, his friend +compose music, and his niece sing, was dispelled by Garcia's departure +for Mexico, and his subsequent return to Europe. For the next five years +Da Ponte seems to have kept the waters of the operatic pool stirred, for +there is general recognition in the records of the fact that to him was +due the conception of the second experiment, although its execution +was left to another, who was neither an American nor an Italian, but a +Frenchman named Montressor. Like Garcia, he was his own tenor, which +fact must have eased him of some of the vexations of management, though +it added to its labors. We are told that Montressor succeeded in making +himself personally popular. He had an agreeable voice, a tolerable +style, and was favorably compared with Garcia, though this goes for +little, inasmuch as Garcia was past his prime when he came here. Among +his singers were Signorina Pedrotti, who created a great stir (though, +I fancy, this was largely because of her beauty and the fact that the +public, remembering the Signorina Garcia, wanted somebody to worship) +and a basso named Fornasari. + +Signorina Pedrotti effected her entrance on October 17, in a new opera, +Mercadante's "Elisa e Claudio," which made the hit of the season, +largely because of the infatuation of the public for the new singer. +Mr. White gives us a description of her (from hearsay and the records) +in his article published in The Century Magazine, of March, 1882: + +Not much has been said of her, for she had sung only in Lisbon and in +Bologna, and had little reputation. But she took musical New York off +its feet again. She had a fine mezzo-soprano voice, of sympathetic +quality; and although she was far from being a perfectly finished +vocalist, she had an impressive dramatic style and a presence and a +manner that enabled her to take possession of the stage. She was a +handsome woman--tall, nobly formed, with brilliant eyes and a face +full of expression. She carried the town by storm. + +Like Malibran, and many another singer since, Fornasari made a fine +reputation here, and was afterward "discovered" in Europe, where he rose +to fame. He seems to have been of the tribe of lady-killers, of whom +every opera company has boasted at least one ever since opera became a +fashion--which is only another way of saying ever since it was invented. +But Fornasari had a noble voice, besides his mere physical attractions. +Mr. White, who saw him long years afterward, when he chanced to be +passing through New York on his way to Europe, describes him: He was +very tall; his head looked like that of a youthful Jove; dark hair in +flaky curls, an open, blazing eye; a nose just heroically curved; lips +strong, yet beautifully bowed; sweet and persuasive (one would think +that White got his description from some woman--what man ever before or +since was praised by a man for having a Cupid's bow mouth?), and withal +a large and easy grace of manner. + +Montressor's season opened on October 6, 1832, at the Richmond Hill +Theater, which became respectable for the nonce, and collapsed +after thirty-five representations. The receipts for the season were +$25,603--let us say about half as much as a week's receipts at the +Metropolitan Opera House to-day. The operas given were Rossini's +"Cenerentola," "L'Italiana in Algieri"; Bellini's "Il Pirata," and +Mercadante's "Elisa e Claudio," the last winning the largest measure of +popularity. The chief good accomplished was the bringing to New York +from Europe of several excellent orchestral players, who, after the +failure of the enterprise, settled here, to the good of instrumental +music and the next undertaking. + +Why men embark in operatic management, or, rather, why they continue in +it after they have failed, has always been an enigma. Once, pointing my +argument with excerpts from the story of all the managers in London, +from Handel's day down to the present, I tried to prove that the desire +to manage an opera company was a form of disease, finding admirable +support for my contention in the confession and conduct of that English +manager who got himself into Fleet Prison, and thence philosophically +urged not only that it served him right (since no man insane enough to +want to be an operatic impresario ought to be allowed at large), but +also that a jail was the only proper headquarters for a manager, since +there, at least, he was secure from the importunities of singers +and dancers. Lorenzo Da Ponte was, obviously, of the stuff of which +impresarios are made. Montressor's failure, for which he was in a degree +responsible (and which he discussed in two pamphlets which I found +twenty years ago in the library of the New York Historical Society), +persuaded him that the city's greatest need was an Italian opera house. +His powers of persuasion must have been great, for he succeeded in +bringing a body of citizens together who set the example which has been +followed several times since, and built the Italian Opera House at +Church and Leonard streets, on very much the same social and economic +lines as prevail at the Metropolitan Opera House to-day. European models +and European taste prevailed in the structure and its adornments. It was +the first theater in the United States which boasted a tier composed +exclusively of boxes. This was the second balcony. The parterre was +entered from the first balcony, a circumstance which redeemed it from +its old plebeian association as "the pit," in which it would have been +indecorous for ladies to sit. The seats in the parterre were mahogany +chairs upholstered in blue damask. The seats in the first balcony were +mahogany sofas similarly upholstered. The box fronts had a white ground, +with emblematic medallions, and octagonal panels of crimson, blue, and +gold. Blue silk curtains were caught up with gilt cord and tassels. +There was a chandelier of great splendor, which threw its light into a +dome enriched with pictures of the Muses, painted, like all the rest of +the interior, as well as the scenery, by artists specially brought over +for the purpose from Europe. The floors were carpeted. The price of +the boxes was $6,000 each, and subscribers might own them for a single +performance (evidently by arrangement with the owners) or the season. +Apropos of this, Mr. White tells a characteristic story: + + +It was told of a man who had suddenly risen to what was then great +wealth, that, having taken a lady to the opera, he was met by the +disappointing assurance that there were no seats to be had. + +"What, nowhere?" + +"Nowhere, sir; every seat in the house is taken, except, indeed, one of +the private boxes that was not subscribed for." + +"I'll have that." + +"Impossible, sir. The boxes can only be occupied by subscribers and +owners." + +"What is the price of your box?" + +"Six thousand dollars, sir." + +"I'll take it." + +And drawing out his pocketbook he filled up a check for six thousand +dollars and escorted his lady to her seat to the surprise and, indeed, +to the consternation of the elegant circle, which saw itself completed +in this unexpected manner. + + +The new house, which, with the ground, had cost $150,000, was opened +on November 18, 1833, under the joint management of the Chevalier +Rivafinoli and Da Ponte, with Rossini's "La Gazza ladra," but two months +before that date there was a drawing for boxes, concerning which and +some of the details of the opening performance an extract from the diary +of Mr. Philip Hone, once mayor of the city, presents a much livelier +picture than I could draw: + + + (From the diary of Philip Hone, Esq.) + +September 15, 1833. The drawing for boxes at the Italian Opera +House took place this morning. My associates, Mr. Schermerhorn and +General Jones, are out of town, and I attended and drew No. 8, with +which I am well satisfied. The other boxes will be occupied by the +following gentlemen: Gerard H. Coster, G. C. Howland, Rufus Prime, +Mr. Panon, Robert Ray, J. F. Moulton, James J. Jones, D. Lynch, E. +Townsend, John C. Cruger, O. Mauran, Charles H. Hall, J. G. Pierson +and S. B. Ruggles. + +November 18, 1833. The long expected opening of the opera house took +place this evening with the opera "La Gazza ladra"; all new performers +except Signor Marozzi, who belonged to the old company. The prima donna +soprano is Signorina Fanti. The opera, they say, went off well for a +first performance; but to me it was tiresome, and the audience was +not excited to any degree of applause. The performance occupied four +hours--much too long, according to my notion, to listen to a language +which one does not understand; but the house is superb, and the +decorations of the proprietors' boxes (which occupy the whole of the +second tier) are in a style of magnificence which even the extravagance +of Europe has not yet equaled. I have one-third of box No. 8; Peter +Schermerhorn one-third; James J. Jones one-sixth; William Moore +one-sixth. Our box is fitted up with great taste with light blue +hangings, gilded panels and cornice, armchairs, and a sofa. Some of +the others have rich silk ornaments, some are painted in fresco, and +each proprietor seems to have tried to outdo the rest in comfort and +magnificence. The scenery is beautiful. The dome and the fronts of the +boxes are painted in the most superb classical designs, and the sofa +seats are exceedingly commodious. Will this splendid and refined +amusement be supported in New York? I am doubtful. + + +The outcome justified Mr. Hone in his doubts. The season was advertised, +to last forty nights. When they were at an end a supplementary season of +twenty-eight nights was added, which extended the time to July 21, 1834. +Besides "La Gazza ladra," the operas given were "Il Barbiere di +Siviglia," "La Donna del Lago," "Il Turco in Italia," "Cenerentola," and +"Matilda di Shabran"--all by Rossini; Pacini's "Gli Arabi nelli Gallie," +Cimarosa's "II Matrimonio segreto," and "La Casa do Pendere," by the +conductor, one Salvioni. The season had been socially and artistically +brilliant, but the financial showing at the end was one of disaster. The +prices of admission were from $2 down to fifty cents, and when the house +was completely sold out the receipts were not more than $1,400. The +managers took their patrons into their confidence, Rivafinoli publishing +the fact that the receipts for the entire season--including fifteen +nights in Philadelphia, for that city's dependence on New York for +Italian opera began thus early--were but $51,780.89, which were exceeded +by the expenses $29,275.09. For the next season the house was leased by +the owners to Signor Sacchi, who had been the treasurer of Rivafinoli +and Da Ponte, and Signor Porto, one of the singers. These managers had +an experience similar to that which Maretzek declaimed against twenty +years later when troubles gathered about the new Academy of Music. +Notwithstanding that there had been a startling deficit, though the +audiences had been as large as could be accommodated, these underlings +of Rivafinoli and Da Ponte, who were at least men of experience in +operatic management, took the house, giving the stockholders the free +use of their boxes and 116 free admissions every night besides. The +second season started brilliantly, but just as financial disaster was +preparing to engulf it the performances were abruptly brought to an +end by the prima donna, Signora, or Signorina, Fanti, who took French +leave--an incident which remains unique in New York's operatic annals, +at least in its consequences, I think. + +It is evident to a close student of the times that the reasons given +were not the only ones to contribute to the downfall of the enterprise. +Italian opera had found a vigorous rival in English, or rather in +opera in the vernacular, for the old ballad operas were disappearing +and German, French, and Italian opera sung in the vernacular, not by +actresses who had tolerable voices, but by trained vocalists, was taking +its place. The people of New York were not quite so sophisticated as +they are to-day, and possibly were dowered with a larger degree of +sincerity. Many of them were willing to admit the incongruity of +behavior at which Addison made merry when he predicted that the time +would come when the descendants of the English people of his day would +be curious to know "why their forefathers used to sit together like an +audience of foreigners in their own country and to hear whole plays +acted before them in a tongue which they did not understand." We know +that Addison was a poor prophet, for the people of Great Britain and +America are still sitting in the same attitude as their ancestors so far +as opera is concerned; but it is plain that arguments like his did reach +the consciences of even the stockholders of the Italian Opera House, or +at least the one of them who has taken posterity into his confidence. +The season under Sacchi and Porto had scarcely begun when Mr. Hone +wrote in his diary: + + +I went to the opera, where I saw the second act of "La Straniera," by +Bellini. The house is as pretty as ever, and the same faces were seen in +the boxes as formerly; but it is not a popular entertainment, and will +not be in our day, I fear. The opera did not please me. There was too +much reiteration, and I shall never discipline my taste to like common +colloquial expressions of life: "How do you do, madame?" or "Pretty +well, I thank you, sir," the better for being given with orchestral +accompaniment. + + +I shrewdly suspect that Mr. Hone had been reading his Spectator. +There were three years of opera in London, in Addison's day, when the +English and Italian languages were mixed in the operas as German and +Italian were in Hamburg when Handel started out on his career. "The king +or hero of the play generally spoke in Italian and his slaves answered +him in English; the lover frequently made his court and gained the heart +of his princess in a language which she did not understand." At length, +says Addison, the audience got tired of understanding half the opera, +"and to ease themselves entirely of the fatigue of thinking, so ordered +it that the whole opera was performed in an unknown tongue." Now listen +to our diarist: + + +The Italian language is among us very little understood, and the genius +of it certainly never entered into with spirit. To entertain an audience +without reducing it to the necessity of thinking is doubtless a +first-rate merit, and it is easier to produce music without sense than +with it; but the real charm of the opera is this--it is an exclusive and +extravagant recreation, and, above all, it is the fashion. + + Italian music's sweet because 'tis dear, + Their vanity is tickled, not their ear; + Their taste would lessen if the prices fell, + And Shakespeare's wretched stuff do quite as well. + +The recitative is an affront to common sense, and if there be any +spectacle more than another opposed to the genius of the English +character and unsuited to its taste it is the ballet of the opera house. +Its eternal dumbshow, with its fantastic appeals to sense and to sense +only, may be Italian perfection, but here it is in English a tame +absurdity. What but fashion could tempt reasonable creatures to sit and +applaud--what was really perpetrated--Deshayes dancing "The Death of +Nelson"? + + +After the season of Sacchi and Porto Italian opera went into exile for +ten years. Da Ponte pleaded for "the most splendid ornament" of the city +in vain. English opera conquered, aided, no doubt, by the fact that the +section of the city in which the Italian Opera House was situated was +fatally unfashionable, and after standing vacant for a year the house +was leased to James W. Wallack, father of John Lester Wallack, who +turned it into a home for the spoken drama. In another year it went +up in flames. + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE FIRST ITALIAN COMPANY + + +The beginnings of Italian opera in America are intimately associated +with two men who form an interesting link connecting the music of the +Old World with that of the New. These men were Manuel del Popolo Vicente +Garcia and Lorenzo Da Ponte. The opera performed in the Park Theater on +November 29, 1825, when the precious exotic first unfolded its petals +in the United States, was Rossini's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia." In this +opera Garcia, then in his prime, had created, as the French say, the +rôle of Almaviva in Rome a little less than ten years before. The +performance was one of the most monumental fiascos in Rossini's career, +and the story goes that Garcia, hoping to redeem it, introduced a +Spanish song to which he himself supplied a guitar accompaniment. The +fiasco of the first performance was largely, if not wholly, due to the +jealous ill will of the friends of Paisiello, who had written music for +an opera on the same story, which was much admired all over Europe, and +which in an adapted form had reached America, as had Rossini's, before +Garcia came with the original version. But Rossini's music was too +fascinating to be kept under a bushel, and in it Garcia won some of his +finest triumphs in London and Paris. In the first New York season it +was performed twenty-three times. Garcia was also a composer, and had +made his mark in this field before he became famous as a singer, having +produced at least seventeen Spanish operas, nineteen Italian, and Seven +French, most, if not all of them, before he came to America. + +Exactly what it was that persuaded Garcia to embark on the career of +impresario in a new land does not appear in the story of his enterprise. +There are intimations that he had long had the New York project in mind; +also it used to be thought that Da Ponte had inspired him with the idea; +the more general story is that Dominick Lynch, a New York importer of +French wines, was at the bottom of the enterprise, but whether on his +own account or as a sort of agent for the manager of the Park Theater, +I have not been able to learn. Garcia's singing days were coming to an +end, though his popularity was not yet on the wane if there is evidence +in the circumstances that from 1823 to 1825 his salary in London had +increased from 260 pounds to 1,250 pounds. But it was as a teacher and +composer that he now commanded the greater respect. He had founded +a school of singing of which it may truthfully be said that it was +continued without loss of glory until the end of the nineteenth +century by his son Manuel, who died in 1906, a few months after he had +celebrated the hundredth anniversary of his birth. But, though we may +not know all the reasons which prevailed with him to seek fortune as a +manager after he had himself passed the half-century mark, it is easy +to fancy that the fact that he had half the artists necessary for the +undertaking in his own family had much to do with it. His daughter, +Maria Felicita, had studied singing with him from childhood and at +sixteen years of age had sung with him in Italy. His wife was an +opera singer and his son Manuel had made a beginning in the career which +he speedily abandoned in favor of that which gave him far greater fame +than the stage promised. The future Malibran was singing in the chorus +in London only a year before she disclosed her peerless talents in New +York. In June, 1825, Pasta, who was Mr. Ebers's prima donna at the +King's Theater, took ill. Garcia was a member of the company and came +forward with an offer of his daughter as substitute. The offer was +accepted, the girl effected her début as Rosina in "The Barber," and +made so complete a hit that she was engaged for the remaining six weeks +of the season at a salary of 500 pounds. This is the story as told by +Fétis, which does not differ essentially from that told by Ebers in +his account of his seven years of tenancy of the King's Theater, or +by Lord Mount-Edgecumbe in his "Musical Reminiscences," except that +these make no direct reference to Pasta's illness as the cause which +gave Maria her opportunity. Lord Mount-Edgecumbe's account says that +Ebers found it necessary, about the time of the arrival of Pasta, "to +engage a young singer, the daughter of the tenor Garcia, who had sung +here for several seasons. She was as yet a mere girl, and had never +appeared on any public stage; but from the first moment of her +appearance she showed evident talents for it, both as singer and +actress. Her extreme youth, her prettiness, her pleasing voice and +sprightly, easy action as Rosina in 'Il Barbiere di Siviglia,' in which +part she made her début, gained her general favor; but she was too +highly extolled and injudiciously put forward as a prima donna when she +was only a promising débutante, who in time, by study and practice, +would, in all probability, under the tuition of her father, a good +musician, but (to my ears at least) a most disagreeable singer, rise +to eminence in her profession." + +I am not more than half persuaded that this view of the future +Malibran's talents and prospects did not tally with that of her father, +though her tremendous success in New York ought to have persuaded him +that a future of the most dazzling description lay before his daughter. +There is something of a puzzle in the fact that in the midst of her +first triumph the girl should have married M. Malibran, who was only +apparently wealthy, and was surely forty-three years her senior, and of +a nature which was bound to develop lack of sympathy and congeniality +between the pair. The popular version of the story of her marriage is +that she was forced into it by her father, and it is more than intimated +that he was induced to act as he did by the promise of 100,000 francs +made by Malibran as a compensation for the loss of his daughter's +services. Did Garcia oppose his daughter's marriage, and did she +wilfully have her own way in a matter in which she was scarcely a proper +judge? Or was the marriage repugnant to her, and was she sacrificed to +her father's selfishness? I cannot tell, but it has been hinted that +there was danger of her marrying a member of the orchestra in London +before she came to New York, and it is as like as not that the affair +Malibran was of her wishing. Who can know the ways of a maid fourscore +years after? The marriage was as unfortunate as could be. In a few +months Malibran was a bankrupt, his youthful wife's father was gone to +distant Mexico, there to make money, only to be robbed of it at Vera +Cruz on his home journey to England, and Maria Felicita, instead of +living in affluence as the wife of a wealthy New York merchant, was +supporting an unworthy husband, as well as herself, by singing in +English at the theater in the Bowery and in Grace Church on Sundays. The +legal claims bound the ill-assorted pair for ten years, but did not gall +the artist after she returned to Europe in 1827, little more than a year +later. In Paris the marriage was annulled in 1836, and the singer, now +the greatest prima donna on the stage, married Charles de Bériot, the +violinist, with whom she had been living happily for six years, and by +whom she had a son, born in February, 1833. The world's Book of Opera +must supply the other chapters which tell of the great Malibran, her +marvelous triumphs and her early death; but it is a matter of pride for +every American to reflect that this adorable artist began her career +with the admiring applause of our people. + +Manuel Garcia, the son, the senior of his sister by three years, +survived her the whole span of life allotted to man by the Psalmist. +Malibran died in 1836; Garcia in 1906. He achieved nothing on the stage, +which he abandoned in 1829. Thereafter his history belongs to that of +pedagogy. Till 1848 his field of operations was Paris; afterward, till +his death, London. Jenny Lind was one of his pupils; Mme. Marchesi +another. + +The story that Da Ponte had anything to do with inspiring Garcia's New +York enterprise is practically disposed of by the fact that Da Ponte, +though intimately associated with the opera in London during his sojourn +in that city, had already been a resident of New York three years when +Garcia made his début as a singer and never returned thither. Personally +Garcia was a stranger to him and he to Garcia when the latter came to +New York in the fall of 1825. This gives color of verity to a familiar +story of their meeting. As might easily be imagined, the man who had +written the librettos of "Le Nozze di Figaro," "Don Giovanni," and "Cosi +Fan Tutte" for Mozart, was not long in visiting Garcia after his arrival +here. He introduced himself as the author of "Don Giovanni," and Garcia, +clipping the old man in his arm, danced around the room like a child in +glee, singing "Fin ch'han dal vino" the while. After that the inclusion +of Mozart's masterpiece in Garcia's repertory was a matter of course, +with only this embarrassment that there was no singer in the company +capable of singing the music of Don Ottavio. This was overcome by Da +Ponte going to his pupils for money enough to pay an extra singer for +the part. Many a tenor, before and since, who has been cast for that +divinely musical milksop has looked longingly at the rôle of Don +Giovanni which Mozart gave to a barytone, and some have appropriated it. +Garcia was one of these (he had been a tenor de forza in his day), +and it fell to him to introduce the character in New York. Outside of +himself, his daughter, and the basso Angrisani, the company was a poor +affair, the orchestra not much better than that employed at the ordinary +theater then (and now, for that matter), and the chorus composed of +mechanics drilled to sing words they did not understand. It is scarcely +to be wondered at, therefore, that at one of the performances of +Mozart's opera, of which there were ten, singers and players got at +sixes and sevens in the superb finale of the first act, whereupon +Garcia, losing his temper, rushed to the footlights sword in hand, +stopped the orchestra, and commanded a new beginning. + +It has already been told how that Da Ponte was active in the promotion +of the first Italian opera enterprise, that he inspired Montressor's +experiment at the Richmond Hill Theater and was the moving spirit in the +ambitious, beautiful but unhappy Italian Opera House undertaking. To do +all these things it was necessary that he should be a man of influence +among the cultured and wealthy classes of the community. As a matter of +fact he was this, and that in spite of the fact that his career had been +checkered in Europe and was not wholly free from financial scandal, at +least in New York. The fact is that the poet's artistic temperament was +paired with an insatiable commercial instinct. This instinct, at least, +may be set down as a racial inheritance. Until seven or eight years +ago nobody seems to have taken the trouble to look into the family +antecedents of him whom the world will always know as Lorenzo Da Ponte. +That was not his name originally. Of this fact something only a little +better than a suspicion had been in the minds of those who knew him and +wrote about him during his lifetime and shortly after his death. Michael +Kelly, the Irish tenor, who knew him in Vienna, speaks of him as "my +friend, the abbé," and tells of his dandyish style of dressing, his +character as a "consummate coxcomb," his strong lisp and broad Venetian +dialect; if he knew that he was a converted Jew, he never mentioned the +fact. Later writers hinted at the fact that he had been born a Jew, but +had been educated by the Bishop of Ceneda and had adopted his name. +When I investigated his American history, a matter of twenty years ago, +my statement in The Tribune newspaper that he was the son of a Hebrew +leather dealer provoked an almost intemperate denial by a German +musical historian, who quoted from his memoirs a story of his religious +observances to confound me. My statement, however, was based, not only +on an old rumor, but also on the evidence of a pamphlet published in +Lisbon in the course of what seems to have been a peculiarly acrimonious +controversy between Da Ponte and a theatrical person unnamed, but +probably one Francesco. In this pamphlet, which is not only indecorous +but indecent, he is referred to as "the celebrated Lorenzo Daponte, who +after having been Jew, Christian, priest, and poet in Italy and Germany +found himself to be a layman, husband, and ass in London." It remained +for Professor Marchesan, his successor in the chair of rhetoric in the +University of Treviso, to give the world the facts concerning his origin +and early family history. From Marchesan's book ("Della Vita e delle +Opere di Lorenzo da Ponte") published in Treviso in 1900 we learn that +the poet's father was in truth a Hebrew leather dealer, and also that +the father's name was Jeremiah Conegliano, his mother's Rachel +Pincherle, and his own Emanuele Conegliano. He was fourteen years old +when not he alone, but the whole family, embraced Christianity. They +were baptized in the cathedral of Ceneda on August 20, 1763, and the +bishop gave the lad, whose talents he seems to have observed, his own +name. The rest of his story up to his departure for America may be +outlined in the words of the sketch in Grove's "Dictionary of Music +and Musicians" (second edition, Vol. III, p. 789). + +After five years of study in the seminary at Ceneda (probably with the +priesthood as an object) he went to Venice, where he indulged in amorous +escapades which compelled his departure from that city. He went to +Treviso and taught rhetoric in the university, incidentally took part in +political movements, lampooned an opponent in a sonnet, and was ordered +out of the republic. In Dresden, whither he turned his steps, he found +no occupation for his talents, and journeyed on to Vienna. There, +helped by Salieri, he received from Joseph II the appointment of poet +to the imperial theater and Latin secretary. Good fortune brought +him in contact with Mozart, who asked him to make an opera book of +Beaumarchais's "Mariage de Figaro." The great success of Mozart's opera +on this theme led to further co-operation, and it was on Da Ponte's +suggestion that "Don Giovanni" was undertaken, the promptings coming +largely from the favor enjoyed at the time by Gazzaniga's opera on the +same subject, from which Da Ponte made generous drafts--as a comparison +of the libretti will show. Having incurred the ill will of Leopold, Da +Ponte was compelled to leave Vienna on the death of Joseph II. He went +to Trieste, where Leopold was sojourning, in the hope of effecting a +reconciliation, but failed; but there he met and married an Englishwoman +who was thenceforth fated to share his checkered fortunes. He obtained a +letter recommending him to the interest of Marie Antoinette, but while +journeying toward Paris learned of the imprisonment of the Queen, and +went to London instead. A year was spent in the British metropolis in +idleness, and some time in Holland in a futile effort to establish an +Italian theater there. Again he turned his face toward London, and this +time secured employment as poet to the Italian opera and assistant to +the manager, Taylor. He took a part of Domenico Corri's shop to sell +Italian books, but soon ended in difficulties, and to escape his +creditors fled to America, arriving in New York on June 4, 1805. + +Da Ponte lives in the respect and admiration of Dante scholars as the +first of American teachers and commentators on "The Divine Comedy." He +gave himself the title, and in this case adhered to the truth, which +cannot be said of all of his statements about himself. For instance, in +a letter to the public to be set forth presently, he calls himself "poet +of the Emperor Joseph II." He was in the habit of thus designating +himself and it was small wonder that his biographers almost unanimously +interpreted these words to mean that he was poet laureate, or Caesarian +poet. After the mischief, small enough, except perhaps in an ethical +sense, had been done, he tried to correct it in a foot note on one of +the pages of his "Memorie," in which he says that he was not "Poeta +Cesario," but "poet to the Imperial theaters." In his capacity as a +teacher his record seems to have been above reproach; and it was in +this capacity that he first presented himself favorably to New Yorkers. +Within two years after his arrival he gave a pamphlet to the public +entitled "Compendium of the Life of Lorenzo Da Ponte, written by +Himself, to which is added the first Literary Conversatione held at his +home in New York on the 10th day of March, 1807, consisting of several +Italian compositions in verse and prose translated into English by his +scholars." That this little brochure was designed as an advertisement +is obvious enough; it was issued on his fifty-eighth birthday and its +contents, besides the sketch of his life, which, so it began, he +had promised to give his pupils, were specimens of their literary +handicraft. In the biographical recital are echoes of the contentions in +which he had been engaged in London a few years before. Although only +two years had elapsed since his arrival in America, what may be called +the first of his commercial periods was already over. He had sent his +wife to New York ahead of him with some of the money which his English +creditors were looking for. With this he promptly embarked in business, +trafficking in tobacco, liquors, drugs, etc.--goods which promised +large profits. In three months fear of yellow fever drove him to +Elizabethtown, N. J., where he remained a year, by which time he was +ruined. He came back to New York and began to teach the Italian +language and literature, and the little "Compendium" recorded his first +successes. He taught till 1811, by which time he had laid aside $4,000, +with which he again went into business, this time as a distiller in +Sunbury, Pa. After several years of commercial life he returned again to +New York and resumed the profession which brought him into contact with +people of refinement and social standing, who seem to have remained his +friends, despite his complaints and importunities, till his death in +1838. Among those who were sincerely attached to him were Clement Clark +Moore, Hebrew lexicographer, trustee of Columbia College, and (best of +all) author of "'Twas the Night before Christmas." Through Moore he +secured the privilege of calling himself Professor of Italian Literature +at Columbia, though without salary, managed to sell the college a large +number of Italian books, and was engaged to make a catalogue of the +college library. Another friend was Henry James Anderson, who became +Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy in the college in 1825, the year +in which Garcia came to New York with his operatic enterprise. Professor +Anderson married his daughter and became the father of Edward Henry and +Elbert Ellery Anderson. Other friends were Giulian C. Verplanck, Dr. +Macneven, Maroncelli, the Italian patriot, (whose wife was one of the +members of the opera company which Da Ponte organized with Rivafinoli), +Samuel Ward, Dr. John W. Francis, the Cottenet family, and H. T. +Tuckerman, who wrote a sketch of him after his death in Putnam's +Magazine. At the time of his operatic venture, 1833-34, he lived at No. +342 Broadway, and kept a bookstore at No. 336, which may then have been +an adjoining house. The site is near the present Catherine Lane. Before +then he had lived in dozens of different houses, moving, apparently, +nearly every year. He died at No. 91 Spring Street, on August 17, 1838, +and was buried in the Roman Catholic Cemetery in Eleventh Street, +between First Avenue and Avenue A. When the centenary of the first +performance of "Don Giovanni" was celebrated in many European cities, in +1887, I conceived the idea of sending a choir of trombones to the grave +of the poet who had written the text to pay a musical tribute to his +memory, and thus made the discovery that the place of his burial was +as completely lost as the last resting place of the mortal remains of +Mozart. Weeks of research were necessary to determine the fact that it +was the old cemetery that had received his body, and that the location +of the grave was no longer to be determined by the records. It was never +marked. + +Da Ponte's ambition to see Italian opera permanently established in New +York seems to have received a crushing blow with the failure of the +pretentious Italian Opera House enterprise. His dream I have referred +to; he was again to be a "poet to the opera," to write works for season +after season which his countryman Trajetta was to set to music. His +niece was to be a prima donna. He did write one libretto; it was for an +opera entitled, "L'Ape Musicale," for the musical setting of which he +despoiled Rossini. His niece, Giulia Da Ponte, did sing, but her talents +were not of the kind to win distinction. He persuaded Montressor to give +his season, and, rushing into print, as was his custom--the period of +the pamphleteer was to his liking--he discussed the failure of that +undertaking in two booklets. After the successive failures of himself +with Rivafinoli and his underlings, who attempted to succeed where he +had come to grief, he appended a letter to his old supporters (who had +plainly fallen away from him) to a pamphlet devoted to setting forth the +miseries of his existence after the great things which, in his opinion, +he had done for the people of New York. The letter has never seen the +light of day from the time when it was printed in 1835 till now; but it +deserves preservation. I found it twenty years ago in the library of the +Historical Society of New York in a bound volume of miscellaneous +pamphlets. It is as follows: + + +TO THOSE AMERICANS who love the fine arts I address myself. Hitherto I +have vainly spoken and written. Never was more really verified the Latin +proverb: Abyssus abyssum invocat. + +Let the verses that I now present you rouse you from your lethargy; yet +should they not, I will not cease to cry aloud. I cannot now remain in +silence while my fellow countrymen are sacrificed, the citizens of two +noble cities deceived, and an enterprise for which I have so long and +ardently labored, so calculated to shed luster on the nation, and so +honorable in its commencement, ruined by those who have no means, nor +knowledge, nor experience. Answer at least these questions: Did you not +request from me an Italian company? It will be readily understood with +whom I speak. Why did you ask this of me? I was offered a handsome +premium if I would introduce a troupe of select Italian artists in +America. Did not I, and I alone procure them? Were they not excellent? +Have I been compensated for my labor, reimbursed my actual expenses, +or even honored by those most benefited by my losses and labors? + +Had not I a right to expect thus much, or at least justice? And if you +thought me competent to do what I have done, why should you not be +guided by my counsels? Did I not tell you and reiterate in my writing +and verbally that Rivafinoli was not to be trusted? That he was a +daring, but imprudently daring, adventurer, whose failures in London, +and in Mecico and Carolina were the sure forerunners of his failure in +New York? And when deceived by him, whom did you take in place of him? +PORTO! SACCHI! With what means? What talents? What judgment? What +experience? What chances of a happy issue? Would you know why they +wished it? I will tell you, with Juvenal--'Greculus esuriens si in +coelum jusseris ibit.' But ignorant pretenders mostly have more +influence than modest truth. You, gentlemen of the committee, gave the +theater to them because, not having anything to lose, they could yield +to everything, even to the promising of what they knew themselves +unable to perform. + +One of them it is said still has some hopes from you. Before another +disgrace occurs I beg you to look at the effects. Nemo dat quod non +habet. I brought a company from Italy by the mere force of my word. And +why was this? Because they knew me for an honorable man, who would not +promise what he could not perform, who had been eleven years the poet of +the Emperor Joseph 2d, who for another equal space of time had been the +poet to the theater in London, who had written thirty-six operas for +Salieri, for Martini, for Storace and Mozzart (sic). + +That these dramas still survive, you yourself have seen and thought its +author not worthy of your esteem. For God's sake let the past become a +beacon light to save you from the perils of the future. Do not destroy +the most splendid ornament of your city. Rocco is obliged to visit +Italy. Lease to him the theater, he will have for his advisers the +talented and estimable Bagioli and myself. For me I wish for nothing, +but it pains me to see spoiled by ignorance and imposture, and vanity +that which cost me so much, or to speak more correctly, which cost me +everything, and you so much, and it will cost you more in fame as well +as in money. + +What will they say, the Trollops and the Halls and Hamiltons who +nodum in scripto quoerunt with the microscope of national aversion? +Rocco and he only can redeem the fortunes of your disorganized, +betrayed, dishonored establishment by giving you a new and meritorious +company. Listen then to him and assist him--you will lose nothing by +it; I pledge you the word of an old man whose lips have never uttered +an untruth. Your servant and fellow citizen, + Lorenzo Da Ponte + + +The theater was not leased to Rocco. It never echoed to +opera after the second season. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +HOUSES BUILT FOR OPERA + + +"His wit was not so sharp as his chin, and so his career was not so long +as his nose," says Richard Grant White of the impresario who, ten years +after the failure of the Italian Opera House, made the third effort to +establish Italian opera in New York of which there is a record. The man +with a sharp chin and long nose was Ferdinand Palmo. He was the owner of +a popular restaurant which went by the rather tropical name "Café des +Milles Colonnes," and was situated in Broadway, just above Duane Street. +Palmo knew how to cook and how to cater, and his restaurant made him +fairly rich. What he did not know about managing an opera house he was +made conscious of soon after the ambition to be an impresario took hold +of him. His was an individual enterprise, like Mr. Hammerstein's, with +no clogs or entangling alliances in the shape of stockholders, or +managing directors, or amusement committees. He seems to have been +strongly impressed with the idea that after the public had been total +abstainers for ten years they would love opera for its own sake, and +that it would not be necessary to give hostages to fortune in the shape +of a beautiful house, with a large portion set apart for the exclusive +use of wealth and fashion. Except in name, says Mr. White, there were no +boxes. Palmo did not even build a new theater. He found one that could +be modeled to his purposes in Stoppani's Arcade Baths, in Chambers +Street, between Broadway and Center Street. The site is now occupied +by the building of the American News Company. The acoustics of the new +opera house are said to have been good, but the inconvenience of the +location and unenviable character of the neighborhood are indicated +quite as much as Signor Palmo's enterprising and considerate nature +by his announcement that after the performances a large car would be +run uptown as far as Forty-Second Street for the accommodation of +his patrons; and also that the patrons aforesaid should have police +protection. The house seated about eight hundred persons, the seats +being hard benches, with slats across the back shoulder high. Opera +lovers given to luxury were permitted to upholster their benches. The +orchestra numbered "thirty-two professors," but their devotion to the +art which they professed was not so great as to make them willing to +starve for its sake or to refuse to resort to the methods of the more +modern workingmen's unions to compel payment for their services, as +we shall see presently. The first performance under Signor Palmo took +place on February 3, 1844, the opera being the same one with which +Mr. Hammerstein began his latest venture sixty-two years later--"I +Puritani." The prima donna soprano was Borghese, who was attractive in +appearance, though not beautiful; who dressed well, sang with passionate +intensity, and won a popularity that found vent in praise which may +have been extravagant. One critic, "balancing her beauties against her +defects," pronounced her the best operatic singer that the writer had +yet heard on this side of the Atlantic. This remark leads Mr. White +to surmise that the critic had not been five years in America, for, +says he, Signora Borghese was not worthy to tie the shoes of Malibran, +Pedrotti, Fanti, Garadori, or Mrs. Wood, the last two of whom had sung +in English opera. Her chief defect seems to have been the tremolo--that +vice toward which the American critics of to-day are more intolerant +than those of any other people, as they are toward the sister vice of +a faulty intonation. Mr. White talks sensibly on the subject in his +estimate of Borghese. + + +She had a fine voice, although not a great one; her vocalization, +regarded from a merely musical point of view, was of the corresponding +grade, but as stage vocalization it had great power and deserved +higher commendation. Her musical declamation was always effective and +musico-rhetorically in good taste. She had a fine person, an expressive +face, and much grace of manner. One might be content never to hear a +better prima donna if one were secured against never hearing a worse. +In her was first remarked here, among vocalists of distinction, that +trembling of the voice when it is pressed in a crescendo, which has +since become so common as greatly to mar our enjoyment of vocal music. +This great fault, unknown before the appearance of Verdi, is attributed +by some musical critics to the influence of his vociferous and strident +style. It may be so; but that which follows is not always a consequence +of that after which it comes. Certain it is, however, that from this +time forward very few of the principal singers who have been heard in +New York--only the very greatest and those whose style was formed +before Verdi domineered the Italian lyric stage--were without this +tremble. Grisi, Mario, Sontag, Jenny Lind, Alboni, and Salvi were +entirely without it; their voices came from the chest pure, free and +firm. + + +I can scarcely believe that the distressful vocal wabble either came in +with Verdi's music or was greatly promoted by it. In the lofty quality +of style Mme. Sembrich is the most perfect exemplar whom it is the +privilege of New Yorkers to hear to-day; and she is the best singer +we have of Verdi's music. Did anyone ever hear a tone come out of her +throat that was not pure, free, and firm? Frequently the tremolo is +an affectation like the excessive vibrato of a sentimental fiddler; +sometimes it is the product of weakness due to abuse of the vocal organ. +In all cases it is the sign of bad taste or vicious training, or both, +and is an abomination. On the opera stage to-day Italian prima donnas +are most afflicted with it. In turn Verdi, Meyerbeer, and Wagner +have been accused of having caused it, but anyone who has listened +intelligently to the opera singers of the last forty years will testify +with me that the truly great singers of their music have been as free +from the vicious habit as have been those whose artistic horizons have +been confined by the music of Bellini, Rossini, and Donizetti. + +The tenor of the Palmo company was Antognini, who effected his entrance +on the American stage five weeks after the opening of the season. In the +opinion of Mr. White, he was the greatest tenor ever heard here, not +excepting Mario and Salvi, and Mr. White's opinion is so judiciously +expressed that one is fain to give it credence. Whether or not it can be +extended over the period which he has covered, which is that reaching +from the last days of the Academy of Music, when Campanini was still in +his vocal prime but had not developed the dramatic powers which he put +into play with the decay of his voice, I shall not undertake to say; +taste in tenor voices has changed within the last generation in favor +of the robust quality so magnificently exemplified in Signor Caruso. To +judge from Mr. White's description Antognini, as a singer merely, was +a Bonci of a manlier mould. His fame seems to have died with those who +heard him, and perhaps this is a good reason for reprinting what Mr. +White said about him in full: + + +He (Antognini) was an artist of the first class, both by natural gifts +and by culture. His voice, although not of notable compass, was an +absolute tenor of a delicious quality and great power. His vocalization +was unexceptionably pure, and his style was manly and noble. As a +dramatic singer I never heard his equal except Ronconi; as an actor, +I never saw his equal, except Ronconi, Rachel, and Salvini. He had in +perfection that power which Hamlet speaks of in his soliloquy, after +he dismisses the players, when the speech about Pyrrhus is ended: + + Is it not monstrous that this player here, + But in a fiction, in a dream of passion + Could force his soul so to his own conceit + That from her working all his visage wann'd; + Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect, + A broken voice, and his whole function suiting + With forms to his conceit! + +I have seen the blood fade not only from Antognini's cheeks, but from +his very lips, as he strode slowly forward to interrupt the nuptials +in "Lucia di Lammermoor," and then flame back again as he broke into +defiance of his foes. The inflections of his voice in passages of +tenderness were ravishing, and his utterance of anger and despair was +terrible. Nor was any tenor that has been heard here, not even Mario +in his prime, his superior in that great test of fine vocalization, a +sustained cantabile passage. He was one of those blond Italians who +are found on the northern border of the peninsula. Being all this he +nevertheless soon disappeared, and was forgotten except by a few of the +most exacting and cultivated among his hearers; the reason of which was +that his voice could not be depended upon for two nights together--not, +indeed, for one alone. On Monday he would thrill the house; on Wednesday +he would go about the stage depressed, almost silent, huskily making +mouths at his fellow actors and the audience. His voice would even +desert him in the middle of an evening, thus producing an impression +that he was trifling with his audience. No judgment could have been +more unjust, for he was a conscientious artist, but the effect of this +defect, as Polonius might say, was therefore no less disastrous, and +he soon gave place to artists less admirable but more to be relied +upon. + +In this season there appeared a prima donna of the French school in +the person of Laura Cinthe Montalant, known in the annals of opera +as Cinti-Damoreau, who had come to America to sing in concerts with +Artôt, the violinist. In the eyes of Fétis she was one of the greatest +singers the world had known. Damoreau was the name of her husband, an +unsuccessful French actor. When she came to America she had made her +career in Paris and London, a great triumph coming to her in the French +capital, where Rossini composed the principal female rôles in "Le Siège +de Corinth" and "Moïse," and Auber those in "Domino Noir," +"L'Ambassadrice," and "Zanetta." + +[Repertory of the first season at Palmo's Opera House: "I Puritani" +(Bellini), "Belisario" (Donizetti), "Beatrice di Tenda" (Bellini), "Il +Barbiere di Siviglia" (Rossini), "La Sonnambula" (Bellini), "L'Elisir +d'Amore" (Donizetti), "L'Italiani in Algeria" (Rossini). Repertory of +the second season, 1844-1845: "Lucia di Lammermoor" (Donizetti), "II +Pirata" (Bellini), "Chiara de Rosemberg" (Luigi Ricci), "Lucrezia +Borgia" (Donizetti), "Belisario" (Donizetti), "La Cenerentola" +(Rossini), "Semiramide" (Rossini).] + + +It is not surprising that ill fortune became the companion of Palmo at +the outset of his enterprise and dragged him down to the lowest depths +before the end of his second season (according to the calendar). + +The first season ran its course and a second one began in November, +1844. Amidst the usual vicissitudes it continued until January 25, +1845. On this momentous date Borghese was before the footlights and +about to open her mouth in song when suddenly the orchestra ceased +playing. Not a soft complaining note from the flute, not a whimper from +the fiddles. Borghese raved and Palmo came upon the stage to learn the +cause of the direful silence. A colloquy with the musicians, if not +exactly in these words, was to this effect: + +"What's the meaning of this? Is it a strike? Why?" + +"No pay." + +"I'll pay you to-morrow." + +"To-night's the time"--the musicians packing up their instruments. + +Palmo rushed to the box office to get the night's receipts. Alas! they +were already in the hands of the deputy sheriff. Another opera manager +had gone down into the vortex which had swallowed up Ebers, and Taylor, +and Delafield, and others of their tribe in London, and Montressor and +Rivafinoli in New York. Palmo, it is said, had literally to return to +his pots and kettles; after serving as cook and barkeeper in the hotels +of others the once enterprising manager of the Café of a Thousand +Columns became a dependent upon the charity of his friends. There was +another season of opera at Palmo's, among the managers of which were +Sanquirico, a buffo singer, Salvatore Patti, and an Italian named +Pogliagno. In the company were Catarina Barili and her two children, +Clotilde and Antonio. Patti was a tenor singer. He was the husband +of the prima donna, Catarina Barili, who was looked upon as a fine +representative of the old school of singing, and from the pair sprang +Carlotta and Adelina, who gave a luster to the name of Patti which the +father would never have given it by his exertions as singer and manager. +Both were born before their parents came to New York; Carlotta in +Florence, in 1840, and Adelina in Madrid, in 1843. The childhood and +youth of both were spent in New York, and here both received their +musical training. Their artistic history belongs to the world, and since +I am, with difficulty, trying just now to talk more about opera houses +and those who built them to their own ruin, than about those who sang in +them, I will not pursue it. The summer of 1847 saw Palmo's little opera +house deserted. In 1848 it became Burton's Theater, where, as Mr. White +observes, that most humorous of comedians made for himself in a few +years a handsome fortune. + +Who shall deny that Signor Palmo, though his fortunes went down in +disaster, made a valuable contribution to that movement--which must +still be looked upon as in an experimental stage--which has for its aim +the permanent establishment of opera in the United States? Experimental +in its nature the movement must remain until the vernacular becomes the +language of the performances and native talent provides both works and +interpreters. The day is still far distant, but it will come. The opera +of Germany was still Italian more than a century and a half after the +invention of the art form, though in the meanwhile the country had +produced a Bach and a Handel. The Palmo venture (at the bottom of which +there seems to have been a desire to popularize or democratize a form of +entertainment which has ever been the possession of wealth and fashion) +revived the social sentiment upon which Da Ponte had built his hopes. +In the opinion of the upper classes's it was not Italian opera that +had succumbed, but only the building which housed it. This certainly +presented an aspect of incongruity. Fine talent came from England for +the English companies, whose career continued without interruption, +and the moment which saw the downfall of Palmo's enterprise saw also +the influx of a company of Italian artists under the management of Don +Francesco Marty y Torrens, of Havana, who deserves to be kept in the +minds of opera lovers which go back to the days of the Academy of +Music, if for no other reason than that he brought Signor Arditi to +New York--the hawk-billed conductor whose shining pate used to +glisten like a stage lamp from the conductor's seat in the fine old +house at Fourteenth Street and Irving Place. + +And so, in order that Italian opera might not perish from the earth, but +live on, surrounded by the architectural splendor appropriate to it, one +hundred and fifty men of social prominence got together and guaranteed +to support it for five years, and Messrs. Foster, Morgan, and Colles +built the Astor Place Opera House. Instead of the eight hundred seatings +of Palmo's institution, this held 1,800. The theater had "a fine open +front and an excellent ventilation." That it was an elegant playhouse +and admirably adapted to the purpose for which it had been designed +there are many people still alive in New York to testify. Mr. White says +enthusiastically that it was "one of the most attractive theaters ever +erected." Even Max Maretzek, who began his American career there, first +as conductor, afterward as impresario, while throwing ridicule upon its +management (his own administration excepted, of course) and its artistic +forces, praises the architectural arrangement of the house. "Most +agreeably surprised was I," he writes in his "Crotchets and Quavers," +published in 1855, "on entering this small but comfortably arranged +bonbonnière. It contained somewhere about 1,100 excellent seats in +parquet (the Parisian parterre), dress circle and first tier, with some +seven hundred in the gallery. Its principal feature was that everybody +could see, and, what is of infinitely greater consequence, could be +seen. Never, perhaps, was any theater built that afforded a better +opportunity for a display of dress. Believe me" (he is indulging in the +literary fiction of a letter to a journalistic friend in Paris), "that +were the Funambules built as ably for this grand desideratum, despite +the locality and the grade of performance at this theater, my conviction +is that it would be the principal and most fashionable one in Paris." +Maretzek is, of course, here aiming chiefly to cast discredit upon one +of the vanities and affectations of society--the love of display; but if +Mr. White is to be believed, the patrons of the Astor Place Opera House, +on its opening (which means the fashionable element of New York society) +were temperate and tasteful in the matter of dress. Speaking of the +first performance at the new house, he says: "Rarely has there been +an assembly, at any time or in any country, so elegant, with such a +generally suffused air of good breeding; and yet it could not be called +splendid in any one of its circles. At the Astor Place Opera House that +form of opera toilet for ladies which is now peculiar to New York and +a few other American cities came into vogue--a demi-toilet of marked +elegance and richness, and yet without that display either of apparel +and trimmings or of the wearer's personal charms which is implied by +full evening dress in fashionable parlance. This toilet is very pleasing +in itself, and it is happily adapted to the social conditions of a +country in which any public exhibition of superior wealth in places set +apart for common enjoyment of refined pleasure is not in good taste." +Mr. White wrote in 1881; would he have been able to be so complimentary +to the opera audiences of 1908? What relation does the present +extravagance of dress, the vulgar ostentation which Mr. White would +have us believe was foreign to the taste of New York's cultured society +in 1847, bear toward the support which opera has received since the +Metropolitan Opera House was opened? The factors which are to determine +the question seem to be marshaling themselves since Mr. Hammerstein +opened the Manhattan Opera House, but they are not yet fairly opposed +to each other. There are features in which the new opera house recalls +memories of the old Academy which met its downfall when the amalgamation +between the old Knickerbockers and the newer New Yorkers was effected; +but there are also other features which make a repetition of that +occurrence under present circumstances very improbable, and the chiefest +of these is that inculcated by the failure of the Palmo enterprise; +opera must have an elegant environment if it is to succeed. But it had +this in the Astor Place Opera House; why, then, did it live its little +span only? + +The question is easily answered--the Astor Place Opera House was killed +by competition; not the competition of English opera with Italian, which +had been in existence for twenty-five years, but of Italian opera with +Italian opera. The first lessees of the new institution were Messrs. +Sanquirico and Patti, who had first tried their luck in Palmo's Opera +House. They endured a season. [At the Astor Place Opera House in its +first season Sanquinico and Patti produced Verdi's "Ernani," Bellini's +"Beatrice di Tenda," Donizetti's "Lucrezia Borgia," Mencadante's "Il +Giuramento," and Verdi's "Nabucco." Mr. Fry's season in 1848 when Mr. +Maretzek was the conductor, brought forward Donizetti's "Linda di +Chamouni," "Lucrezia Borgia," "L'Elisir d'Amore," "Roberto Devereux," +and "Lucia di Lammermoor" and Verdi's "Ernani."] Then the first American +manager appeared on the field--I mean the first American manager whose +thoughts were directed to opera exclusively as distinguished from the +managers of theaters who took hold of opera at intervals, as they did +any other sort of entertainment which offered employment for their +houses. The manager in question was Mr. E. R. Fry, who came from the +counting house to a position of which he can have known nothing more +than what he could acquire from attendance upon opera, of which he was +fond, and association with his brother, W. H. Fry, who was a journalist +by profession (long the musical critic of The Tribune) and an amateur +composer of more than respectable attainments. Mr. Maretzek, in his +"Crotchets and Quavers"--a book generally marked by characteristic good +humor, but not free from malevolence--tries to make it appear that Mr. +Edward Fry went into operatic management for the express purpose of +performing his brother's operas; but while the animus of the statement +is enough to cause it to be looked upon with suspicion, the fact +that none of William Henry Fry's operas was performed at the Astor +Place Opera House during the incumbency of Edward Fry is a complete +refutation. "Leonora," the only grand opera by a professional critic +ever performed in New York, so far as I know, was brought forward at +the Academy of Music a good nine years later. Apropos of this admirable +and respected predecessor of mine, a good story was disclosed by Charles +A. Dana some fifteen or twenty years ago in his reminiscences of Horace +Greeley. Mr. Dana published a large number of letters sent to him at +various times while he was managing editor of The Tribune and Mr. +Greeley editor-in-chief. It was in the days just before the War of +the Rebellion. A political question of large importance had arisen +in Congress, and Mr. Greeley was so concerned in it that he went to +Washington to look after it in person and act as a special correspondent +of his own newspaper. Thence one day he sent two letters to The Tribune +on the subject, but in the issue of the day in which he expected them to +appear in The Tribune he sought in vain for his communication. Thereupon +he indited an epistle to Mr. Dana in these wingèd words: + + +Friend Dana: What would it cost to burn the Opera House? If the price +is reasonable have it done and send me the bill. . . . I wrote my two +letters under the presumption (there being no paper on Wednesday) that +the solid work of exposing their (Pierce and Gushing) perversion of +history had of course been done by Hildreth. I should have dwelt with it +even more gravely but for that. And now I see (the Saturday paper only +got through last night) that you crowded out what little I did say to +make room for Fry's eleven columns of arguments as to the feasibility of +sustaining the opera in N. Y. if they would only play his compositions. +I don't believe three hundred people who take the Tribune care one chew +of Tobacco for the matter. + + +The "eleven columns" was an amiable exaggeration quite in consonance +with the remainder of the letter; but I can testify from a consultation +of the files of the newspaper which I have served as one of Mr. Fry's +successors for more than a quarter of a century that on the date in +question The Tribune's critic did occupy three and a half columns +with a discussion of the Lagrange season just ended at the Academy +of Music and a most strenuous plea for the permanent substitution of +English for Italian opera! Also, that most of what Mr. Fry said would +sound just as apposite to-day as it did then, and be backed by just as +much reason. But a taste for the elegant exotic and reason do not seem +to go hand in hand, and managers are still strangely averse to placing +themselves for guidance into the hands of The Tribune's critics. How +different might not musical history in New York have shaped itself had +William Henry Fry, George William Curtis, John R. G. Hassard, and H. E. +K. had their way during the last sixty years! The thought is quite +overpowering. + +The opposition which the Astor Place Opera House met was indeed +formidable. It came from the company organized by Don Francesco Marty y +Torrens for performances in Havana. This enterprising gentleman did not +come to New York to make money, but mischief--as Messrs. Sanquirico, +Patti, Fry, and Maretzek must have thought--and incidentally to keep +his singers employed during the hot and unhealthy season in Havana. His +aiders and abettors were James H. Hackett and William Niblo. The former, +in his day an actor, was particularly famous for his impersonation of +Falstaff. His interest in opera may have been excited more or less by +the fact that his wife had been Catherine Leesugg, an English opera +singer, who had sung the part of Rosina in an English version of +Rossini's "Barber of Seville" as early as 1819. At Niblo's history +I have already taken a glance. In the present chapter he is chiefly +interesting, according to a story which has long had currency, as +the manager who succeeded in putting an end to the Astor Place Opera +House by a trick which took the bloom of caste off that aristocratic +institution. I shall let Maretzek tell the story presently, pausing now +to interject an anecdote which fell under my notice some years ago while +I was turning over the records of the Grand Ducal Theater at Weimar. +This always comes to my mind when the downfall of the Astor Place Opera +House is mentioned, and also when, as has frequently been the case +within the last sixteen years, I met a grandson of one of the principal +actors in the incident in the streets of New York. + +In April, 1817, there came to Weimar from Vienna a gifted dog, who +assisted his master in the presentation of a play of the melodramatic +order, entitled "The Dog of Aubri de Mont-Didier." The director of the +Grand Ducal Theater at the time was one Wolfgang von Goethe. To him the +dog's manager applied for the privilege of producing his edifying piece. +Goethe refused permission, and there was danger that the patrons of the +playhouse which had echoed to the first sounds of the plays of Schiller +and Goethe were to be deprived of the inestimable privilege of seeing +a dog dash out of the door of a tavern in which a murder had been +committed, pull a bell rope to alarm the village, carry a lantern into +the forest, discover the murderer just at the psychological moment, +pursue him from rock to rock, capture him at the last, and thus bring +about the triumph of justice. But the dog's manager was not thus to be +put down. He went with a petition to Fräulein Jagemann (whose portrait +in the character of Sappho my readers may still find hanging on a wall +of the library at Weimar), and solicited her intervention with the Grand +Duke, whose reign Schiller and Goethe made glorious. Fräulein Jagemann +was a prima donna and the Grand Duke's mistress. ("The companion of +my leisure moments," he called her with quite a pretty euphemism.) In +the former capacity she had given Goethe, the director, a great deal +of trouble, and in the latter her infuence had caused him many an +annoyance. It was the dog that broke the camel's back of his patience. +Fräulein Jagemann saw an opportunity to get in a blow against her +artistic tyrant, and she wheedled Charles Augustus into commanding the +production of "The Dog of Aubri de Mont-Didier." The play was given +twice, on April 12 and 14, 1817, with uproarious success, of course, +and on April 17th Goethe resigned the artistic direction of the Weimar +Court Theater. As for Fräulein Jagemann, she eventually got a title +and estates as Frau von Heygendorf. + +And now for the story of "The Dogs of Donetti: or, the Downfall of the +Astor Place Opera House," by Max Maretzek; it must be prefaced by the +statement that after Edward Fry had made a lamentable failure of his +opera season at which he had the services of Maretzek as conductor, +Maretzek became lessee of the house and thus remained for the years +1849 and 1850. + + +Bled to the last drop in my veins (I, of course, allude to my purse and +my pocket), the doors of the Astor Place Opera House were closed upon +the public. It was my determination to woo the fickle goddess Fortune +elsewhere. Possibly her blinded eyes might not recognize her old adorer, +and she might even yet bestow upon me a few of her faithless smiles. + +Again, however, after my departure, was the opera house leased. But to +whom do you imagine it was now abandoned by the exemplary wisdom of its +proprietors? + +To the identical William Niblo who had fostered and encouraged the +opposition--the same William Niblo who had a theater (or let me give +it his name, and call it--a garden) within the length of some three +stone-throws from their own house. It must be granted they did not +foresee that which was about to happen. But this will scarcely palliate +the folly of taking the head of a rival establishment for their tenant. + +This gentleman engaged the troupe of dogs and monkeys, then in this +country, under the charge of a certain Signor Donetti. + +Their dramatic performances were offered to the refined and intelligent +proprietors and patrons of this classic and exclusive place of +amusement. Naturally they protested. It was in vain. Then they sued out +an injunction against this exhibition on the ground that in Niblo's +lease of the premises only respectable performances were permitted to +be given in the opera house. On the "hearing to show cause" for this +injunction Mr. Niblo called up Donetti or some of his friends, who +testified that his aforesaid dogs and monkeys had, in their younger +days, appeared before princes and princesses and kings and queens. +Moreover, witnesses were called who declared under oath that the +previously mentioned dogs and monkeys behaved behind the scenes more +quietly and respectably than many Italian singers. This fact I feel that +I am not called on to dispute. . . . As might be supposed the injunction +was dissolved. + +As a matter of course, the house lost all its prestige in the eyes of +the community. Shortly afterward its contents were sold, and the shell +of the opera was turned into a library. Its deathblow had been given it +as a place for theatrical amusement by the astute Mr. William +Niblo. + + +Furthermore, Mr. Maretzek would have us believe that some year or +two later, the Academy of Music having been projected meanwhile, he +met Niblo and asked him what he thought of the prospects of the new +enterprise. + +"Why," answered the manager, in his nasal voice, "I suppose I shall +have again to engage Donetti's dogs and monkeys." + + + +CHAPTER V + +MARETZEK, HIS RIVALS AND SINGERS + + +Of the operatic managers of fifty years ago Max Maretzek was the only +one with whom I was personally acquainted, and it was not until near the +close of his career that he swam into the circle of my activities or I +into his. He died on September 17, 1897. His last years were spent in a +home on Staten Island, and the public heard nothing about him after the +memorable concert given for his benefit at the Metropolitan Opera House +on February 12, 1889, the occasion being set down as the fiftieth +anniversary of the beginning of his career as a conductor in America. +All the notable conductors then living in New York took part in the +concert--Theodore Thomas, Anton Seidl, Frank van der Stucken, Walter +Damrosch, and Adolf Neuendorff. Maretzek was seventy-six years of age +at the time of his death, and he had grown old, if not gracefully, at +least good-naturedly. He did not quarrel with his fate, but even when +he spoke of its buffetings it was in a tone of pleasant banter and with +a twinkle in his eyes. His manner of accepting what the world brought +him was illustrated at a meeting which I had with him in the season of +1883-84--the first of the Metropolitan Opera House. It was on a Saturday +afternoon that I found him standing in front of the new establishment +after the first act of the opera was over. Not having seen him in the +house, I asked him if he was attending the performance. He said he was, +but that, the house being sold out, he had no seat. Thereupon I offered +him mine, saying that it might be a pleasure to occupy it since several +of his professional acquaintances were seated in the neighborhood who +would be glad to greet him. "Annie Louise Cary is right back of me," I +said, "and Clara Louise Kellogg near by." But he did not care to accept +my offer, and I fancied I saw a rather more serious and contemplative +look come over his grizzled face. Naturally, I asked him what he thought +of the new house and the new enterprise, adding that I regretted that he +was not the manager. He began with apparent solemnity: + +"Well, when I heard the house was to be built, I did think--I did think +that some of the stockholders would remember what I had done for opera. +Some of the old-timers, who used to go to the Academy of Music and Astor +Place Opera House when I was manager there, I thought, would recollect +what companies I gave them--Parodi, and Steffanone, and Marini, and +Lorini, and Bettini, and Bertucca"--(how often I had heard him chant the +list, counting off the singers on his chubby fingers!)--"and Truffi, +and Benedetti, and Salvi. I thought somebody might remember this and the +old man, and come to me and say, 'Max, you did a good deal for us once, +let us do something for you now.' I didn't expect them to come and offer +me the house, but I thought they might say this and add, 'Come, we'll +make you head usher,' or, 'You may have the bar.' But nobody came, and +I'm out of it completely." + +Maretzek's managerial career continued at least until 1874; after that +he conducted operas for others and did something toward the last in the +way of teaching. It was seldom that one could get into a conversation +with him but he could grow reminiscent, and, reverting to the olden +time, begin tolling off the members of the companies which he had led +to artistic victories and who had helped plunge him into financial +defeat--"Parodi, and Steffanone, and Marini, and Bettini, and Lorini, +and Bertucca," and so on. Poor Bertucca! Few of those who in later +years saw Mme. Maretzek, portly and sedate, enter the orchestra at the +Academy of Music and Metropolitan Opera House, and tune her harp while +the audience was gathering in the gilded horseshoes above, recalled +that she had been the sprightly and bewitching Bertucca of thirty +years before. + +I cannot recall that Maretzek ever grew bitter in discoursing on what +once was and what might have been. He could be satirical and cutting, +but his words were generally accompanied with a smile. His dominant mood +and something of his style of expression are illustrated in his book, +"Crotchets and Quavers, or Revelations of an Opera Manager in America," +which he published in 1855, most obviously with the help of some +literary hack who, I imagine, got the thoughts from Maretzek, but +supplied the literary dress for them. A good many old scores are paid +off in the book, and a good many grudges fed fat; but there are not many +instances of bad humor. There is a sugar coating even to his malice. +Shortly before I left Cincinnati, the College of Music of that city, +having suffered a serious loss of prestige because of the resignation +of Theodore Thomas, made a pretentious announcement of an operatic +department, a practical school for opera, which was to be conducted by +Maretzek. I think it was in the fall of 1880. At any rate, it was on the +very eve of my departure from Cincinnati for New York. Maretzek came to +the city somewhat late in the evening, and though I called upon him at +the Burnet House as soon as I heard of his coming, he was already in +bed when my card reached him. Nevertheless, I was asked up to his room. +A tea tray still stood upon the table by the side of the bed when I +entered. He held out his hand cordially and apologized for receiving +me in bed. I told him that my newspaper, The Gazette, wanted to know, +for the information of its readers, what he purposed doing at the +college. The squabble between Mr. Thomas and the college authorities had +kept the town in a ferment for months, all of which Maretzek seemed to +know. It was no concern of his, but he could not help having artistic +sympathies or predispositions, and these were obviously on the side of +the musician Thomas, who had split with the business management of the +college because of charlatanry in its methods. There was a merry twinkle +in Maretzek's eyes as in reply to my question he answered: "I don't +know what I am going to do, or what I'm here for. They made me an offer, +and I came. I'm told that I am to run an opera school." Again he held +out his hand at parting, and his last words were: + +"Don't give me away!" + +Not many months had passed before he, too, had followed Theodore Thomas +back to New York, I met him in the lobby of the Academy of Music between +the acts of the opera. It was in the consulship of Mapleson. "Hello!" +I greeted him. "Back to New York so soon? What's the matter in +Cincinnati?" + +The quizzical smile with which he had greeted me grew wider as he +replied sententiously: + +"I'm not a hog. I know when I've got enough!" + +Maretzek was a Hebrew, born in Brünn, Moravia, and educated in Vienna, +where first he studied medicine, but, according to his own story, +becoming disgusted with the sights of the dissecting room, he changed +his purposes and devoted himself to music. He wrote an opera entitled +"Hamlet" when he was twenty-two years old, and a year later, in 1844, +found himself in London, employed under Balfe at Her Majesty's Theater. +Thence he was brought to New York to conduct the opera for Mr. E. P. +Fry, as has already been mentioned, in 1848. After one season as +conductor he started in on his career as manager, which lasted +twenty-five years, the first five of which are amusingly described +in his book "Crotchets and Quavers." More than twenty years later he +attempted to continue the story in a musical journal, and gathering the +disconnected chapters together, issued them in an unattractive form +under the title "Flats and Sharps." The first book is, to some extent, +a contribution to musical history, though its strong personal equation +and its effort to be entertaining mar its value and influence. The +impression to which I have given utterance, that he was helped in its +preparations by some penny-a-liner, is based upon the difference between +its pages and the personal letters which I received from Maretzek in +his later years, especially a brief autobiographical sketch which he +prepared for me. To judge by the evidence of book and sketch, the +latter in his own handwriting and delivered in person, one was forced +to the conclusion either that he knew more about the English language +six years after his first coming to New York than he did twenty years +later or that he had hired somebody fluent but malignant of pen to put +his thoughts into shape. It had long been the fashion for theatrical +managers and opera impresarios to give the history of their +administrations to the world, and Maretzek was but following it, though +why he should have done so before he had finally and definitely retired +from the field it is not easy to see. + +It was an unwise, even a dangerous, thing to do, for it involved the +necessity of criticizing the acts of professional people and music +patrons with whom a manager was more or less likely to come into contact +if he expected to continue his enterprises. The style adopted in the +book was the epistolary, the chapters being in the form of letters to +European friends: Hector Berlioz (with whom Maretzek had been brought +into connection in London), Fiorentino (an Italian, who had been musical +critic of the Corsaire, of Paris), Luigi Lablache (the famous basso), +Professor Joseph Fischof (of Vienna), Michael W. Balfe (of London, +composer of "The Bohemian Girl" and other English operas), Frederick Gye +(manager of the Royal Italian Opera, Covent Garden, London), and Carl +Eckert (conductor of the Court Opera, Vienna). A final chapter is +addressed to the public and is devoted to a recital of the troubles +through which the Academy of Music passed in the earliest stages of its +career. Eckert had been in America as conductor of the company headed by +Henrietta Sontag, and the chapter over which his name is written tells +of the career of that artist in the United States and her death in +Mexico. Incidentally, also, Maretzek pays off a score owing to Bernard +Ullmann, a manager with whom Maretzek was much in conflict and against +whom he tried to turn the public by calling the attention of Americans +to the sneers in which the delectable gentleman had indulged at their +expense while he was trying to win the good graces of the Havanese. +Nevertheless, within four years he was Ullmann's partner, for together +they opened the season of 1859 at the Academy of Music. The quarrels of +opera managers are very like those of lawyers inside the courtroom. + +But when Maretzek was holding up the heinousness of Ullmann in the +chapter entitled "Los Americanos y su gusto por la Musica," Ullmann was +only an agent for Maurice Strakosch, who had entered the managerial +field. It was different with Don Francesco Marty y Torrens, the +impresario who invaded Maretzek's territory from Havana; and he remained +Maretzek's pet aversion to the end of the chapter. In his memoirs +Arditi, who came to New York as conductor of one of Marty's companies, +says that Don Francesco was among impresarios the most generous of +men, Maretzek the cleverest (though he sets down Maurice Grau as the +"cleverest of entrepreneurs"), and Colonel Mapleson the most astute. +It is not unlikely that Arditi's amiable opinion of the Cuban was +influenced not a little by the circumstance that Marty, not caring to +make money in New York, treated his artists with unusual liberality. +That, naturally, would not tend to increase the admiration of a rival +manager for him. He may have been the most generous of men in the eyes +of Arditi, but in those of Maretzek he was worse than Barbaja, the +Neapolitan manager, who owned the gambling monopoly in the kingdom +of Naples, and who, after animating his acquaintances with music and +singing, and diverting their eyes with the silk fleshings and short +muslin jupons of his dancers, fleeced them at his gambling houses and +became richer than the King of Naples himself. Maretzek intimates that +in his youth Don Francesco had been the mate of a pirate vessel which +preyed on the commerce of the Gulf of Mexico and adjacent waters; that +he betrayed his captain to death, and was rewarded with a monopoly of +the fish trade in Cuba; that he became possessed mysteriously of enough +money to fit out a feet of fishing boats to supply the market which he +controlled; that from that source alone his annual income rose to about +$160,000; that then he embarked in the slave trade, bringing negroes +from Africa and Indians from Yucatan, which he bribed the Spanish +officials to permit him to land; was knighted by the Spanish Crown out +of gratitude for pecuniary help extended in a crisis; and built an opera +house in Havana in order to acquire a social position among the proud +people who, despite his badge of nobility, refused to "swallow the fish +and digest the negro," as Maretzek puts it. This was the manager who, in +the summer of 1850, brought to New York what Maretzek characterizes as +"the greatest troupe which had been ever heard in America," and which, +"in point of the integral talent, number, and excellence of the artists +composing it," had "seldom been excelled in any part of the Old World." + +"This party consisted of three prime donne. These were the Signore +Steffanone, Bosio, and Tedesco. Its only contralto was the Signora +Vietti. There were three tenors--Salvi, Bettini, and Lorini. Badiali and +Corradi Setti were the two barytones, while the two bassi were Marini +and Coletti. At the head of this extraordinary company was the great +contrabassist Bottesini, assisted by Arditi. It would be useless, my old +friend, to attempt to indicate to you the excellence of this company. +You have long since known their names, or been aware of their standing +as artists in the world of music. The greater portion of them enjoy a +wide and well-deserved European reputation, and their reunion anywhere +would form an almost incomparable operatic troupe." + +Some of these names are those of singers whom, in his later days, I have +said Maretzek was in the habit of chanting while telling them off on his +fingers. His was not the credit of having brought them to the country, +but he did, a year after they had made their first appearance in the +Havana company, succeed in enticing them away from their generous +manager and enlisting them under his banner at the Astor Place Opera +House. All but Tedesco. + +Of these singers Maretzek has more or less to say in his book, but +the point of view is that of the manager perpetually harassed by the +jealousies, importunities, and recalcitrancy of his singers. Steffanone +was a conscientious artist, but had an infirmity of body and mind which +was exceedingly troublesome to her manager; Bosio was talented and +industrious, but had a husband whose devotion to her interests was an +affliction to her manager; Tedesco was husbandless, but had a father who +was so concerned about her honorarium that he came to the opera house on +payday with a small pair of scales in his pocket, with which he verified +every coin that came out of the exchequer of the unfortunate manager, +"subjecting each separate piece of gold to a peculiarly Jewish +examination touching their Christian perfection;" Salvi was a mountain +of conceit, who believed himself to be the Louis Quatorze of the lyric +drama, and compelled his manager to imagine him exclaiming "L'opéra +c'est moi!" Toward his manager Salvi was a despot, who rewarded favors +bestowed upon himself by compelling the manager to engage persons who +had served the tenor. Maretzek cites a ukase touching a singer named +Sidonia: + + +Caro Max: Fa di tutto per iscriturare la Sidonia, altrimenti io non +canto ne "Don Giovanni," ne "Norma," ne altri. + +A 250 $ il mese, e che la scrittura porti 350 $. Amen, cosi sia. +Il tuo, Salvi. + +19. 4. 53. + +(In English: "Dear Max: Do everything to engage the Sidonia, otherwise +I shall not sing in 'Don Giovanni,' 'Norma' or other operas. At $250 per +month, but let the writing bear $350. Amen, and so be it.") + + +"At $250 per month, but let the scrittura bear $350." I wonder how many +of my readers think of this cheap device of singers and managers when +they read about the honoraria received by opera singers to-day! + +Bettini drank to excess and spent whole nights in the gambling room, +rendering him unfit for duty ever and anon; Badiali was singularly +conscientious as an artist, and became a favorite with the public, but +not with his colleagues, because of his extraordinary meanness and +avarice and a jealous disposition; Marini was the greatest living +Italian basso, save Lablache, but his voice was occasionally unreliable, +and he frequently ill-humored, capricious, splenetic, and peevish. + +In private life Angiolina Bosio was Mme. Panayotis di Xindavelonis, the +wife of a Greek gentleman, whom she had married in 1851. She was in her +prime when she came to New York, though she had not reached the meridian +of her reputation. Her features were irregular, and she was not comely. +Richard Grant White claims credit for having given her the punning +sobriquet "Beaux Yeux," by which she was widely known on account of her +luminous and expressive eyes. "Her voice," says White: + + +was a pure, silvery soprano, remarkable alike for its penetrating +quality and for its charm so fine and delicate that it seemed almost +intellectual. But she was not a remarkably dramatic singer, even in +light comedy parts, which best suited her; and her style was not at all +declamatory. She _sang_; and in her vocalization she showed the results +of intelligent study in the old Italian school. Her phrasing was +incomparably fine, and the delicacy of her articulation has been +surpassed by no modern prima donna, not even by Alboni. Thus much of +her as a vocal artist; but her charm was greatly personal. Although +her acting was always appropriate and in good taste, and at times--as, +for example, in the saucy widow of "Don Pasquale"--very captivating, +she never seemed to throw herself wholly into her part. She was always +Angiolina Bosio, and appeared on the stage like a lady performing +admirably in private theatricals. Her bearing was a delight to her +audience, and seemed to be a performance, whereas it was only herself. +She sang the music of all the great operatic composers to the admiration +of the public and the critics of the most exacting disposition; but she +was greatest in Rossini's operas, and in Bellini's and Donizetti's. Yet +her exquisitely charming and finished performance of Zerlina should not +be passed over unmentioned. + + +Tedesco, who came to New York with the first Havana company in April, +1847, presented herself to the always susceptible mind of Mr. White as a +great, handsome, ox-eyed creature, the picture of lazy loveliness until +she was excited by music; then she poured out floods, or rather gusts, +of rich, clear sound. "She was not a great artist, but her voice was +so copious and so musical that she could not be heard without pleasure, +although it was not of the highest kind." Bettini left nothing here that +remained in the memory of New Yorkers except the half of a name which he +gave to his wife, the contralto Trebelli-Bettini, who was a member of +Mr. Abbey's company on the opening of the Metropolitan Opera House in +1883. Salvi came over with the Havana company in the spring of 1848, and +was one of the fish which Maretzek took from Marty's weirs. If we are +to believe the testimony of contemporaneous critics he was the greatest +tenor of his time, with the exception of Mario. That was the opinion of +White, who wrote of him as follows in The Century Magazine for May, +1882: + + +Although Salvi was past his youth when he first sang in New York, his +voice was yet in perfect preservation. It lacked nothing that is to be +expected in a tenor voice of the first class; and it had that mingling +of manliness and tenderness, of human sympathy and seraphic loftiness +which, for lack of any other or better word, we call divine. As a +vocalist he was not in the first rank, but he stood foremost in the +second. His presence was manly and dignified, and he was a good actor. +But it was as a vocalist, pure and simple, that he captivated and moved +his audiences. He was heard in America at brief intervals during a few +years, and his influence upon the taste of the general music-loving +public was very considerable and wholly good. Singing at Niblo's or +Castle Garden and other like places at which the price of admission was +never more than $1, and was generally 50 cents, he gave to multitudes +who would otherwise have had no such opportunity that education in art +which is to be had only from the performances of a great artist. In +purity of style he was unexceptionable. He lacked only a little higher +finish, a little more brilliancy of voice and impressiveness of manner +to take a position among tenors of the very first rank. Of these, +however, there are never two in the world at the same time, scarcely two +in the same generation; and so Salvi prepared the public for the coming +Mario. His forte was the cantabile and his finest effects were those in +mezza voce, expressive of intense suppressed feeling. More than once +when he sang "Spirto gentil," as he rose to the crescendo of the second +phrase, and then let his cry pass suddenly away in a dying fall, I have +heard a whole house draw suspended breath, as if in pain, so nearly +alike in their outward manifestation and fine, keen pleasure. + + +Such were some of the singers whose names are associated in the musical +annals of New York with that of Max Maretzek. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF MUSIC + + +Fifty-one years ago the center of operatic activity had shifted to the +Academy of Music, at Fourteenth Street and Irving Place, and there it +remained until the Metropolitan Opera House was built. From the opening +of the Academy in 1854 to the opening of the Metropolitan in 1883 the +former had no rival as an establishment, though the rivalry between +managers and singers was the liveliest that New York has ever seen +during the first decade of the time. For twenty years Burton's Theater +revived its early traditions, and housed an opera troupe at intervals, +and Niblo's Theater and Castle Garden were open to every manager who +wished to experiment with the costly enterprise. English companies +came and went, and a new competitive element, which soon became more +dangerous than that which several times crushed the Italian exotic, +entered in the shape of German opera, which, though it first sought a +modest home in the lesser theaters of the Bowery and lower Broadway, +soon achieved recognition at the fashionable Academy. The eagerness of +the rivalry in the Italian field alone is indicated by the fact that the +Academy had five different managers in the first three seasons of its +history, and that thereafter, until the coming of James H. Mapleson in +1878, it was almost a rule that there should be a change of management +every season. Maretzek was alternately manager and competitor over +and over again, and the bitterest rivals of one season would be found +associated with each other the next. Already in the first season the +stockholders had to step in and assume some of the risks of management +to save the enterprise from shipwreck, and, despite the attractiveness +of the house, the excellence of the performances, the presence of such +phenomenal artists as Mme. Grisi and Signor Mario, and generous public +patronage, the first season cost the different managers between $50,000 +and $60,000--three times as much as Maretzek had lost in the previous +six years, if that gentleman's word is to be taken. The figures look +modest now, but twenty years later their duplication at the Metropolitan +Opera House sufficed to effect a revolution in methods, and eventually +tastes, which had a profound influence upon musical life in New York. + +The Academy of Music had its birth in the expiring throes of the Astor +Place Opera House. The spirit of which it was the material expression +seems to have been admirable. To this the name of the establishment +bears witness. It was not alone the official title of the French +institution, popularly spoken of as the Grand Opéra, which was in the +minds of the promoters of the New York enterprise--the new opera house +was to be a veritable academy of music, an educational institution. +Not only was fashionable society to have a place in which to display +and disport itself, but popular taste and popular knowledge were to +be cultivated. To this end the auditorium was to be three times as +commodious as that of the Astor Place Opera House, and the low prices +which had been prevalent only at Niblo's, Burton's, and Castle Garden +were to be the rule at the new establishment. In the charter granted +by the State, dated April 10, 1852, the purposes of the Academy were +set down as the cultivation of taste by entertainments accessible at +moderate charges, by furnishing facilities for instruction and by +rewards. These purposes were overlooked at the beginning, but before the +first season had come to its end Ole Bull, for a few weeks a manager, +proclaimed his intention to pursue them by promising to open a +conservatory in the fall of 1855, and at once (January, 1855) offering +a prize of $1,000 for the "best original grand opera by an American +composer, and upon a strictly American subject." The competition ended +with Ole Bull's announcement, for his active season endured only two +weeks. + +It is doubtful if the competition would have produced anything more +than a curiosity had it been carried to a conclusion. On the spur of +the moment I can think of only two American musicians whose capacity +was adequate to such a task--Mr. W. H. Fry, who was then musical critic +and an editorial writer for The Tribune, and Mr. George F. Bristow, +both of whom had composed operas found worthy of performance. Mr. Fry's +"Leonora" was performed at the Academy on March 29, 1858, with Mme. +Lagrange in the principal rôle, but the score was already a dozen years +old, and it is not likely that the composer's state of health would +have permitted him to undertake the writing of a new opera even if +he had been so disposed. Mr. Bristow's "Rip Van Winkle," which had a +production in New York in the year of Ole Bull's announcement, may, for +all that I know to the contrary, have been written for the prize. The +scheme of uniting a training school for singers with an opera house was +not heard of again, so far as I can recall, until Mr. Conried became +director of the Metropolitan Opera House. It has much to commend it, and +might be made a power for artistic good with an operatic establishment +on a really public-spirited, artistic, and unselfish basis; as it is, +its influence is apt to be pernicious morally, as well as artistically. +How seriously Mr. Fry took the proposed educational feature of the +institution is indicated by an article on the new opera house, which he +published in The Tribune, in the course of which he said: + + +The expense of maintaining an opera house so nurtured at home will be +at most not more than one-fourth what it would be if the artists were +brought from Europe. American vocalists would be content with some few +thousand dollars a year, and, if they were sought for and educated, +boarded and lodged gratuitously the meanwhile, their services could be +procured for several years in payment of the expenses of apprenticeship. +In that way alone can the exorbitant demands of foreign artists be +diminished; and the folly and extravagance of paying them from one to +ten thousand dollars a night, as has been done in this city, will be +forever avoided. In connection with this it may be mentioned that there +are some Americans now studying for the operatic stage in Italy, and +one lady of Boston has appeared in Naples with success. It may yet come +to pass that art, in all its ramifications, may be as much esteemed as +politics, commerce or the military profession. The dignity of Amercan +artists lies in their hands. + + +Mr. Fry's hopes, so far as the Academy of Music is concerned, were +never realized, and after half a century his words are echoing wherever +writers indulge in discussion of ways and means for promoting American +music. Yet, without schools connected with opera houses American singers +have made their mark, not only at home, but in the lyric theaters of +Italy, France, Germany, and England. Names like Clara Louise Kellogg, +Annie Louise Cary, Minnie Hauk, Alwina Valleria, Emma Nevada, Lillian +Nordica, Adelaide Phillips, Emma Albani, and Josephine Yorke are +connected more or less intimately with the history of the Academy of +Music, but they do not exhaust the list. To them must be added those +of Charles Adams, Suzanne Adams, David Bispham, Robert Blass, William +Candidus, Emma Eames, Signor Foli, Geraldine Farrar, Julia Gaylord, +Helen Hastreiter, Eliza Hensler (the daughter of a Boston tailor who +became the morganatic wife of Dom Fernando of Portugal), Louise Homer, +Emma Juch, Pauline l'Allemande, Marie Litta, Isabella McCullough, +Frederick C. Packard, Jules Perkins, Signor Perugini, Mathilde Phillips, +Susan Strong, Minnie Tracey, Jennie Van Zandt, Emma Abbott, Bessie +Abott, Julia Wheatley, Virginia Whiting (Signora Lorini), Edyth Walker, +Marion Weed, Zélie de Lussan, Clarence Whitehill, Allen Hinckley, Joseph +F. Sheehan, and half a dozen or more singers now attracting attention in +London and Germany. + +Max Maretzek was the first lessee of the Academy of Music, but the +company that opened it on October 2, 1854, was that engaged by J. H. +Hackett to support Grisi and Mario, which had appeared at Castle Garden +two months before. Maretzek sublet to Hackett, who thought that the +brilliancy of his stars, and the new house, justified him in advancing +the price of seats to $2. He had a rude awakening, for the audience on +the first night was neither large nor brilliant. It numbered not more +than 1,500, and on the second night the prices came down to the popular +scale, with $1.50 as the standard. By the middle of December, though +the stockholders had been obliged to come to the rescue of Hackett, +the collapse of the opening enterprise was announced, and Hackett took +Grisi and Mario to Boston for a brief season, and then came back for +three or four performances at the Metropolitan Theater. + +The last performance took place on February 20, 1855. Though many +excellent singers had been heard in New York between the coming of +Malibran and that of Grisi and Mario, the three months of their sojourn +in America have ever since remained memorable. For a generation +afterward all tenors were measured by Mario's standard. Grisi created +a less enduring impression, because the audiences that heard her were +within the space of a few years permitted also to hear such singers as +Jenny Lind, Henrietta Sontag, and Marietta Alboni, three names that are +still resplendent in operatic annals. There does not seem to be any +reason for questioning the belief that Mario was the greatest tenor +singer that ever gladdened the ears of American music lovers. Richard +Grant White, who was then writing the musical reviews for The Courier +and Enquirer newspaper, had chosen Benedetti as his ideal of a dramatic +singer, and he found Mario lacking in passion, while confessing that +he had the sweetest tenor voice in all the world. He retired from the +stage in 1867, but came to America in 1872, under Strakosch, and sang +in concert with Carlotta Patti, Annie Louise Gary, Teresa Carreño, and +Sauret. He had always been a somewhat unreliable singer, frequently +disappointing his audiences by not singing at all, or singing listlessly +until he reached the air in which he could produce a sensational effect, +and when he returned to America he had only a superb presence and +bearing, and a magnificent reputation with which to arouse interest. He +was sixty-two years old, and had accepted an engagement for the reason +that frequently brings worn-out artists to the scenes of their earlier +triumphs; he needed money. Eight years later his financial condition so +distressed his old friends and admirers in London that they got up a +benefit concert for him. He was living in Rome when he died in 1883. + +Such satisfaction as can come to one from seeing a renowned artist was +mine in 1872; but I can scarcely say that I _heard_ Mario. With Annie +Louise Gary he sang first in a graceful little duet, "Per valli, per +boschi," by Blangini ("Dear old Mario had to warm up in a duet before +he would trust himself in solo," said the admired contralto, many years +afterward), and later attempted Beethoven's "Adelaide." Romances were +Mario's specialty, and Beethoven's divine song ought to have been an +ideal selection for him, but it was quite beyond his powers and I do not +now know whether to be glad or sorry that I heard him attempt it. It +is always unfortunate when great singers who have gone into decay are +tempted again to sing. To the generation who knew them in their prime +they bring a double measure of disappointment--grief for the passing +away of the art which once gave pleasure, and regret that the younger +generation should carry down to posterity a false impression of the +singer's voice and style. Who shall measure the heartburnings left by +Madame Patti's last visit to America when she sold herself to a trumpery +balladist, and, affecting the appearance and manner which had been hers +a quarter of a century before, tried to make a new generation believe +that it was listening to the vocalist whom veterans maintained was the +last one entitled to be called "la Diva." How much lovelier and more +fragrant the memory of Annie Louise Cary, whose American career began +during the Strakosch régime at the Academy of Music, and ended with her +marriage to Charles Mon son Raymond, when she was still in the very +plenitude of her powers. Many a time within the first few years after +her retirement have I seen her surrounded by young women and old, as she +was leaving the Academy of Music or the Metropolitan Opera House, and +heard their pleading voices: "Oh, Miss Cary! aren't you ever going to +sing for us again?" and "Please, Miss Cary, won't you let me kiss you?" + +Ole Bull's management of the Academy of Music was but a fleeting +incident, memorable only for the protestations with which it was begun +and for its brevity. For the famous Norwegian violinist it was a +Utopian dream with a speedy and rude awakening. After he had retired +the Lagrange troupe came from downtown and completed the season with +the help of the stockholders, and Maretzek, the erstwhile impresario +and lessee, became the conductor. For four years, 1855, 1856, 1857, +and 1858, the Academy saw Maretzek, Strakosch, and Ullmann alternately +installed as impresarios, and then for a year there was no opera at the +house, the three men at the head of as many different companies seeking +their fortunes outside of the metropolis. With Ullmann Thalberg was +associated for a space, the great pianist having come to America to +make money under the management of Ullmann, and probably having been +persuaded to risk some of his gains by his manager. It was but a brief +interlude, however. Ullmann, whose activities in America extended over +a quarter of century, lived to manage some of the artists who are +still before the public. The beginning of his career, like that of +Maretzek, fell in the period when Barnumism was at its zenith, and +Ullmann was utterly unconscionable in the methods to which he resorted +for the purpose of exploiting his artists. It was under his operatic +consulship that the winsome Piccolomini came to New York--an artist of +insignificant caliber, lovely to look upon and fascinating as an actress +in soubrette parts. "A Columbine," said Chorley about her when she +effected her début in London, "born to 'make eyes' over an apron with +pockets, to trick the Pantaloon of the piece, to outrun the Harlequin, +and to enjoy her own saucy confidence on the occasion of her success-- +with those before the footlights and the orchestra." But this was not +all. "Never did any young lady, whose private claims to modest respect +were so great as hers are known to be," said the same critic, "with such +self-denial fling off their protection in her resolution to lay hold of +the public at all risks. Her performances at times approached offense +against maidenly reticence and delicacy. When she played Zerlina, +in 'Don Giovanni,' such virtue as there was between the two seemed +absolutely on the side of the libertine hero--so much invitation was +thrown into the peasant girl's rusticity." Here was a capital subject +for the methods dear to the heart of Ullmann. In London the Piccolomini +had been proclaimed to be of a noble Roman family, the niece of a +cardinal, who had quarreled with her relations because of her theatrical +propensities. There may have been some truth in the statements, but +Ullmann adorned her history still more, and proclaimed from every New +York housetop that the lady was a lineal descendant of Charlemagne, and +the great-grand-daughter of Schiller's tragic hero Max Piccolomini. + +It was under the co-consulship of Maretzek and Ullmann that Adelina +Patti made her operatic début at the Academy of Music. The date was +November 24, 1859, the opera "Lucia di Lammermoor." Twenty-five years +later Patti was again the prima donna of the Academy, though Mapleson +was now the manager. It was the second year of the rivalry between the +Academy and the Metropolitan Opera House, and Colonel Mapleson conceived +the idea of profiting by the anniversary. At first it was planned that +"Lucia" should be given, with Brignoli as Edgardo, the part he had sung +in the opera at Patti's début, but two months before the time the tenor +died. Instead, "Martha" was performed, in a manner wholly commonplace +in all respects except as to the titular rôle, in which Mme. Patti +appeared, as a matter of course. There was only a little perfunctory +applause, but Colonel Mapleson had resolved that the scene should be +enacted, of which we have often read, in which the devotees of the prima +donna unhitch the horses from her carriage, and themselves drag it, with +wild rejoicings, through the streets. To make sure of such a spontaneous +ovation in staid New York was a question which Mapleson solved by +hiring fifty or more Italians (choristers, probably) from the familiar +haunts in Third Avenue, and providing them with torches, to follow the +carriage, which was prosaically dragged along to its destination at the +Windsor Hotel. As a demonstration it was the most pitiful affair that I +have ever witnessed. In fact, it seemed to me such a humiliation of the +great artist that on the next opera night I suggested to my colleague +of The Times newspaper that something adequate and appropriate to so +interesting an anniversary be arranged. He agreed and within a fortnight +or so a banquet was given in Mme. Patti's honor at the Hotel Brunswick, +under the auspices of a committee consisting of a number of well-known +gentlemen, including Judge Daly, William Steinway, and Nahum Stetson. +The committee of arrangements, having visited Mme. Patti and gained her +consent, went to work right merrily, but before the invitations were +issued an obstacle was met which threatened shipwreck to the amiable +enterprise; the wives of several gentlemen who had been invited +privately refused pointblank to break bread with the prima donna on +account of the scandal caused by her separation from the Marquis de Caux +and marriage to Nicolini, the tenor. Somewhat perplexed, the two critics +visited her a second time, and put the matter to her as delicately as +possible. Would she, under the circumstances, be the guest of a number +of gentlemen, representative of the legal, artistic, and literary +professions? Again she accepted, and without a moment's hesitation. So, +instead of the gathering that had been planned, there was a stag party +of about seventy gentlemen in the ballroom of the Brunswick, handsomely +decorated and discreetly lighted with wax candles. + +The preliminary reception was held in one of the rooms adjoining the +banquet hall, and there a scene was enacted which brought into relief +a trait of character which was extremely useful to the Colonel in the +difficult task of managing his wilful and capricious prima donna. Mme. +Patti received her hosts seated upon a divan. She looked radiant, and +was wholly at ease after having taken a peep into the hall to see that +the light would not be prejudicial to her complexion. One after another +of the seventy gentlemen advanced to her, took the hand which she +extended with a gracious smile, muttered the pretty compliment which he +had rehearsed, and fell back to make room for the next comer. The room +was pretty nearly full, when the Colonel appeared in the glory of that +flawless, speckless dress suit, with the inevitable rose in the lapel +of his coat. Not a glance did he give to right or left, but with the +grace of a practised courtier, he sailed across the room, sank on his +knees before the diva, and raised her hand to his lips. Such a smile as +rewarded him! A score of breasts bulged out with envy and a score of +brains framed the thought: "Confound it! Why didn't I think of doing +that?" + +The dinner passed off without a hitch, Mme. Patti managing by a hundred +pretty coquetries to convince nearly every one of her three-score and +ten hosts that he had received at least one smile that was more gracious +than that bestowed upon his fellows. Speeches were made by Judge Daly, +William Steinway, Dr. Leopold Damrosch, William Winter and others, but, +as Colonel Mapleson had carried off the palm by his courtliness at the +reception, Max Maretzek made himself the most envied of men at the +dinner. Quite informally he was asked to say something after the set +programme had been disposed of. Where the other speakers had brought +forward their elegantly turned oratorical tributes the grizzled old +manager told stories about the child life and early career of the guest. +Amongst other things he illustrated how early the divine Adelina had +fallen into the ways of a prima donna by refusing to sing at a concert +in Tripler Hall unless he, who was managing the concert, would first +go out and buy her a pound of candy. He agreed to get the sweetmeats +provided she would give him a kiss in return. In possession of her box +she kept both of the provisions of her contract. When the toastmaster +declared the meeting adjourned Patti bore straight down on her old +manager and said: + +"Max, if I gave you a kiss for a box of candy then, I'll give you one +for nothing now!" + +And she did. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +MAPLESON AND OTHER IMPRESARIOS + + +Memories are crowding upon me, and I find there is much still to be said +about the Academy of Music, and the operatic folk whom it housed between +1854 and 1886. Just now the incidents which have been narrated about +the banquet given in honor of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Adelina +Patti's début recall other characteristic anecdotes of Colonel Mapleson, +who managed the Academy of Music from 1878 to the end of the disastrous +season of 1885-'86. When Mapleson and Abbey were drawing up their forces +for the battle royal between the Academy of Music and the Metropolitan +Opera House in 1883, one of the New York newspapers reported Mme. Patti +as saying: "Colonel Mapleson comes here when he wants me to sing, and +he calls me 'My dear child,' and he goes down on both knees and kisses +my hands, and he has, you know, quite a supplicating face, and it is not +easy to be firm with a man of such suavity of manners." I have often +thought of this in connection with the outcome of the disastrous rivalry +between the two houses and their managers. When Colonel Mapleson let +himself down so gracefully upon his knee and pressed the prima donna's +hand to his lips, the act was not all unselfish adoration. It used to +be said that there was no manager alive who had succeeded in becoming +debtor to Adelina Patti. It was golden grain alone that persuaded this +bird to sing. The story is old of how her personal agent once hovered +between her dressing room and the manager's office, carrying the message +one way: "Madame Patti will not put on her slippers until she is paid," +returning the other way with a thousand dollars; coming again to the +manager with: "Madame has one slipper on, but will not put on the other +till she has her fee"--and so on. Doubtless apocryphal and yet only a +bit fanciful and exaggerated. Yet it was known in the inner operatic +circles in 1885 that Colonel Mapleson had succeeded in getting himself +pretty deeply into her debt. How he did it the anecdotes of the +reception and Mme. Patti's interview serve to indicate. In sooth, the +persuasive powers of the doughty colonel were distinctly remarkable, and +it was not only the prima donna who lived in an atmosphere of adulation +who fell a victim to them. I have a story to illustrate which came to +me straight from the lips of the confiding creditor. He was a theatrical +costumer, moreover, and one of the tribe of whom it is said that only to +a Connecticut Yankee will they lower the flag in a horse trade. + +My friend was a theatrical costumer with a shop conveniently situated +in Union Square. When the clouds began to lower upon the Academy around +the corner he became curious to know whether or not he was likely to +get a balance of some $1,500 owing him for costumes furnished to the +establishment. He sent his bill many times, and, being on amicable terms +with Colonel Mapleson, called on him at intervals to talk over the +situation. When he left the impresario's office he always carried away +profuse promises of speedy payment, but nothing more. Finally, he put +the bill into the hands of his lawyer, who at once took steps to attach +the property of the foreign debtor, and, to bring about pressure in a +manner that seemed likely to be effective, he instructed the deputy +sheriff, who was to serve the legal papers, to present himself at the +office of Colonel Mapleson an hour or so before the beginning of the +opera. The arrangements perfected, he informed his client of what had +been done. But there remained a kindly spot in the costumer's soul, and +of his own volition he called on the manager in the afternoon of the day +set apart for the coup in order to give him one more opportunity to save +himself from the impending catastrophe. + +"I found the Colonel in his office," said he, in relating the incident, +"cutting the corners off of tickets and sending them out to fill his +house for the next performance. While he clipped he talked away at me +in his cheerfullest and blandest style, told me how sorry he was that he +could not pay me out of hand, and deplored the action which I had taken, +but with such absence of all resentment that I began to feel ashamed of +myself for having threatened to shut him up. After half an hour I agreed +to send a messenger post-haste to my lawyer and call off the sheriff. +This done he borrowed $75 cash from me, and I went away happy. I tell +you I know lots of managers, but there's only one Colonel Mapleson in +this world." + +Whether or not my friend ever collected his bill I do not know; but this +I do know, that when the colonel ended the campaign of 1884-'85 Mme. +Patti's name was on his list of creditors for a considerable sum--$5,000 +or $6,000, I believe. The next time I met him he was sauntering about in +what passes for a foyer in Covent Garden Theater, London. The rose in +his buttonhole was not more radiant than he. + +"What are you up to now, Colonel?" I asked him. + +"In what respect?" + +"In a business way, of course." + +"Well," with a twinkling smile, "just now I am persuading Adelina to +sing at my benefit." + +"Will she do it?" + +"I think she will" And she did. + +Mapleson was one of the last of the race of managers who had practical +training in the art in which he dealt commercially. He was a graduate +of the Royal Academy of Music in the violin class, and had played in +the orchestra at the opera. He had also studied singing, and in his +youth tried his luck as an operatic tenor. In this he was like Maurice +Strakosch, who played the pianoforte prodigiously as a child, studied +singing three years with no less an artist than the great Pasta, and +after singing for a space at Agram turned his attention again to the +pianoforte. He came to New York in 1848, and his first engagement was +with Maretzek, at the Astor Place Opera House. Afterward he was a member +of a traveling concert company, in which he was associated with Amalia +Patti, whom he married, and it was thus that he became the teacher, +and, eventually, the manager of his sister-in-law, Adelina Patti. When +Ronconi first appeared in America at Burton's Theater (which had +been Palmo's Opera House), in the spring of 1858, Strakosch was the +conductor. The last of the old opera managers whom I recall at this +moment who were practical musicians as well, was Dr. Leopold Damrosch, +who directed the destinies of the Metropolitan Opera House after one +year of warfare with the Academy of Music had put Henry E. Abbey hors +du combat for a while. Abbey came out of the ranks of theatrical +managers, like Heinrich Conried, his only practical experience in music +being as a cornet player in a brass band in Akron, Ohio, whence he came. + +Strakosch's associates, however, were not musical practitioners. Ullmann +may have had some knowledge of music, but he was all showman. Thalberg, +the pianist, was Ullmann's partner when Strakosch and Ullmann joined +their forces in January, 1857, to manage the Academy of Music, but the +new coalition was the sign of Thalberg's withdrawal from the managerial +field. + +Like Maretzek, in his Cincinnati experience, the virtuoso knew when he +had enough. Strakosch's later associates were his brothers, Ferdinand +and Max. The former was the European agent for the firm, and the latter +what might be termed the acting house man in the United States, +especially during the later years of the Strakosch régime. + +In Europe Maurice Strakosch was also associated with Pollini, who +afterward became a large factor in the field of German opera, as manager +of the opera in Hamburg. Pollini had been Strakosch's office boy. His +real name was Pohl, and he hailed from Cologne; but he, too, was a +musician. Strakosch died in Paris in October, 1887. One night in July, +1886, I met him in the theater at Altona, whither I had gone to hear a +performance of "Der Trompeter von Säkkingen," then the rage throughout +Germany. He asked me to drive back to his hotel in Hamburg with him, for +his physician had told him that day that he might drink a glass of beer, +the first in six months, and he wanted a friend to share the pleasure +with him. I brought him the latest news from the opera houses of New +York, and, also, the intelligence that Pollini had just engaged Mme. +Sembrich for a season at some 5,000 francs a night. + +"We quit partnership," said he, "back in the 70's because Pollini +thought that money was no longer to be made in Italian opera, and wanted +to take up German opera exclusively. I didn't agree with him, and went +on with Nilsson and the rest. He got rich and I got poor, and now he's +going back into the Italian field. He'll rue it." + +Call the roll of some of the best of the singers whose American careers +are chiefly bound up with the history of the Academy of Music: Grisi, +Mario, Vestvali (a much admired contralto), Badiali, Amodio (barytone), +Steffanone, Brignoli, Lagrange, Mirate, D'Angri, Piccolomini, Adelina +Patti, Kellogg, Nilsson, Campanini, Lucca, Cary, Parepa, Albani, Hauk, +Gerster, Nevada. There are others whom fond recollection will call back, +some belonging indubitably to the first rank, like Maurel, some who +will live on because they gladdened the hearts of the young people of a +generation ago, who were more impressionable than critical. Some men of +middle age (as they think) now will not want to forget Mlle. Ambre or +Mlle. Marimon, and will continue to forgive the homely features of Mme. +Scalchi for the sake of her perfect physical poise and movement as the +page in "Les Huguenots," as others forgave the many registers of her +voice because of her joyous volubility of utterance. Doubtless, too, +there are matrons of to-day who will remember the singing of Ravelli +with as much pleasure as I recall it, and the shapely legs of the young +tenor that walked off with the heart (we also had a story of a diamond +ring) of a young singer from California, who afterward made a name for +herself in Paris, with more enthusiasm than I could possibly feel. + +Some of these singers became intimately associated with New York life in +a social way. Annie Louise Cary, after her marriage to Charles Monson +Raymond, lived for years in a cheery apartment at No. 20 Fifth Avenue, +sang occasionally with the choir in the West Presbyterian Church, in +Forty-second Street, and shed sunshine over a circle of friends who +loved her as enthusiastically as a woman as they had admired her as an +artist. Now her home is in Norwalk, Conn. Her first operatic engagement +was at Copenhagen, and she spent two seasons in the opera houses of +the Scandinavian peninsula, and one at Brussels before the Strakosch +brothers brought her to the United States, in 1870. The first season she +sang in concert with Nilsson, the second (1871-72) in opera, the third +with Carlotta Patti and Mario in concert; and thereafter till her +retirement in 1882 in both concert and opera, winning and holding an +almost unparalleled popularity. In the Strakosch company of 1873-74 she +was one of a galaxy of artists that the opera-goers of that period, who +are still living, will never cease to think of without a swelling of the +heart--Nilsson, Cary, Campanini, Capoul, Maurel, Del Puente, and others. + +Campanini remained the tenor of tenors for New Yorkers for a decade +longer. Abbey took him away from Mapleson for the first season of the +Metropolitan Opera House, and, after the introduction of German opera +there, his local career was practically at an end. He died in 1896 +in Italy, whither he had returned on retirement. His dramatic style +improved as his voice decayed. When he first came he was chiefly a +lyrical singer; his Elvino was delicious beyond description. In his last +years he had taken on robust stature, and his passionate utterances in +"Carmen" and "Aïda" will live till the end in the memory of those who +heard them. He was proud of his skill as a singer pure and simple, +though he was more or less of a "naturalist," as the Germans call a +singer who owes more to nature than to artistic training. How greatly +he admired the perfection of his "attack" is illustrated in an incident +which twice grieved the soul of Theodore Thomas and some other sticklers +for the verities in classical music. + +At the Cincinnati Music Festival, in May, 1880, Mr. Thomas brought +forward Beethoven's Mass in D, the great "Missa Solennis." In the first +movement, "Kyrie," of this work Beethoven has created an effect of +surpassing beauty in the successive introduction of the solo voices. At +the outset there is a crashing chord from all the forces, including the +full organ. The thundering sound ceases abruptly, leaving the solo tenor +voice sustaining a tone seemingly in midair. Another loud crash projects +the solo contralto voice, and so on. The effect is transporting; but +the obvious intention of the composer and the loveliness of his device +weighed nothing in Campanini's mind against the fact that it interfered +with popular appreciation of the "attack," of which he was proud. So +he calmly waited until the colossal D major chord was silenced, then +intoned his D softly, and made a beautiful crescendo upon it. After +a rehearsal I ventured to call his attention to the beautiful +effectiveness of Beethoven's device, but he answered: "It is music for +the head, not for the heart. If I sing it so the audience will not hear +my beautiful attack." + +And at the concert he perverted the text to gratify his vanity. I +reminded Mr. Thomas of the incident two years later, when he gave the +mass at the festival held in the Seventh Regiment Armory in New York. +Campanini was to sing in it again. Mr. Thomas said he would set him +right, but at the performance we were again cheated of Beethoven's +effect in order that the tenor might make his. When Campanini died +Philip Hale set down his estimate of him in these words: + + +No tenor who has blazed here above the opera horizon has fully equaled +in brilliancy Campanini at his zenith. De Reszke, in point of personal +refinement, is a greater artist, but his voice is inferior, and his +dramatic action lacks the elementary force shown by Campanini when +aroused. De Lucia is a greater actor of melodramatic parts, but his +voice is too shrill. Tamagno in "Otello" is beyond comparison, but that +is his one opera. . . . Of all tenors who have visited us since 1873 +the greatest, viewed from all points, was Campanini. + + +The popular idol before Campanini was Brignoli, who held his own from +the first days of the Academy until within less than a decade of its +collapse. For some years before the Mapleson era, however, he had +dropped out of the Italian operatic ranks and sung in English companies, +and in concerts. It was in such organizations that I first heard +him some twelve or fifteen years after he had become the popular +"silver-voiced tenor" of New York. He came to New York in 1855, and his +career was American, though it was in Paris that Strakosch heard him +and turned his face toward America. He lived in New York, singing and +occasionally managing companies in which he sang, till October, 1884, +when he died. He was twice married, the first time to Kate Duckworth, an +English contralto, known on the platform as Mlle. Morensi, and, after +her death, to Isabella McCullough, an American soprano. Richard Grant +White's mind was still obsessed by memories of Salvi, Benedetti, and +Mario when Brignoli was basking in the sunshine of popular favor, and +his estimate of the tenor in The Century Magazine for June, 1882, is +scarcely flattering either to the singer or the public that liked him. +It was Mr. White's observation that Brignoli came into the swim at the +time that the young woman of New York became the arbiter of art and +elegance. Says Mr. White: + + +Her admiration of Brignoli was not greatly to the credit of her taste. +He had one of those tenor voices that seem like the bleating of a sheep +made musical. His method was perfectly good; but be sang in a very +commonplace style, and was as awkward as the man that a child makes +by sticking two skewers into a long potato; and he walked the stage, +hitching forward first one side and then the other, much as the child +would make his creature walk. But he was a very "nice" young man, was +always ready to sing, and faute de mieux it became the fashion with +the very young to like him. But there never was a tenor of any note in +New York whose singing was so utterly without character or significance +and who was so deficient in histrionic ability. His high and long +continued favor is one of those puzzling popular freaks not uncommon +in dramatic annals. + + +Let us hope, in a spirit of Christian charity and something more +selfish, that Brignoli never read these severely critical words. +His vanity was that of a child, and they would have grieved him +inordinately. There was truly something of the bleat in his voice, and +his walk on the stage, whether in concert or opera, was provocative +of the risibles, but even his mannerisms were fascinating. Shall we, +because a critic did not like him, be ashamed for having thrilled a +little when we heard his "Coot boy, sweetheart, c-o-o-o-t boy!" thirty +years ago? I trust not. And if he were here again, and his manager were +to come with the old request, "Do me a favor, won't you, and if you +chance to meet dear old Brig say something pretty to him and help me +keep him in a good humor against the concert to-night--admire his teeth +and compliment him on his youthful appearance"--we should do it for +old sake's sake, and with a heart full of gratitude. No one could know +Brignoli and remain in ignorance of his frailties and foibles. He +probably ate as no tenor ate before or since--ravenously as a Prussian +dragoon after a fast. No contracts did he sign on a Friday or on a +thirteenth day, and he lived in perpetual dread of the evil eye. Part of +his traveling outfit was a pair of horns, which he relied upon to shield +him in case the possessor of the jettatura should get into his room +and he not have his fingers properly posed. I had been four years in the +turmoil of New York's musical life when Brignoli died; I cannot recall +an unkind word that was ever spoken of him. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE + + +Not the chronicler of musical doings but the historian of society +should discuss the genesis of the Metropolitan Opera House, which came +twenty-five years ago to displace the Academy of Music as the home of +grand opera in New York. In the second of these "Chapters of Opera" +I cited the Metropolitan Opera House as the last illustration of the +creative impulse which springs from the growth of wealth and social +ambition, and stated that it marked the decay of the old Knickerbocker +régime, and its amalgamation with the newer order of society. Before +this latter occurrence, however, it had become plain that the Academy of +Music could not accommodate all the representatives of the two elements +in fashionable society, who, for one reason or another, wished to own +or occupy the boxes which were the visible sign of wealth and social +position. There was no manifest dissatisfaction, either, with the +Academy of Music or with the performances under the direction of Colonel +Mapleson, though these were conventional enough and the dress of the +operas looked particularly shabby in contrast with the new scenery and +costumes at the new theater when once the rivalry had begun. The house +being satisfactory, popular taste contented with the representations, +and there being no evidences of insufficient room in any part of the +audience room except the private boxes, it seems obvious to the merest +observer from without that social and not artistic impulses led to the +enterprise which produced the new establishment. + +The Metropolitan Opera House was built in the summer of 1883. The +corporation which built it was called the Metropolitan Opera House +Company (Limited), and its leading spirits were James A. Roosevelt, the +first president of the board of directors; George Henry Warren, Luther +Kountze, George Griswold Haven, who remained the active head of the +amusement committee from the beginning till he died last spring; William +K. Vanderbilt, William H. Tillinghast, Adrian Iselin, Robert Goelet, +Joseph W. Drexel, Edward Cooper, Henry G. Marquand, George N. Curtis, +and Levi P. Morton. The building is bounded by Broadway, Seventh Avenue, +Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Streets. About one-quarter of the space +is devoted to the audience room, another quarter to the stage and +accessories, and the rest to administrative offices, apartments, etc. +Its cost, including the real estate, was $1,732,978.71, and so actively +was the work of construction pushed that the portion of the building +devoted to the opera was completed when the first performance took place +on October 22, 1883. J. Cleaveland Cady, the architect, had had no +previous experience in building theaters, to which fact must be ascribed +a few impracticable features of the house, most of which have since been +eradicated, but he had made a careful study of the plans of the most +celebrated opera houses of Europe, and the patrons of the house still +have cause to be grateful to him for the care with which he looked after +their safety and comfort. Since then the appearance of the interior has +been changed very considerably. The two tiers of boxes were where they +are now, but their fronts were perpendicular, and there was no bulging +curve at the proscenium. Besides the two tiers of boxes, as they exist +at present, there were twelve baignoirs, six on a side at the stage ends +of the parquet circle, so-called. These were found to be unprofitable, +and were abolished when the house was remodeled about ten years after +the opening. The decoration of the interior was intrusted to E. P. +Tredwill, an architect of Boston, who followed Mr. Cady's wishes in +avoiding all garish display and tawdry effect. The deepest color in the +audience room was the dark, rich red of the carpet on the floor. The +silk linings of the boxes and the curtains between them and the small +salons in the rear were of fabrics specially made for the purpose. They +had an old gold ground and large, raised figures of conventional design +in a darker shade, with dark red threads. The tier fronts, ceiling, +and proscenium were of a light color, the aim having been to obtain a +prevailing tint of ivory. Amid the filigree designs of the pilasters, +which carried the work above the curtain opening, were pictures of +singing and playing cherubs, and back of the bold consoles, which +projected from the side walls, were figures called "The Chorus" and +"The Ballet," painted by Francis Maynard, while above the middle of +the opening, in a segmentary arch, was an allegory, with Apollo as the +central figure, by Francis Lathrop. Statues of the Muses filled niches +on both sides of the consoles. Over the ceiling, amidst the entwinings +of ornamental figures, on a buff ground, were spread a large number +of medallions of oxidized metal, which, in the illumination from the +lights, shone with a copper luster. The house was lighted by gas, though +preparations had been made for the installation of electrical appliances +when that form of illumination should be found justified by economy. As +originally built, the orchestra was sunk sufficiently below the level +of the floor to conceal the performers from all but the occupants of +the upper tiers. In the hope of attaining improved acoustic effects +the floor of the orchestra was laid upon an egg-shaped sound-chamber +of masonry. The innovation did not meet with the approval of Signor +Vianesi, the first musical director at the opera house, and, after an +experimental rehearsal, the floor was raised so that the old conditions +obtained when the performances began. So the orchestra remained, the +players spoiling the picture on the stage, until "Lohengrin" came +to a performance. Then Signor Vianesi was prevailed upon to try the +arrangement from which Mr. Cady had expected fine artistic results. +The effect was good, and the device was adhered to for a space, and in +more or less modified form ever since, though there has been continual +experimentation with the disposition of the instrumentalists. + +Operatic performances began at the new house on October 22, 1883, and +after sixty-one representations, at which nineteen operas were produced, +the first season came to an end. I shall tell the story of the season in +greater detail in the next chapter, contenting myself for the present +with an account of the results of the merry war which ensued between +the rival establishments. Colonel Mapleson was intrenched in the Academy +of Music, which opened its doors for its regular season on the same +evening. The advantage lay with Mr. Henry E. Abbey, who had a new house, +the fruit of an old longing, and the realization of long cherished +social aspirations. With the Academy of Music there rested the charm of +ancient tradition, more potent then than it has ever been since, and the +strength of conservatism. There were stars of rare refulgence in both +constellations, which met the Biblical description in differing one +from another in their glory. With Colonel Mapleson was Mme. Adelina +Patti, who, in so far as she was an exponent of the art of beautiful +vocalization, was without a peer the whole world over. She served then +to keep alive the old traditions of Italian song as Mme. Sembrich does +now. At her side stood Mme. Etelka Gerster, with a voice youthful, +fresh, limpid, and wondrously flexible, and a style that was ripening +in a manner that promised soon to compass all the requirements of the +Italian stage from the sentimental characters in which she won her first +successes to the deeper tragic parts which had begun to make appeal to +her ambition. With Mr. Abbey was Mme. Christine Nilsson. Mme. Patti, +though she had grown to womanhood and effected her entrance on the +operatic as well as concert stage in New York, was not so familiar a +figure as Mme. Nilsson. Patti had begun her operatic career at the +Academy of Music in 1859, and had gone to Europe, where she remained +without revisiting her old home until the fall or winter of 1881, when +she came on a concert trip. The trip was more or less a failure, the +public not yet being prepared to pay ten dollars for a reserved seat +to hear anybody sing. After singing at a concert for the benefit of +the sufferers from forest fires in Michigan, she announced a reduction +of prices to two dollars for general admission, and five dollars for +reserved seats. Under these conditions business improved somewhat, but +in February, 1882, she found it necessary to organize an opera company +in order to awaken interest fairly commensurate with her great merit +and fame. It was a sorry company, and the performances, only a few, +took place in the Germania Theater, on Broadway, at Thirteenth Street, +formerly Wallack's; but they were received with much enthusiasm. So far +as London was concerned, she was under engagement at the time to Mr. +Gye, Colonel Mapleson's rival at Covent Garden. Mr. Abbey claimed that +he had an option on any American engagement for opera, but she appeared +next season at the Academy, and the doughty English manager held her as +his trump card in the battle royal which ensued on the opening of the +Metropolitan. + +In the twenty years of Mme. Patti's absence from New York, Mme. Nilsson, +who had come to the metropolis in the heyday of her European fame in +1870, had won her way deep into the hearts of the people. In 1883 she +was no longer in her prime, neither her voice nor her art having stood +the wear of time as well as those of Mme. Patti, who was six months her +senior in age, and five years in stage experience, but she was more +than a formidable rival in the admiration of the public. She was no less +happy in the companionship of Mme. Sembrich as a junior partner than +Patti was with Mme. Gerster. Both of the younger singers were fresh from +their first great European successes. Three years later Mme. Gerster +went back to Mme. Marchesi, her teacher, with her voice irreparably +damaged. "The penalty of motherhood," said her friends; "the result of +worry over the failure to hold her place in the face of opposition," +said more impartial observers. Mme. Sembrich went back to Europe to +continue her triumphs after disaster had overtaken her first American +manager, and in a decade returned, to remain an ornament of the +Metropolitan ever since. + +In Mr. Abbey's ranks were also Mme. Fursch-Madi, Mme. Scalchi, Mme. +Trebelli, Mme. Lablache (who gave way to her daughter till a quarrel +over her between the impresarios was determined), and Mme. Valleria, +who had come to the Academy some time before from London, though she +was a Baltimorean by birth--a sterling artist who is remembered by +all connoisseurs with gratitude and admiration. Chief among Colonel +Mapleson's masculine forces was Signor Galassi, a somewhat rude but +otherwise excellent barytone. At the head of the tenors was Signor +Nicolini, the husband of Mme. Patti, who sang only when she did, but not +always. The circumstance that Mme. Patti insisted upon his engagement, +also, whenever she signed a contract gave rise to a malicious story +to the effect that she had two prices, one of, let us say merely for +illustration, 6,000 francs for herself alone, one of 4,000 francs for +herself and Nicolini. The rest of the male contingent was composed +mostly of small fry--Vicini, Perugini, and Falletti, tenors, Cherubini +and Lombardini, basses, and Caracciolo, buffo. Mr. Abbey had carried off +three admired men singers from the Academy--Campanini, Del Puente, and +Novara--and brought an excellent barytone, Kaschmann, from Europe, and +a redoubtable tenor, Stagno. + +There was little to interest a public supposedly weary of the +barrel-organ list in the promises made in the rival announcements. +Colonel Mapleson held forth the prospect of Patti in Gounod's "Roméo +et Juliette," and "Mireille" (in Italian, of course), as well as in +Rossini's "La Gazza ladra," a forgotten opera then and again forgotten +now; other old works which were to be revived for her and Mme. Gerster +were "Crispino e la Comare," and "L'Elisir d'Amore." Mme. Pappenheim's +presence as the dramatic soprano of the company (a less necessary +personage in the companies of that day than now) led to the promise of +"Norma" and "Oberon." Only the Italian work was given. Mr. Abbey's book +of good intentions embraced twenty-four operas, all of them familiar +except "La Gioconda," which had been the novelty of the preceding +London season. + +The outcome of the battle between the opera houses was defeat for both. +The Academy of Music survived for two more campaigns, out of which the +new house came triumphant, while the old went down forever. It was +different with the men. Mr. Abbey retired after one season, forswearing +opera, as he said, for all time; Colonel Mapleson, though defeated, +was a smaller loser, and he was not only brave enough to prepare for a +second encounter, but also adroit enough to persuade Mme. Patti to place +herself under his guidance again. Mr. Abbey's losses have been a matter +of speculation ever since. It was known at the time that he had lost +all the profits of three or four other managerial enterprises, and some +years ago I feared that I might be exaggerating when I set down the +deficit of the Metropolitan Opera House in its first season at $300,000. +As I write now, however, I have before me a letter from Mr. John B. +Schoeffel, who was associated with Mr. Abbey as partner, in which he +says that the losses of the season were "nearly $600,000." + +[The operas performed at the Academy of Music in the season 1883-1884 +were: "La Sonnambula," "Rigoletto," "Norma," "Faust," "Linda di +Chamouni," "La Gazza ladra," "Marta," "La Traviata," "Aïda," "L'Elisir +d'Amore," "Crispino e la Comare," and "Les Huguenots" (in Italian).] + + + +CHAPTER IX + +FIRST SEASON AT THE METROPOLITAN + + +Twenty-five years ago there was no opera in the current repertory +comparable in popularity with "Faust." If I am told that neither is +there to-day I shall neither gainsay my informant nor permit the fact +to give me heartburnings in spite of my attitude toward the modern +lyric drama. To that popularity Mme. Nilsson contributed a factor of +tremendous puissance. No singer who is still a living memory was so +intimately associated in the local mind with Gounod's masterpiece as +she, whose good fortune it had been to recreate the character of +Marguerite, when, on March 3, 1869, the opera in a remodeled form was +transferred from the Théâtre Lyrique to the Grand Opéra in Paris. Coming +to New York soon afterward, it was she who set the standard by which, +for a long time, all subsequent representatives of the character were +judged. With her, Mme. Scalchi (who never had more than one rival in the +part of Siebel so far as New Yorkers are concerned, viz., Annie Louise +Cary), and Signor Campanini (the most popular Faust who has ever sung +in New York) in the company, it was no wonder that the opera was chosen +for performance on the opening night at the Metropolitan Opera House on +October 22, 1883. The opera was sung in Italian, no manager's fancy +having yet attained such a conception, as that all operas ought to be +sung in the language in which they were composed--and might be; for this +reason the names in the cast, though given in their familiar French +forms may be transliterated into Italian if so they will better please +the reader. The cast then was as follows: Marguerite, Mme. Nilsson; +Siebel, Mme. Scalchi; Martha, Mlle. Lablache (whose mother had +been expected to appear in the part, but was prevented by judicial +injunction); Faust, Signor Campanini; Valentine, Signor Del Puente; +Mephistopheles, Signor Novara. + +The performance did not differ materially from many which had taken +place in the Academy of Music when the same artists took part. All the +principal artists, indeed, had been heard in the opera many times when +their powers were greater. Mme. Nilsson had been thirteen years before +the American public, and though in this period her art had grown in +dignity and nobility, her voice had lost the fresh bloom of its youth, +and her figure had begun to take on matronly contours. Still, she was a +great favorite, and hers was an extraordinary triumph, the outburst of +popular approbation coming, as was to have been expected, in the garden +scene of the opera. Referring to my review of the performance which +appeared in The Tribune of the next day, I note that till that moment +there had been little enthusiasm. After she had sung the scintillant +waltz, however, "the last film of ice that had held the public in +decorous check was melted," and an avalanche of plaudits overwhelmed the +fair singer. Bouquets rained from the boxes, and baskets of flowers were +piled over the footlights till it seemed as if there was to be no end. +In the midst of the floral gifts there was also handed up a magnificent +velvet casket inclosing a wreath of gold bay leaves and berries, +ingeniously contrived to be extended into a girdle to be worn in the +classic style, and two gold brooch medallions, bearing the profiles +of Tragedy and Comedy, with which the girdle was to be fastened. The +donor was not mentioned, but an inscription told that the gift was in +"commemoration of the opening of the Metropolitan Opera House." Signor +Campanini had spent the year before the opening in retirement, hoping +to repair the ravages made in his voice by the previous seasons at the +Academy of Music, and, I regret to say, possibly his careless mode of +life. His faults had been conspicuous for several seasons, and the +hoped-for amendment did not discover itself. "Occasionally the old-time +sweetness, and again occasionally the old-time manly ring was apparent +in his notes, but they were always weighted down by the evidences of +labor, and the brilliancy of the upper tones with which he used to fire +an audience into uncontrollable enthusiasm was gone." + +The regular subscription nights at the Metropolitan in the first season, +and for all the seasons that followed down to that of 1907-08, were +Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with afternoon performances on +Saturdays. On the second night of the season, October 24, 1883, Mr. +Abbey brought forward two of his new singers. The opera was "Lucia di +Lammermoor," the first performance of which in the new house was made +memorable by the introduction of Mme. Marcella Sembrich. She had been +engaged by Mr. Abbey on the strength of the success achieved by her +in the London season of 1883. She was almost at the beginning of her +career, being little known outside of Athens, where she made her début, +Dresden, where she had sung in German, and London. She had dazzled the +British metropolis by her vocalization, especially in "Lucia," and it +was for this reason that it was selected for her introduction to New +York. Before the season came to an end she sang in "I Puritani," "Don +Giovanni," "La Traviata," and "Hamlet." All the good qualities which +have since then been extolled hundreds of times by the critics of the +New York newspapers were noticeable in her first representation. I +turn back to the files of The Tribune to see what I wrote while under +the spell of her witching art, and find the following: + + +Mme. Sembrich is a lovely singer,--lovely of person, of address, of +voice; and her artistic acquirements, in the limited field in which +Donizetti's opera called them into activity, at least, are of the +highest rank. Her style is exquisite, and plainly the outgrowth of a +thoroughly musical nature. It unites some of the highest elements of +art. Such reposefulness of manner, such smoothness and facility in +execution, such perfect balance of tone and refinement of expression +can be found only in one richly endowed with deep musical feeling and +ripe artistic intelligence. She carries her voice wondrously well +throughout a wide register, and from her lowest note to her highest +there is the same quality of tone. It is a voice of fine texture, too; +it has a velvety softness, yet is brilliant; and though not magnetic +in the same degree as the voices of other singers still before the +public, it has a fine, sympathetic vein. It wakens echoes of Mme. +Patti's organ, but has warmer life-blood in it. + + +Of the musicianly qualities of this charming singer, recognized on this +first acquaintance, we were to have a demonstration before her departure +which was in the highest degree surprising. Sympathy for Mr. Abbey in +his great losses, and admiration for the self-sacrificing manner in +which he adhered to all his obligations to them as well as to the +public, led the directors of the Metropolitan Opera Company to offer him +a benefit concert. At this entertainment, which was successful beyond +anything that local records had to show up to that time, the profits +amounting to $16,000, Mme. Sembrich sang an aria; then came upon the +stage and played a violin obbligato to Mme. Nilsson's performance of +the familiar Bach-Gounod "Ave Maria"; again she appeared and this time +played a Chopin Mazourka on the pianoforte. In every instance she +was the complete artist, and the public, who had been charmed by her +witcheries as Mozart's Zerlina and melted by the pathos of her singing +in the last act of "La Traviata," were at a loss to say if she had shown +herself a greater artist in song or in instrumental music, as a pianist +or violinist. It was not until many years after she had returned to +Europe to continue her operatic triumphs in St. Petersburg, Madrid, +Vienna, Paris, and Berlin that I learned the story of her life, and with +it the secret of her musical versatility; how she had started life as +a player of the pianoforte and violin with her father at dances in the +houses of the wealthy folk in her native town in Poland, gone to the +conservatory in Lemberg to study the pianoforte, been taken to the +Conservatory at Vienna by Professor Stengel (then her teacher, now her +husband), because there was nothing left in his system of instruction +from which she could profit, and there been advised to study singing +instead of the pianoforte with Liszt, as her proud teacher had fondly +hoped. It was Professor Epstein who gave the world one of the greatest +singers of our generation, but in doing so he robbed it of a pianist of +doubtless equal caliber. So far as I know, the story of Mme. Sembrich +is without a parallel. + +Signor Kaschmann was the barytone of the "Lucia" performance. He had a +handsome face and figure, a good bearing, and disclosed familiarity with +the stage, and considerable talent as an actor, but he was afflicted +with that distressful vocal defect which singers of his school often +call vibrato in order to affect to find a virtue in it. There is, +indeed, artistic merit in a true vibrato which lends vitality to a +voice, but when it degenerates into a tremolo, or wabble, it is a +vice of the most unpardonable kind. + +Another of the newcomers made his bow to the Metropolitan public on the +third night of the season, October 26th, when "Il Trovatore" was brought +forward. This was the tenor Signor Stagno, a stockily built, heavy, +self-conscious man, of good stage features and bad stage manners. When +his voice was first heard from behind the scenes, it sounded throaty, a +squeezed-out, constrained tone, but later, when Manrico's display pieces +came it rang out full and vibrant as a trumpet. It developed at once +that he was a singer of the sideshow kind, with whom the be-all and +end-all of his part and art lay in the high tones. So little of a +musician was he that, being enthusiastically recalled after the "Di +quella pira," he was unable to keep the key of C major in his head in +spite of his stentorian proclamation of its tonic a few seconds before, +and could not begin the repetition till the concert-master had plucked +the first note of the air on his violin. A short time before I heard +Mme. Patti perform the feat of beginning the trill which accompanies the +melody by the orchestra in the middle of the dance song in "Dinorah" +without a suggestive tone or chord after a hubbub and gladsome tumult +that seemed, to have lasted several minutes. A new bass, Signor +Mirabella, appeared in "I Puritani" on October 29th--a musical singer +with a voice of large volume and ample range, and a self-possessed, +easy, and effective stage presence. + +On her second appearance Mme. Nilsson was seen in a part with which she +was more intimately associated in the popular mind than any other singer +in New York or London. The opera was "Mignon," the date October 31st. +Ambroise Thomas's opera had its first American performance at the +Academy of Music under the management of Maurice Strakosch, on November +22, 1871. With Mme. Nilsson, on that occasion as on this, was associated +M. Capoul, the most ardent and fascinating lover known to opera in +America, who not long before had risen from the ranks of French opéra +bouffe. Mme. Trebelli, who had created the part of Frederick in London, +where, as in New York, Mme. Nilsson was the original Mignon, and for +whom the composer had written the rondo-gavotte, "In veder l'amata +stanza" (taking its melody from the entr'acte music preceding the second +act), was also a member of Mr. Abbey's company, but Mme. Scalchi, who +could wear man's attire and walk in tights more gracefully than any +woman who ever appeared on the American operatic stage within my memory, +was too popular in the part to be set aside for the sake of a newcomer, +and Mme. Trebelli had to wait until October 27th before getting a +hearing in opera. Meanwhile she sang industriously in concerts. The +changes which had taken place in Mme. Nilsson's person and voice during +the dozen years between her first appearance as Mignon and the one +under consideration might naturally have been expected to affect her +performance of the part. Many were ready to perceive the loss of some +of the charms of youthful freshness and grace, which are indissolubly +connected with any conception of this most poetical of Goethe's +creatures. The result fulfilled their anticipations in a measure, for +Mme. Nilsson's impersonation was more remarkable for its deep feeling in +the dramatic portions than for lightness and gracefulness in the lyric. +This loss brought with it a compensation, however. Many protests have +been felt, when not expressed, against the tendency of singers to make +Mignon a mere wilful, pettish, silly young woman. The poet's ideal was +sufficiently despoiled by the unconscionable French librettist without +this further desecration which effectually dispelled the last glimmer of +the poetical light that ought always to shine about this strange child +of the South. Too much of tropical passion, too much of undefined +longing, too much of tenderness the part could hardly be invested with, +but it is easily made silly by over-acting in the very place where the +tendency to do so is strongest. The whole opera is one that must either +be represented with extreme care in avoiding extravagant expression, +or all effort to approach even distantly the ideals of the poet must +be abandoned and the piece be given as if Goethe had never lived, and +"Wilhelm Meister" had never been written. + +Perhaps the latter plan would be the better one, for it is hard to think +of Goethe during the performance of the opera without taking violent +offense, and it would only be a relief to have all thought of him +studiously kept out of mind. Yet, we would not willingly lose the +pleasure which Ambroise Thomas provided in this, his best opera. It is +to his credit that he felt the embarrassments which his subject caused. +At one time he thought seriously of permitting the heroine to go the way +of Goethe's "Mignon," and of offering the opera to the Théâtre Lyrique +instead of the Opéra Comique, for which he had undertaken to write it. +He did not carry out the plan, however, but instead thought to silence +the carping of the Germans by composing a second conclusion, a +dénouement allemand, in which Mignon falls dead, while listening to +Philine's polacca in the last scene. A tragic end to a piece treated +in the comedy manner throughout was too ridiculous, however, and the +Germans would have none of the dénouement allemand. They raised a hue +and cry against the opera, then heard it for the sake of its music, and +ended by admiring its admirable parts without changing their minds about +the desecration of their great poet. + +It is no wonder that the opera-book was made. Such scruples as +distressed the Germans never trouble French librettists, and the +characters which Carré and Barbier found in Goethe's romance are as if +born for the stage. What lyric possibilities do not lie in the Harper? +Was ever a more perfect musical coquette dreamed of than Philine? Have +not Mignon's songs drawn forth music from nearly every composer of +eminence since Beethoven? The filling-in parts were on the surface of +the story, and the character of their music could not be misconceived. +Wilhelm Meister himself, in his character of a strolling player, had +only to sacrifice his habit of reflection to be a dashing tenor. The +temptation was certainly strong; the sacrilege was committed, and the +verbal skeleton constructed out of things which were dearest in German +literature, was tricked out with piquant music and ear-tickling roulades +by the man who was not awed even by Shakespeare. Think of "Le Songe +d'une Nuit d'Été"! With such characters the play is easily acted, and +the music never fails to fascinate. + +"La Traviata" was the next opera, produced on November 5th, with Mme. +Sembrich as Violetta, and Capoul as Alfredo, and then came "Lohengrin" +on November 7th. In Wagner's opera the parts of the heroine and hero +were enacted by Nilsson and Campanini, who had sung in its first Italian +performance at the Academy a decade before. Excellently sung in the best +manner as understood by singers of the Italian school--a manner fully +justified, let it be said in passing, by Signor Marchesi's Italian +text--and magnificently dressed, the opera attracted the most numerous +and brilliant audience since the opening night, and remained one of the +most pronounced successes of the season. It served also to introduce +Mme. Fursch-Madi, a dramatic singer, who, although not attractive +in appearance, was one of the finest singers in her style and most +conscientious artists known to her period. She was a French woman, who +was graduated from the Paris Conservatoire, married M. Madier, a chef +d'orchestre in the French capital, came to America to join the French +company in New Orleans in 1874, and sang for three seasons (1879-'81) +at Covent Garden. She spent the last years of her life in and about New +York, singing in opera and concert, always a noble example to youthful +aspirants, and died in poverty after great suffering in September, 1894. +"La Sonnambula" followed on November 14th, and "Rigoletto" on November +16th, without noteworthy incident, except the first American appearance +of Gaudignini as the Jester, and "Robert le Diable" (in Italian), with +Fursch-Madi as Alice, Valleria as Isabella, Stagno and Mirabella. This +performance was enlivened by an amusing incident. It will be recalled by +people familiar with the history of the opera that Scribe and Meyerbeer +first designed "Robert" for the Opéra Comique, but remodeled it for the +Grand. For a few moments in the incantation scene at this performance +the audience seemed inclined to ignore the author's sober second +thought, and accept the work as a comic instead of romantic opera. The +wicked nuns, called back to life by the sorcery of Bertram, amid the +ruins of the cloister, appeared to have been stinted by the undertaker +in the matter of shrouds, and the procession of gray-wrapped figures +in cutty sarks caused the liveliest merriment until the transformation +took place, and serious interest was revived by the lovely face, form, +and dancing of Mme. Cavalazzi. + +"Il Barbiere," with Sembrich as a delightfully piquant Rosina, +nevertheless moved with leaden feet in many of its scenes, because of +the ponderous and lugubrious Stagno, who essayed a part far from his +province, when he tried to sing the Count. On November 28th "Don +Giovanni" was reached with the finest distribution of women's rôles, I +dare say, that New York has ever seen, and one that ranked well with the +famous London one of Tietjens, Nilsson, and Patti. Mme. Fursch-Madi was +Donna Anna, Mme. Nilsson Donna Elvira, and Mme. Sembrich Zerlina. For +delvers in musical history the performance had curious interest because +it partook somewhat of an anniversary character. It fell within a day of +exactly fifty-eight years after Italian opera had first been heard in +America (November 29, 1825). Save Mme. Patti we have heard no Zerlina +comparable with Mme. Sembrich, and Mme. Nilsson's singing of the airs, +"Ah, che mi dice mai," and "Mi tradi quell' alma ingrata" lingers in +my memory as an impeccable exemplification of the true classic style. +The performance suffered shipwreck, however, in the famous first finale, +because of the untunefulness of the orchestra, and the incapacity +of the enlisted stage bands. In "Mefistofele," on December 5th, Nilsson +appeared as Marguerite and Helen of Troy, and Trebelli as Marta and +Pantalis. Nilsson had fixed the ideal of Helen in Europe and New York, +and it is she, I believe, who started the questionable practice of +having one performer impersonate both Marguerite and the classic Queen. +Boito has given us so little of Goethe's Gretchen in his delightful, +but sketchy, opera that it does not make much difference how the part +is acted; but Helen is a character that seemed cut to the very form of +Nilsson--regal in beauty and carriage, soul-moving in voice, serene in +pose and gesture. She fitted perfectly into the fairest picture that +a lover of ancient Greek life could conjure up, and moved through the +classic act like a veritable Hellenic queen. The beauty, majesty, the +puissant charm of a perfect woman of the antique type--all were hers. +Campanini, who, like Nilsson, had been seen in the opera before the +Metropolitan Opera House entered the lists, sang on this evening with +peculiar enthusiasm; and with reason. Not only had he been instrumental +in giving the opera to the people of London and New York, but, on +this occasion, he was singing under the baton of his younger brother, +Cleofonte, then a modest maestro di cembalo trying his 'prentice hand at +conducting; now the redoubtable leader of Mr. Hammerstein's forces at +the Manhattan. Four years later Cleofonte Campanini came again to New +York as conductor of his brother's company organized for the production +of Verdi's "Otello." + +On December 20th the one real novelty of Mr. Abbey's list had +production. It was Ponchielli's "La Gioconda," with the following +distribution of parts: La Gioconda, Mme. Nilsson; Laura Adorno, Mme. +Fursch-Madi; La Cieca, Mme. Scalchi; Enzo Grimaldo, Signor Stagno; +Barnaba, Signor Del Puente; Alvise Badiero, Signor Novara. Ponchielli's +opera had been the principal novelty of the London season in the summer +of 1883, where it was brought out by Mr. Gye. On this occasion it was +performed with a gorgeousness of stage appointments, and a strength of +ensemble which spoke volumes for the earnestness of the effort which Mr. +Abbey was making to give grand opera in a style worthy of the American +metropolis, and the reception which the public gave to the work afforded +convincing proof of the eagerness for a change from the stale list which +had so long constituted its operatic pabulum. The house was crowded +from floor to ceiling, and the audience, having assembled for the +enjoyment of an unusual pleasure, was soon wrought into an extremely +impressionable state, which the striking pictures, excited action, +and ingenious music intensified with every act. + +The score of "La Gioconda" is full of ingeniously applied harmonical +and orchestral devices, but they are all such as were learned from +Ponchielli's great predecessor and successor, Verdi. As a matter of +fact, Ponchielli, though he has been discovered as the father of the +young veritist school of Italy, which seems already to have exhausted +itself, was less original than Boito, who has distinguished himself +above all the rout of Verdi's traducers and followers (for a space the +category included the same names) by continence and self-criticism. As +I write more than two decades have elapsed since he became known in +New York, and in the interim we have seen the rise, and, also, the +considerable fall of such imitators as Mascagni, Leoncavallo, and their +superior, Puccini. We are now more able to see than we were twenty-five +years ago how much Ponchielli, and all his tribe, owe to Verdi; and +also how much ruder and less attentive to real beauty they were. Then +we could hear besides his voice, that of Verdi in his music; now we +can hear also tones which awaken echoes in Mascagni, Leoncavallo, and +Puccini. Of a sometimes mooted Wagnerian influence, there is only so +much in this score as is to be found in all scores, German and French, +and Italian, since the shackles of instrumental form were cast off. +Ponchielli makes a little use of a recurring melodic phrase from +La Cieca's "Voce di donna," but he pursues the device even less +consistently than Verdi, and in a manner that is older than Meyerbeer. +In melody he is wholly Italian, and of Wagner's use of typical phrases +"La Gioconda" is as guiltless as Pergolesi's "Serva padrona." + +What is admirable to the popular appreciation of to-day is the hot vigor +of the drama, and the quick co-operation of music in its climacteric +moments. This co-operation is most obvious in the employment of the +device of contrast, which dominates the work and seems to have been the +feature which has been most effectively seized upon by Ponchielli's +pupils. It marks every climax in the opera, and becomes almost tiresome +in its reiteration. In the first act the blind woman's prayer is set +against a background composed of a gambling chorus and the wild whirl +of the furlano, which ends abruptly with organ peals and a pious +canticle--an effect repeated since in "Cavalleria Rusticana" and +"Tosca." In the second act in the twinkling of an eye, Gioconda is +transformed from a murderous devil into a protecting saint; in the third +Laura's accents of mortal woe commingle with the sounds of a serenade +in the distance, and the disclosure of a supposed murder is made at the +climax of a ball; in the fourth the calls of passing gondoliers break +in upon Gioconda's soliloquies, which have for their subject suicide, +murder, and self-sacrifice. The device is of a coarse tissue, but it +is of the opera operatic, and it is now more familiar than it was when +first disclosed to the patrons of the Metropolitan Opera House, +twenty-five years ago. + +If it were necessary one might look for the source of this device of +contrast in the literature to which Verdi directed attention when +he turned his thoughts to Victor Hugo, and composed "Ernani" and +"Rigoletto." Hugo was the prince of those novelists and dramatists +who utilized glaring contrasts and unnatural contradictions to give +piquancy to their creations and compel sympathy for monsters by uniting +monumental wickedness with the most amiable of moral qualities. The +story of "La Gioconda" is drawn from "Angelo, Tyrane de Padoue." In +transforming this tragedy into an opera the librettist removed the scene +from Padua to Venice, changed a wealthy actress into a poor street +singer, and made the blind mother, who is barely mentioned in the play, +into a prominent and moving character. There can be no question but that +Boito ("Tobia Gorria" is but an anagramatic nom de plume of Arrigo +Boito) was highly successful in remodeling the tragedy for operatic +purposes, but he did not palliate its moral grossness or succeed in +inviting our compassionate feelings for anyone entitled to them. The +only personages who in this opera escape disaster are a pair of lovers, +whose sufferings, as depicted or inferred, cannot be said to have +refined the guilt out of their passion. We might infer that once the +attachment of Enzo and Laura was pure and lovely, but all that we see of +it is flauntingly criminal and doubly wicked. The happiness of Enzo, who +to elope with another man's wife cruelly breaks faith with a woman whose +love for him is so strong that she gives her life to save his, is hardly +a consummation that ought to be set down as justifying so many blotches +and blains, pimples and pustules, on the face of human nature. Laura's +treachery is to Gioconda as well as to her husband, and has no redeeming +trait. In fact, the blind woman is the only character in the opera who +has moral health, and she seems to have been brought in only that her +sufferings might intensify the bloody character of Barnaba, the spy. +Even Gioconda, a character that has latent within it many effective +elements, is sacrificed by the librettist to the one end--sensational +effect through contrast and contradiction. Nowhere does she illustrate +the spirit of blitheness which is put forth by her name, and only once +does she allude to it. From the moment of her entrance till her death +she is filled with torturing passion and conflicting emotions. Not la +Gioconda she, but la Dolorosa--except for the bookmaker's desire for +dramatic paradox. Against the desire to sympathize with her is thrust +the revelation that her rival is never saved from death at her hands +because of any repugnance of hers to murder. She would kill in an +instant were it not that her vengefulness is overcome by gratitude to +the benefactress of her mother. So it comes that the strongest feeling +excited by the heroine, who dies a sacrifice to filial affection and +passionate love, is one of simple pity--a feeling that is never absent +from tender hearts, no matter how depraved the victim of misfortune. + +But opera in the estate illustrated by "La Gioconda" scarcely justifies +even an elementary moral disquisition. Moreover, what Ponchielli +provoked is so much worse than what he himself did that his condemnation +can go no further than purgatorial fires. It is in the operas of his +pupils and would-be imitators, like Giordano, Tasca, and others, that +filth and blood are supposed to fructify the music which rasps the +nerves, even as the dramas revolt the moral stomach. In view of the +products of the period in which began operatic veritism, so-called, "La +Gioconda" seems almost washed in innocency, and if its music is at times +highly spiced, it is at least frankly and simply melodious. Naturally he +has followed his librettist in aiming at contrast, at higgledy-piggledy +finales, at garish orchestration, at strenuous declamation in the +dialogue not cast in melodic forms and at abrupt changes. But he has +plenty, if not profound melodiousness. La Cieca's air, Enzo's romance, +Laura's "Stella del Marinar," Barnaba's barcarole, and the ballet music +have lived on in our concert rooms from that day to this. + +"La Gioconda" was the last opera brought forward in the winter season, +which ended on December 22d, leaving two out of thirty promised +subscription performances to be supplied on the return of Mr. Abbey's +forces from Boston, whither they went for the holidays. When he came +back in a fortnight he gave "Carmen," on January 9th, with Trebelli, +Campanini, and Del Puente (who had been in the cast of the original +London production); repeated it on January 11th, and "La Gioconda" +on January 12th. + +On March 10th a spring season began, which lasted till April 12th. It +added four operas to the list. Ambroise Thomas's "Hamlet" (March 10), +Flotow's "Martha" (March 14th), Meyerbeer's "Huguenots" (March 19th), +and "Le Prophète" (March 21st). The last, which had first been heard in +New York at the Astor Place Opera House four years after its original +production in Paris, on April 16, 1849, had been absent from the +current operatic list so long that it was to all intents and purposes +a novelty to Mr. Abbey's patrons. The last week of the season brought +two disappointments: Mmes. Nilsson and Sembrich both fell ill, the +indisposition of the latter (or something else) causing the abandonment +of Gounod's "Roméo et Juliette," an opera that was new to New Yorkers, +and was promptly brought out by Colonel Mapleson with Mme. Patti in +his spring season at the Academy of Music. + +As has already been set forth, Mr. Abbey made a monumental financial +fiasco; but his was a heroic effort to galvanize Italian opera, which +seemed moribund, into vitality. He showed an honest desire to keep +all his promises to the public made when he asked support for his +enterprise, and all in all, his administration was signalized by virtues +too frequently absent in the doings of operatic managers. His stage sets +were uniformly handsome, and some of them showed greater sumptuousness +than the people had seen for many years; his orchestra, though faulty in +composition as well as execution, did some admirable work under Signor +Vianesi; his chorus was prompt, vigorous, and tuneful; his ensembles +were carefully and intelligently composed, and his selection of operas +was judicious from a managerial point of view. He gave to New York the +strongest combination of women singers that the city had ever known; +nor has it been equaled in any one season since. The financial failure +of the enterprise caused no surprise among intelligent and impartial +observers. One needed not to be prophetically gifted to foretell +twenty-five years ago that New York could not support two such costly +establishments as the Academy of Music and the Metropolitan Opera House. +The world of fashion, which in the nature of things is the supporter of +Italian opera, and has been ever since the art form was invented, was +divided in its allegiance, and divided, moreover, in a manner which made +an interchange of courtesies all but impossible. This threw the burden +of maintaining the rival houses upon two limited groups of persons, and +the loss was mutual. + +In Mr. Abbey's prospectus he promised to produce twenty-four operas, +which he named; he kept his promise as to all but five, these being +"Lucrezia Borgia," "Linda di Chamouni," "Fra Diavolo," "Otello," and +"Le Nozze di Figaro." "Roméo et Juliette," which he attempted to give, +but failed at the last, was not in the original list. Besides these +performances, he gave fifty-eight outside of New York in visits to +Brooklyn, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, +Washington, and Baltimore. The local record may be tabulated as +follows: + + + Opera First performance Times given + + "Faust" .................... October 22 ............ 6 + "Lucia di Lammermoor" ...... October 24 ............ 3 + "Il Trovatore" ............. October 26 ............ 3 + "I Puritani" ............... October 29 ............ 1 + "Mignon" ................... October 31 ............ 4 + "La Traviata" .............. November 5 ............ 4 + "Lohengrin" ................ November 7 ............ 6 + "La Sonnambula" ............ November 14 ........... 2 + "Rigoletto" ................ November 16 ........... 2 + "Robert le Diable" ......... November 19 ........... 3 + "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" .. November 23 ........... 3 + "Don Giovanni" ............. November 28 ........... 5 + "Mefistofele" .............. December 5 ............ 2 + "La Gioconda" .............. December 20 ........... 4 + "Carmen" ................... January 9 ............. 5 + "Hamlet" ................... March 10 .............. 1 + "Martha" ................... March 14 .............. 3 + "Les Huguenots" ............ March 19 .............. 2 + "Le Prophète" .............. March 21 .............. 1 + + +There was one performance with a mixed program. + + + +CHAPTER X + +OPERATIC REVOLUTIONS + + +Colonel Mapleson and the stockholders of the Academy of Music and their +friends were little disposed to yield to the new order of things without +a struggle. The Academy was refurnished and a season of Italian opera +begun on the same night on which Mr. Abbey opened his doors. Colonel +Mapleson's company comprised Mmes. Patti, Gerster, Pappenheim, Pattini, +and Josephine Yorke, and Signori Falletti, Nicolini, Perugini, +Cherubini, Vicini, Lombardini, and Caracciolo. The performances were +like those that had been the rule for years, except for the brilliancy +which Mme. Patti lent to those in which she took part. But not even she +could hold the fickle public. On the nights when she sang the house +was two-thirds full; Mme. Gerster had established herself as a prime +favorite, but when she sang on the "off nights" the house was two-thirds +empty. The season was financially disastrous, though Colonel Mapleson's +losses were not comparable to Mr. Abbey's, and he was not only brave +enough to prepare for the next season's campaign, but adroit enough to +persuade Mme. Patti to place herself under his guidance again. But, +while he held out against Mr. Abbey and the new house, he was compelled +to yield to the Metropolitan and German opera as established by Dr. +Damrosch. Of the singers who helped Colonel Mapleson make his fight, +one is still in enjoyment of popular favor. This is Mme. Nordica, +who, though not a regular member of the company, effected her American +operatic début at the Academy on November 26, 1883, in Gounod's "Faust." +She was announced as Mme. Norton-Gower, and of her performance I wrote +at the time in The Tribune: + + +Of Mrs. Norton-Gower the first statement must be that she gives abundant +evidence of having been admirably trained in the spirit of Gounod's +music and the tragedy. Nearly every number in the score which falls to +the part of Margherita she sang with commendable intelligence and taste. +The most obvious criticism was that the spirit so excellently conceived +by her put a severe strain upon the matter in her control. It cost her +a manifest effort to do what she well knew how to do, for she is not +a phenomenal vocalist. She has a voice of fine texture, and her tones +are generally sympathetic. She sings with feeling, but acts with more. +Her performance was meritorious beyond the performances of any of Mr. +Mapleson's women singers, Mmes. Patti and Gerster excepted. + + +That Mr. Abbey had made losses which were so great as to make him +unwilling to remain at the head of the operatic forces at the +Metropolitan Opera House was known long before the close of the first +season. Before the spring representations began he made answer to the +proposal of the directors of the Metropolitan Opera Company by saying +that he would act as their manager without compensation for the next +year, provided they would pay the losses which the first season would +entail upon him. The directors had agreed in their original contract to +save him whole to the extent of $60,000--a pitiful tenth part of what, +according to Mr. Schoeffel, the losses finally aggregated; I am inclined +to think, however, that Mr. Schoeffel has included the losses made in +the other cities visited by the company. There were only sixty-one +representations at the Metropolitan Opera House, and it is inconceivable +that they averaged a deficit of over $9,000 each. They could not have +cost that sum in fact, and many of the performances drew houses which at +the prevailing prices (orchestra $6) must have yielded handsome returns. +Whatever the sum which loomed up as a prospective loss, however, it +was great enough to dissuade the directors from adopting Mr. Abbey's +suggestion. Instead, they made up their minds cheerfully to pay their +own loss, and at the beginning of the spring season, all negotiations +having come to an end, sent Mr. Abbey a letter which read as follows: + + + Metropolitan Opera House, New York, + Secretary's Office, March 14, 1884. + +My Dear Sir: It gives me much pleasure to say that I am instructed by +the president to tender you the use of the Opera House on April 21, +1884, for a benefit performance to yourself. I beg also to express my +hope that the results of the benefit may in some measure be commensurate +with the manner you have presented Italian opera and to say that it will +give me great pleasure to do anything I can to aid in making the benefit +a great success. Most sincerely yours, + + Edmund C. Stanton, Secretary. + To Henry E. Abbey. + + +In the meantime negotiations had already begun looking to the transfer +of the house for the next season to Mr. Ernest Gye, who was manager at +the time of Covent Garden, London. These negotiations were continued +till deep in the summer and came to naught at the end. Of the reasons +for the failure several became known to the public. One was the +unwillingness of the directors to give Mr. Gye a free hand in the +engagement of artists. The directors, who were active in determining +the policy of the opera, were all devoted admirers of Mme. Nilsson; +they were, in fact, the donors of the laurel wreath of gold which she +received on the first night of the season. They were desirous that she +should be re-engaged, though the weight of her contract had done much to +break Mr. Abbey's financial back, and they were also a little fearful +that Mr. Gye, the husband of Mme. Albani, would, not unnaturally, seek +to put that singer in Mme. Nilsson's place. Meanwhile, the opera season +at Covent Garden came to a close, and though Mr. Gye had not had Colonel +Mapleson at Her Majesty's Theater to cope with, as in former seasons, +but only English opera at Drury Lane, under the direction of Carl Rosa, +the financial outcome was such as to suggest that Mr. Gye's attitude +toward opera at the Metropolitan was something like that which the +Germans describe as a cat walking about a dish of hot porridge. + +At intervals bits of gossip reached New York by cable, but none of +them was of a comforting character. One week it was said to be the +exorbitance of Mme. Nilsson's demands which gave Mr. Gye pause, and +the next the difficulty of finding a tenor worthy of succeeding Signor +Campanini and capable of satisfying the captious, critical, and +fastidious people of New York. There were suspicions, too, that some +of the embarrassments which confronted Mr. Gye and the Metropolitan +directors were due to the machinations of that sly and persuasive old +dog, Colonel Mapleson. Nilsson had but one rival, and she was Mme. +Patti. Her Colonel Mapleson had secured; not only her, but, report said, +Scalchi, Tremelli, and Tamagno also. Mme. Scalchi had been a strong prop +of the first Metropolitan season, and Tremelli and Tamagno, though they +had not been heard in America, had names to conjure with. Tremelli never +came, and it was not until 1890, when Mr. Abbey was again in the traces +of an Italian opera manager, and was exploiting both Mme. Patti and Mme. +Albani, that Tamagno was heard in New York. + +Failures of such magnitude as those of Mr. Gye in London, Colonel +Mapleson at the Academy of Music, and Mr. Abbey at the Metropolitan +Opera House, naturally set the beards of the wiseacres a-wagging. +Clearly the world of opera was out of joint and a prophet with a new +evangel seemed to be needed to set it right. In New York the efforts had +been made along old lines, but Mr. Gye had ventured on an experiment +which suggested the polyglot scheme which became the fixed policy of +the Metropolitan Opera House some ten years later. Along with the old +Italian list Mr. Gye gave some of Wagner's lyric dramas in German, and +even ventured an English opera done into German--C. Villiers Stanford's +"Savonarola." Was Italian opera dead? So it almost seemed; but the +incidents attending its demise were familiar to operatic history and +as old as Italian opera in London and New York. When the art form was +making its first struggles for habilitation in the British metropolis +Addison thought the spectacle so amusing that he wrote an essay in +which he pictured the amazement of the next generation on learning that +in the days of its predecessors English men and women had sat out entire +evenings listening to an entertainment in a foreign tongue. And he said +in that essay many other excellent things, the truth and force of which +are just as deserving of appreciation (and just as needful) now as they +were in the time of the writer. + +The consciousness of the absurdity of Italian opera transported in the +"original package" (to speak commercially) to England and America seems +to have been constant with the Anglo-Saxon peoples. Of this the legion +of managerial wrecks which strew the operatic shores or float as +derelicts bear witness. Bankers, manufacturers, and noblemen have come +to the rescue of ambitious managers, or become ambitious managers +themselves, only to go down in the common disaster. Mr. Delafield wrote +his name high among his fellows across the water by losing half a +million of dollars in a single season--a feat which no man equaled till +Mr. Abbey came. Taylor got himself into the King's Bench Prison by his +venturesomeness, and, once there, found consolation in a philosophy +which taught him that of all places in the world the properest one for +an opera manager was a prison. But I have mentioned this before. + +Time was when the popular taste found complete satisfaction in the +melodies of the Italian composers. Time was when the desire for novelty +in the operatic field could be satisfied only by importations from +Italy. Time was when Germans, Frenchmen, and Englishmen went to Italy +to study operatic composition and wrote in the Italian manner to +Italian texts. All this had changed at the period of which I am +writing--Germans, Frenchmen, and Englishmen had operas in their own +languages and schools of composition of their own. But still New York +and London clung to Italian sweets. + +And Italy had become sterile. Verdi seemed to have ceased writing. There +were whisperings of an "Iago" written in collaboration with Boito, but +it was awaiting ultimate criticism and final polish while the wonderful +old master was engaged in revamping some of his early works. Boito was +writing essays and librettos for others, with the unfinished "Nerone" +lying in his desk, where it is still hidden. Ponchielli had not +succeeded in getting a hearing for anything since "La Gioconda." +Expectations had been raised touching an opera entitled "Dejanice," by +Catalani, but I cannot recall that it ever crossed the Italian border. +The hot-blooded young veritists who were soon to flood Italy with their +creations had not yet been heard of. The champions of a change from +Italian to German ideals seemed to have the argument all in their favor. +The spectacle presented by the lyric stage in Germany and France seemed +to show indubitably what course opera as an art form must needs take if +it was to live. Gluck, Weber, and Wagner, all Germans, had pointed the +way. In 1883 five new operas by English composers reached the dignity of +performance, and it was significant that two of them--Mr. Mackenzie's +"Colomba" and Mr. Stanford's "Savonarola"--were performed in German, the +former in Hamburg, the latter in London. There were many lovers of opera +in New York besides the musical reviewer for The Tribune who believed +that if America was ever to have a musical art of its own the way could +best be paved by supplanting Italian performances by German at the +principal home of opera in the United States. We should, it is true, +still have foreign artists singing foreign works in a foreign tongue, +but the change in repertory would promote an appreciation and an +understanding of truthful, dramatic expression in a form which claimed +close relationship with the drama. + +This was the state of affairs when, negotiations having failed with +both Mr. Abbey and Mr. Gye, the summer days of 1884 being nearly gone +and the prospect of a closed theater confronting the directors of the +Metropolitan Opera House, Dr. Leopold Damrosch submitted to them a +proposition to give opera in German under his management, but on their +account. Either the forcefulness and plausibility of his arguments or +the direfulness of their need led the directors to make the venture. Dr. +Damrosch went to Germany toward the end of August; toward the end of +September he was back in New York, ready to announce a season of opera +in German, with a completely organized company and a promising list of +operas. Few persons knew what was coming, and the information brought +with it a shock of surprise. Dr. Damrosch had been a vigorous factor in +the musical life of New York for twelve years, but he had never been +identified with opera in the public mind, and, in fact, his practical +familiarity with it was little. He had come to New York from Breslau, +where he was conductor of the Orchesterverein (a symphonic organization) +in 1871. He had had some practical experience with the theater at +Weimar, where he played with the orchestra of the Court Theater under +the direction of Liszt, had been musical director at the Municipal +Theater in Posen and Breslau, but for short periods only. He had not +gone through the career of the typical German conductor for the reason +that he was not a musician "vom Hause aus"--as the Germans express it. +He was a physician turned musician--a member of one of the scientific +professions who had abandoned science for art. + +Dr. Damrosch was a remarkable man. He was born in Posen, Prussia, +on October 22, 1832. He studied music in the home circle, like the +generality of German lads, but his parents had chosen the profession of +medicine for him, and he had acquiesced in the choice, matriculating +in the medical department of the University of Berlin after he had +completed the usual gymnasial course of studies. He had not abandoned +his love for music, though he so devoted himself to medicine that in +due course he was graduated with honors and received his degree. +Incidentally, like Schumann at Heidelberg, he continued to study music, +Hubert Ries being his teacher in violin playing, and the venerable +Professor Dehn in counterpoint and composition. After graduation he +returned to his native Posen to practise medicine, and remained there +thus occupied till 1854. + +In 1855 the physician's earlier and stronger love for music achieved the +mastery over his adopted profession, and he started out into the world +as a concert violinist. He played at Magdeburg and at Berlin, where his +talents were so much admired that on the recommendation of friends in +the Prussian capital he went to Weimar, where he won the friendship +of Liszt and joined the body of enthusiastic young musicians--Peter +Cornelius and others--who had rallied around the great musician and were +fighting the battles of the new German school. His musical creed was +formed here, as he himself confessed in a series of articles written for +the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. His first official appointment was as +director of the music at the Stadttheater in Posen, and in 1866 he was +called to fill the same post at Breslau. After he had resigned this +position he remained in Breslau as director of the Orchesterverein, +which he called into existence until he accepted the call of the +Männergesangverein Arion in New York in 1871. Though Dr. Damrosch had +achieved a European reputation before he came to New York, his best +and most enduring work was accomplished here, where he organized the +Oratorio Society, which has had a continuous existence since 1873, and +the Symphony Society, which, amid many vicissitudes and with several +reincarnations, has lived since 1877. The establishment of German opera, +though it did not endure, was yet his crowning achievement, and at the +culmination of the glory which it brought him he died. But of that +presently and in its proper place. + +The artistic basis of the scheme which Dr. Damrosch put into effect was +essentially German. It dispensed with the star system (except so far as +the engagement of Mme. Materna was a deference to it) and substituted +instead a good ensemble, unusual attention to the mounting of +operas, and the bringing out of dramatic effects through other stage +accessories. The change of base brought with it of necessity a change +of repertory, and the Italian operas which had formed the staple of +New York lists for years were put aside for the masterpieces of German +and French composers. One or two efforts to include works of a lighter +lyrical character sufficed to demonstrate the wisdom of a strict +adherence to the list of tragic works of large dimensions and +spectacular nature, and the sagacity of Dr. Damrosch was shown in +nothing more clearly than in his choice of operas for representation. + +There were few familiar names in the list of singers printed in the +prospectus. The most familiar, and the greatest, was that which +has already been announced as the one concession made to the star +system--Mme. Amalia Materna. Twenty-five years ago the story of Bayreuth +was a household word throughout the civilized world, and Mme. Materna +had been associated with the Wagner festivals since the first held, in +1876. In May, 1882, she was brought to New York by Theodore Thomas for +the Music Festival, held in the Seventh Regiment Armory, and with her +Bayreuth colleagues--Winkelmann, tenor, and Scaria, bass--she took part +in concerts and festivals which Mr. Thomas gave in 1884 in Boston, +New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Chicago. After returning to +Europe after the American engagement of 1882, she had gone straight +to Bayreuth, where she "created" the part of Kundry in the original +production of "Parsifal," alternating afterward in the character +with Fräulein Brandt, who was associated with her in Dr. Damrosch's +Metropolitan company. When she came to the Metropolitan (she made her +first appearance after the season was well under headway, in January, +1885) Mme. Materna was thirty-eight years old and her splendid powers +were at their zenith. She had sung in public since her thirteenth year, +at first in church, then in comic opera in Graz and Vienna. While +singing at a small theater in the Austrian capital she became a member +of the Court Opera, attracted wide attention by her dramatic abilities +in the grand operas of its repertories, and at once leaped into fame by +her impersonation of Brünnhilde at the first Bayreuth festival, in 1876. + +Next in significance in the first Metropolitan German Company was +Marianne Brandt, whose influence in creating new ideals and developing +new tastes among the opera-goers of New York was even greater than that +of Mme. Materna, because her powers were no less and her labors of +longer duration. She came here after having won praise from the critics +of London, where she had sung at the first performance in England of +"Tristan und Isolde" at Drury Lane in 1882. That was ten years after +she had effected her London début. The principal Coloratursängerin of +the company was Frau Marie Schroeder-Hanfstängl, then a member of +the Frankfort Opera, who was a native of Breslau and a friend of the +Damrosch family while they were there. As Mlle. Schroeder she had +already established a reputation at that time in Paris, where she had +sung at the Théâtre Lyrique through the mediation of her teacher, +Mme. Viardot-Garcia. The jugendlich Dramatische was Frau Auguste +Seidl-Krauss, who was announced throughout the season by her maiden +name, but had been married for about a year to Anton Seidl, then +conductor at the Stadttheater in Bremen, who was soon to become a +most puissant factor in the sum of New York's musical activities. The +principal tenor was Anton Schott, who had made a considerable reputation +as a Wagnerian singer in the opera houses of Munich, Berlin, Schwerin, +Hanover, and London, and had made the Italian tour with Angelo Neumann's +Wagner company which Seidl conducted in 1882. Earlier in life he had +been an artillery officer in the German army, which fact coupled +with his explosive manner of singing prompted one of Dr. von Bülow's +witticisms. The doctor had been conductor of the opera in Hanover when +Schott was there and had conceived a violent dislike for him. Some years +after the latter's New York season, conversing socially with von Bülow, +I chanced to mention Schott's name. + +"Ah! do you know Schott?" asked the irascible little doctor; +"ein eigenthümlicher Sänger, nicht war? Eigentlich ist er ein +Militärtenor--ein Artillerist. Sie wissen er singt manchmal zu hoch--da +distonirt er; gewöhnlich singt er zu tief--da destonirt er; und wenn er +gelegentlich rein singt--da detonirt er!" The ingenious play on words +is quite untranslatable, but my readers who understand German but are +unfamiliar with musical terms will be helped to an appreciation of the +fun by being told that "dis," "des," and "de" are the German names +applied respectively to D sharp, D flat, and D natural. No doubt Dr. +von Bülow had perpetrated his little joke before he shot it off for my +benefit. It was a habit of his to have such brilliant impromptus ready +and ingeniously to invite an occasion for their introduction. But they +always had the effect of brilliant spontaneity. It was on another +occasion, when he was praising the performance of another German tenor, +and I had interposed the suggestion that to me he seemed to lack +virility, that he burst out with: + +"But, my dear fellow, a tenor isn't a man; it's a disease!" + +I supplied the quotation marks in my mind, for though the remark was +his, it had served him on at least one other occasion, as I chanced +to know. + +Other members of the company were Anna Slach, Anna Stern, Hermine Bely, +Adolf Robinson, barytone (another of Dr. Damrosch's professional friends +from Breslau); Josef Staudigl (bass, son of the great Staudigl); Josef +Koegel, bass; Emil Tiffero, Herr Udvardi, Otto Kemlitz, Ludwig Wolf, +Josef Miller, and Herr Schneller. John Lund, who came from Kroll's, +in Berlin, and Walter Damrosch, were chorus masters and assistant +conductors. The first season began on November 17, 1884, with a +performance of "Tannhäuser." + + + +CHAPTER XI + +GERMAN OPERA AT THE METROPOLITAN + + +After German opera began at the Metropolitan Opera House it endured +seven years. It was only at the outset that it had the opposition of +what had been the established régime of Italian opera at the Academy of +Music, but it was pursued throughout its career by desultory enterprises +and hampered greatly by the fact that the stockholders were never +unitedly and enthusiastically in favor of it or the principles of art +which it represented. Throughout the period there was a hankering for +the fleshpots of Egypt in the region of the Metropolitan boxes. It seems +desirable, therefore, that, though it is my purpose more specifically +in the next few chapters to tell the story of the seven years of German +opera, I should turn the light occasionally on the doings at rival +institutions. The first of the seven years at the Metropolitan Opera +House was the seventh year of Colonel Mapleson's tenancy of the Academy +of Music. He opened his season on November 10, 1884, but before then +James Barton Key and Horace McVicker experimented with Italian opera +for three weeks at the Star Theater. The organization was composed of +operatic flotsam and jetsam, such as is always to be found plentifully +in New York after operatic storms in South America or Mexico, and was +neither better nor worse than scores of other companies heard here +before and since. Like most of these, too, it had a mouth-filling +name--the Milan Grand Opera Company--but, like few of them, it had a +capital tenor, Signor Giannini, who at a somewhat later period we shall +find in Colonel Mapleson's forces. Other members of the company whose +names are worthy of preservation were Maria Peri (soprano leggiero), +Signora Damerini (dramatic soprano), Signora Mestress (contralto), and +Signor Serbolini (bass). The experiment resulted in financial failure, +but it introduced to New York the South American opera, "Il Guarany," +by Señor Gomez. In Colonel Mapleson's company were Mme. Patti, +Signora Ricetti, Mme. Emma Nevada, Signor Nicolini, Signor Vicini, and +Signor Cardinali (tenors), Mme. Scalchi, Mme. Fursch-Madi, Signori de +Pasqualis, Cherubini, Caracciolo (bassos), Signor de Anna (barytone), +and Signor Bassetti (tenor), otherwise Mr. Charles Bassett, like Mme. +Nevada, an American singer. The subscription ended on December 27th, and +in the following week he gave four extra performances, at two of which +he reduced the prices, though they were of a higher artistic order than +the others. The relations between Mapleson and the stockholders of the +Academy were becoming strained, and in a speech which he made at his +annual benefit he remarked upon their absence satcastically. It was +plain that their patience had given out and that they were weary of +extending to him the financial support which had helped him through +the season. In my review of the season I find this remark, which is +indicative of their indifference to the fate of their lessee: "The +condition of the house gives evidence of an unwillingness to sink money +in an unlucrative enterprise. It is somewhat discouraging to the patrons +of the house to sit in ramshackle chairs which threaten to deposit them +incontinently on the floor at any moment, and the collapse of a stall +has frequently accentuated a musical or dramatic climax in the season +just ended." + +The season ended with many promises unfulfilled, for which the +impresario placed the blame upon the directors, who, he said, had not +given him sufficient use of the Academy stage. His explanations were not +always wholly ingenuous, however. Thus he had announced that "Lakmé" +would be given, with the composer, M. Delibes, in the conductor's +chair. Now, in the season before, Mme. Gerster had been so desirous to +create the part of the heroine in America (it being one which afforded +fine scope for her lovely powers, and which she had studied with the +composer) that she had bought the performing rights. But nothing came of +her ambition, and it was an open secret that Heugel, the publisher, had +quarreled with Mapleson because of unwarranted practices with his scores +in London. In the midst of his troubles Colonel Mapleson announced that +he had engaged Mme. Nilsson for the season of 1885-86. There was as +little foundation for this announcement as for the promise of "Lakmé." + +With ruin staring him in the face, Mapleson concluded the season. He +bettered his fortunes a trifle in Boston and Philadelphia, but failed +again in New Orleans and St. Louis. Then he went to San Francisco, +where the fact that Mme. Nevada was a native of the Pacific Slope was +a helpful factor. After the close of the season at the Metropolitan +Opera House he gave a "spring season" of six performances in one week, +beginning on April 20th. He repeated the performance in Boston and then +sailed for Europe, stopping in New York only long enough to institute +two suits at law--one against Signor Nicolini to recover $10,000 for +failing to sing, and one against Mme. Nevada for $3,000, alleged to +have been overpaid her. The suits, in all likelihood, were merely moves +in the managerial game which he was playing in London and New York. In +the seventh of these "Chapters of Opera" I described as the crowning +achievement of Colonel Mapleson in the season full of noteworthy +incidents the circumstance that he had succeeded in owing Mme. Patti +some $5,000 or $6,000. Nicolini was Patti's husband. + +More than ever it looked in the spring of 1885 as if Italian opera had +received its quietus. The demoralization of the Academy of Music was +complete. In London there prevailed a state of affairs so anomalous and +startling that the newspaper critics were cudgeling their brains in a +vain effort to find an explanation. For the first time in one hundred +and fifty-eight years the British metropolis was without opera; for +the first time in thirty-nine years (except in 1856, when fire made it +impossible) the Royal Italian Opera at Covent Garden had failed to open +its doors on Easter Tuesday. Mr. Gye and his backers refused to venture +their fortunes again, and the lease of Her Majesty's was also going +begging. In New York Colonel Mapleson had held one good card which he +did not seem to know how to play: the season compassed the twenty-fifth +anniversary of the operatic début of Mme. Patti. There ought, for +excellent and obvious reasons, to have been a fitting celebration of +the event; but there was not. On November 26th, two days after the date, +Colonel Mapleson gave a performance of "Martha," with Mmes. Patti +and Scalchi in the principal women's parts. After the opera a rout of +supernumeraries, choristers, and other boys and men engaged for the +purpose, carrying torches, followed the diva's carriage to the Windsor +Hotel, where she was serenaded. That was all. It was so undignified and +inadequate that it provoked some of Mme. Patti's friends to arrange the +banquet in her honor which I have described in Chapter VI. Had Signor +Brignoli, who was the Edgardo to Adelina Patti's Lucia at the Academy on +November 24, 1859, been spared in life and health a few weeks longer +(Signor Brignoli died in October, 1884), his friends would probably +have urged an association of the two artists in a gala performance +of Donizetti's opera. This would have provided an appropriate and +delightful celebration, and it would not have been difficult to marshal +a number of interesting relics of the period which saw the operatic +advent of Mme. Patti, though all of them would have appeared much worse +for the wear of a quarter-century than she. Of the valiant champions +who were leading the contending operatic armies of the time, Arditi, +Maretzek, and Strakosch were still with us. The first was filling, as +of yore, the leader's chair at the Academy and doing yeoman's service +in the unobtrusive and modest manner which always characterized him; +the second, withdrawn from all connection with operatic management, was +watching the boiling and bubbling of the caldron with amused interest +and spicing his comments with capitally told reminiscences of opera a +generation before; the third was still chasing the fickle goddess with +fugitive essays as impresario. There were even remains of the critics of +those days still active in the world of letters--Richard Grant White, +for instance, and George William Curtis, one of my predecessors on The +Tribune--and they would undoubtedly have grown young again and been +warmed into enthusiastic utterance by eager memories of the dainty +débutante and the singers who had preceded her--Grisi, Bosio, +Piccolomini, and the rest. + +A vast amount of reminiscences would have been justified by such +a celebration, for it would have thrown a bright sidelight on the +marvelous career of Mme. Patti, a career without parallel in the history +of the last half-century. Within three years after she made her first +essay "our little Patti," as she was then fondly spoken of, had achieved +the queenship of the lyric stage; and, now, twenty-two years later, her +title had not suffered the slightest impairment. Within the time singers +who had won the world's admiration had been born, educated, and lifted +to the niches prepared for them by popular appreciation, but all far +below the place where Patti sat enthroned. Stars of great brilliancy +had flashed across the firmament and gone out in darkness, but the +refulgence of Patti's art remained undimmed, having only grown mellower +and deeper and richer with time. Truth is, Mme. Patti was then, and is +still, twenty-five years later, a musical miracle; and the fact that she +was in New York to sing in the very spot in which she began her career +twenty-five years before should have been celebrated as one of the +proudest incidents in the city's musical annals. For the generation of +opera-goers who grew up in the period which ought to be referred to +for all time in the annals of music as The Reign of Patti, she set a +standard by which all aspirants for public favor were judged except +those whose activities were in a widely divergent field. Not only did +she show them what the old art of singing was, but she demonstrated +the possibility of its revival. And she did this while admiring +enthusiastically the best results of the dramatic spirit which pervades +musical composition to-day. Her talent was so many-sided and so +astonishing, no matter from which side it was viewed, that rhapsody +seems to be the only language left one who attempts analysis or +description of it. Her voice, of unequaled beauty, was no more a gift +of nature than the ability to assimilate without effort the things +which cost ordinary mortals years of labor and vexation of soul. It was +perpetually amazing how her singing made the best efforts of the best of +her contemporaries pale, especially those who depended on vocal agility +for their triumphs. Each performance of hers made it plainer than it had +been before that her genius penetrated the mere outward glitter of the +music and looked upon the ornament as so much means to the attainment of +an end; that end, a beautiful interpretation of the composer's thought. +No artist of her time was so perfect an exponent as she of the quality +of repose. So far as appearances went it was as easy for her to burden +the air with trills and roulades as it was to talk. She sang as the +lark sings; the outpouring of an ecstasy of tones of almost infinite +number and beauty seemed in her to be a natural means of expression. +Her ideas of art were the highest, and it was a singular testimony +of her earnestness that, while educated in the old Italian school of +vocalization and holding her most exalted supremacy as a singer of +Rossini's music, her warmest love, by her own confession, was given, not +to its glittering confections, but to the serious efforts of the most +dramatic writers. This must be remembered in the list of her astonishing +merits now when her voice can no longer call up more than "the tender +grace of a day that is dead"; mine was the proud privilege and great +happiness of having heard her often in her prime. But I must get down +to the real business of this chapter. + +The first German performance at the Metropolitan took place on November +17, 1884. The opera was "Tannhäuser" and the distribution of parts +as follows: Elizabeth, Mme. Krauss; Venus, Fräulein Slach; a Young +Shepherd, Fräulein Stern; the Landgrave, Josef Koegel; Tannhäuser, Anton +Schott; Wolfram, Adolf Robinson; Walther von der Vogelweide, Emil +Tiffero; Biterolf, Josef Miller; Heinrich der Schreiber, Otto Kemlitz; +Reinmar, Ludwig Wolf. The performance made no claim upon special +analysis or description. Its highest significance consisted in the +publication which it made with reference to the new ideals in operatic +representation which came in with the new movement. No doubt to a large +portion of the audience, still judging by the old standards, much of it +must have been inexplicable, much of it (especially the singing of Herr +Schott) little short of monstrous. To a smaller portion, familiar with +the opera, the language of its book and the spirit of the play, as well +as the music, it came as a vivid realization of the purposes of the +poet-composer. To all but the German element in the audience the opera +itself was practically a novelty. "Tannhäuser" had not been incorporated +in the Italian repertory as "Lohengrin" had, and only those knew it +who had attended the sporadic German performances of earlier decades +conducted by such men as Bergmann, Anschütz, and Neuendorff. The +first New York performance took place on August 27, 1859, at which the +Männergesangverein Arion supplied the choruses. + +Wagner once described his Tannhäuser as "a German from head to foot," +and it was doubtless because Dr. Damrosch saw in it a representative +quality that he chose it for his opening. There was patriotism as well +as lovely artistic devotion, too, in the choice of "Fidelio" for the +second performance, on November 19th. Beethoven's opera had almost +as little association with Italian opera as "Tannhäuser," and it was +noteworthy that the only portion of the audience room which was not +filled was that occupied by the stockholders' boxes. It was an English +company that, in September, 1839, had introduced "Fidelio" to New York, +and with it made such successful competition with the Italian company of +the day that it was performed fourteen times in succession. Mr. Mapleson +made a pitiful essay with it in March, 1882, at the Academy, but to +recall as vivid and vital a performance as that under discussion one had +to go back to the days of Mme. Johannsen and her associates, who gave +German opera in 1856. In Dr. Damrosch's performance Marianne Brandt +effected her entrance on the American stage, and the memory of her +impersonation of the heroine is still one of the liveliest and most +fragrant memories of those memorable days. The dramatic framework of +"Fidelio" is weak, its construction faulty. Only one ethical idea +is presented in it with real vividness, but it is an idea which is +peculiarly dear to the German heart--the saving power of woman's love. +"Fidelio" is a tale of wifely devotion, and Beethoven bent all his +energies to a glorification of his heroine's love and fidelity. To +represent the character faithfully has been the highest ambition of +German singers for a century. In that time not many more than a dozen +have achieved high distinction in it; and Marianne Brandt is among the +number. On its musical side her performance was thrillingly effective, +but on its histrionic it rose to grandeur. Every word of her few +speeches, every note of her songs, every look of her eyes and expression +of her face was an exposition of that world of tenderness which filled +the heart of Leonore. Nine-tenths of the action which falls to the +part of Leonore is by-play, and by-play of the kind which is made +particularly difficult by the time consumed by the music, which is not +wisely adjusted with reference to the promotion of the action. Yet all +these waits while Leonore is in view were filled by Fräulein Brandt +with little actions which tended to develop the character so sadly +left in the background by the playwright, but so lovingly treated by +the composer. It was down to its smallest detail a picture of a woman +impelled by one idea, in which her whole soul had been resolved, and +which had grown out of a lofty conception of love and duty. There was +nothing of the petty theatrical in Fräulein Brandt, and it was only an +evidence of the sincerity of her devotion to the art work which made her +bend over and stroke the wrist which she had freed from manacles while +the powerful personages of the play were bowing before her as a pattern +of conjugal love and the mimic populace were shouting their jubilations +over salvation accomplished. + +At the third representation, on November 21st, Meyerbeer's "Huguenots" +was brought forward to introduce Mme. Schroeder-Hanfstängl; and at the +fourth tribute to the characteristic German spirit was paid by the +production of Weber's "Der Freischütz." From the day of its birth this +has been the opera in which the romantic spirit of the German race +has found its most vivid reflection. The sombre lights and mysterious +murmurings of the German forests pervade it; the spectres of that +paganism from which the sturdy Northerners could be weaned only by +compromise and artifice flit through it. The Wild Huntsman overshadows +it and, though he says not a word, he powerfully asserts his claim upon +the trembling admiration of those who keep open hearts for some of his +old companions of pre-Christian days--especially for the burly fellow +who under a new name is welcomed joyfully every Christmastide. In +another sense, too, "Der Freischütz" is a national opera; the spirit of +its music is drawn from the art-form which the people created. Instead +of resting on the highly artificial product of the Italian renaissance, +it rests upon popular song--folk-song, the song of the folk. Its +melodies echo the cadences of the Volkslieder in which the German heart +voices its dearest loves. Instead of shining with the light of the +Florentine courts it glows with the rays of the setting sun filtered +through the foliage of the Black Forest. Yet "Der Freischütz" failed on +this its revival--failed so dismally that Dr. Damrosch did not venture +upon a single repetition. The lesson which it taught had already been +suggested by "Fidelio," but now it was made plain and Dr. Damrosch paid +heed to it at once. The dimensions of the Metropolitan Opera House +forbade the intimacy which operas founded on the German Singspiel +demand for appreciation, and spoken dialogue, especially in a foreign +tongue, was painfully destructive of artistic illusion. The operas which +followed were more to the purpose: "William Tell," on November 28th, +with Robinson as the hero, Schroeder-Hanfstängl as Mathilde, Slach as +Gemmy, Staudigl as Gessler, Koegel as Walter, Udvardi as Arnold, and +Brandt exemplifying a new spirit in opera by her assumption of the +unimportant part of Tell's wife; "Lohengrin," on December 3d, with +Krauss, Brandt, Schott, and Staudigl in the principal parts; "Don +Giovanni," on December 10th, with Schroeder-Hanfstängl as Donna Anna, +Hermine Bely as Zerlina, Brandt as Elvira, Robinson as the Don, +Koegel as the Commander, and Udvardi as Ottavio; "Le Prophète," on +December 17th, with Brandt as Fidès (one of her greatest rôles), +Schroeder-Hanfstängl as Bertha, and Schott as John of Leyden; "La Muette +de Portici" (otherwise "Masaniello") on December 29th, with Schott as +the hero and Isolina Torri as Fenella. There was an interruption of +this spectacular list on January 2, 1885, when "Rigoletto" was given +to gratify the ambition of Herr Robinson to be seen and heard as the +Jester, and of Mme. Schroeder-Hanfstängl to sing the music of Gilda. In +this opera Fräulein Brandt played the part of Maddelena and interpolated +a Spanish song sung in German. Then, on January 5th, came Mme. Materna's +first operatic appearance in America, in a repetition of "Tannhäuser." + +Before continuing the record a few notes on some of these operas and +their performance may not be amiss. There was little that was noteworthy +about the representation of "Don Giovanni" except Dr. Damrosch's effort +to do justice to the famous finale, the full effectiveness of which +failed nevertheless because of the arrangement of the stage, which +was that of the preceding season. "Les Huguenots" was a distinct +disappointment. "La Muette de Portici," which was as good as new to +the majority of the audience, acquired historical interest from close +association with "William Tell." It was something of an anomaly that, +though Rossini's opera had made its appearance during the many years of +Italian domination whenever a tenor came who could be counted on to make +a sensation with his high notes in the familiar trio of men, Auber's +opera, its inspiration as a type, had had so few representations that +it had passed out of memory except for its overture. But the history +of "La Muette" is full of anomalies. Its story is Neapolitan and there +is Neapolitan color in its music; but it is nothing if not French. It +inspired Rossini to write "William Tell" and Meyerbeer to write "Les +Huguenots" for the French stage, and is the masterpiece of its author; +but Auber is the only Frenchman among the great composers for the +Académie in the first half of the nineteenth century. Wagner defended it +against the taste of the Parisians, who preferred Rossini and Donizetti, +and was snubbed for his pains by the editor of the Gazette Musicale, +who was an officer of the French government. Von Weber condemned as +coarse the instrumentation which Wagner praised for its fire and +truthfulness. Its heroine is dumb; yet to her is assigned the loveliest +music in the score. + +"Lohengrin" better than "Tannhäuser" gave the public an opportunity to +study the change in matter and spirit which had been introduced into +local opera by the coming of the Germans to the Metropolitan. + +Mme. Materna's first appearance on January 5th was followed by a second +on January 7th as Valentine in "Les Huguenots," and a third on January +16th in Halévy's "La Juive." By this time Dr. Damrosch was ready with +the first of the large Wagnerian productions which were a part of the +dream which it was fated should be realized, not by him, but by his +successor, whose name was thereby made illustrious in the operatic +annals of New York. On January 30th "Die Walküre" was performed, with +the following cast: Brünhilde, Amalia Materna; Fricka, Marianne +Brandt; Sieglinde, Auguste Krauss; Siegmund, Anton Schott; Wotan, Josef +Staudigl; Hunding, Josef Koegel; Gerhilde, Marianne Brandt; Ortlinde, +Fräulein Stern; Waltraute, Fräulein Gutjar; Schwertleite, Fräulein +Morse; Helmwige, Frau Robinson; Siegrune, Fräulein Slach; Grimgerde, +Frau Kemlitz; Rossweise, Fräulein Brandl. + +"Die Walküre" had been presented before in New York at a so-called +Wagner festival at the Academy of Music on April 2, 1877, under the +direction of Adolf Neuendorff; but the memories of that production +were painful when they were not amusing, and, though much of the music +of the Nibelung trilogy had been heard in the concert room, this was +practically the first opportunity the people of New York had to learn +from personal experience what it was that Wagner meant by a union of +arts in the lyric drama. Dr. Damrosch had made an earnest effort to meet +the standard set by the Bayreuth festivals. The original scenery and +costumes were faithfully copied, except that for the sake of increased +picturesqueness Herr Hock, the stage manager, had draperies replace the +door in Hunding's hut, which, shaking loose from their fastenings, fell +just before Siegmund began his love song, and disclosed an expanse of +moonlit background. In the third act, too, there was a greater variety +of colors in the costumes of the Valkyrior. Fräulein Brandt again +disclosed her artistic devotion by enacting the part of Fricka and also +leading the chorus of Valkyrior; but Mme. Materna was the inspiration of +the performance. It was a surprise to those who had already learned to +admire her to see how in the character of Brünnhilde she towered above +herself in other rôles. Both of the strong sides of the character had +perfect exemplification in her singing and acting--the wild, impetuous, +exultant freedom of voice which proclaimed the Valkyria's joy in living +and doing until the catastrophe was reached, and the deep, unselfish, +tender nature disclosed in her sympathy with the ill-starred lovers +and her immeasurable love for Wotan. Her complete absorption in the +part fitted her out with a new gamut of expression. "If anything can +establish a sympathy between us and the mythological creatures of +Wagner's dramas," I wrote at the time, "that thing is the acting and +singing of Materna." The drama made a tremendous impression, and in the +three weeks which remained of the season (including some supplementary +performances) "Die Walküre" had seven representations. + +The remaining incidents of the season may now be hurried over to make +room for a record of the catastrophe which marked its close. By the +middle of January it was reported that the receipts were double those of +the corresponding period in the previous year, notwithstanding that the +price of admission had been reduced nearly one-half. By this time, too, +the board of directors had decided to continue the policy adopted at the +suggestion of Dr. Damrosch and engage him as director for the next year. +This decision had not been reached, however, without consideration of +other projects. Charles Mapleson, a son of the director of the Academy +of Music, and doubtless only his go-between, submitted a proposition for +the directorship, and so did Adolf Neuendorff, a man of indefatigable +energy and enterprise, who had given New York its first hearing of +"Lohengrin" at the Stadt Theater, in the Bowery, in April, 1871. In +January there was also a strike of the chorus, which was quickly +settled, and all but the ringleaders in the disturbance taken back +into favor on signing an apology. + +Rejoicings over the success of the enterprise gave way to general grief +and consternation with the unexpected death of Dr. Damrosch on February +15th. On Tuesday, February 10th, he contracted a cold from having thrown +himself upon a bed in a cold room for a nap before dinner on returning +from a rehearsal at the opera house. He had neglected to open the +furnace register or cover himself, and he awoke thoroughly chilled. +After dinner he went to a rehearsal of the Oratorio Society, which was +preparing Verdi's Manzoni Requiem for performance the following week. +Before the conclusion of the rehearsal he was so ill that he was +forced to hurry home in a carriage. The next morning it was found that +pneumonia had set in, complicated by pleurisy, and a consultation of +physicians was held. Only one of the subscription performances at the +Metropolitan Opera House remained to be given, but there were still +before the director in the way of operatic work five supplementary +performances and seasons at Boston, Chicago, and Cincinnati. This +naturally caused the sick man a great deal of concern. He deferred to +the wishes of his physicians and sent his son Walter, in whose talent +and skill he felt great confidence and pride, to conduct the remaining +subscription performance in the evening, hoping in the meantime to +secure such good care as to enable him to be in his chair on Thursday +evening when "Die Walküre" was to be repeated. In this hope, too, he +was disappointed and had to send his son a second time to conduct a +performance of the drama which had put the capstone to the astonishingly +successful season which his zeal, learning, skill, enterprise, and +perseverance had brought about. As on the previous day he went through +the score with his son and called his attention to some of the details +of the responsible and difficult task before him. The young man's +knowledge of the score and aptitude in grasping the suggestions made to +him comforted and quieted the father, and the representations at the +opera house went off in a manner which caused complimentary comments on +Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon. On Sunday, February 15th, at +3 o'clock A.M., a change in the sick man's condition set in, and the +physicians, realizing that the case was hopeless, so informed the family +early in the day. Dr. Damrosch was not disturbed by the prospect of +death. He retained consciousness until one o'clock in the afternoon, and +within an hour before that time called Walter to his bedside and asked +that an opera score be brought that he might give a few more suggestions +for the concluding representations in New York. He was assured that +all would go well. His last thoughts and words were with his family +and work. In disjointed phrases he repeatedly asked that nothing be +permitted to suffer because of his sickness; that the preparations for +the operas and concerts of the societies of which he was conductor +should go on. With his mind thus occupied he sank into unconsciousness +and died at a quarter after two o'clock in the afternoon of Sunday, +February 15, 1885. His funeral took place at the opera house on +February 18th, amidst impressive ceremonies, addresses being made by +the Rev. Horatio Potter (Assistant Bishop of New York), the Rev. Henry +Ward Beecher, and Professor Felix Adler. The remaining performances of +the supplementary season were conducted by Mr. Lund, after which the +company went on tour, Mr. Lund and Walter Damrosch sharing the work +of conducting. The season had begun on November 17th, one week after +Colonel Mapleson opened his seventh season at the Academy of Music. It +lasted until February 21st, but the last subscription performance was +that on the evening of the day after Dr. Damrosch had fallen ill. The +subscription was for thirty-eight nights and twelve Saturday matinées. +There was no Christmas interregnum. The list of operas produced, the +date of first representation, and the number of times each opera was +given can be read in the following table: + + + Opera First performance Times given + + "Tannhäuser" .............. November 17 ........... 9 + "Fidelio" ................. November 19 ........... 3 + "Les Huguenots" ........... November 21 ........... 5 + "Der Freischütz" .......... November 24 ........... 1 + "William Tell" ............ November 28 ........... 3 + "Lohengrin" ............... December 3 ............ 9 + "Don Giovanni" ............ December 10 ........... 2 + "Le Prophète" ............. December 17 ........... 9 + "La Muette de Portici" .... December 29 ........... 3 + "Rigoletto" ............... January 2 ............. 1 + "La Juive" ................ January 16 ............ 5 + "Die Walküre" ............. January 30 ............ 7 + -- + Total number of representations ................. 57 + + +Twelve out of twenty-two works promised in the prospectus were given, +the unperformed operas being "Rienzi," "Der Fliegende Holländer," +"Le Nozze di Figaro," "Die Zauberflöte," "Il Barbiere di Siviglia," +Gounod's "Faust," "Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor," "La Dame Blanche," +"Hans Heiling," and Kreutzer's "Nachtlager von Granada." The failure +to produce all the operas promised was largely due to the teachings of +the first month of the season. In the list were a number of peculiarly +German works, in which the musical numbers alternated with spoken +dialogue. The experience made with "Fidelio" and "Der Freischütz" showed +that works of this character were unedifying to the persons of native +birth in the audience, and this was one reason why it was decided +to omit several of them. Another reason was that it was found that +the large dimensions of the opera house detracted from even good +performances of light works; and still another was that the style of +the singers was adapted to vigorous and declamatory music, rather than +to that which depends for effect upon purity and beauty of voice and +excellence of vocalization. A comparison of the last performances +with those which were given when the company was continually engaged +in studying new works suggests another reason: "Der Freischütz" was +poorly performed; the first representations of "William Tell" and +"Les Huguenots" threatened the loss of all the prestige won by the +performances of "Tannhäuser"; and "Fidelio" and "Don Giovanni" called +for a vigorous exercise of good nature. Whatever disappointment came, +therefore, from the failure to produce such interesting works as "Hans +Heiling," one of the finest products, if not the finest, of the epigonoi +of Weber, and "Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor," unquestionably the best +Shakespearian opera extant (Verdi's "Otello" and "Falstaff" excepted), +was compensated for by the excellence which marked the performances +of "Tannhäuser," "Lohengrin," "Le Prophète," and "Die Walküre." The +production of this great work was a fitting end to Dr. Damrosch's +artistic career. It marked the beginning of a new era in New York's +operatic affairs, and led to the execution in the years which followed +of his large plan to produce the entire Nibelung tragedy, "Tristan und +Isolde" and "Die Meistersinger"--a plan carried out by his successor. +For "Tannhäuser," "Fidelio," "William Tell," "La Muette de Portici," "La +Juive," and "Die Walküre" new stage decorations had to be provided, and +this was done on a scale of great liberality, in comparison with what +New York had been accustomed to. The largest expenditure on a single +representation was $4,000, and the average cost was $3,400. These sums +were much smaller than those expended in the previous season on the +hurdy-gurdy Italian list, and the stage pictures were all much finer. +The saving was in the salaries of the artists, no two of which cost +together as much as Mme. Nilsson alone. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +END OF ITALIAN OPERA AT THE ACADEMY + + +The season 1885-86 witnessed the collapse of the Italian opposition at +the Academy of Music, but also the rise of an institution in its +place, which, had it commanded a higher order of talent and been more +intelligently administered, might have served the lofty purposes set for +the German opera. This was the American Opera Company, which, after an +extremely ambitious beginning, made a miserable end a season later, +leaving an odor of scandal, commercial and artistic, which infected the +atmosphere for years afterward. German opera was also given throughout +a large part of the season at the Thalia Theater, the manager being Mr. +Gustav Amberg, and the conductor John Lund, who had come into notice at +the Metropolitan Opera House by reason of the death of Dr. Damrosch. +These performances were unpretentious, and divided between operetta and +the type of opera which grew out of the Singspiel. Their significance, +so far as this history is concerned, lay in the evidence which they bore +of a considerable degree of interest on the part of the public outside +of the patrons of the Metropolitan Opera House in German opera. There +were also commendable features in the repertory. Thus, the performances +began on October 13, 1885, with "Der Freischütz," in which appeared +Ferdinand Wachtel, a son of the famous "coachman tenor," Theodore +Wachtel, whose sensational career in Europe and America had come to an +end a decade before, though he did not die till 1893. The father's +battle horse, "Le Postillon de Lonjumeau," was brought out for the son, +but the public were not long in discovering that the latter had all the +faults and none of the merits of the former, and he failed to become +even a nine days' wonder. Among the operas brought forward by Mr. +Amberg was Nicolai's "Lustigen Weiber von Windsor," and Emil Kaiser's +"Trompeter von Säkkingen," a production obviously prompted by the +sensational success in Europe of Nessler's opera of the same name. +Nicolai's opera, which has never lost its popularity with the Germans, +was probably given on its merits alone, but the fact that Dr. Damrosch +had abandoned it after putting it in his prospectus, may have had +something to do with its performance by Mr. Amberg's modest troupe, as +well as by the proud American Opera Company, which brought it out in a +specially prepared English version. Mr. Amberg's company also brought +forward a German version of Maillart's "Les Dragons de Villars," under +the title, "Das Glöckchen des Eremiten." + +Colonel Mapleson, having spent the summer bickering and negotiating +with the directors of the Academy, after having failed to get into the +Metropolitan Opera House under the cloak of his son Charles, began his +eighth season in the Academy of Music, which had been furbished up for +the occasion, on November 2, 1885. Mme. Patti had deserted him, and +if he ever had made overtures to Mme. Nilsson, whose engagement he had +announced, they came to naught. He now made a virtue out of necessity +and proclaimed the merits of "good all 'round" opera, and the iniquity +of the star system. His company, however, was the old one, with Alma +Fohström and Minnie Hauk in place of Mme. Patti, Gerster, and Nevada. +Among the familiar names in the prospectus were those of Mme. Lablache, +Ravelli, de Anna, Del Puente, Cherubini, and Carraciolo; among the +newcomers were Signor Giannini, an extremely serviceable tenor, who had +sung in the previous season in the "Milan Grand Opera Company," compiled +by James Barton Key and Horace McVicker, as related in the preceding +chapter; also a Mlle. Felia Litvinoff, whom we shall meet again as Mme. +Litvinne, sister-in-law of M. Édouard de Reszke, and member of a company +singing at the Metropolitan Opera House. Mapleson opened with "Carmen," +the heroine represented by Mme. Hauk. She had created the character in +London and New York, and set a standard which prevailed in England and +America until the coming of Mme. Calvé; but time had dealt harshly +with Mme. Hauk during the nineteen years which had elapsed since she, +a lissome creature, had first sung at the Academy of Music (she had +effected her operatic début in Brooklyn a few weeks before), and much of +the old charm was gone from her singing, and nearly all from her acting. +The opening was distinctly disappointing, and the season came to an end +on November 28th, after twelve evening and four afternoon performances. +There could scarcely have been a more convincing demonstration of how +completely the fashionable world had abandoned the Academy of Music than +the giving of a subscription season of only four weeks' duration. Within +this period, moreover, there was no sign of effort to get out of the old +rut into which Colonel Mapleson's repertory had sunk. "Carmen" was +given three times, "Il Trovatore" twice, "Lucia di Lammermoor" twice, +"L'Africaine" twice, "La Sonnambula" once, "La Favorita" once, "Fra +Diavolo" twice, "Don Giovanni" twice, and "Faust" once. Mlle. Fohström +effected her American début in a performance of "Lucia" on November +9th. She had been announced for the second night of the season in "Il +Trovatore," but was taken ill. She had been little heard of previous to +her coming, though diligent observers of musical doings knew that she +had sung for several seasons in Europe, and, I believe, South America, +and had figured in Colonel Mapleson's spring season in London in 1885. +She was a small creature, with features of a markedly Scandinavian +type--she was a native of Finland--and had evidently studied the +traditions of the Italian operatic stage to as much purpose as was +necessary to present, acceptably, the stereotyped round of characters. +But her gifts and attainments were not great enough to take her +impersonations out of the rut of conventionality, nor to save her +singing from the charge of nervelessness and monotony of color. Three +seasons later (1888-89) she was a member of the German company at the +Metropolitan Opera House, and sang such rôles as Marguerite de Valois +("Les Huguenots"), Mathilde ("William Tell"), Marguerite ("Faust"), +Bertha ("Le Prophète"), and Eudora ("La Juive"), giving place at the +beginning of February to Mme. Schroeder-Hanfstängl, who had returned, +to the delight of her admirers. In the interim she increased her +artistic stature very considerably, her voice proving more effective +in the new house than in the Academy of Music, which was incomparably +better acoustically. Mapleson's singers came back to the Academy on +December 20th to sing Wallace's "Maritana" in Italian (with Tito +Mattei's recitatives in place of the spoken dialogue), and at the +manager's benefit on December 23d Massenet's opera "Manon" was performed +for the first time in America. Under the circumstances the cast deserves +to be set forth: The Chevalier des Grieux, Signor Giannini; Lescaut, +Signor del Puente; Monfontaine, Signor Rinaldini; the Count des Grieux, +Signor Cherubini; du Bretigny, Signor Foscani, (Mr. Fox, an American); +an innkeeper, Signor de Vaschetti; attendant of the Seminary of St. +Sulpice, Signor Bieletto; Poussette, Mlle. Bauermeister; Javotte, Mme. +Lablache; Rovette, Mlle. de Vigne; Manon, Mme. Hauk. + +From January 4th to April 17th the Academy of Music was occupied by the +American Opera Company, the artistic director of which was Theodore +Thomas, who had long stood at the head of orchestral music in America. +As I have already intimated, rightly managed this institution might have +become of the same significance to the future of opera in the United +States as the German company, which had just established a domicile at +the Metropolitan Opera House. Indeed, it might have become of greater +significance, for the best friends of the German enterprise looked upon +it as merely a necessary intermediary between the Italian exotic and a +national form of art, with use of the vernacular, which every patriotic +lover of music hoped to see installed some day in the foremost operatic +establishment in the land. Unfortunately, its claims to excellence were +put forward with impudent exaggeration, and there was no substantial +or moral health in its business administration. It could not expect to +cope with foreign organizations or local aggregations of foreign artists +in respect of its principal artists, but it could, and did, in respect +of scenic investiture, and in its choral and instrumental ensemble. +Unhappily, even in these elements it was unwisely directed, though with +a daring and a degree of confidence in popular support which may be said +to have given it a characteristically American trait. In three respects +the season was unique in the American history of English opera (or opera +in English, as it would better he called, since there was not an English +opera in its repertory), viz.: in the brilliancy of the orchestra, the +excellence of the chorus (numerous and fresh of voice), and the +sumptuousness of the stage attire. + +There were sixty-six performances in the season of light operas, and one +ballet, the latter Delibes's "Sylvia." The operas were Goetz's "Taming +of the Shrew" (five times), Gluck's "Orpheus" (thirteen times), Wagner's +"Lohengrin" (ten times), Mozart's "Magic Flute" (six times), Nicolai's +"Merry Wives of Windsor" (nine times), Delibes's "Lakmé" (eleven times), +Wagner's "Flying Dutchman" (seven times), and Massé's "Marriage of +Jeannette" (in conjunction with the ballet, five times). "The Taming of +the Shrew" received its first performance in America on January 4, 1886; +"Lakmé" on March 1st; "The Marriage of Jeannette," on March 24th, and +"Lohengrin" (in English), on January 20th. + +Immediately on the death of Dr. Damrosch, trouble broke out in the +Metropolitan company. There had been some jealousy among the women +singers because of the large honorarium paid to Mme. Materna. It was her +third visit to America, and she had learned to say dollars when at home +she was accustomed to think of florins. Moreover, in the spring of the +year she had made an extensive concert tour with Mme. Nilsson, under +the direction of Mr. Thomas, and knew something about the liberality of +Americans in the matter of artists' fees. Herr Schott (Dr. von Bülow's +dis-, des-, and detonating tenor), developing a large and noisy +managerial ambition, scarcely waited for the burial of Dr. Damrosch +before beginning an agitation looking toward his installation in the +dead director's place. All this might have been done in a seemly manner, +and if it had been so done might have been carried through successfully +and with popular approbation, for Herr Schott's project, in the main, +was the one acted on by the directors. But Herr Schott, in an effort +to promote his scheme, made an ungallant attack upon the artistic +character of Mme. Materna, and this the public found to be "most +tolerable and not to be endured." The occasion soon presented itself +for Schott to show that he had an overweening sense of his own +importance and popularity. At the end of the fourth of the five +supplementary performances there was a demonstration of applause. Herr +Schott interpreted it as a curtain call for himself, and promptly showed +himself, and bowed his thanks. The applause was renewed, and he repeated +this performance. Then came a third call, and again the tenor stepped +out before the footlights. Now the applause of his friends was mingled +with cries of "Materna!" but on a fourth call, and a fourth appearance +of Schott, the popular feeling exploded in hisses and calls for the +soprano. He retired unabashed, but Mme. Materna, answering the next +call, was tumultuously greeted. So far as the overwhelming majority +of the patrons of the house was concerned, Herr Schott's cake was now +dough. Foolishly he, or his friends for him, proceeded to anger the +directors from whom they were expecting favors. It was given out that +he had submitted a proposition concerning the management of the opera +house at the request of the directors. This met with prompt denial at +the hands of Mr. Stanton, the secretary of the board, and by some of +the directors themselves. + +Herr Schott had submitted a proposition, however, and had coupled it +with a hint, which sounded like a threat, that in case it was not +promptly accepted it would go to the directors of the Academy of Music. +This vexed some of the stockholders of the older institution, who +made public denial that they were considering German opera, even as a +remote possibility. Herr Schott's proposition was dismissed with little +ceremony by the Metropolitan directors, who, however, sent Mr. Stanton +and Mr. Walter Damrosch to Europe to organize a company to carry out the +lines already established during the coming season. In doing so they +adopted several valuable suggestions contained in Herr Schott's plan. +In this plan Schott was to be the musical director of the company, of +course, but not the conductor. For this post he contemplated engaging +Anton Seidl, then conductor of the Municipal Theater of Bremen and +husband of the jugendlich Dramatische, who had successfully gone +through the ordeal of one season--Auguste Krauss. Walter Damrosch was +to be assistant conductor, Mme. Schroeder-Hanfstängl, Frau Krauss, +Fräulein Brandt, and Herren Staudigl and Blum, of the old company, were +to be kept, and the new singers were to be a Fräulein Gilbert, Fräulein +Koppmeyer, Ferdinand Wachtel (son of Theodore, already referred to), and +Carl Hill, bass. + +The organization, as finally effected, placed Mr. Stanton at its head +as director, acting for the stockholders; Walter Damrosch, as assistant +director, and also conductor; Lilli Lehmann, of Berlin, was the +principal soprano; Marianne Brandt, principal contralto; Albert Stritt, +principal tenor; Emil Fischer, of Dresden, principal bass, and Adolf +Robinson, principal barytone. Other singers were Auguste Krauss (who now +became Seidl-Krauss), Max Alvary, tenor; Fräulein Slach, mezzo-soprano; +Eloi Sylva, tenor; Kemlitz, tenor; Lehmler, bass; Frau Krämer-Wiedl, +dramatic soprano; Herr Alexi, barytone, and Fräulein Klein, soprano. +With this company the second season of German opera was opened on +November 23, 1885, the opera being "Lohengrin." I shall not take up +the features of the season seriatim, nor make detailed record of +the consecutive productions of the operas on its list. Only special +incidents shall be recorded; but before this is done something may +be said touching the newcomers: + +Anton Seidl was a young man when he came to New York, but he had filled +the position of secretary to Richard Wagner, and been a member of his +household for six years. Before then he had studied at the Leipsic +Conservatory (which he entered in October, 1870), and been a chorus +master or accompanist at the Vienna Opera. There he came under the eyes +of Hans Richter, who sent him to Wagner when the latter asked for a +young man who could give him such help on "The Ring of the Nibelung" as +Richter had given him on "Die Meistersinger"--that is, to write out the +clean score from the composer's hurried autograph. The period which he +spent with Wagner was from 1872 to 1879. During all the preparations for +the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876 he was one of the poet-composer's +executive officers. He was one of the assistant conductors on the stage +during the festival, and afterward conducted the preliminary rehearsals +for the concerts which Wagner gave in London and elsewhere to recoup +himself for the losses made at the festival. Then, on Wagner's +recommendation, he was appointed conductor at the Municipal Theater +at Leipsic (his associates being Victor Nessler and Arthur Nikisch), +later on of Angelo Neumann's "Richard Wagner Theater," which gave +representations of "Der Ring des Nibelungen" in many cities of Germany, +Holland, England, and Italy, and still later of the Municipal Theater in +Bremen--the post which he held when the death of Dr. Damrosch created +the vacancy which brought him to New York. All this he had accomplished +before his thirty-fifth year (he was born in Pesth on May 7, 1850), and +he was not yet thirty when Wagner, in a speech delivered in Berlin, +alluded to him as "the young artist whom I have brought up, and who is +now accomplishing astounding things." Naturally, when he came to New +York, he was looked upon as a prophet, priest, and paladin of Wagner's +art. For twelve years he filled a large place in the music of New York, +in concert room as well as opera house, and when he died it was like +his predecessor, in the fulness of his powers, and in the midst of his +activities. But this belongs to a later chapter of this story. + +Lilli Lehmann brought to New York chiefly the fame which she had won in +Bayreuth at the first Wagner festival, of 1876, at which she was one of +the Rhine daughters (Woglinde), and one of the Valkyrior (Helmwige), and +where she also sang the music of the Forest Bird in "Siegfried." At that +period in her career she was still classed among the light sopranos, and +so she continued to be classed until she broke violently away from the +clogs which tradition puts upon artists in the theaters of Germany. She +felt the charm of freedom from the old theatrical conventions when she +sang Isolde at Covent Garden on July 2, 1884, and her growth to a lofty +tragic stature was rapid. She was filled with fervor for the large rôles +of Wagner when she came to New York, and her success in them was so +gratifying to her ambition that it led her at the expiration of her +leave of absence from the Court Opera at Berlin (where she had been +fifteen years as erste Coloratursängerin) to extend her stay in America +beyond the period of her furlough, and involved her in difficulties with +the Berlin Intendant, and the federation of German theatrical managers, +called the Cartellverband. Having carried to her an offer from the +president of the Cincinnati Festival Association to sing at the festival +of May, 1886, which was the ultimate reason for her action, I am in +a position to give the details of the story of what became a cause +célèbre, and led to a wide discussion of the relations between the +German managers and their singers. A short time before Miss Lehmann had +declined an offer from the committee of the North American Sängerbund to +take part in the Sängerfest, which was to be held in Milwaukee in June, +1886. She had also been asked by the artistic manager of the house of +Steinway & Sons to go on a concert tour with Franz Rummel and Ovide +Musin. When I came to her with the dispatch from Cincinnati she spoke of +her unwillingness to break her contract with Berlin, and of the loss of +the lifelong pension to which her period of service at the Court Opera +would eventually entitle her. I declined to advise her in the premises, +but made a calculation of her prospective net earnings from the three +engagements which were offering, and suggested that she compare the +income from their investment with the pension which she would forfeit. +I also agreed, if she wished it, to reopen the negotiations with the +Sängerfest officials at Milwaukee. She took the matter under advisement, +and in a few days, having concluded the engagement with a representative +of the Cincinnati association, she told me she had determined to stay in +America during June. In July, against the advice of some of her American +friends, she paid a fine imposed upon her by the Intendant of the Court +Opera. The amount of the fine was 13,000 marks ($3,250), and this amount +she had received from the Milwaukee engagement. I had written to Mr. +Catenhusen, the director of the Sängerfest, as promised, and he had +reopened negotiations with more than willingness. Asked for her terms, +she replied: "Three thousand three hundred dollars," and turning to a +friend said: "I'll let the festival pay my Berlin fine." After she had +paid the money into the royal exchequer, the manager of Kroll's Theater +engaged her for a series of representations, but met an unexpected +obstacle in the form of a refusal of the Intendant of the Court Theater +to restore her to the privileges which she had forfeited by breaking +her contract. It was long before she succeeeded in making peace with +the Governmental administration of the Court Opera, and in the public +discussion which accompanied her efforts she took part in an eminently +characteristic way. The newspapers were open to her, and in the Berlin +Tageblatt (I think it was) she defended her course on the ground that +America had enabled her to exercise her talent in a field which the +hidebound traditions of the German theaters would have kept closed to +her. Once a florid singer, always a florid singer, was her complaint, +and she added: "One grows weary after singing nothing but princesses +for fifteen years." Though she began in "Carmen," and followed with +"Faust," Miss Lehmann soon got into the Wagnerian waters, in which she +was longing to adventure, and in them set some channel buoys which the +New York public still asks Brünnhildes and Isoldes to observe. It was +then, however, and still is, characteristic of her broad ideals in art, +that, while winning the highest favor in tragic parts, she preserved not +only her old skill, but her old love for good singing in the old sense. +When, at the height of her Wagnerian career, she sang at a performance +for her own benefit, she chose "Norma." + +From 1885 till the time when her operatic experiences had become the +exception to her rule of concert work, the greater part of her career +was spent in New York; and during the whole of the period she was in all +things artistic an inspiration, and an exemplar to her fellow artists. +For industry, zeal, and unselfish devotion in preparing an opera I have +never met an artist who could be even remotely compared with her. When +"Siegfried" was in rehearsal for its first American production, she took +a hand in setting the stage. Though she had nothing to do in the second +act, she went into the scenic lumber room and selected bits of woodland +scenery, and with her own hands rearranged the set so as to make +Siegfried's posture and surroundings more effective. When the final +dress rehearsal of "Gotterdämmerung" was reached a number of the +principal singers were still uncertain of their music. Miss Lehmann was +letter perfect, as usual, but without a demur repeated the ensembles +over and over again, singing always, as was her wont, with full voice +and intense dramatic expression. This had been going on literally for +hours when the end of the second act was reached. When she came into the +audience room for the intermission I ventured to expostulate with her: + +"My dear Miss Lehmann, pray have a care. You are not effecting your +début in New York, nor is this a public performance. Think of to-morrow. +You will weary your voice. Why do you work so? Markiren Sie doch!" + +"Markiren thu Ich nie!" ("Markiren," it may be explained, is the +technical term for singing in half-voice, or just enough to mark the +cues.) "As for the rest, rehearsals are necessary, if not for one's +self, then at least for the others. Don't be alarmed about my voice. +It is easier to sing all three Brünnhildes than one Norma. You are so +carried away by the dramatic emotion, the action, and the scene that +you do not have to think how to sing the words. That comes of itself. +But in Bellini you must always have a care for beauty of tone and +correct emission. But I love 'Norma,' and Mozart's 'Entführung.'" + +Very different this from the conduct of Max Alvary after he had begun to +grow into public favor. He was a son of the Düsseldorf painter, Andreas +Achenbach, and came to New York without reputation, and engaged to +sing second rôles. Early in the season Stritt, the first tenor, after +creating the part of Assad in Goldmark's "Königin von Saba" yielded it +up to Alvary, finding the range of the music a little too trying for +his voice. Alvary's handsome face and figure, especially the latter, +his gallant bearing, and his impeccable taste in dress, made a deep +impression, and it was not long before he developed into a veritable +matinée girl's idol. He developed also an enormous conceit, which near +the end of his New York career led him to think that he was the opera, +and that he might dictate policies to the manager and the directors back +of him. So in the eyes of the judicious there were ragged holes in his +shining veneer long before his career in New York came to a close. The +preparation of "Siegfried" for performance led to an encounter between +him and Mr. Seidl, in which the unamiable side of his disposition, and +the shallowness of his artistic nature were disclosed. At the dress +rehearsal, when alone on the stage, he started in to go through his +part in dumbshow. Seidl requested him to sing. + +"It is not necessary; I know my part," was the ungracious reply. + +"But this is a rehearsal. It is not enough that you know your part +or that you know that you know your part. I must know that you know +it. Others must sing with you, and they must hear you." + +He started the orchestra again. Not a sound from the puffed up little +tenor in his picturesque bearskin and pretty legs. Seidl rapped for +silence, and put down his baton. + +"Call Mr. Stanton!" he commanded. + +Mr. Stanton was brought from his office, and Mr. Seidl briefy explained +the situation. He would not go on with the rehearsal unless Mr. Alvary +sang, and without a rehearsal there would be no first performance of +"Siegfried" to-morrow. Mr. Alvary explained that to sing would weary +him. + +"I shall not sing to-day and to-morrow. Choose; I'll sing either to-day +or to-morrow." + +"Sing to-day!" said Stanton curtly, and turned away from the stage. Like +a schoolboy Alvary now began to sing with all his might, as if bound to +incapacitate himself for the next day. But he would have sacrificed a +finger rather than his opportunity on the morrow, and the little misses +and susceptible matrons got the hero whom they adored for years +afterward. + +Next to Miss Lehmann, the most popular singer in the company in this +second year of German opera at the Metropolitan was Emil Fischer, the +bass. Except for a short period spent abroad in an effort to be an opera +manager in Holland, Fischer has remained a New Yorker ever since he came +in 1885. This has not been wholly of his own volition, however. He came +from Dresden, where he was an admired member of the Court Opera. His +coming, or his staying, involved him in difficulty with the Royal +Intendant, and though the singer began legal proceedings against his +liege lord, the King of Saxony, for rehabilitation, he never regained +the privileges which he had forfeited in order to win the fame and +money which came to him here. The fame was abiding; the money was +not. Twenty-one year after his coming his old admirers were still so +numerous, and their admiration so steadfast, that a benefit performance +at the Metropolitan Opera House, in which he took part in an act of +"Die Meistersinger," yielded nearly $10,000. + +The season of 1885-86 at the Metropolitan Opera House began on November +23d, and lasted till March 6th, with an interregnum of two weeks from +December 19th to January 4th, during which the company gave performances +in Philadelphia, with woeful financial results, the loss to the +stockholders being $15,000. The excellence of the management and the +wisdom and honesty of the artists were attested by the circumstance that +not once was an opera changed after it was announced. Nine operas were +performed, and of these three were wholly new to the Metropolitan +stage, two were absolutely new to America, and two were provided with +considerable new scenery. The table of performances was as follows: + + + Opera First performance Times given + + "Lohengrin" .............. November 23 ............ 4 + "Carmen" ................. November 25 ............ 2 + "Der Prophet" ............ November 27 ............ 3 + "Die Walküre" ............ November 30 ............ 4 + "Die Königin von Saba" ... December 2 ............ 15 + "Tannhäuser" ............. December 11 ............ 4 + "Die Meistersinger" ...... January 4 .............. 8 + "Faust" .................. January 20 ............. 5 + "Rienzi" ................. February 5 ............. 7 + -- + Total representations ............................ 52 + + +The attractive charm of a new work was shown in the success achieved +by Goldmark's "Queen of Sheba," which was given with great pomp in its +externals, but also finely from a musical point of view. It brought into +the box office an average of $4,000 for fifteen performances, and was +set down as the popular triumph of the season, though, considering that +"Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" had a month less to run, its record +was also remarkable. The average difference in attendance on the two +works which led the list was about one hundred and fifty. The directors +had fixed the assessment on the stockholders in October at $2,000 a box, +and their receipts from this source were $136,700; from the general +public, $171,463.13; total, $308,163.13. The cost of producing the +operas, omitting the charges for new scenery and properties, but +including the expenses of the Philadelphia season, was $244,981.96. The +fixed charges on the building (taxes, interest, and rental account) were +about $85,000 in the preceding year, and the financial outcome was so +satisfactory to the stockholders that the directors promptly re-engaged +Mr. Seidl, and adopted a resolution empowering the managing director, +Edmund C. Stanton, to make contracts with artists for three years. It +was interesting to note the effect upon the opera houses and artists +of Germany. I cannot recall that there were any more difficulties like +those which attended the disruption of their contracts by Fräulein +Lehmann and Herr Fischer. Instead, the managers of the municipal +theaters of Germany especially (and, I doubt not, court theaters also) +found that they, too, could come in for a share of the American dollars +by granting leaves of absence for the New York season, and taking a +percentage of the liberal fees received by their stars. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +WAGNER HOLDS THE METROPOLITAN + + +The incidents of the early history of the Metropolitan Opera House come +to me in such multitude that I find it difficult to apportion seasons +and chapters in this record. Later, it may be, when the new order of +things shall have been established, and again given place to the old, +the relation may make more rapid progress. I have already devoted much +space to the second German season, but there are a few details which +deserve special consideration. The first of these (if the reader will +accept the instantaneous popularity of Mr. Seidl as a conclusion from +the remarks made in his introduction in these annals) was the first +appearance of Lilli Lehmann. Circumstances would have it that she should +show herself first, not as the singer of old-fashioned florid rôles, +with which (except for her Bayreuth experience) she was associated, nor +yet as the Wagnerian tragedienne which she became later, but in a +transitional character--that of Carmen in Bizet's opera of that name. +Lehmann as the gipsy cigarette maker, with her Habanera and Seguidilla, +with her errant fancy wandering from a sentimental brigadier to a +dashing bull fighter, is a conception which will not come easy to the +admirers of the later Brünnhilde and Isolde; and, indeed, she was a +puzzling phenomenon to the experienced observers of that time. Carmen +was already a familiar apparition to New Yorkers, who had imagined that +Minnie Hauk had spoken the last word in the interpretation of that +character. When Fräulein Lehmann came her tall stature and erect, almost +military, bearing were calculated to produce an effect of surprise of +such a nature that it had to be overcome before it was possible to enter +into the feeling with which she informed the part. To the eye, moreover, +she was a somewhat more matronly Carmen than the fancy, stimulated by +earlier performances of the opera or the reading of Mérimée's novel, +was prepared to accept; but it was in harmony with the new picture that +she stripped the character of the fippancy and playfulness popularly +associated with it, and intensified its sinister side. In this, Fräulein +Lehmann deviated from Mme. Hauk's impersonation and approached that +of Mme. Trebelli, which had been brought to public notice at the +first Italian season at the Metropolitan Opera House. In her musical +performance she surpassed both of those admired and experienced artists. +Her voice proved to be true, flexible, and ringing, and, also, of a most +particularly telling quality. She disclosed ability to fill the part +with the passionate expression and warmth of color which it called for, +and utilized that ability judiciously and tastefully. M. Eloi Sylva, the +new tenor, effected his American introduction in Meyerbeer's "Prophet" +on November 27th. He was an exceedingly robust singer, with an imposing +stage presence, a powerful voice, which, in its upper register, +especially, was vibrant, virile, and musical. Two seasons later he +essayed English opera, with about the same results, so far as his +pronunciation was concerned, as he achieved in German. Fräulein Lehmann +was first seen and heard as Brünnhilde in "Die Walküre" on November +30th. She was statuesquely beautiful, and her voice glorified the music. +In the first scene she brought into beautiful relief the joyful nature +of the Wishmaiden; her cries were fairly brimming with eager, happy +vitality. While proclaiming his fate to Siegmund, she was first inspired +by a noble dignity, then transformed instantaneously into a sympathetic +woman by the hero's devotion to the helpless and hapless woman who lay +exhausted on his knees. + +The first of the two novelties of the season was Goldmark's opera +"Die Königin von Saba," which had its first performance in America on +December 2d. The cast was as follows: Sulamith, Fräulein Lebmaun; +Königin, Frau Krämer-Wiedl; Astaroth, Fräulein Brandt; Solomon, Herr +Robinson; Assad, Herr Stritt; Hohepriester, Herr Fischer; Baal Hanan, +Herr Alexi. Mr. Seidl conducted. The opera (which had had its first +production in Vienna ten years before, and had achieved almost as much +success in Germany as Nessler's "Trompeter von Säkkingen") was produced +with great sumptuousness, and being also admirably sung and acted, it +made a record that provided opera-goers in New York with a sensation of +a kind that they had not known before, and to which they did not grow +accustomed until the later dramas of Wagner began their triumphal career +at the Metropolitan. Twenty years afterward (season 1905-06) Mr. Conried +revived the opera at the Metropolitan, but it was found that in the +interim its fires had paled. In 1885 there were reasons why the public +should not only have been charmed, but even impressed by the opera. In +spite of its weaknesses it was then, and still is, an effective opera. +Thoughtfully considered, the libretto is not one of any poetical worth, +but in its handling of the things which give pleasure to the superficial +observer it is admirable. It presents a story which is fairly rational, +which enlists the interest, if not the sympathy, of the observers, which +is new as a spectacle, and which is full of pomp and circumstance. +Looked at from its ethical side and considered with reference to the +sources of its poetical elements, it falls under condemnation. The title +of the opera would seem to indicate that the Bible story of the visit of +the Queen of Sheba to Solomon had been drawn on for the plot. That is +true. The Queen of Sheba comes to Jerusalem to see Solomon in his glory, +and that is the end of the draft on the Biblical story; the rest is the +modern poet's invention. But that is the way of operas with Biblical +subjects--a few names, an incident, and the rest of invention. In +Gounod's "Reine de Saba" the magnificently storied queen tries to elope +with the architect of Solomon's temple like any wilful millionaire's +daughter. Salome is a favorite subject just now that the danse du +ventre is working its way into polite society, but save for the dance +and the names of the tetrarch and his wife, the Bible contributes +nothing to the Salome dramas and pantomimes. Sulamith, who figures like +an abandoned Dido, in the opera of Mosenthal and Goldmark, owes her +name, but not her nature or any of her experiences, to the pastoral +play which Solomon is credited with having written. The Song of Songs +contributes, also, a few lines of poetry to the book, and a ritualistic +service celebrated in the Temple finds its prototype in some verses from +Psalms lxvii and cxvii, but with this I have enumerated all that "Die +Königin von Saba" owes to the sacred Scriptures. Solomon's magnificent +reign and marvelous wisdom, which contribute factors to the production, +belong to profane as well as to sacred history, and persons with deeply +rooted prejudices touching the people of Biblical story will be happiest +if they can think of some other than the Scriptural Solomon as the +prototype of Mosenthal and Goldmark, for in truth they make of him a +sorry sentimentalist at best. The local color of the old story has been +borrowed from the old story; the dramatic motive comes plainly from +"Tannhäuser"; Sulamith is Elizabeth, the Queen Venus, Assad Tannhäuser, +and Solomon Wolfram. Goldmark's music is highly spiced. At times it +rushes along like a lava stream, every measure throbbing with eager, +excited, and exciting life. He revels in instrumental color; the +language of his orchestra is as glowing as the poetry attributed to the +veritable King whom the operatic story celebrates. Many composers before +him made use of Oriental cadences and rhythms, but to none did they seem +so like a native language. It has not been every Jew who could thus +handle a Jewish subject. Compare Halévy, Meyerbeer, and Rubinstein with +Goldmark. + +The first performance of Wagner's "Meistersinger" fell on the same +night as the production for the first time in America of Goetz's +"Widerspänstigen Zähmung" in English by the National Opera Company. +We thus had in juxtaposition an admirable operatic adaptation of a +Shakespearian comedy and a modern comedy, of which I thought at the +time I could not speak in higher praise than to say that it was truly +Shakespearian in its delineation of character. In my book, "Studies in +the Wagnerian Drama," I have analyzed Wagner's comedy from many points +of view, and printed besides the results of investigations of the old +Nuremberg mastersingers made on the spot. The significance of this +record is that it tells of the introduction in America of a comedy +which, though foreign in matter and manner to the thoughts, habits, and +feelings of the American people, has, nevertheless, held a high place +in their admiration. Later we shall see that this admiration was based +on the sound understanding of the play which the original, performers +inculcated. Let their names therefore be preserved. They were: Hans +Sachs, Emil Fischer; Veit Pogner, Josef Staudigl; Kunz Vogelsang, +Herr Dworsky; Konrad Nachtigal, Emil Sänger; Sixtus Beckmesser, Otto +Kemlitz; Fritz Kothner, Herr Lehmler; Balthasar Zorn, Herr Hoppe; Ulrich +Eisslinger, Herr Klaus; Augustin Moser, Herr Langer; Hermaun Ortel, +Herr Doerfer; Hans Schwartz, Herr Eiserbeck; Hans Foltz, Herr Anlauf; +Walther von Stolzing, Albert Stritt; David, Herr Kramer; Eva, Auguste +Seidl-Krauss; Magdalena, Marianne Brandt; Nachtwächter, Carl Kaufmann. +Mr. Seidl conductor. + +I modulate to the Metropolitan season 1886-87 through the performances +of the opposition, which began at the Academy of Music, but ended in +the house which was now definitely acknowledged to be the home, and +only home, of fashionable opera. Mme. Patti provided the last bit of +evidence. In the two preceding seasons she had led Colonel Mapleson's +forces at the Academy; yet the public would have none of his opera. Now, +after a year's absence, she returned to America under the management of +Mr. Abbey, who had opposed Nilsson to her when the rivalry of the houses +began. She gave operatic concerts, one, two, three, and four, at the +Academy of Music, with old favorites of the New York public--Scalchi, +Novara, and a French tenor named Guille--in her company, besides Signor +Arditi; and she gave fragments of opera ("Semiramide" and "Martha"), +besides a miscellaneous concert. The experiences of Mme. Patti on her +return to her old home in 1881 were measurably repeated. The great +singer was admired, of course, and half an operatic loaf was accepted as +better than no bread. This was in November, 1886, and in April, 1887, +Mr. Abbey decided to offer the operatic loaf, such as it was, but to +cut it, not at the house with which Patti's name had been intimately +associated, but at the Metropolitan Opera House. He was conjuring +with the legend (then new, but afterward worn threadbare), "Patti's +Farewell." I am writing in July, 1908, and have just been reading the +same legend again in the London newspapers--twenty-one years after +it served Mr. Abbey a turn. In April, then, Mr. Abbey came to the +Metropolitan Opera House with Mme. Patti to give six "farewell" +operatic performances. The company consisted of Scalchi, Vicini, +Galassi, Valerga, Del Puente, Novara, Abramoff, Corsi, and Migliara, +some of them recruited from an earlier company that had come and +departed like a shadow in the fall season. Also Miss Gertrude Griswold, +whom I mention because she was an American singer who had given promise +of good things in Europe, and who helped Mme. Patti with the one and +doubly singular performance of "Carmen," in which she was seen and +(occasionally) heard in the United States. Mr. Abbey gave six +performances, in all of which Mme. Patti appeared, the operas being +"La Traviata," "Semiramide," "Faust," "Carmen," "Lucia," and "Marta." +The financial results were phenomenal. The public paid nearly $70,000 +for the six operas! Had Colonel Mapleson been able to do fifty per cent. +of such business the Academy of Music might have been saved. But Mr. +Abbey, to use the slang of the stage, was playing Patti as a sensation. +Prices of admission were abnormal, and so was the audience. Fashion +heard Patti at the Metropolitan, and so did suburban folk, who came to +$10 opera in business coats, bonnets, and shawls. Such audiences were +never seen in the theater before or since. + +This was a little Italian opera season, but a successful one, and one +housed at the Metropolitan. In the fall there had been another at the +Academy of Music, which was not a success, and which ended in a quarrel +between prima donna and manager that contributed a significant item to +the popular knowledge of the status of Italian opera. On October 18th an +Italian named Angelo began a season of Italian opera at the Academy. The +name of the company was the Angelo Grand Italian Opera Company, and its +manager's experience had been made, as an underling of Mapleson in the +luggage department. The season, as projected, was to last five weeks, +and a virtue proclaimed in the list was to be a departure from the +hurdy-gurdy list which had been doing service so long. There were smiles +among the knowing that a trunk despatcher should appear as the successor +of his former employer, and that employer so polished a man of the world +as James H. Mapleson; but opera makes strange bedfellows, and there have +been stranger things than this in its history. A Hebrew boy named Pohl +was little more than a bootblack when he entered the service of Maurice +Strakosch, but as Herr Pollini a couple of decades later he was a +partner of that elegant gentleman and experienced impresario, and one of +the operatic dictators of Germany. Eventually, in the case of the Angelo +Grand Italian Opera Company, it turned out that the Deus ex machina was +the prima donna, Giulia Valda (Miss Julia Wheelock), an American singer, +who had chosen this means of getting a hearing in her native land. The +list of operas sounded like an echo of half a century before. Five +operas were given, and four of them were by Verdi: "Luisa Miller," +"I Lombardi," "Un Ballo in Maschera," and "I due Foscari;" the remaining +opera was Petrella's "Ione." Here was an escape from the threadbare +with a vengeance. It made the critics rub their eyes and wonder if Mme. +Valda had not been in the company of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. Five +weeks were projected, but trouble came at the end of a fortnight--that +is to say, it came to public notice at the end of a fortnight; it began +probably with the season. On November 3d the persons who came to hear +a promised performance of "La Juive" found the doors of the Academy +closed. A few spasmodic efforts to galvanize the corpse into the +semblance of life were made, but in vain; the Angelo Grand Italian Opera +Company was dead. Some of its members had been heard before in other +organizations; some were heard later. They were Giulia Valda, Mlle. +Prandi, Mme. Valerga, Mlle. Corre, Mathilde Ricci, Mme. Mestress, +Mme. Bianchi-Montaldo, Signor Vicini, Lalloni, Bologna, Greco, +Giannini, Pinto, Corsi, Migliara, and Conti. The conductors were +Logheder and Bimboni, the latter of whom was discovered as a young +conductor of surprising merit twenty years later by Boston. + +One season of the American Opera Company sufficed to involve it in +such financial difficulties that its managers deemed a reorganization +necessary. It appeared, therefore, in the season of 1886-87 under the +title, National Opera Company. Mr. Theodore Thomas was still its musical +director, and Mr. Gustav Hinrichs and Arthur Mees assistant conductors; +Charles E. Locke was the business manager. The company spent the +greater part of the season in other cities, but gave two series of +representations in Brooklyn, at the Academy of Music, and one series at +the Metropolitan Opera House. The first Brooklyn season was of one week, +from December 27th to January 1st, when the German company was idle; the +second embraced the Thursday evenings from February 28th to March 26th, +during which period the company gave a regular series of representations +in New York. Among the singers were Pauline L'Allemand, Emma Juch, +Laura Moore, Mathilde Phillips (sister of Adelaide Phillips, one of +the singers of first rank sent out into the world by America), Jessie +Bartlett Davis, Mme. Bertha Pierson, William Candidus, Charles Bassett +(The Signor Bassetti of Colonel Mapleson's company in the previous +season), William Fessenden, William Ludwig, Myron W. Whitney, Alonzo E. +Stoddard, and William Hamilton. The notable feature of the repertory was +the first production in America of Rubinstein's opera "Nero," on March +14, 1887. The book had been translated for the production by Mr. John +P. Jackson. Mr. Thomas conducted, and the cast was as follows: Nero +Claudius, William Candidus; Julius Vindex, William Ludwig; Tigellinus, +A. E. Stoddard; Balbillus, Myron W. Whitney; Saccus, William Fessenden; +Sevirus and a Centurion, William Hamilton; Terpander, William H. Lee; +Poppaea, Bertha Pierson; Epicharis, Cornelia van Santen; Chrysa, Emma +Juch; Agrippina, Emily Sterling; Lupus, Pauline L'Allemand. So far as I +can recall, "Nero" is the only opera of Rubinstein's that has been given +in the United States. Its performance by the National Opera Company did +greater justice to its spectacular than its musical features, but in +this there was not a large measure of artistic obliquity. The opera +seems to have been constructed with the idea that mimic reproductions +of scenes from Rome in its most extravagant, debauched, and luxuriant +period would prove more fascinating to the public than an effort to +present the moral and intellectual life of the same place and period +through the medium of an eloquent, truthful, compact, well-built, and +logically developed drama with its essentials further vitalized by +music. From whatever side he is viewed, Nero is an excellent operatic +character, and the wonder is that the opera of Barbier and Rubinstein +did not have sixty instead of only six predecessors. Not only is it +a simple matter to group around him historical pictures of unique +interest, brilliancy, variety, and suggestiveness, but, as the +historians present him to us, he is as made for the stage. His cruelty, +profligacy, effeminacy, cowardice, and artistic vanity are traits which +invite dramatic illustration, and for each one of them the pages of +Suetonius afford incidents which accept a dramatic dress none the less +willingly because they are facts of historical record. Besides all this, +there is something like poetical justice in the conceit of making a +stage character out of the emperor who hired himself to a theatrical +manager for 1,000,000 sesterces (say $40,000--a pretty fair honorarium +for the time, I should say), and who employed a claque of 5,000 young +men. To throw a sequence of the characteristic incidents in the life +of Nero into the form of a dramatic poem, logical in its development, +and theatrically effective, ought not to be a difficult thing to do. +And yet, in the case of this opera, Barbier did not do it, and by a +singularly persistent and consistent fatality Rubinstein apparently +found every weak spot in the poet's fabric, and loosened and tangled his +threads right there. The operas and ballets performed by the National +Opera Company in this season besides "Nero" were "The Flying Dutchman," +"The Huguenots," "Faust," "Aida," "Lakmé," "The Marriage of Jeannette," +Massé's "Galatea," "Martha," "Coppelia," and Rubinstein's "Bal Costumé," +an adaptation. + +"Galatea" had its first New York performance at the Academy of Music +in Brooklyn, on December 30, 1886, under the direction of Arthur Mees; +Delibes's ballet "Coppelia" at the Metropolitan on March 11, 1887, +under the direction of Gustav Hinrichs. It is likely that both works +were previously given by the National Opera Company on tour. + +The fourth regular subscription season of opera at the Metropolitan +Opera House (third season of opera in German) began on November 8, 1886, +under the management of the board of directors, the direction of Edmund +C. Stanton, with Anton Seidl and Walter Damrosch, conductors. It +extended over fifteen weeks, the closing date being February 26, 1887, +and comprised forty-five subscription nights, and fifteen matinées, +no opera having been given from December 5th to January 3d. In the +prospectus the directors had promised to produce fourteen operas, and +the promise was kept as to number, though two operas, "Tristan und +Isolde" and "Fidelio," were substituted for "Siegfried" (which had been +completely staged) and "Les Huguenots." The operas thus substituted were +the most successful of the list, "Fidelio" being received with so much +favor on the two occasions for which it had been announced that an +extra performance had to be given to satisfy the popular demand. Of +this incident more presently. This extra performance raised the number +of representations to sixty-one, which were distributed through the list +of operas as follows: + + Opera First performance Times given + + "Die Königin von Saba" ........... November 8 ....... 4 + "Die Walküre" .................... November 10 ...... 3 + "Aïda" ........................... November 12 ...... 4 + "Der Prophet" .................... November 17 ...... 5 + "Das Goldene Kreutz" and ballet .. November 19 ...... 4 + "Tannhäuser" ..................... November 28 ...... 6 + "Tristan und Isolde" ............. December 1 ....... 8 + "Faust" .......................... December 8 ....... 3 + "Lohengrin" ...................... December 15 ...... 4 + "Merlin" ......................... January 3 ........ 5 + "Fidelio" ........................ January 14 ....... 3 + "Die Meistersinger" .............. January 21 ....... 5 + "Rienzi" ......................... January 31 ....... 5 + "La Muette de Portici" ........... February 16 ...... 2 + -- + Total performances ................................ 61 + + +The cost of representation was $288,400, and of maintaining the opera +house about $154,000; in this total of about $442,000 was included the +cost of the scenery, wardrobe, and properties. The company's receipts +comprised $202,751 from subscriptions and box office sales, about +$33,000 from rentals, and about $175,000 from an assessment of $2,500 +from each of the stockholders; in all about $410,751 I am able to be +thus explicit about the financial affairs of the German régime because +of courtesies received at the time from Mr. Stanton, with the sanction +of the stockholders, who were inclined then to look upon their +undertaking as one of public, not merely of private, concern. The +figures will enable the student of this history to view intelligently +some of the happenings at a later period, when the giving of opera +became a business speculation pure and simple. In attendance, the +measure of public patronage was represented by 137,399. The prices of +admission ranged from fifty cents to four dollars, and the average +receipts were $1.47 1/2 per individual. + +The incidents of a particularly interesting character in the season were +the first American performances of "Tristan und Isolde," and Goldmark's +opera "Merlin," and the coming and going of Albert Niemann; secondary +in importance were the production of Wagner's "Rienzi," with which was +connected the return of Anton Schott to the ranks of the company, the +surprising triumph of "Fidelio," and the production of Brüll's opera, +"Das goldene Kreutz," and the ballet, "Vienna Waltzes." "Tristan und +Isolde" was brought forward on December 1, 1886, under the direction of +Anton Seidl. The distribution of characters was as follows: Tristan, +Albert Niemann; Isolde, Lilli Lehmann; König Marke, Emil Fischer; +Kurwenal, Adolf Robinson; Melot, Rudolph von Milde; Brangäne, Marianne +Brandt; Ein Hirt, Otto Kemlitz; Steuermann, Emil Sanger; Seemann, +Max Alvary. The interesting character of the occurrence was fully +appreciated by the public, and the drama was seen and heard by a +remarkable assembly. The last seat had been sold four days before, and +the vast audience room was crowded in every portion. The tenseness of +the attention was almost painful, and the effect of Herr Niemann's +acting in the climax of the third act was so vivid that an experienced +actress who sat in a baignoir at my elbow grew faint and almost swooned. +At the request of Mr. Stanton, or Mr. Seidl, he never ventured again +to expose the wound in his breast, though the act is justified, if +not demanded, by the text. The enthusiasm after the first act was +tremendous. The performers came forward three times after the fall of +the curtain, and then Mr. Seidl, who had won the greenest laurels that +had yet crowned him, was called upon to join them, and twice more the +curtain rose to enable the performers to receive the popular tribute. +Five recalls after an act would have meant either nothing or a failure +in an Italian theater; it was of vast meaning here. The reception +accorded Wagner's love drama was not such an one as comes from an +audience easily pleased or attracted by curiosity alone. It told of +keen and lofty enjoyment and undisguised confession of the power of +the drama. The applause came after the last note of the orchestral +postludes. The drama was performed eight times in seven weeks, and +took its place as the most popular work in the repertory, though in +average attendance it fell a trifle short of the three representations +of "Fidelio," which also served to signalize the season. + +I shall have something to say presently about Herr Niemann, and a +criticism of his interpretation of the character of the hero of the +tragedy can be spared. From a histrionic point of view it has been +equaled only by his performances of Siegmund and Tannhäuser; nothing +else has shown such stature that has been witnessed on the operatic +stage of New York. Nor has his declamation of the text been equaled, +though the compelling charm of Wagner's melody was potently presented +years later by Jean de Reszke. Herr Niemann was long past the prime of +life when he came to New York, and when he went back to Berlin after +his last visit there was very little left of his public career; but the +youngest artist in the company might have envied him the whole-souled +enthusiasm with which he set about his tasks. How completely he +dedicated himself to the artistic duty was illustrated when, in the +season of 1887-88, he realized what had been the ambition of years, +and gave a first performance of Siegfried in "Götterdämmerung." He had +studied the part a dozen years before in the hope of appearing in it +at the first Bayreuth festival; but Wagner did not want the illusion +spoiled by presenting the actor of Siegmund on one evening as the actor +of Siegfried on another, and Niemann's Siegmund was a masterpiece that +must not be despoiled. In New York, on Niemann's second visit, he asked +for the privilege of enacting the Volsung's part in the last division of +the tetralogy, and studied the part ab initio with Seidl. I chanced one +evening to be a witness of his study hour--the strangest one I ever saw. +It was at the conductor's lodgings in the opera house. There was a +pianoforte in the room, but it was closed. The two men sat at a table +with the open score before them. Seidl beat time to the inaudible +orchestral music, and Niemann sang sans support of any kind. Then +would come discussion of readings, markings of cues, etc., all with +indescribable gravity, while Frau Seidl-Krauss, a charming ingénue +budding into a tragedienne, sat sewing in a corner. After the +performance of the drama, I sat again with Niemann and Seidl over +cigars and beer. I thanked Niemann for having discarded a universal +trick in the scene of Siegfried's murder, and for carrying out Wagner's +stage directions to the letter in raising his shield and advancing a +step to crush Hagen, and then falling exhausted upon it. + +"I am glad you noted that," said Niemann in his broad Berlinese. "Years +ago I was angered by the device which all Siegfrieds follow of lifting +the shield high and throwing it behind themselves before they fall. +Das hat doch gar kein Sinn. There's no sense in that; if he has +strength enough to throw the shield over his head, he certainly has +strength enough to hurl it at the man he wants to kill. He lifts the +heavy shield for that purpose, but his strength gives way suddenly, and +he falls upon it with a crash. It's dangerous, of course. A fellow might +easily break a finger or a rib. But if you do a thing, do it right. I +have waited more than ten years to sing Siegfried, and now I've done it; +but, youngster (to Seidl), if we meet again years from now, and I've +fifty marks in my pocket, I'll get an orchestra, and you will conduct +just enough to let me sing 'Ach! dieses Auge, ewig nun offen,' and +then I'll die in peace! That's the climax of Siegfried's part, and it +must sound red, blood red--Siegfried is red; so is Tristan. Vogl sings +Tristan well, but he's all yellow--not red, as he ought to be." + +I recall another bit of Niemann's characteristic criticism: Adolf +Robinson, the barytone of the first few German seasons, was an excellent +singer and also actor; but he belonged to the old operatic school, +and was prone to extravagant action and exaggerated pathos. He was, +moreover, fond of the footlights. At one of the last rehearsals for +"Tristan und Isolde," Robinson, the Kurwenal of the occasion, was +perpetually running from the dying hero's couch to the front of the +stage to sing his pathetic phrases with tremendous feeling into the +faces of the audience. Niemann, reclining on the couch, immovable as +a recumbent statue, as was his wont, without a gesture, all evidence +of the seething impatience which is consuming him mirrored in the +expression of his face, and particularly his eyes, watched the +conventional stage antics of his colleague till he could endure them no +longer. He gave a sign to Seidl, who stopped the orchestra to hear the +dying knight addressing his squire in wingèd, but un-Wagnerian, words +to this effect: + +"My dear Robinson, this scene is not all yours--Tristan has also +something to say here; but how am I to make my share of the dramatic +effect if you are always going to run down to the audience and sing at +it? After a while there will be nothing left for me to do but to get +up and hurl my boots into the audience room. And I'm a very sick man. +Now, there's a good fellow, come over here to the couch; stay by me +and nurse me, and you'll see there's something in my part, too." + +Niemann's first American appearance was on November 10th in "Die +Walküre." From the criticism of his performance, which I wrote for +The Tribune on that occasion, I reprint the following extract as +the best summing up which I am able to make of the great dramatic +singer's art: + + +The creation of a Wagnerian musical drama created also the need of +Wagnerian singers. Those who go to see and hear Herr Niemann must go to +see and hear him as the representative of the character that he enacts. +It is only thus that they can do justice to themselves, to him, and to +the art-work in which he appears. A drama can only be vitalized through +representation, and the first claim to admiration which Herr Niemann +puts forth is based on the intensely vivid and harmonious picture of +the Volsung which he brings on the stage. There is scarcely one of the +theatrical conventions which the public have been accustomed to accept +that he employs. He takes possession of the stage like an elemental +force. Wagner's dramas have excited the fancy of painters more than any +dramatic works of the century, because Wagner was in a lofty sense a +scenic artist. Niemann's genius, for less it can scarcely be called, +utilizes this picturesque element to the full. His attitudes and +gestures all seem parts of Wagner's creation. They are not only instinct +with life, but instinct with the sublimated life of the hero of the +drama. When he staggers into Hunding's hut and falls upon the bearskin +beside the hearth a thrill passes through the observer. Part of his +story is already told, and it is repeated with electrifying eloquence in +the few words that he utters when his limbs refuse their office. The +voice is as weary as the exhausted body. In the picturesque side of his +impersonation he is aided by the physical gifts with which nature has +generously endowed him. The figure is colossal; the head, like "the +front of Jove himself"; the eyes large and full of luminous light, that +seems to dart through the tangled and matted hair that conceals the +greater portion of his face. The fate for which he has been marked out +has set its seal in the heroic melancholy which is never absent even in +his finest frenzies, but in the glare of those eyes there is something +that speaks unfalteringly of the godlike element within him. This +element asserts itself with magnificent force in the scene where +Siegmund draws the sword from its gigantic sheath, and again when he +calmly listens to the proclamation of his coming death, and declines +the services of the messenger of Wotan who is sent to conduct him to +Walhalla. + +There are aspects in which, even from a literary point of view, Wagner's +"Ring of the Nibelung" seems to be the most Teutonic of the several +German versions of the old legend which is its basis. It is a primitive +Teutonism, however, without historical alloy; such a Teutonism as we can +construct by letting the imagination work back from the most forceful +qualities of the historical German to those which representatives of +the same race may have had in a prehistoric age. The period of Wagner's +tetralogy, it must be remembered, is purely mythical. The ruggedness of +the type which we obtain by such a process is the strong charactertistic +of Herr Niemann's treatment of Wagner's musical and literary text. It +is, like the drama itself, an exposition of the German esthetic ideal: +strength before beauty. It puts truthful declamation before beautiful +tone production in his singing and lifts dramatic color above what is +generally considered essential musical color. That from this a new +beauty results all those can testify who hear Herr Niemann sing the love +song in the first act of "Die Walküre," which had previously in America +been presented only as a lyrical effusion and given with more or less +sweetness and sentimentality. Herr Niemann was the first representative +of the character who made this passage an eager, vital, and personal +expression of a mood so ecstatic that it resorts to symbolism, as if +there was no other language for it. The charm with which he invests the +poetry of this song (for this is poetry) can only be appreciated by one +who is on intimate terms with the German language, but the dramatic +effect attained by his use of tone color and his marvelous distinctness +of enunciation all can feel. + +The defects in Herr Niemann's singing, the result of the long and hard +wear to which his voice has been subjected in a career of thirty-five +years' duration, are so obvious that I need not discuss them. To do +so would be as idle as to attempt to deny their presence. He must be +heard as a singing actor, as a dramatic interpreter, not as a mere +singer. + + +Niemann said farewell to the New York public at a notable performance +of "Tristan und Isolde," the last of the season, on February 7, 1887. +I doubt if the history of opera in New York discloses anything like +a parallel to the occasion. Out of doors the night was distressingly +dismal. A cold rain fell intermittently; the streets were deep with +slush, and the soft ice made walking on the pavements uncomfortable, +and even dangerous. But these things were not permitted to interfere +with the determination of the lovers of the German lyric drama to bear +testimony to their admiration for the artist who had done so much for +their pleasure. The house was crowded in every part. Every seat had been +sold days before. Many of the tickets had been bought by speculators, +who, in spite of the untoward weather, reaped a rich harvest. During the +day the prices obtained varied from ten dollars to fifteen dollars for +the orchestra stalls (regular price, four dollars), and at night seats +in the topmost gallery fetched as much as three dollars, which was six +times the regular tariff. There were delegations in the audience from +Boston, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. The enthusiasm after each act +was of the kind that recalled familiar stories of popular outbursts in +impressionable Italy. Herr Niemann husbanded his vocal resources in the +first act, but after that both he and Fräulein Lehmann threw themselves +into the work with utter abandon, such abandon, indeed, as made some of +the prima donna's friends tremble for her voice. After two recalls had +followed the second fall of the curtain a third round was swelled by +a fanfare from the orchestra. To acknowledge this round Herr Niemann +came forward alone, and was greeted with cheers, while a laurel wreath, +bearing on one of its ribbons the significant line from "Tannhäuser," +"O, kehr zurück, du kühner Sänger," was handed up to him. The third act +wrought the enthusiasm to a climax. After the curtain had been raised +over and over again, Herr Niemann came forward and said, in German: "I +regret exceedingly that I am not able to tell you in your own language +how sincerely I appreciate your kindness toward me. I thank you +heartily, and would like to say 'Auf wiedersehn.'" His place for the +rest of the season was filled by Herr Anton Schott. + +I have referred to the "Fidelio" incident of the season, which may now +be told, since Herr Niemann also figured in it. To Beethoven "Fidelio" +was a child of sorrow; that fact is known to every student of musical +history. On its first production it failed dismally. With his heart +strings torn, the composer yielded to the arguments and prayers of his +friends and revised the opera. In the new form it was revived, and made +a better impression; but now Beethoven quarreled with his manager, and +withdrew his opera from the Vienna theater. He offered it in Berlin, and +it was rejected. For seven years it slept. Then it was taken in hand +again by the composer, and adapted to a revised text. Some of the music +elided at the first revision was restored. By this time four overtures +had been written for it. Again it was brought forward; and this time the +Viennese awoke to an appreciation of its splendor. Since 1814 its name +has been almost the ineffable word for the serious musician. But sorrow +and disaster have followed upon innumerable efforts to habilitate it +in the opera houses of the world. We have seen that Dr. Damrosch made +haste to produce it at the Metropolitan Opera House, but the financial +results were so direful that two years later it was only upon the urgent +entreaty of a few friends who stood close to him that Mr. Stanton +consented to include it in the repertory for 1886-87. + +"But," said the director to his petitioners, "if I give it once I must +give it twice, for I have two Leonores in my company, and there must be +no quarrel." + +So he gave the opera on Friday, January 14th, with Fraulein Brandt +as the heroine, and on Wednesday, January 19th, with Fräulein +Lehmann--Niemann being the Florestan on both occasions. The enthusiasm +was boundless, though the silly laugh of a woman in one of the boxes at +the first performance so disconcerted Fräulein Brandt at the beginning +of the duet in the dungeon scene that she broke down in tears, and Mr. +Seidl had to stop the orchestra till she could sufficiently recover her +composure to begin over again. Now, the popular interest was so great +that Mr. Stanton gave an extra performance, with Fräulein Lehmann, and +when the record of the season was made up, lo! Beethoven's opera led +all the rest in average receipts and attendance. In Berlin, Dr. Ehrlich +preached a sermon to the people of Germany with the incident as a text. + +As a novelty "Tristan und Isolde" had been preceded on November 19th +by Brüll's pretty little opera, "Das goldene Kreutz," and the ballet, +"Vienna Waltzes." It was succeeded on January 3d by Goldmark's "Merlin," +conducted by Walter Damrosch, with the parts distributed as follows: +Artus, Robinson; Modrid, Kemlitz; Gawein, Heinrich; Lancelot, Basch; +Merlin, Alvary; Viviane, Lehmann; Bedwyr, Von Milde; Glendower, +Sieglitz; Morgana, Brandt; Dämon, Fischer. Much interest centered in +the opera because of its newness (it had received its first production +in Vienna less than two months before), and the great success achieved +by its predecessor, "The Queen of Sheba;" but it failed of popular +approval, eight operas preceding it in popularity, as evidenced by +the attendance, and but one of them--"Tristan"--a novelty. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +WAGNERIAN HIGH TIDE + + +In this chapter I purpose to tell the story of a period of three years, +from 1887 to 1890, and in order to cover the ground I shall leave out +what appertains to the repetition of works incorporated in the repertory +of the Metropolitan Opera House during the preceding three seasons. + +The period was an eventful one and marked the high-water of achievement +and also of popularity of the German régime, but also the beginning of +the dissatisfaction of the boxholders, which resulted two years later in +a return to the Italian form. It witnessed the introduction of the "Ring +of the Nibelung" in its integrity and illustrated in a surprising manner +the superior attractiveness of Wagner's dramas to the rest of the +operatic list. Outside of the Nibelung dramas it brought two absolute +novelties to the knowledge of the public and revived several old operas +of large historical and artistic significance, which had either never +been heard at all in New York, or heard so long ago that all memory of +them had faded from the public mind. It saw the light of competition +flicker out completely at the Academy of Music, and after a year of +darkness it beheld the dawn of Italian rivalry in what had become the +home of German art. + +Twenty operas were brought forward in the first three years of the +German régime. They were "Tannhäuser," "Fidelio," "Les Huguenots," +"Der Freischütz," "William Tell," "Lohengrin," "Don Giovanni," "The +Prophet," "Masaniello," "Rigoletto," "La Juive," "Die Walküre," +"Carmen," "The Queen of Sheba," "Die Meistersinger," "Rienzi," "Aïda," +"Das Goldene Kreutz," "Tristan und Isolde," and "Merlin." (In this list +I have set down the titles in the language in which they live in the +popular mouth in order to avoid what might seem like an affectation were +I to use the German form always in the story simply because the Italian +and French works were sung in German.) Additions to the list in the +season of 1887-88 were "Siegfried," "Der Trompeter von Säkkingen," +"Euryanthe," "Ferdinand Cortez," and "Götterdämmerung"; in the season of +1888-89, "L'Africaine," "Das Rheingold," and "Il Trovatore"; in 1889-90, +"Der Fliegende Holländer," "Un Ballo in Maschera," "Norma," and "Der +Barbier von Bagdad." + +The record of the last two years indicated a falling off in energy, +but though it caused disaffection at the time, it seems notable enough +compared with the activities of the establishment twenty years later +under much more favorable circumstances. For the last of the three +seasons under discussion seven additions to what was called by courtesy +the established list had been promised; but counting in "Norma," (a +special performance for the benefit of Lilli Lehmann) and "The Flying +Dutchman," which had been promised only by implication in the plan of +a serial representation of Wagner's works, only four additions were +made. Two causes operated toward the disappointing outcome. One was an +epidemic of influenza which prevailed during the greater part of the +winter and caused much embarrassment to the singers; the other was the +inefficiency of the chorus--a defect which has not yet been remedied, +but was greater in the season 1907-08 than a decade earlier. "Otello" +was in readiness so far as the principals were concerned, but the chorus +consumed so much time restudying old works that it had to be abandoned; +also Lalo's "Le Roy d'Ys." Though the stockholders were giving opera +themselves for themselves, they took no steps toward making it a +permanent institution. Their decision to give German opera was made from +year to year, and the end of every season brought with it practically +a complete disruption of the company. There had to be a reorganization +each fall. The directors were unwilling to give their own manager +the degree of permanence which they bestowed without hesitation upon +a lessee, and the policy of the house was thus kept continually in +controversy. The fact is that the activities of the Germans were not +to the taste of the stockholders, who were getting serious art where +they were looking for fashionable diversion. This became painfully +obvious when the conduct of the occupants of the boxes scandalized +the institution to such a degree that the directors were compelled to +administer a public rebuke to themselves and their associates, and a +stigma was placed upon the institution from which it has suffered, +very unjustly, ever since. But a discussion of these incidents can be +more intelligently and profitably introduced later in this narrative. + +The fourth German season began on November 2, 1887, and ended on +February 18, 1888, and consisted of forty-seven subscription nights, +sixteen subscription matinées, and one extra matinée. In all fourteen +operas were produced. The two Wagnerian novelties, "Götterdämmerung" +and "Siegfried," were the most popular features of the season, the +former being given seven times, though it was the last of the season's +productions. It brought into the treasury a total of $30,324, or +an average of $4,332, and was heard by audiences averaging 2,871. +"Siegfried" was a good second. It had nine weeks' advantage of +"Götterdämmerung" and was performed eleven times, with total receipts +amounting to $37,124.50, or an average of $3,374.95. Pursued by its +old fatality, "Fidelio" dropped to the foot of the list with four +performances, which yielded only $8,997. The receipts for the season +were $411,860.24, of which $190,087.24 came from the box office sales +and subscriptions, $170,180 from the stockholders' assessment of $2,500 +on each box, and $51,593 from rentals. This assessment was only $24,000 +more than the cost of maintaining the opera-house, which was about +$146,000. The staging of new operas cost $19,727.27, more than half of +which was expended on Spontini's "Ferdinand Cortez." The scenery for +"Siegfried" had been purchased the year before and also the costumes for +that drama and "Götterdämmerung." The principal members of the company +were Lilli Lehmann, Marianne Brandt, Auguste Seidl-Krauss, Biro di +Marion, Louise Meisslinger, Albert Niemann, Max Alvary, Emil Fischer, +Adolf Robinson, Rudolph von Milde, Johannes Elmblad, Herr Ferenczy, +and Herr Alexi. + +The first American representation of Wagner's "Siegfried" took place on +November 9, 1887. Anton Seidl conducted and the parts were distributed +as follows: Siegfried, Max Alvary; Mime, Herr Ferenczy; der Wanderer, +Emil Fischer; Alberich, Rudolph von Milde; Fafner, Johannes Elmblad; +Erda, Marianne Brandt; Brünnhilde, Lilli Lehmann; Stimme des +Waldvogels, Auguste Seidl-Krauss. The production of this drama was +an invitation to the people of New York to take the longest and most +decisive step away from the ordinary conventions of the lyric theater +that had yet been asked of them. At the time it seemed foolishly +presumptive to attempt a prediction of what the response would be. A +season before "Tristan und Isolde" had been received with great favor +and under conditions which did not admit a question of the honesty and +intelligence of the appreciation. This was encouraging to the lovers of +Wagner's dramas, but the difference between opera of the ordinary type +and "Tristan und Isolde" is not so great as between "Tristan und Isolde" +and "Siegfried," notwithstanding that in the love tragedy Wagner took +as uncompromising a stand as ever did a Greek poet, and hewed to the +lines of his theoretical scheme with unswerving fidelity. In the +subject-matter of the drama lies the distinction. Despite the absence of +the ethical element which places "Tannhäuser" immeasurably higher than +"Tristan" as a dramatic poem, the latter drama contains an expression of +the universal passion which is so vehement, so truthful, and so sublime +that it seems strange that anybody susceptible to music and gifted with +emotions could ever have been deaf to its beauties or callous to its +appeals. Besides this, the sympathies are stirred in behalf of the +personages of the play who stand as representatives of human nature, +and, though the co-operation of a chorus, which has always been +considered an essential element of the lyric drama, is restricted to +a single act, the dramatic necessity of the restriction is so obvious +that an audience, once engrossed in the tragedy, must needs resent such +a violation of propriety as the introduction of a chorus in any scene +except that of the first act would be. In "Siegfried," however, the case +is not so plain. Here there is not only no chorus, but scarcely more +than five minutes during which even two solo voices are blended in a +duet. Except Siegfried and Brünnhilde, the personages of the play have +no claim upon human sympathy, and their actions can scarcely arouse a +loftier feeling than curiosity. Through two acts and a portion of the +third, save in a dozen measures or so, the music of woman's voice and +the charm of woman's presence are absent from the stage, and, instead, +we are asked to accept a bear, a dragon, and a bird, a sublimely solemn +peripatetic god who asks riddles and laughs once, and two dwarfs, +repulsive of mind and hideous of body. + +These are the drawbacks concerning which there can be no controversy. +To them are to be added the difficulties which result from a desire +to employ in a serious drama mechanical devices of a kind that custom +associates only with children's pantomimes and idle spectacles. A bear +is brought in to frighten a dwarf; a dragon sings, vomits forth steam +from its cavernous jaws, fights and dies with a kindly and prophetic +warning to its slayer; a bird becomes endowed with the gift of human +speech through a miraculous process which takes place in one of the +people of the play. Surely these are grounds on which "Siegfried" might +be stoutly criticized from the conventional as well as a universal point +of view; but I have not enumerated them for the purpose of disparaging +Wagner's drama, but rather to show the intellectual and esthetic +attitude of the patrons of the Metropolitan Opera House twenty years +ago, who, through all these defects, saw in "Siegfried" a strangely +beautiful and impressive creation, which, under trying circumstances, +challenged their plaudits at the outset and soon won their enthusiastic +admiration. + +More direct and emphatic was the appreciation of "Götterdämmerung," the +last of the season's novelties, as "Siegfried" was the first. It was +produced on January 25, 1888, only three weeks before the close of the +season, yet it was given six times in the subscription performances +and once outside the subscription, with the financial results already +mentioned. The cast was as follows: Siegfried, Albert Niemann; Gunther, +Adolf Robinson; Hagen, Emil Fischer; Alberich, Rudolph von Milde; +Brünnhilde, Lilli Lehmann; Gutrune, Auguste Seidl-Krauss; Woglinde, +Sophie Traubmann; Wellgunde, Marianne Brandt; Flosshilde, Louise +Meisslinger. Mr. Seidl conducted. It was but natural that the concluding +drama of the tetralogy should have excited warmer sympathy than its +immediate predecessor. In it the human element becomes really active +for the first time. This circumstance Mr. Seidl accentuated by two bold +excisions. One of the things for which Wagner has been faulted is that +in his treatment of the Siegfried legend he has sacrificed historical +elements in order to bring it into closer relationship with Norse +mythology; has, in fact, made the fate of the gods and goddesses of +our ancestors the chief concern of the prologue and succeeding dramas. +Except for those who prefer to see only ethical symbols in the +characters there is some force in the objection. Like Homer in his +"Iliad," Wagner has a celestial as well as a terrestrial plot in his +"Ring of the Nibelung," and the men and women, or semi-divine creatures, +in it are but the unconscious agents of the good and evil powers +typified in the gods and dwarfs. + +The criticism, however, is weaker here than in Germany, where ten or a +dozen dramas (chief of which is Geibel's "Brünnhild"), as well as the +medieval epics, have accustomed the people to think of their national +hero with something like historical surroundings. In these writings +the death of Siegfried is brought about by his alliance with the +Burgundians, whose seat was at Worms; and the Gunther of the legend +is easily identified with King Gundikar, who was overcome by Attila +and died A.D. 450. Wagner's original draft of "Götterdämmerung" (an +independent drama which he called "Siegfried's Death") followed the +accepted lines, and it was not until the tetralogy was planned that the +mythological elements from the Eddas were drawn into the scheme, the +theater of the play changed, its time pushed back into a prehistoric +age, and the death of the hero made to bring about the destruction +of the old gods--the Ragnarök of the Icelandic tales. The connection +between the death of Siegfried and the fate of the gods is set +forth in the two scenes which were eliminated at this production of +"Götterdämmerung." The first is the prologue in which the Nornir (the +Fates of Northern mythology), while twisting the golden-stranded rope of +the world's destiny, tell of the signs which presage the Twilight of the +Gods. The second is the interview between Brünnhilde and Waltraute, one +of the Valkyrior, who comes to urge her sister to avert the doom which +threatens the gods by restoring the baneful ring to the Rhine daughters. +Both scenes are highly significant in the plan of the tragedy as a +whole, but a public largely unfamiliar with German and unconcerned +about Wagner's philosophical purposes can much more easily spare than +endure them. In later years they were restored at the Metropolitan +performances, but I make no doubt that Mr. Seidl's wise abbreviation +had much to do with the unparalleled success of the drama in its first +season. Persons familiar with the German tongue and the tetralogy, +either from study of the book and music or from attendance on +performances in Germany, were justified in being disappointed at the +loss of two scenes highly important from a dramatic point of view and +profoundly beautiful from a musical; but it was better to achieve +success for the representations by adapting the drama to the capacity +of the public than to sacrifice it bodily on the altar of integrity. + +Nessler's opera, "Der Trompeter von Säkkingen," which had for nearly +five years fairly devastated the German opera houses, receiving more +performances than any three operas in the current lists, won only a +succès d'estime. It was performed for the first time on November 23d, +dressed most sumptuously and effectively cast (Robinson as Werner, +Elmblad as Conradin, Kemlitz as the Major-domo, Sänger as the Baron, +Frau Seidl-Krauss as Marie, Von Milde as Graf von Wildenstein, and +Meisslinger as Gräfin), but it reached only seven performances, was +fourth from the bottom in the list arranged according to popularity, +and in the following year it was not included in the repertory. In +1889-90 it was revived and received four performances, but its rank was +seventeenth in a list of nineteen. Weber's "Euryanthe" fared but little +better, though a work immeasurably greater. It, too, received four +performances, and it was but one remove in advance of "Der Trompeter." +To all intents and purposes it was new to the American stage when it was +produced on December 23, 1887, with Lehmann, Brandt, Alvary, Fischer, +and Elmblad in the parts of Euryanthe, Eglantine, Adolar, Lysiart, and +the King, respectively. Mr. Seidl conducted. Twenty-four years before +there had been some representations of the opera under the direction of +Carl Anschütz in Wallack's Theater, at Broadway and Broome Street, but +of this fact the patrons of the Metropolitan Opera House had no memory. +It was a beautiful act of devotion on the part of Herr Anschütz and his +German singers to produce "Euryanthe" at that time, and, had it been +possible to break down the barriers of fashion and reach the heart of +the public, the history of the lyric theater in America during the +quarter of a century which followed would, no doubt, read differently +than it does. "Tannhäuser" and "Lohengrin" were produced under similar +circumstances, and even "Die Walküre"; but "Lohengrin" was popularized +by the subsequent performances in Italian, and "Tannhäuser" and "Die +Walküre" had to wait for appreciation until fortuitous circumstances +caused fashion, fame, and fortune to smile for a space upon the German +establishment at the Metropolitan. It may have been a benignant fate +which preserved "Euryanthe" from representation in the interval. The +work is one which it is impossible for a serious music lover to approach +without affection, but appreciation of all its beauties is conditioned +upon the acceptance of theories touching the purpose, construction, +and representation of the lyric drama which did not obtain validity +in America until the German artists at the Metropolitan had completed +their missionary labors. Indeed, there are aspects of the case in which +Weber's opera, with all its affluence of melody and all its potency +of romantic and chivalric expression, is yet further removed from +popular appreciation than the dramas of Wagner. In these there is +so much orchestral pomp, so much external splendor, so much scenic +embellishment, so much that is attractive to both eye and ear, that +delight in them may exist independently of a recognition of their deeper +values. "Euryanthe" still comes before us with modest consciousness of +grievous dramatic defects and pleading for consideration and pardon +even while demanding with proper dignity recognition of the soundness +and beauty of the principles that underlie its score and the marvelous +tenderness, sincerity, and intensity of its expression of passion. +When it was first brought forward in Vienna in October, 1823, Castelli +observed that it was come fifty years before its time. He spoke with a +voice of prophecy. It was not until the fifty years had expired that +"Euryanthe" really came into its rights, and it was the light reflected +upon it by the works of Weber's great successor at Dresden that +disclosed in what those rights consisted. After that the critical voices +of the world agreed in pronouncing "Euryanthe" to be the starting point +of Wagner, and, as the latter's works grew in appreciation, "Euryanthe" +shone with ever-growing refulgence. No opera was ever prepared at the +Metropolitan with more patience, self-sacrifice, zeal, and affection +than this, and the spontaneous, hearty, sincere approbation to which the +audience gave expression must have been as sweet incense to Mr. Seidl +and the forces that he directed. But "Euryanthe" is a twin sister in +misfortune to "Fidelio"; the public will not take it to its heart. It +disappeared from the Metropolitan list with the end of the season which +witnessed its revival. + +A dozen or more circumstances combined to give the first performance of +Spontini's "Ferdinand Cortez," which took place on January 6, 1888, a +unique sort of interest. In one respect it was a good deal like trying +to resuscitate a mummy, for whatever of interest historical criticism +found in the opera, a simple hearing of the music was sufficient to +convince the public that Spontini was the most antiquated composer that +had been presented to their attention in several years. Compared with +him Gluck and Mozart had real, dewy freshness, and Weber spoke in +the language of to-day. Nevertheless, Spontini still stands as the +representative of a principle, and if it had been possible for Mr. +Stanton to supplement "Ferdinand Cortez" with "Armida" or "Iphigenia in +Aulis," the Metropolitan repertory would admirably have exemplified the +development of the dramatic idea and its struggle with simple lyricism +in opera composition. The public would have been asked to take the steps +in the reverse order, it is true--Wagner, Weber, Spontini, Gluck--but +this circumstance would only have added to the clearness of the +historical exposition. The light which significant art works throw out +falls brightest upon the creations which lie behind them in the pathway +of progress. "Euryanthe" was understood through the mediation of +"Tristan und Isolde." "Ferdinand Cortez" has an American subject; the +conqueror of Mexico is the only naturalized American with whom we had +an acquaintance till Pinkerton came on the stage in Puccini's "Madama +Butterfly," and Mr. Stanton surpassed all his previous efforts in the +line of spectacle to celebrate the glories of this archaic American +opera. The people employed in the representation rivaled in numbers +those who constituted the veritable Cortez's army, while the horses came +within three of the number that the Spaniard took into Mexico. This was +carrying realism pretty close to historical verity. A finer sense of +dramatic propriety, however, was exhibited in the care with which the +pictures and paraphernalia of the opera were prepared. The ancient +architecture of Mexico, the sculptures, the symbols of various kinds +carried in the processions, the banners of Montezuma and some of the +costumes of his warriors were copied with painstaking fidelity from the +remains of the civilization which existed in Mexico at the time of the +conquest. The cast of the opera was this: Cortez, Niemann; Alvarez, +Alvary; High Priest, Fischer; Telasko, Robinson; Montezuma, Elmblad; +Morales, Von Milde; Amazily, Fräulein Meisslinger. + +The prospectus for the season of 1888-89 announced sixteen weeks of +opera between November 28th and March 16th, the subscription to be for +forty-seven nights and sixteen matinées. The last two weeks were set +apart for two consecutive representations of the dramas constituting +"The Ring of the Nibelung." The difficulties involved in an effort to +compass the tetralogy in a week combined with other circumstances to +compel an extension of the season for a week, much to the advantage of +the enterprise. The final record showed that fifty evening and eighteen +afternoon performances had taken place between the opening night and +March 23, 1889. Sixteen works were performed, the relative popularity +of which is indicated in the following list: "Götterdämmerung," +"Tannhäuser," "Das Rheingold," "La Juive," "Il Trovatore," "Lohengrin," +"Aïda," "Siegfried," "L'Africaine," "Die Meistersinger," "Les +Huguenots," "Die Walküre," "Faust," "Le Prophète," "Fidelio," and +"William Tell." The most significant new production--indeed the only +significant one--was "Das Rheingold," which completed the acquaintance +of the New York public with the current works of Wagner, "Parsifal" +being still under the Bayreuth embargo, although it had several times +been given in concert form. The total cost of the representations, not +including scenery, costumes, properties, and music, was $333,731.31, +or an average of $4,907.78 a representation. The total receipts from +the opera were $213,630.99, divided as follows: Box office sales, +$149,973.50; subscriptions, $59,607.50; privileges, $4,049.99. The +average receipts a representation were $3,141.63. The loss to the +stockholders on the operatic account was $1,766.15 a representation, +which was covered by the receipt of $201,180.00 from the stockholders +for the maintenance of the establishment, the fixed charges on +the building, and the cost of scenery, music, etc., amounting to +$144,455.81. + +"Das Rheingold" was produced for the first time on January 4, 1889, +under the direction of Mr. Seidl, and was performed nine times in +the ten weeks of the season which remained. The artists concerned in +the production were Emil Fischer as Wotan, Max Alvary as Loge, Alois +Grienauer as Donner, Albert Mittelhauser as Froh, Joseph Beck as +Alberich, Wilhelm Sedlmayer as Mime, Eugen Weiss as Fafner, Ludwig +Mödlinger as Fasolt, Fanny Moran-Olden as Fricka, Katti Bettaque as +Freia, Sophie Traubmann as Woglinde, Felice Kaschowska as Wellgunde, +Hedwig Reil as Flosshilde, and again, Hedwig Reil as Erda. + +The sixth season of opera in German began on November 27, 1889, and +ended on March 22, 1890. Within this period fifty evening and seventeen +afternoon subscription performances were given and there was an extra +performance on February 27th for the benefit of Lilli Lehmann, who +had stipulated for it in her contract in lieu of an increase in +her honorarium, demanded and refused. The sixty-seven subscription +performances were devoted to nineteen operas and dramas which are +here named in the order of popularity as indicated by attendance and +receipts: "Siegfried," "Don Giovanni," "Die Meistersinger," "Tristan +und Isolde," "Lohengrin," "Das Rheingold," "Der Barbier von Bagdad," +"Tannhäuser," "Der Fliegende Holländer," "Götterdämmerung," "Die +Königin von Saba," "William Tell," "Aïda," "Die Walküre," "Rienzi," +"Il Trovatore," "Der Trompeter von Säkkingen," "Un Ballo in Maschera," +and "La Juive." The ballet "Die Puppenfee" was performed in connection +with the opera "Der Barbier von Bagdad." The last three weeks of the +season were devoted to representations in chronological order (barring +an exchange between "Tristan" and "Meistersinger") of all the operas +and lyric dramas of Wagner from "Rienzi" to "Götterdämmerung," +inclusive. The total receipts from subscriptions, box office sales, +and privileges were $209,866.35; average, $3,132.34. The total cost of +producing the operas (not including scenery, costumes, properties, and +music) was $352,990.32, or an average of $5,268.52 per representation. +On this showing the loss to the stockholders on operatic account was +$2,136.18 a representation, which was met by an assessment of $3,000 a +box; of this sum $1,200 went to the fixed charges on the opera house. + +The one novelty of the season was Peter Cornelius's "Barbier von +Bagdad," which had its first performance on January 4, 1890. The +production was embarrassed by mishaps and misfortunes. It had been +announced for December 25th, but Mr. Paul Kalisch, the tenor, fell ill +with the prevailing epidemic and a postponement became necessary. It was +set down for January 4th, but when that day came Mr. Seidl was ill. He +had prepared the opera with great care and loving devotion, but at the +eleventh hour had to hand his baton to his youthful assistant, Walter +Damrosch. The beautiful work had only four representations. The original +cast was as follows: Caliph, Josef Beck; Mustapha, Wilhelm Sedlmayer; +Margiana, Sophie Traubmann; Bostana, Charlotte Huhn; the Barber, Emil +Fischer. "Die Puppenfee," ballet by J. Hassreiter and F. Gaul, music by +Joseph Bayer, followed the opera and was conducted by Frank Damrosch. +The most important addition to the forces in this season was Theodor +Reichmann, who effected his entrance on the American stage on the first +evening in Wagner's "Flying Dutchman." Herr Reichmann was known to +American pilgrims to the Wagnerian Mecca as the admired representative +of Amfortas in "Parsifal," but his impersonation of the Dutchman was +equally famous in Vienna and the German capitals. On this occasion Mr. +Seidl restored the architect's original design with reference to the +band. Mr. Cady's device had never had a fair trial. Signor Vianesi +condemned it in the first season. When Dr. Damrosch took the helm he +tried it, but abandoned it and resorted to the compromise suggested by +Vianesi, which raised the musicians nearly to the level of the first row +of stalls in the audience room. The growth of the band sent the drummers +outside the railing, but no one was brave enough to restore the original +arrangement till the opening of the sixth German season. + +I come to the operatic activities of the period beyond the walls of the +Metropolitan. They scarcely amounted to opposition at any time, though +at the end of the third year there came a brief season of Italian opera +in the home of the German institution which whetted the appetites of the +boxholders and, no doubt, had much to do with the revolution which took +place two years later. In 1887, beginning on October 17th and ending in +December, there was a series of performances at the Thalia Theater which +served again to indicate that German opera had a following among the +people who could not afford to patronize the aristocratic establishment. +This season was arranged to exploit Heinrich Bötel, a coachman-tenor +of the Wachtel stripe, who came from the Stadttheater, in Hamburg. The +prima donna was Frau Herbert-Förster, the wife of Victor Herbert, +who had been a member of the Metropolitan company while her husband, +afterward the most successful of writers for the American operetta +stage, sat in Mr. Seidl's orchestra. The operas given were "Trovatore," +"Martha," "The Postilion of Lonjumeau," Flotow's "Stradella," "La Dame +Blanche," and "Les Huguenots." At other theaters, too, there were +performances of operas and operettas by the Boston Ideal Opera Company +and other troupes, but with them these annals have no concern. The +National Opera Company, stripped of the prestige with which it had +started out, abandoned by Mr. Thomas and reorganized on a co-operative +basis, made its last struggle for existence at the Academy of Music +between April 2 and April 6, 1888. The decay of the institution seemed +to fill it with the enterprise and energy of despair. It produced (but +in anything but a commendable fashion) English versions of Goldmark's +"Queen of Sheba," Rubinstein's "Nero," "Tannhäuser" (first performance +of the opera in English in New York on April 4th), and "Lohengrin." In +the company, besides some of the singers who had belonged to it in the +previous two years, were Eloi Sylva, Bertha Pierson, Amanda Fabbris, +Charles Bassett, and Barton McGuckin, the last a tenor who had made +a notable career in Great Britain with Mr. Carl Rosa's companies. + +This season also saw the introduction of Verdi's "Otello" by a company +especially organized for the purpose by Italo Campanini, who, his +singing days being practically over, turned impresario. He had been in +Milan when Verdi's opera was produced, on February 5, 1887, and made +haste to procure the American rights of performance. It was a laudable +ambition, but the enterprise was overwhelmed with disaster. Campanini +brought from Italy a tenor named Marconi for the titular rôle; his +sister-in-law, Eva Tetrazzini, to sing the part of Desdemona, and his +brother, Cleofonte (who was maestro di cembalo at the Metropolitan Opera +House during its first season), as conductor. With these he associated +Signora Scalchi and Signor Galassi (Emilia and Iago). The first +performance took place on April 16, 1888, in the Academy of Music, and +four representations were given on the established opera nights and +Saturday afternoons. The public's attitude was apathetic. The tenor did +not please, the fashionable season was over, the music was not of the +kind that had been expected from Verdi, and the prices of admission were +too high for a popular audience. Signor Campanini essayed a second week +and now threw his own popularity into the scale. Signor Marconi was +dismissed and returned at once to Europe, never to be heard again in New +York; Campanini, who had been the most popular tenor with New Yorkers +since the palmy days of Brignoli, took his part; the prices of admission +were reduced. All to no avail; ruin had overtaken the manager, and the +eighth performance was the last. It was truly pitiable. Signor Campanini +deserved better for his bold embarkation in a noble enterprise; but +reasons for the failure were easily found. It was unwise to give opera +on an ambitious scale after the amusement season had worn itself out; +it was nothing less than foolish to do so with an ill-equipped company, +in a house that had lost its fashionable prestige and at prices so +large that a fatal blunder had to be confessed by their reduction at +the end of a week. Two seasons later, the opera was announced by the +Metropolitan director, Mr. Stanton, but was not given, for reasons +already mentioned. How it entered the fashionable home of opera we +shall see presently. + +After the lapse of twenty years it is still impossible to say that +"Otello" has really been habilitated in New York. Its fate has not +been quite so pitiful as that of "Falstaff," because it has been more +frequently performed, and performed, moreover, in better style; but it +has not won the popular heart. It is admired by the knowing, but not +loved by the masses, as the earlier operas, especially "Aïda," is loved. +The reason? I am still inclined to look for it where I thought I found +it a score of years ago. At that time it seemed to me that the public, +if it concerned itself with the matter at all (which I doubt), was at a +loss for a point of view from which to consider it. Was it an Italian +opera? Certainly not, if that type was represented by any of the works +of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, or of Verdi himself when he was the +popular idol. Was it a French opera? A German opera? A lyric drama in +the Wagnerian manner? To the connoisseur, if not to the idle prattler +about music, each of these designations suggests a distinct idea--a +form, a style, a manner. Which of them might with most propriety be +applied to this work? The circumstance that the book was in the Italian +language had little to do with the question, no matter how loudly +an excitable individual (as on this occasion) might shout "Viva +l'Italiano!" to testify his admiration for Verdi's music. "The +style--it is the man." "Otello" was composed and first brought forward +under anomalous conditions, and though it first saw the stage lamps +at Milan, its style is not distinctively Italian. Neither is it +distinctively French or German. It is of its own kind, Verdian; +characteristic of the composer of "Rigoletto," "Trovatore," and +"Traviata" in its essence, though widely different from them in +expression. The composer himself indicated that he desired it to be +looked upon as outside of the old operatic conventions. According to its +title page it is "Dramma lirico in quattro Atti." "Aïda" was still an +"Opera in quattro Atti." The distinction was not undesigned. There are +many other indications that he desired his work to be looked upon as +something as far from old-fashioned opera as were Wagner's later dramas; +that he aimed in the first instance at a presentation of its dramatic +contents, and considered the music as a means, and not entirely as an +end. In this he followed a Wagnerian precept. His score is filled with +instrumental interludes designed to accompany actions or to depict +emotions. He leaves no question in our minds on this point, but as fully +as Wagner in his "Lohengrin" period he indicates the bodily movements +that are to go hand in hand with the music. In the picture of a storm +which opens the opera the manipulator of the artificial lightning is +not left to his discretion as to the proper moment for discharging +his brutum fulmen; in the love duet, at the close of the first act, +the appearance of the moon and stars is sought to be intensified by +descriptive effects in the music; and when, in the last scene, Otello +kisses the sleeping Desdemona, and the one typical phrase of the opera +(drawn from the love scene) is repeated, the composer indicates on what +beat of each measure he wants each kiss to fall. These are only a few +instances of Verdi's appreciation of the necessity of suiting the action +to the music, the music to the action; and they sink into insignificance +when compared with his treatment of the murder in the last act. Then +Otello's entrance and actions up to the waking of Desdemona are +accompanied by a solo on double basses, interrupted at intervals by +energetic passages from the other strings. It is not difficult to recall +other melodramas written since "Fidelio" in which similar dramatic +effects are sought, but the audacity of Verdi's procedure is unexampled +in Italian opera. I make no doubt that had this scene been written +twenty years earlier it would have been received by his countrymen +with hisses and catcalls. Yet we were told that at the opera's first +performance in Milan the audience redemanded it uproariously and the +Italian critics could not sufficiently express their admiration for +it. The fact is that "Otello" disclosed an honest, consistent, and in +many respects successful effort to realize the higher purposes which +we associate in the conception of a lyric drama as distinguished from +the opera. With this conception nationalism had nothing to do; Verdi's +superb artistic nature, everything. + +In the season of 1888-89 there was but a single performance of Italian +opera in New York, a circumstance singular enough to deserve special +mention. On April 24th Signor Campanini appeared with Clementine De Vere +in "Lucia di Lammermoor," the performance being for the once-popular +favorite's benefit. Memories of a period in which Italian singers were +tremendously active were called up in the minds of opera-goers of the +older generation by an entertainment given in the Metropolitan Opera +House on February 12th, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Max +Maretzek's entrance in the American field as a conductor of operas. The +affair was generously patronized and participated in on its professional +side by Theodore Thomas, Anton Seidl, Frank van der Stucken, Adolf +Neuendorff, and Walter Damrosch as conductors; Mme. Fursch-Madi, Miss +Emily Winant, Miss Maud Powell, Rafael Joseffy, Max Alvary, Signor Del +Puente, Julius Perotti, Wilhelm Sedlmayer, and Mrs. Herbert-Foerster. +Scenes from "Siegfried," "Il Trovatore," and "Carmen" were performed. + +There were some performances of operas in English in the early part +of the next season (1889-90) by the Emma Juch English Opera Company +(Nessler's "Trumpeter of Säkkingen" being brought forward as a novelty), +at the Harlem Opera House, owned and managed by Oscar Hammerstein. This +house also, for a week after the close of the regular season at the +Metropolitan, was the scene of an unsuccessful effort to prolong the +German performances, or rather to provide German opera at popular +prices to the residents of Harlem. The company, headed by Miss Lehmann +and conducted by Walter Damrosch, was made up of singers from the +Metropolitan company. The operas given were "Norma," "Les Huguenots," +and "Il Trovatore." + +The Italian company which took possession of the Metropolitan Opera +House immediately on its vacation by the German singers was under the +management of Henry E. Abbey and Maurice Grau. During the fall and +winter months it had been giving representations in some of the larger +cities of the United States and Mexico City. Arditi and Sapio were the +conductors, and most of the singers were familiar to the public--Patti, +Albani, Nordica, Fabbri, Ravelli, Vicini, Perugini, Del Puente, +Castelmary, Novara, Migliara; newcomers were Hortense Synnerberg, +mezzo-soprano; Signora Pettigiani, soprano leggiero; Zardo, barytone, +and Francesco Tamagno, tenor. The presence of this singer in the troupe +served to indicate that its purpose, outside the exploitation of Madame +Patti, was the production of Verdi's "Otello," with which the season +was opened on March 24th, Madame Albani being the Desdemona. Tamagno +had created the title rôle in Milan two years before. + +The subscription was for sixteen evenings and four matinées, which +were to be encompassed in a period of four weeks; but the illness of +Madame Patti compelled a postponement of one of the performances until +the fifth week after the opening, and then to the twenty subscription +representations was added, a twenty-first as a "farewell" to Madame +Patti. The operas in which this artist appeared were "La Sonnambula," +"Semiramide," "Lakmé," "Martha," "Lucia di Lammermoor," "Roméo et +Juliette," "Il Barbiere," "Linda di Chamouni," and "La Traviata." The +other operas were "Otello," "Il Trovatore," "Tell," "Aida," "Faust," +"L'Africaine," "Rigoletto," and "Les Huguenots." + +There was no novelty in the list, unless the fact that "Lakmé" was +transformed into a novelty by the Italian version; it had been heard +before in English, and the performance was so desperately slipshod, +notwithstanding that Mme. Patti impersonated the heroine, that it +awakened only pity for Delibes's work. It would be extremely interesting +and doubtless instructive also were I able to give such a detailed +financial statement of the outcome of this season as Mr. Stanton's +courtesy enabled me at the time to give of the German seasons. But here +I am thrown on conjecture. On the evenings and afternoons when Patti +sang the audiences unquestionably represented vast receipts to the +management. An estimate made at the time from a study of the character +and size of the audiences placed the receipts in round numbers at +$100,000. It was significant as bearing on the artistic problem +suggested by the succession of German and Italian opera--a problem that +was destined to become of paramount interest soon--that on scarcely +a single Patti performance were all the orchestra stalls sold, and +that there were always unsold boxes in the tier not occupied by the +stockholders. The bulk of the money came from the occupants of the +balconies and gallery. The musical and fashionable elements in the +city's population had comparatively small representation. The audiences, +in fact, were largely composed of curiosity seekers, impelled by the +desire to be able in the future to say that they, too, had heard the +greatest songstress of the last generation of the nineteenth century. +The "Patti's Farewell" trick was still effective; a few years later it +was found that it would work no longer, and the great singer disappeared +in a black cloud of failure, followed by the grief of all who had been +her admirers. + + + +CHAPTER XV + +END OF THE GERMAN PERIOD + + +The season of 1890-91 was full of incidents, some exciting, some +amusing, but they were all dwarfed by the announcement which came in the +middle of January that the directors of the Metropolitan Opera House had +concluded a contract of lease with Henry E. Abbey (or Abbey and Grau) +under which opera was to be given in the next season in Italian and +French. The alleged reason was that Mr. Abbey was willing to assume +all risk of failure for the same subvention which the stockholders as +individuals were paying themselves in their capacity as entrepreneurs; +the real reason was that the stockholders, or a majority of them, were +weary of German opera, and especially of the dramas of Wagner. This +reason spoke out of the action which had been taken looking to the +eighth season of opera (seventh in German) before an agreement had been +reached with Mr. Abbey. Wagner had supplied the financial backbone to +all the seasons since German opera had been introduced, as will appear +presently; but the directors were unwilling to admit that fact until, as +a result of their change of policy, disaster stared them in the face. +Then they made haste to reverse their action as far as possible and +did other works of repentance which enabled them to save a modicum of +prestige and some money; but the hands of the clock had been set back, +and the goal of a national opera, toward which the German movement was +leading, was forgotten. It has never been seen since. + +When Mr. Stanton went to Germany in the spring of 1890 to engage singers +and select a repertory he carried with him a definite policy, formulated +by the directors, which was the fruit of a sentimental passion for the +amiable Italian muse and a spirit of thrift. Italian opera under their +own management seeming still impracticable because of its expensiveness, +the directors conceived what they thought would prove to be a happy +compromise; they would continue to give German opera, but would make +a radical change in the character of the repertory. Wagner was to be +shelved as to all but his earlier operas, such as "Tannhäuser" and +"Lohengrin," and the season enriched with new works by Italian and +French composers. With this purpose in view, Mr. Stanton completed his +arrangements, and the season of 1890-91 was opened on November 26th in +a manner that looked like a bold and successful stroke in favor of the +new policy. "Asrael," an opera by an Italian composer, which had stirred +up some favorable comment in Germany and Italy, was given with a great +deal of sumptuousness in stage attire and with a company which critics +and amateurs agreed in recognizing as, on the whole, stronger than any +of recent years. Mme. Lehmann-Kalisch was not at its head, it is true, +but instead there was a singer of excellent ability and considerable +personal and artistic charm in the person of Antonia Mielke. Emil +Fischer was retained, and also Theodor Reichmann and some of the lesser +members of the old company, and to them were added Heinrich Gudehus, +Jennie Broch (soprano leggiero), Marie Ritter-Goetze (mezzo-soprano), +Andreas Dippel, Marie Jahn (soprano), and others. Mme. Minnie Hauk +joined the forces later in the season. + +"Asrael" was in every respect a surprise--as strange to the audience +as if it had been composed for the occasion. The name of the composer, +Alberto Franchetti, had never appeared in any local list save once, in +April, 1887, when a symphony in E minor, bearing it, had been performed +at a concert of the Philharmonic Society under the direction of Theodore +Thomas. The Tribune newspaper contributed all that the public learned +about him then and since. This was to the effect that he was a young +Italian (or, rather, Italianized Hebrew), a member of one of the +branches of the Rothschilds, who had studied in Munich and lived much +of his time in Dresden, where Kapellmeister Schuch sometimes gave him +opportunities to hear his orchestral music. Also that he was very +wealthy, having a purse as large as his artistic ambition, and was +not disinclined, when a work of his composition was accepted for +performance, to care for its sumptuous production by paying for the +stage decorations out of his own pocket. He resembled Meyerbeer in being +a Jew, and also in that it was possible for his mother to say of him: +"My son is a musical composer, but not of necessity." The book of the +opera proved to be a most bewildering conglomeration of scenes and +personages from familiar operas, and though the pictures were +magnificent and much of the music was pleasing, "Asrael" had only five +performances, and when the record of the season was made up it was +found to stand thirteenth in a list of seventeen operas. + +At the bottom of this list stood the two other novelties of the season, +and if the public were bewildered by "Asrael" they were thrown into +consternation by "Der Vasall von Szigeth," and into contemptuous +merriment by "Diana von Solange." Both of these operas were sung in +German, of course, but "Der Vasall," not only had an Italian (Anton +Smareglia) for its composer, like "Asrael," but had originally been +composed in Italian and borne an Italian name--"Il Vassallo di Szigeth." +Here plainly was a concession to the Italian predilections of the +stockholders. But the composer of "Der Vasall," or "Il Vassallo"--as you +like it--was a Dalmatian, like Von Suppe, the operetta composer. His +native tongue was Italian, but the influence of Austrian domination and +Austrian art had deeply affected his nationalism, and enabled him to +infuse an Hungarian subject (the story of "Der Vasall" was Hungarian) +with Hungarian musical color. It therefore chanced that in this +instance, when the stockholders seemed to have bargained for Italian +sweets, they got a strong dose of Magyar paprika. As for the libretto, +it offered such a sup of horrors as had never been seen on an operatic +stage before, and has never been seen since. "Der Vasall von Szigeth," +which was brought forward on December 12th, had four performances in the +season and took in $7,805.50, which was probably not much more than the +cost of staging the opera. + +The amused gossip touching the potency of new influences which had begun +with "Asrael" was given fresh fuel by the production of "Diana von +Solange." Why an opera which had lain "so lange" (to make an obvious +German pun) in the limbo of forgotten things, which, indeed, had never +enjoyed a popularity of any kind, though it was thirty or forty years +old, should have been resurrected for production in New York was a +question well calculated to irritate curiosity and provoke many an +ill-natured sally of wit. "Diana von Solange" was the work of Ernest II, +Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The family to which the duke belonged had +long dallied with music; that the public knew. His ducal highness's +brother, the British Prince Consort, affected the art in his time, and +left evidences of good, sound taste in the story of English music, and +it was known that the Duke of Edinburgh (son of the Prince Consort and +Queen Victoria) was an amateur fiddler, quite capable of leading the +band at a London smoking concert. A complacent German lexicographer had +even admitted Ernest II into the fellowship of Beethoven, but that fact +was not widely known, and after "Diana von Solange" had been produced +the most cogent argument in explanation of its production among the +theatrical wits was based on familiar German stories of the lavishness +of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in the distribution of orders, +especially among musicians. No anecdote was more popular for the rest of +the season in the corridors than that which told of how a concert party +driving away from the ducal palace discovered that the chamberlain had +handed over one more decoration than the artists who had entertained the +duke. "Never mind," quoth the chamberlain; "give it to the coachman!" +The production of an opera composed by the duke without the obbligato +distribution of orders was inconceivable, even in democratic America, +but the tongues of waggish gossips wagged so furiously that it was said +only the stage manager was willing to accept his bauble. Brahms's bon +mot touching the danger of criticizing the music of royalty, "because +no one could tell who composed it," not being current at the time, +the music of "Diana von Solange" was mercilessly faulted, as was also +the libretto. It was certainly right royal poetry set to right royal +music--an infusion of immature Verdi and Meyerbeer plentifully watered. +Archaic research discovered that the opera had been written some +thirty-five years before, and that the composer, possessing, quite +naturally, some influence with the management of the ducal theaters at +Coburg and Gotha, had succeeded in having it performed in those cities +in December, 1858, and May, 1859, and that Dresden had also honored +it with a performance in January, 1859. Why New York blew the dust of +generations off its score was never learned by the inquisitive newspaper +scribes. + +The story of the opera concerned itself with the succession to the +throne of Portugal on the death of Enrique, with whom the old Burgundian +line became extinct in 1580. A wicked man plotted to give the crown +to Philip II of Spain (who really got it), and employed a Provençal +adventuress to help keep it from the nephew of the dying king. But +the adventuress, who lent her name to the opera, lost heart in the +enterprise because she fell in love with the nephew and was stabbed +to death for her pains. The wicked man was shot by the nephew, and +there was thus a proper amount of bloodshed to justify the historical +character of the work, the grewsomeness of which was modified by much +edifying declamation on the part of the dying king, expressive of the +lofty sentiments which, the world knows, always fill the breasts of +monarchs. The opera was performed on January 9, 1891, and received two +representations. A third was announced for a Saturday afternoon, but +called forth so emphatic a popular request for "Fidelio" that the +representative of the stockholders adjudged it to be the course of +wisdom to set aside Ernest II in favor of Beethoven. + +For six weeks Mr. Stanton followed the line of policy laid down by his +directors, and within that time brought forward the three novelties +which I have described, besides "Tannhäuser," "Lohengrin," "The Flying +Dutchman," "Les Huguenots," "Le Prophète," and "Fidelio." Already in the +third week of the season, however, it became manifest that the policy +of the directors did not meet with the approbation of the public. One +result of the German representations in the preceding six years had +been to develop a class of opera patrons with intelligent tastes and +warm affections. A large fraction of this public had become season +subscribers, and among these dissatisfaction with the current repertory +was growing daily. It may be that the panicky feeling in financial +circles had something to do with a falling off in general attendance in +the early part of the season, but this is scarcely borne out by the fact +that the advance subscription amounted to $72,000, representing about +one thousand persons, and that, though the novelties would not draw, the +three Wagnerian works proved to be as attractive as ever they had been. +The significance of the popular attitude, indeed, was obvious enough, +although the directors chose to close their eyes and ears to it. It +was, in fact, so obvious that The Tribune newspaper did not hesitate to +predict a tremendous success for "Fidelio" when it was announced "for +one performance only" on December 26th, and to assert in advance of the +performance that it would have to be repeated to satisfy the demand for +good dramatic music which had grown up because of the Wagner cult and +been whetted by Mr. Stanton's neglect to put on the stage a few works +imbued with the modern dramatic spirit. Two repetitions of "Fidelio" +and the lifting of that opera to fourth place in the list attested the +soundness of The Tribune's diagnosis of the situation. + +By a coincidence, on the night of the first representation for the +season of one of the latter-day works of Wagner, which, had the +directors chosen to read the signs of the times aright and be guided +by them, might have ushered in the era of prosperity which they were +sighing for but repelling by their course, the decision was reached to +turn over the opera house to Mr. Abbey for performances in Italian and +French. This date was January 14th. So far as the subscribers to the +opera and the majority of its patrons were concerned, this action of the +directors seemed like nothing else than the culmination of a conspiracy +to set back the clock of musical progress in New York a quarter of a +century at least. The news came upon the public like a bolt from the +blue. The plan had been laid early in the summer (was, in fact, the +fruition of the postprandial Patti season of 1889-90), but all concerned +had been pledged to secrecy. Mr. Abbey seized the right moment to +strike, and when he had bagged his game he exhibited it forthwith, and +it was received with a loud chorus of cheers from the enemies of the +German institution. The directors gleefully continued their course for +a little while longer, though the handwriting on the wall had begun to +blaze forth when all the canons of art and the fruit of years of serious +effort were insulted by the production of the amorphous creation of one +whose sole claim on popular attention as a composer was that he was a +royal duke and the brother-in-law of the Queen of England. + +At the first performance, after the announcement of the projected +change had been made, the public took it upon themselves to show their +disapproval of the action of the directors. There seemed to be but one +way to do this effectually without injury to the form of art which the +public had learned to love, and that way was adopted: After January +14th not a single representation was conducted by Mr. Seidl at which +the conductor was not compelled to appear upon the stage and accept +a tribute of popular admiration. Mr. Seidl had come to be the +representative in an especial manner of the new spirit as opposed to +the directors, who, by their action, had shown that they stood for the +old. And so the directors were rebuked in the honors showered upon the +conductor. It needed as little prophetic gift to predict what course Mr. +Stanton would pursue in view of the new developments as it had required +to predict the success of "Fidelio" after the experiences of 1888-89 had +seemed to indicate that the opera had lost all charm for the public. On +January 20th, only six days after Mr. Abbey had captured the directors, +The Tribune, commenting editorially on the "Operatic Revolution," +remarked: + + +Financially Wagner must save this season or it will suffer shipwreck. +Mr. Stanton knows that, and it is not a rash prediction to say that +the whole unperformed list will be sacrificed from this time forth +to the production of Wagner's works. The policy will be voted wise +by the directors because it will go further than anything else to +save the season; it will be welcomed by the public because of their +disappointment with the novelties which a shortsighted policy attempted +to foist upon them. + + +The prediction was fulfilled to the letter; after January 20th +thirty-five representations took place, and all but ten of them were +devoted to Wagner's works, notwithstanding that within this period Mme. +Minnie Hauk was added to the company and that the two operas in which +she appeared ("L'Africaine" and "Carmen") proved more popular than any +works of the non-Wagnerian list, with the single exception of "Fidelio." +An amusing evidence of the enforced change of heart in the directors +was a promulgation of an order requesting the occupants of the boxes to +discontinue the conversation during performances which had grown to be a +public scandal. The resolution to publish the order was adopted, either +at the meeting of the directors at which the agreement was reached +with Mr. Abbey, or the day after; the order bore date January 15; the +contract with Mr. Abbey was made on January 14th. + +It is proper that I devote some attention to the story of the growth of +the spirit which eventually overthrew German opera at the Metropolitan +Opera House, or, rather, not German opera, but opera exclusively in the +German tongue; for it was not long in developing that the new régime +stood no show of success unless to Italian and French German opera was +also added. The vicissitudes which brought with them this demonstration +must be reserved for a subsequent chapter, but before I tell the story +of the institution's retrogression I owe to the student of history +an outline of the doings of the season 1890-91. The season began on +November 26th and lasted till March 21st. There were sixty-seven +subscription performances, an extra performance of "Fidelio" for the +benefit of the chorus, which yielded $1,849, giving each chorister +$18.20, and a Sunday night performance of excerpts from "Parsifal," +which brought in $1,872. I have enumerated the operas which had been +given up to the production of "Diana von Solange"; after this date +came "Die Meistersinger," "L'Africaine," "Siegfried," "Der Barbier von +Bagdad," "Die Walküre," "Götterdämmerung," "Carmen," and "Tristan und +Isolde." Arranged in the order of their popularity as indicated by +attendance and receipts, the entire list was as follows: "Siegfried," +four times; "Tannhäuser," seven times; "Götterdämmerung," four times; +"Fidelio," three times; "Die Meistersinger," six times; "Die Walküre," +four times; "Lohengrin," seven times; "Carmen," three times; "The Flying +Dutchman," four times; "L'Africaine," three times; "Le Prophète," once; +"Tristan und Isolde," three times; "Asrael," five times; "Barber of +Bagdad," four times; "Les Huguenots," three times; "Der Vasall von +Szigeth," four times; "Diana von Solange," twice. The total receipts for +the season (box office sales and subscriptions) were $198,119.25; the +average, $2,957. + +The last performance of the season was given to "Die Meistersinger" +on a Saturday afternoon. The house was crowded from floor to ceiling +and there were signs from the beginning that there was to be a large +expression of public opinion. After the first and second acts there were +calls and recalls for the singers and for Mr. Seidl. But this was but a +preparation. After the fall of the curtain on the last act the multitude +remained in the audience room for over half an hour (remained, indeed, +till laborers appeared on the stage to get it ready for a concert in the +evening), and called for one after another of the persons who were in +one way or another representative of the system that was passing away. +The greatest bursts of enthusiasm were those which greeted Mr. Stanton +(whose sympathies were with the German movement), Mr. Seidl and Mr. +Fischer, though Mr. Walter Damrosch, Mr. Habelmann, Mr. Dippel, Fräulein +Jahn, and other singers were not neglected. Mr. Stanton's unwillingness +to receive the distinction which the audience plainly wished to shower +upon him caused disappointment; but Mr. Stanton stood in an awkward +position between the stockholders and the public. Finally, after an +unusual outburst of plaudits for Mr. Fischer, that singer came forward +carrying a gigantic wreath and half a dozen bouquets and said: + + +Ladies and Gentlemen: It is impossible for me to express what I feel +for your kindness and love; and I hope it is not the last time (here +a tremendous uproar interrupted the speaker for a space) that I shall +sing for you here, on this stage, in German. + + +Had one been able to explode a ton of dynamite when Mr. Fischer ended +it would have been accepted by the audience as not more than a fitting +amount of approbative noise. Twenty minutes later, the audience still +clamoring for a speech, Mr. Seidl came forward, for perhaps the +twentieth time, and spoke as follows: + + +Believe me, ladies and gentlemen, I understand the meaning of this +great demonstration. For myself, the orchestra, and the other members +of the company, I thank you. + + +To understand the story of the overthrow of German opera managed by the +owners of the opera house, and the reversion to the system which had +proved disastrous at the beginning and was fated to prove disastrous +again, it is well to bear the fact in mind that instability was, is, +and always will be an element in the cultivation of opera so long as it +remains an exotic; that is, until it becomes a national expression in +art, using the vernacular and giving utterance to national ideals. The +fickleness of the public taste, the popular craving for sensation, the +egotism and rapacity of the artists, the lack of high purpose in the +promoters, the domination of fashion instead of love for art, the +lack of real artistic culture--all these things have stood from the +beginning, as they still stand, in the way of a permanent foundation +of opera in New York. The boxes of the Metropolitan Opera House have +a high market value to-day, but they are a coveted asset only because +they are visible symbols of social distinction. There were genuine +notes of rejoicing in the stockholders' voices at the measure of +financial success achieved in the first three seasons of German opera, +but the lesson had not yet been learned that an institution like the +Metropolitan Opera House can only be maintained by a subvention in +perpetuity; that in democratic America the persons who crave and create +the luxury must contribute from their pockets the equivalent of the +money which in Europe comes from national exchequers and the privy +purses of monarchs. This fact did eventually impress itself upon the +consciousness of the stockholders of the Metropolitan Opera House, but +when it found lodgment there it created a notion--a natural one, and +easily understood--that their predilections, and theirs alone, ought +to be humored in the character of the entertainment. I have displayed +a disposition to quarrel with the artistic attitude of the directors, +but I would not be an honest chronicier of the operatic occurrences of +the last twenty-five years if I did not do so. The facts in the case +were flagrant, the situation anomalous. The stockholders created an +art spirit which was big with promise while rich in fulfilment, and +then killed it because its manifestation bored them. An institution +which seemed about to become permanent and a fit and adequate national +expression in an admired form of art, was set afloat again upon the +sea of impermanency and speculation. About the middle of the fourth +German season the directors formally resolved to continue the German +representations. Not long afterward it developed that the receipts +for the season would be considerably less than had been counted on, +and immediately a clamor arose against the management. The champions +of Italian opera joyfully proclaimed that the knell of German opera +had rung, and attributed the falling off in popular support to the +predominance of Wagner's operas and dramas in the repertory. The +disaffection threatened mischief to the enterprise and had to be met; +the directors met it by formally asking for an expression of opinion +from the stockholders as to the future conduct of the institution. On +January 21, 1888, they sent out a circular letter to the stockholders, +in which they submitted two propositions, on which they asked for a +vote. One was "To go on with German opera with an assessment of $3,200 a +box"; the other, "To give no opera the next season, with an assessment +of $1,000 a box, and to resume, if possible, the following season." The +letter, which was signed by James A. Roosevelt, president, stated that +the giving of Italian opera was not suggested because the directors +"were convinced that to do so in a satisfactory manner will require a +much larger assessment upon the stockholders than to give German opera." +It was also set forth that the directors had estimated that the opera +could be maintained for the assessment ($2,500 on each box), provided +the receipts from the public amounted to $3,000 a performance. The +subscription was 50 per cent. larger than the previous year (about +$80,000, against $52,000), and larger receipts had been expected than +in 1886-87, when the average was about $3,300. Instead, the receipts +had fallen off and indicated an average of only $2,500. Rentals, +however, had increased $14,000. + +The answer of the stockholders was a vote of over four to one in favor +of continuing German opera under the first proposition of the circular +letter. Then, while the Italinissimi were still proclaiming that +the Metropolitan opera had been killed by Wagnerism, there came the +announcement of two weeks of consecutive representations of the three +dramas of "The Ring of the Nibelung" (all but the prologue), which were +in the repertory of the company. The two weeks, and a third in which +"Götterdämmerung" was performed three times, brought more money into +the exchequer of the opera than any preceding five weeks of the season. +The average of $2,500 apprehended by the directors was raised to over +$3,177. + +During the next season the average receipts were practically the same, +nor was there anything to change the situation from a financial point +of view. The stockholders had voted themselves into a mood of temporary +quiescence, and the opera pursued its serious course unhampered by more +than the ordinary fault-finding on the part of the representations of +careless amusement seekers in the public press, and the grumbling in +the boxes because the musical director and stage manager persisted in +darkening the audience room in order to heighten the effect of the +stage pictures. + +The aristocratic prejudice against gloom extended to the operas which +contained dark scenes, and when Mr. Stanton once exercised his authority +as director and had the stage lights going at almost full tilt in the +dungeon scene of "Fidelio," the effect of Florestan's exclamation, +"Gott! welch' Dunkel hier!" upon an audience fully three-fourths of +which was composed of Germans or descendants of Germans the ludicrous +effect may be imagined. Many stories were current among the artists +of the blithe indifference of the occupants of the boxes to artistic +proprieties when they interfered with the display of gowns and jewels. +One of them was that the chairman of the amusement committee of the +directors had requested that the last act of "Die Meistersinger" be sung +first, as it was "the only act of the opera that had music in it," and +the boxholders did not want to wait till the end. The conduct of the +occupants of the boxes now grew to be so intolerable that there were +frequent demonstrations of disapproval and rebuke from the listeners +who sat in the parquet and balconies. The matter became a subject for +newspaper discussion; in fact, it had been such a subject ever since the +loud laugh of a woman at the climacteric moment of "Fidelio" had caused +Fräulein Brandt to break down in tears in the opening measures of the +frenetically joyous duet, "O namenlose Freude!" In the course of this +extraordinary discussion one of the directors boldly asserted the right +of the stockholders in the boxes to disturb the enjoyment of listeners +in the stalls. Not only did he repeal the old rule of "noblesse oblige," +but he also intimated that the payment of $3,000 acquitted the box owner +and his guests of one of the simplest and most obvious obligations +imposed by good breeding. At length the directors were forced to rebuke +their own behavior. On the night of January 21, 1891, the following +notice was found hung against the wall in each of the boxes: + + + January 15, 1891. +Many complaints having been made to the directors of the Opera House +of the annoyance produced by the talking in the boxes during the +performances, the board requests that it be discontinued. + By Order of the Board of Directors. + + +This was the first sop to Cerberus after the directors had concluded a +contract with Mr. Abbey, leasing the house to him a second time and +substituting opera in Italian and French for opera in German. The public +had begun to speak its mind, not only by making a mighty demonstration +in honor of Mr. Seidl and the singers when a German opera was given, +but in remaining away when the weak-kneed novelties were given; in +requesting by petition a performance of "Fidelio" on a Saturday +afternoon for which the opera by the royal composer had been set down, +and in crowding the house and giving an ovation to the singers when +their petition was granted. The next sop was to set aside all the works +which it had been projected should take the place of the later dramas of +Wagner, which the stockholders (or the majority of them) did not like, +and to devote the remainder of the season almost exclusively to Wagner. +The operas thus sacrified were Marschner's "Templer und Jüdin," +Massenet's "Esclarmonde," Lalo's "Le Roi d'Ys," Goetz's "Taming of the +Shrew," and Nicolai's "Merry Wives of Windsor." Not love of Wagner but +fear of financial consequences dictated the step, which was successful +in extricating the institution from the slough into which it had fallen. +How much the Wagner operas and dramas did to keep the Metropolitan Opera +House alive can be shown by the statistics of the last five German +seasons, which I compiled at the close of the season of 1890-91, and +printed in The Tribune of March 25th of the latter year. Here is the +table: + + + Season Season Season Season Season + 1886-1887 1887-1888 1888-1889 1889-1890 1890-1891 +Total +representations .......... 61 64 68 67 67 +Wagnerian +representations .......... 31 36 35 37 39 +Non-Wagnerian +representations .......... 30 28 33 30 28 +Total +receipts ........ $202,751.00 $185,258.50 $209,581.00 $204,644.70 $198,119.25 +Average +receipts ........... 3,323.78 2,894.66 3,141.63 3,054.39 2,957.00 +Wagnerian +receipts ......... 111,049.50 116,449.75 115,784.50 121,568.70 125,169.25 +Non-wagnerian +receipts .......... 91,701.50 68,808.75 93,796.50 83,076.00 72,950.00 +Wagnerian +average ............ 3,582.21 3,234.72 3,308.13 3,285.65 3,209.46 +Non-Wagnerian +average ............ 3,056.71 2,457.45 2,842.32 2,769.20 2.605.37 +Average difference +in favor of Wagner ... 525.50 777.27 465.81 516.45 604.09 + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +ITALIAN OPERA AGAIN AT THE METROPOLITAN + + +The figures which I have printed showing a loss to the stockholders of +the Metropolitan Opera House on opera account year after year during the +German period, do not tell the whole story of the financial condition +into which the Metropolitan Opera House Company (Limited) had fallen. +This condition had much to do with creating a desire on the part of the +stockholders for a change of policy. The first German season cost the +stockholders only about $42,000 above the amount realized from the box +assessment, which was, I believe, $2,000--two-thirds of the sum that +has ruled ever since. There were seventy stockholders, and in view of +the loss made by Mr. Abbey the year previous this deficit was a trifle +scarcely worth considering. The growth in popular interest as indicated +by the support of the subscriptions for the season of 1890-91 was +promising; but the stockholders themselves were not all prompt in +meeting their obligations to their own organization. By 1890 there was +an account of unpaid assessments amounting to $46,328. Of this, $21,112 +was canceled by the acquisition of two boxes by the company, but the +balance sheet at the end of the last German season still showed $25,216 +due from stockholders on assessment account. The floating debt at this +time amounted to $84,044.48. The prices of admission had been greatly +reduced in the German years, and the capacity of the house, represented +in money, was not more than fifty per centum of what it is to-day. The +demands of singers were growing greater year after year, and were not +lessened, as may easily be imagined, by the thrifty complacency of those +German managers who granted furloughs to their singers in consideration +of a share of their American earnings. Under the circumstances it is not +to be wondered at that Mr. Abbey's agreement to give Italian and French +opera at his own risk was alluring, especially to those who had never +sympathized with the serious tendency of German opera. + +The contract of the directors for opera in the season of 1891-92 was +made with Henry E. Abbey and Maurice Grau, who figured in all the +announcements as the managers. With them was associated as silent +partner Mr. John B. Schoeffel, of Boston, who had shared in all of Mr. +Abbey's daring theatrical ventures since 1876, and, consequently, also +in the unfortunate season of 1883-84, when Maurice Grau acted as manager +at a salary of $15,000. Mr. Abbey's mind was not closed to the lessons +of the German seasons. A few days after he had signed the contract he +told me that he had had a project in contemplation to bring Materna, +Winkelmann, Scaria, and others to America for Wagnerian opera before Mr. +Thomas had brought them for concert work; that he looked upon German +opera as more advantageous to the manager, not only on account of its +smaller costliness, but, also, because it enabled a manager to adjust +his singers to a repertory instead of the repertory to the singers. But +he had speculated successfully with Patti under the "farewell" device, +the managerial virus was again in his veins, and he cherished a foolish +belief that, as one of the results of the German régime, he would +be able to exact different service from the artists of Italian and +French opera than they had been wont to give. On this point he was soon +painfully disillusionized. Had it not been for the presence in his +company of Mme. Lehmann, M. Lassalle, and the brothers Jean and Édouard +de Reszke, whose instincts and training kept them out of the old +Italian rut, his performances would never have gotten away from the old +hurdy-gurdy list. As it was, when he wanted to give "L'Africaine," in +order to present M. Lassalle in one of his most effective rôles, though +he had Emma Eames, Marie Van Zandt, Albani, the sisters Giulia and +Sophia Ravogli, Pettigiani, and Lillian Nordica in his company (the last +hired specially for the purpose), he was obliged to ask Mme. Lehmann +to learn the part of Selika. She did so, but the strain, combined with +other things, broke down her health, and she was useless to her manager +for the second half of the season. She had been engaged as a lure for +the German element among the city's opera patrons, and to it also were +offered propitiatory sacrifices in the shape of performances in Italian +of "Fidelio," "The Flying Dutchman," and "Die Meistersinger" under the +direction of Mr. Seidl. After the lesson had been still more thoroughly +learned a German contingent was added to the Italian and French, and +German opera was added to the list, making it as completely polyglot as +it has ever been since. But before then many financial afflictions were +in store for the enterprise. + +Mr. Abbey began his season December 14, 1891, after having given opera +for five weeks in Chicago. In his company, besides the sopranos just +named, were Mme. Scalchi and Jane de Vigne, contraltos; Jean de Reszke, +Paul Kalisch, M. Montariol, and a younger brother of Giannini, tenors; +Martapoura, Magini-Coletti, Lassalle, and Camera, barytones; Édouard de +Reszke, Vinche, and Serbolini, basses, and Carbone, buffo. As conductor, +Vianesi, known from the season of 1883-84, returned. The subscription +season came to a close on March 12th, and presented thirty-nine +subscription evening performances, thirteen matinées, three extra +evenings, and one extra afternoon--in all, fifty-six representations. +The list of operas contained not a single novelty, unless Gluck's +"Orfeo," which had been heard in New York in 1866, and Mascagni's +"Cavalleria Rusticana," which had been performed by two companies in +English earlier in the season, were changed into novelties by use of the +Italian text. But under such a classification Wagner's comic opera would +also have to be set down as a novelty. The list included ten operas not +in the repertories of the German companies, which had occupied the opera +house between the two administrations of Mr. Abbey. Inasmuch as a new +departure was signalized by this season, I present herewith a table of +performances in the subscription season, with the extra representations +mentioned: + + + Opera First performance + + "Roméo et Juliette" ............................ December 14 + "Il Trovatore" ................................. December 16 + "Les Huguenots" ................................ December 18 + "Norma" ........................................ December 19 + "La Sonnambula" ................................ December 21 + "Rigoletto" .................................... December 23 + "Faust" ........................................ December 25 + "Aïda" ......................................... December 28 + "Orfeo" and "Cavalleria Rusticana" ............. December 30 + "Le Prophéte" .................................. January 1 + "Martha" ....................................... January 2 + "Lohengrin" .................................... January 4 + "Mignon" ....................................... January 8 + "Otello" ....................................... January 11 + "L'Africaine" .................................. January 15 + "Don Giovanni" ................................. January 18 + "Dinorah" ...................................... January 29 + "Hamlet" ....................................... February 10 + "Lakmé" ........................................ February 22 + "I Maestri Cantoni" ............................ March 2 + "Carmen" ....................................... March 4 + + +The first and most obvious lesson of the season, so far as it was an +index of popular taste, may be seen by a critical glance at the list of +performances. A beginning was made on the old lines. The familiar operas +of the Italian list were brought forward with great rapidity, but not +one of them drew a paying house. The turning point came with the arrival +of M. Lassalle on January 15th. Messrs. Abbey and Grau then recognized +that salvation for their undertaking lay in one course only, which was +to give operas of large dimensions, and in each case employ the three +popular men who had taken the place in the admiration of the public +usually monopolized by the prima donna--the brothers de Reszke, and M. +Lassalle. How consistently they acted on that conviction is shown by the +circumstance that, though seventeen operas had been brought out between +December 14th and January 15th, only six were added to them in the +remaining two months. + +It was not a "star" season in the old sense. The most popular artists +were the three men already mentioned, but it required that they should +all be enlisted together with Miss Eames and Mme. Scaichi to make +the one "sensation" of the season--Gounod's "Faust," which had six +regular performances, and two extra. Of the women singers the greatest +popularity was won by Miss Eames, whose youthfulness, freshness of +voice, and statuesque beauty, compelled general admiration. The +smallness of her repertory, however, prevented her from helping the +season to the triumphant close which it might have had if the company +had been enlisted to carry out the policy adopted when the season was +half over. Miss Eames's début was made on the opening night in Gounod's +"Roméo et Juliette." In many ways she was fortunate in her introduction +to the operatic stage of her people--her people, though she was born in +China. She was only twenty-four years old, and there was much to laud in +her art, and nothing to condone except its immaturity. Her endowments of +voice and person were opulent. She appeared in the opera in which she +had effected her entrance on the stage at the Grand Opéra in Paris less +than three years before, and for which her gifts and graces admirably +fitted her. She appeared, moreover, in the company of Jean de Reszke, +who was then, and who remained till his retirement, in all things except +mere sensuous charm of voice, the ideal Romeo. She came fresh from her +first successes at Covent Garden, which had been made in the spring of +the year, and disclosed at once the lovely qualities which, when they +became riper, gave promise of the highest order of things in the way +of dramatic expression. At the end of the period whose history I am +trying to set down she was still one of the bright ornaments of the +Metropolitan stage, though she had not realized all the promises which +she held out at the close of the first decade of her career. + +Curiosity was piqued, and a kindly spirit of patriotism enlisted by +the début of Miss Marie Van Zandt on December 21st. She, too, was an +American, but she had been before the European public ten years, and +had won as much favor as any American artist ever enjoyed in Paris. +Mr. Abbey had pointed to her engagement (and that of Mme. Melba, whose +star was just rising above the horizon) as a persuasive argument with +the directors. Everything about the little lady, not excepting some +unfortunate experiences which put an end to her Parisian career, invited +to kindliness of utterance touching her début. Those of her hearers +who had followed the history of opera in America for a score of years +remembered her mother with admiration. Long before the days when every +effort to produce opera in the vernacular was heralded as a great +patriotic undertaking, Mme. Jenny Van Zandt headed companies which +exploited as varied and dignified repertories as those of the German +companies at the Metropolitan Opera House, barring the Wagnerian list. +Miss Van Zandt, diminutive, but winsome in voice as well as figure, +and ingratiating in manner, recalled an old observation about precious +things being done up in small parcels. Her coming seemed to betoken the +return of the day of small things. She appeared in "La Sonnambula," and +it was not until two months had passed that the patrons of the opera +were privileged to hear her in "Lakmé," the opera with which her name +was chiefly associated in Paris. Meanwhile she appeared in "Martha," +"Mignon," "Don Giovanni," and "Dinorah," without rousing the public out +of the apathy which it felt toward operas of their character. And when +her battle-horse was led into the ring the task of sustaining interest +in the season had fallen upon the shoulders of the masculine contingent +in the company. + +Curious questionings were raised by the production of "Fidelio" and +"Die Meistersinger" in Italian. It was generally recognized that Mr. +Abbey offered them as sops to Cerberus; but the German element in the +population, which they were designed to appease, plainly were lacking in +that peculiar bent of mind necessary to understand why Beethoven's opera +done in Italian with a cast one-half good was supposed by the management +to be worth two-thirds more than the same opera done in a language which +it could understand with a cast all good (two of the principals, Mme. +Lehmann and Mr. Kalisch, being the same), during the preceding seven +years. Was the Italian language sixty-seven per cent. more valuable +than the German in an opera conceived in German, written in German, and +composed in the German spirit by a German? The public thought not, and +"Fidelio" had only two performances. A more kindly view was taken of +the Italian "Meistersinger," Which enabled the Germans to give expression +to their feelings by making demonstrations over Mr. Seidl. There was +much to admire, moreover, in the singing and acting of Jean de Reszke +as Walther, and M. Lassalle as Hans Sachs. There was nothing of the +conventional operatic marionette in these men. One night while they and +Édouard de Reszke were on the stage at the same time I expressed my +admiration at the sight of three such fine specimens of physical manhood +to Mme. Lehmann, who sat near my elbow in a baignoir. + +"Inspiring, isn't it?" + +"Yes," was the reply, "and they might be as fine artists as they are +men if they would but study." + +We all know that their American experience was as little lost on the +brothers de Reszke as it was on Mme. Lehmann herself, who stepped into +the foremost rank of tragic singers so soon as America offered her the +opportunity to shuffle off the obligation of "singing princesses," as +she called it. + +Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana," the hot-blooded little opera which +was destined to make so great a commotion in the world (had already +begun to make it, indeed), had its first production at the Metropolitan +Opera House on December 30th. The opera was no novelty, having already +made an exciting career before the Metropolitan opera season opened; +but there were two features of the performances calculated to live in +the memory of serious observers as characteristic of the change in +spirit which had come over the institution since the departure of the +German artists: Miss Eames wore a perfectly exquisite accordion-pleated +skirt as the distraught Sicilian peasant, and Signor Valero sang the +siciliano on the open stage, the overture being stopped and the curtain +raised so that he might sing his serenade to Lola with greater effect. +He sang behind Lola's house, and winning a call in spite of his +stridulous voice and singular phrasing, he stepped out from cover, bowed +his acknowledgments, and, returning to his hiding place, serenaded his +love over again. After he had come forward a second time Signor Vianesi +found his place in the score and resumed the overture. + +"Cavalleria Rusticana" precipitated an amusing but extremely lively +managerial battle when it reached New York. Those who watched the +operatic doings of Europe were aware of the fact that the opera spread +like wildfire from town to town immediately after its first success at +Rome. Fast as it traveled, however, the intermezzo traveled faster. +Seidl had seized upon it in the summer of 1891, and made it a feature of +his concerts at Brighton Beach. Then came simultaneous announcements of +the production of the opera by Rudolph Aronson and Oscar Hammerstein in +the fall. Mr. Aronson wanted to open the season at the Casino with it, +and let it introduce a change in the character of the entertainments +given at that playhouse. Mr. Hammerstein had also announced the work, +but he had no theater at his ready disposal. He thought Aronson was +poaching on his preserves, and there began a diverting struggle for +priority of performance, from which nobody profited and the opera +suffered. Amid threats of crimination Aronson precipitated what he +called a dress rehearsal of the work at the Casino in the afternoon of +October 1, 1891. Like the king in the parable, he sent out into the +highways, and bade all he could find in to the feast. Especially did +his servants labor on the Rialto, and the affair had all the appearance +of a professional matinée. Nothing was quite in readiness, but Mr. +Hammerstein had announced his first performance for the evening of that +day, and must be anticipated at all hazards. Yet there were singers +and scenes and musicians in the orchestra, and Mr. Gustav Kerker to +steer the little operatic ship through the breakers. On the whole, the +performance was fair. Laura Bellini was the Santuzza of the occasion, +Grace Golden the Lola, Helen von Doenhoff the Lucia, Charles Bassett the +Truriddu, and William Pruette the Alfio. Heinrich Conried staged the +production. In the evening Oscar Hammerstein pitchforked the opera on +to the stage of the Lenox Lyceum--an open concert room, and a poor one +at that. There was a canvas proscenium, no scenery to speak of, costumes +copied from no particular country and no particular period, and a +general effect of improvisation. But the musical forces were superior +to Mr. Aronson's, and had there been a better theater the Casino +performance would have been greatly surpassed. There was a really fine +orchestra under the direction of Mr. Adolph Neuendorff, but it sat +out on the floor of the hall, which reverberated like a drum. Mme. +Janouschoffsky, an exceedingly capable artist, was the Santuzza, Mrs. +Pemberton Hincks the Lola, Mrs. Jennie Bohner the Lucia, Payne Clarke +the Turiddu, and Herman Gerold the Alfio. While all this pother +was making, "Cavalleria Rusticana" was already three weeks old in +Philadelphia, where Mr. Gustav Hinrichs had brought it forward with his +American company at the Grand Opera House; Minnie Hauk, with a company +of her own, had given it in Chicago the night before the New York +struggle, and Emma Juch and her company were rushing forward the +preparations for a production in Boston. + +"Cavalleria Rusticana" came upon the world like the bursting of a bomb, +and its effect was so startling that it bewildered and confounded the +radical leaders of musical thought. There were few, indeed, who retained +calmness of vision enough to perceive that it was less a change of +manner than of subject-matter, which had whirled the world off its +critical feet. Outside of Italy there was no means of seeing the work +of preparation which had preceded it. The annual output of hundreds of +operas made no impression beyond the Alpine barrier, and it was easy to +believe that the entire product was formed after the old and humdrum +manner. No sooner had "Cavalleria Rusticana" broken down the old +confines, however, than it was discovered that a whole brood of young +musicians had been brought up on the same blood-heating food, and a +dozen composers were ready to use the same formulas. Most of them, +indeed, got the virus from the same apothecary who uttered the mortal +drug to Mascagni--that is to say, from Amilcare Ponchielli. Had we but +listened twenty-five years ago to "La Gioconda" as we are able to listen +to "Cavalleria Rusticana," and its swift and multitudinous offspring +now, we might have recognized the beginnings of what has been termed +"Mascagnitis," not in an essentially new manner of musical composition, +but in the appeal to the primitive passion for violence and blood which +found expression in the operatic paraphrase of Victor Hugo's story, +and the invitation which that passion extended to the modern musician +suddenly emancipated from a lot of cumbersome formularies, and endowed +with a mass of new harmonic and instrumental pigments with which to +produce the startling contrasts and swift contradictions for which +the new field of subjects clamors. + +Seventeen years ago "Cavalleria Rusticana" had no perspective. Now, +though but a small portion of its progeny has been brought to our +notice, we, nevertheless, look at it through a vista which looks like a +valley of moral and physical death through which there flows a sluggish +stream thick with filth, and red with blood. Strangely enough, in spite +of the consequences which have followed it, the fierce little drama +retains its old potency. It still speaks with a voice which sounds like +the voice of truth. Its music still makes the nerves tingle, and carries +our feelings unresistingly on its turbulent current. But the stage +picture is less sanguinary than it looked in the beginning. It seems to +have receded a millennium in time. It has the terrible fierceness of an +Attic tragedy, but it also has the decorum which the Attic tragedy never +violated. There is no slaughter in the presence of the audience, despite +the humbleness of its personages. It does not keep us perpetually in +sight of the shambles. It is, indeed, an exposition of chivalry, rustic, +but chivalry, nevertheless. It was thus Clytemnestra slew her husband, +and Orestes his mother. Note the contrast which the duel between Alfio +and Turiddu presents with the double murder to the piquant accompaniment +of comedy in "Pagliacci," the opera which followed so hard upon its +heels. Since then piquancy has been the cry; the piquant contemplation +of adultery, seduction, and murder amid the reek and stench of the +Italian barnyard. Think of Cilea's "Tilda," Giordano's "Mala Vita," +Spinelli's "A Basso Porto," and Tasca's "A Santa Lucia!" + +The stories chosen for operatic treatment by the champions of verismo +are all alike. It is their filth and blood which fructifies the music, +which rasps the nerves even as the plays revolt the moral stomach. I +repeat: looking back over the time during which this so-called veritism +has held its orgy, "Cavalleria Rusticana" seems almost classic. Its +music is highly spiced and tastes "hot i' th' mouth," but its eloquence +is, after all, in its eager, pulsating, passionate melody--like the +music which Verdi wrote more than half a century ago for the last act +of "Il Trovatore." If neither Mascagni himself, nor his imitators, have +succeeded in equaling it since, it is because they have thought too +much of the external devices of abrupt and uncouth change of modes and +tonalities, of exotic scales and garish orchestration, and too little of +the fundamental element of melody, which once was the be-all and end-all +of Italian music. Another fountain of gushing melody must be opened +before "Cavalleria Rusticana" finds a successor in all things worthy of +the succession. Ingenious artifice, reflection, and technical cleverness +will not suffice even with the blood and mud of the Neapolitan slums as +a fertilizer. + +Messrs. Abbey and Grau had no rival opera organizations to contend with +at any time after they opened their doors, so they created a bit of +competition themselves. In January they brought Mme. Patti and her +operatic concert company into the house for a pair of concerts in which +scenes from operas were sung in costume, the famous singer's companions +being Mlle. Fabbri, M. Guille (tenor), Signor Novara (bass), and Signor +Del Puente. The occasion offered an opportunity to study the impulses +which underlie popular patronage. The entertainments being concerts, +not operas, the stockholders were not entitled to their boxes under the +terms of their contract with Abbey & Grau, and were conspicuous by their +absence. Nevertheless, at the second concert, which took place on an +afternoon, I estimated the audience at four thousand--nine-tenths women. +Mme. Patti also appeared in performances of "Lucia di Lammermoor" and +"Il Barbiere" in a supplementary season, one feature of which, on March +31, 1892, was the production of Wagner's "Flying Dutchman" in Italian, +with M. Lassalle in the titular part, which he sang for the first time +in his life. "A marvelous artist indeed is this Frenchman," was my +comment in The Tribune, "and if he and the brothers de Reszke are in +next year's company, the lovers of the lyric drama as distinguished from +the old sing-song opera will look into the future without trepidation." +Unhappily there was no "next year's company." + +In August, 1892, the Metropolitan Opera House had a visitation of fire, +which brought operatic matters to a crisis, caused a postponement of +the performance for a season, a reorganization of the corporation which +owned the building, and a remodeling of the stage and portions of the +interior of the theater. For a considerable space before the building of +the Metropolitan the public mind was greatly exercised over the awful +loss of life at recent theater fires, especially the destruction of the +Ringtheater in Vienna. When Mr. Cady planned the New York house, he +set about making it as absolutely fireproof as such a structure can be. +It was to be non-combustible from the bottom up. There was not a stud +partition in it. The floors were all of iron beams and brick arches, the +masonry being exposed in the corridors, passages and vestibules, but for +comfort having a covering of wood in the audience room. The roof was of +iron and masonry, the outer covering of slate being secured to masonry +blocks. The iron roof beams of over one hundred feet span, were mounted +on rollers to allow for contraction and expansion. The ceiling of the +audience room was of iron. The ornamental work of the proscenium, the +tier balustrades, and the frames of the partitions between the boxes +were all of metal. The stage was supported by a complex iron system +of about four thousand light pieces so adjusted as to be removable +in sections when it was desired to open the stage floor. Theater +fires almost invariably originate on the stage, and, as an additional +safeguard, Mr. Cady contrived an apparatus for flooding the stage in +the case of a threatened conflagration. A large skylight was weighted +to fall open in case of fire, and a great water tank placed over the +rigging loft and connected with a network of pipes with apertures +stopped with extremely fusible solder, so that the heat of even a +small fire would open the holes and release a drenching shower. + +One after another these precautions were rendered inutile. The iron +support of the stage troubled the stage mechanics, who wanted something +that could be more easily handled, so wooden pieces were substituted for +the iron. The location of the tank was such that the water was in danger +of freezing in winter, and steam pipes were arranged to keep the water +warm. Mr. Abbey did not like the expense of warming the water, and +therefore emptied the tank. There was a fireproof curtain, which was +cumbrous to handle, and Mr. Abbey's men chained it up. The commodious +stage made a superb paint shop in summer, and Mr. Abbey used it for +painting scenery for his other theaters. It was being thus used on +August 27, 1892, when a workman carelessly threw a lighted match among +the "green" scenery. It caught fire, the stage was burned out, and +the auditorium sadly disfigured. When, eventually, the building was +repaired, the interior of the theater, all that had suffered harm, was +thoroughly remodeled, the stockholders' boxes were reduced to a single +row, the proscenium was given its present shape, the apron of the stage +was removed, and the stage itself was made more practicable in many +ways. This did not happen, however, until the question whether or not +the opera house should be restored to its original uses had occupied the +minds of the stockholders and public for nearly a year. In the middle +of the season Messrs. Abbey and Grau, while protesting that they were +satisfied with the financial outcome of their venture, announced that +they did not intend to give opera the next year. They were shaken in +this determination, if they ever seriously harbored it, by the success +of "Faust" and one or two other operas, which enlisted what in the next +season of opera came to be called the "ideal cast." But there was a +division of opinion as to the proper course for the future among the +stockholders, especially after Mr. Abbey, late in September, sent word +from London that his firm would not undertake opera in the United States +without a subvention from the Metropolitan Opera Company. Also that he +had already canceled his contracts with singers for the American season +of 1892-93. There was some vague talk before this on the part of Mr. +Schoeffel of a season of opera in Mexico City, and a longer season than +usual in Chicago, the intimation plainly being that grand opera might +be emancipated from dependence on the metropolis. One effect of this +indecision was to bring forth a discussion of the feasibility of endowed +opera in New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and one or two other +of the large cities of the country. Another was to call into new life an +agitation in favor of the establishment of another German company. The +first project died of inanition; the second developed in another year +into an actuality, which created more stir than the close of the opera +house had done. The Metropolitan Opera Company reached a decision +some time in January, 1893. The directors had neglected to insure +the building against fire, and provision had to be made for funds to +rebuild, as well as to pay off existing liabilities. The opera lovers +among the stockholders reorganized the company under the style of the +Metropolitan Opera and Real Estate Company, and purchased the building +under foreclosure proceeding for $1,425,000, then raised $1,000,000 by a +bond issue, and the summer of 1893 was devoted to a restoration of the +theater, an agreement having also been reached for a new lease to Mr. +Abbey and his associates. + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE ADVENT OF MELBA AND CALVÉ + + +For the reasons set forth at the close of the last chapter there was no +opera at the Metropolitan Opera House in the season of 1892-93, but the +fall of the latter year witnessed the beginning of a new period, full +of vicissitudes. With many brilliant artistic features, it was still +experimental to a large extent on its artistic side, the chief results +of its empiricism being the restoration of German opera in the repertory +on an equal footing with Italian and French. It also brought the largest +wave of prosperity to the house that it had experienced since its +opening, yet ended in the shipwreck of the lessees, and disaster that +was more than financial. The lessees were again Messrs. Abbey, Schoeffel +and Grau, with whom the reorganized Metropolitan Opera and Real Estate +Company (Limited) effected an agreement, the essential elements of which +remained unchanged for fifteen years; that is, down to the close of the +season of 1907-08. The term was five years. The lessees took the house +for an annual rental of $52,000, and pledged themselves to give opera +four times a week for thirteen weeks in the winter and spring. The +lessors paid back to the lessees the $52,000 for their box privileges, +and to insure representations which would be satisfactory to them, +reserved the right to nominate six of the singers, two of whom were +to take part in every performance in the subscription list. + +The first season under the new lease was enormously successful, Abbey, +Schoeffel, and Grau realizing about $150,000, including the visits to +other cities, and a supplementary spring season of two weeks. They made +great losses on their other enterprises, however, especially on Abbey's +Theater (now the Knickerbocker), and the American tours of Mounet-Sully +and Mme. Réjane. Like results attended the seasons of 1894-95, and +1895-96, the drag in the latter instance being the Lillian Russell Opera +Company, which, together with other ventures, brought the firm into +such a financial slough that it made an assignment for the benefit of +its creditors, who were forced to take over its business to protect +themselves. Chief of these was William Steinway, who had accommodated +Abbey, Schoeffel and Grau with loans to the extent of $50,000. Under +his guidance as chairman of the committee of reorganization, the stock +company, Abbey, Schoeffel & Grau (Limited), was formed, he becoming +president, and Henry E. Abbey, John B. Schoeffel, and Maurice Grau +managing directors at a salary of $20,000 a year. Ernest Goerlitz, who +had been in the employ of the firm for some time, was made secretary +and treasurer. He remained in an executive capacity at the Metropolitan +until the expiration of the consulship of Conried in 1908. Mr. Steinway +got rid of the debts of the company (or, perhaps, it would be more +correct to say, changed their character) by issuing certificates of +stock and notes to the creditors. In this manner some of the principal +artists of the company became financially interested in opera giving. + +Before the reorganized company began the next series of performances Mr. +Abbey died, and the season was only a fortnight old when Mr. Steinway +followed him into the grave. A very puissant personage in the managerial +field was Mr. Abbey during a full quarter-century of theatrical life in +America. He was a purely speculative manager, who never permitted his +own likes or dislikes to influence him in his chosen vocation of +purveying amusements, so-called, to the public, though his tastes led +him generally into the higher regions, and there is little doubt that an +inherent love for music for its own sake made him take to opera. As a +young man in his native city of Akron, Ohio, where he was born in 1846, +he played cornet in the town band. When he revoked his resolution never +to embark in an operatic enterprise again after the disastrous season of +1883-84, I met him in Broadway, and asked him about the artists he +intended to bring to the Metropolitan Opera House. He gave me the names +of those whom he had in view, and I expressed my regret that one, whom I +admired very greatly indeed, was missing. His reply was prompt: "There +is no woman in the world I would rather engage, and no woman whose +singing gives me greater pleasure; but she doesn't draw. I never made +any money with her." It was an illuminative observation. As a youth he +was interested with his father in the jewelry business in Akron, and on +the death of his father, in 1873, the business became his; but by that +time he was already a theatrical manager, though on a small scale. In +1869 he had assumed charge of the Akron theater. In 1876 he associated +himself with John B. Schoeffel, and with him gradually acquired +theatrical properties in several of the principal cities of the East, +and entered upon enterprises of a character which were his undoing in +the end. The Abbey, Schoeffel & Grau Company carried through the season +of 1896-97 with a profit of about $30,000 in New York, despite the fact +that the financial affairs of the country were in a bad way. A four +weeks' season in Chicago, however, was ruinous, and Mr. Gran was +compelled to fall back on some of the artists of the company and friends +to enable him to bring the Chicago season to a close. Jean and Édouard +de Reszke and Lassalle were among the subscribers to a guarantee fund of +$30,000, which he needed to carry him through. All the guarantors were +repaid in full, when, at the end of the season, the affairs of Abbey, +Schoeffel & Grau (Limited) were wound up, and Mr. Schoeffel bought the +principal asset, the Tremont Theater, in Boston. Thereupon Mr. Grau and +his associates formed a new company, which gave opera under the +conditions which seemed to have become traditional until the end of the +season of 1902-3. Mr. Grau was compelled by ill health to withdraw from +active duty before the end of the last season, and the story of his +company's doings falls naturally into another chapter of this history. +We must now survey the artistic incidents of the period between the +reconstruction of the opera house and the beginning of the new régime. +This will be the business of this and the following chapter. + +Simply for the sake of convenience in the record, I shall devote the +chief statistical attention in the remaining chapters of this history to +the subscription seasons, and discuss the supplementary spring seasons +only as they offer features of special interest. The seasons, generally +a fortnight long, and given after the return of the singers from visits +to Boston and Chicago, are distinguished from the subscription seasons +very much as the fall seasons in London are from the summer seasons, +though there is not the sharp line of demarcation so far as fashion +goes, which the adjournment of Parliament makes on the other side of +the Atlantic. + +The tenth regular season of opera then began at the Metropolitan Opera +House on November 27, 1893, and ended on February 24, 1894. Officially +the languages of the performances were Italian and French, but the +operas given were, for the greater part, French and German, and the +representations were dual in language in all cases, except the Italian +works. I mention this fact, not because of its singularity, for it is a +familiar phenomenon all over the operatic world, except perhaps Italy, +but in order to point out hereafter a betterment, which came in with +a more serious artistic striving later. The chorus always sang in the +"soft bastard Latin," whether the principals sang in Italian or French; +and the occasions were not a few when two languages were sung also +by the principals--when lovers wooed in French, and received their +replies in Italian, thus recalling things over which Addison made +merry generations ago. The season was planned to embrace thirty-nine +subscription nights and thirteen matinées. To these were added two +matinées and sixteen evening representations, two of the latter +being for the benefit of popular charities. In all, New York had +sixty performances of opera within the period covered by the regular +subscription, which was a smaller number than had been shown by any +season since that of 1886-87. Eighteen operas were brought forward in +full (that is to say, without more than the conventional cuts), and +parts of three others. Thus of "La Traviata," though I have included it +in the list to be presented soon, only the first and fourth acts were +performed. There was not a single opera in the repertory which had not +been heard in New York before, though several were new to the house. +The nearest approach to a novelty was Mascagni's "L'Amico Fritz," which +disappeared from the list after two representations, and had been heard +at an improvised performance, which scarcely deserves to be considered +in a record of this character. In the supplemental season, however, +a novelty of real pith and moment was brought forward in the shape +of Massenet's "Werther," which had been promised to the regular +subscribers, and which, while it made no profound impression, was +accepted as an earnest of the excellent and honorable intentions of the +managers, and a proof of the difficulties which hampered them at times. + +The principal members of the company were Mesdames Melba, Calvé, +Eames, Nordica, Arnoldson, Scalchi, and Mantelli, and Messrs. Jean and +Édouard de Reszke, de Lucia, Vignas, Ancona, Plançon, Castelmary, and +Martapoura. The subscription for the season amounted to $82,000, which +was $10,000 more than the largest subscription in the German period. A +great ado was made over this fact by the managers and their friends. Not +unnaturally the lovers of German opera took up the cudgels against the +Italianissimi, and pointed out the indubitable fact that owing to the +difference in prices of admission and seats the subscription, instead of +showing a large advance in popular interest, indicated a falling off to +the extent of an attendance of six thousand in the season. Not money, +but attendance, they argued, was the real standard of popularity. The +managers also very unwisely, as it proved (since two years later they +found themselves obliged to include German performances in their +scheme), put forward a public boast that the receipts for the last +month of the opera "nearly equaled the average gross receipts for the +entire term of any German opera ever given in New York." Of course, the +reference went only to the German seasons at the Metropolitan Opera +House, for there was no record that could be consulted touching the many +sporadic German enterprises of the earlier periods at the Academy of +Music and other theaters. It was not at all unkind, but simply in the +interest of historical verity that in The Tribune I called attention +to the fact that it was scarcely ingenuous in Abbey, Schoeffel & Grau +to choose the last month in the season for the comparison, for in that +month there were twenty-two representations, including two for popular +charities (at one of which, managed by the opera house directors, the +public contributed $22,000), and six representations of "Carmen," which, +with Mme. Calvé in the principal character, was enjoying the most +sensational triumph ever achieved by any opera or singer. Moreover, most +of 'these performances were outside the subscription, and the prices, +as I have repeatedly said, were nearly double those which prevailed +during the German régime. Besides, it was an easy task to prove from the +figures which I had printed from year to year in my "Review of the New +York Musical Season," that, in order to surpass the German record with +their last month, Abbey, Schoeffel & Grau would have had to show average +nightly receipts of over $9,000, whereas only once had they, in a spirit +of boastfulness, claimed that as much as $11,000 had been taken at a +single performance, and that at a phenomenal "Carmen" matinée. Without +Calvé and "Carmen" the bankruptcy which came two years later might have +been precipitated in this season. Thanks to Bizet's opera, and its +heroine, and the popularity of Mme. Eames and the brothers de Reszke in +"Faust," the season was prodigiously successful, the receipts from all +sources (including the Sunday night concerts and opera in Philadelphia +and Brooklyn) being in the neighborhood of $550,000, and the profits, +as I have already said, $150,000. The twelve performances of "Carmen," +I make no doubt, brought at least $100,000 into the exchequer of the +managers in the subscription season, and in the supplemental post-Lenten +season of a fortnight there were three performances more. The success of +the opera remained without a parallel in the history of opera in New +York till the coming of Wagner's "Parsifal." + +Mme. Melba effected her entrance on the operatic stage in America on +December 4, 1893, in Donizetti's "Lucia." Five years before she had made +her London début in the same opera, and between that time and her coming +to New York she had won fragrant laurels in Paris in company with the +brothers de Reszke and M. Lassalle in "Roméo et Juliette" and "Faust," +both of which operas she had prepared with the composer. Her repertory +was small when she came, but in it she was unique, both for the quality +of her voice and the quality of her art. She did not make all of her +operas effective in her first season, partly because a large portion +of the public had been weaned away from the purely lyric style of +composition and song, in which she excelled, partly because the dramatic +methods and fascinating personality of Mme. Calvé had created a fad +which soon grew to proportions that scouted at reason; partly because +Miss (not Mme.) Eames had become a great popular favorite, and the +people of society, who doted on her, on Jean de Reszke, his brother +Édouard, and on Lassalle, found all the artistic bliss of which they +were capable in listening to their combined voices in "Faust." So +popular had Gounod's opera become at this time with the patrons of the +Metropolitan Opera House, that my witty colleague, Mr. W. J. Henderson, +sarcastically dubbed it "das Faustspielhaus," in parody of the popular +title of the theater on the hill in the Wagnerian Mecca. + +When Mme. Melba came she was the finest exemplar of finished +vocalization that had been heard at the opera house since its opening, +with the single exception of Mme. Sembrich. Though she had been singing +in opera only five years, she had reached the zenith of her powers. +Her voice was charmingly fresh, and exquisitely beautiful. Her +tone-production was more natural, and quite as apparently spontaneous, +as that of the wonderful woman who so long upheld the standard of bel +canto throughout the world. In the case of Mme. Patti, art had already +begun to be largely artifice, a circumstance that needed to cause no +wonder inasmuch as her career on the operatic Stage already compassed +a full generation; but Mme. Melba neither needed to seek for means nor +guard against possible mishap. All that she needed--more than that: +all that she wanted to humor her amiable disposition to be prodigal in +utterance--lay in her voice ready at hand. Its range was commensurate +with all that could be asked of it, and she moved with greatest ease +in the regions which most of her rivals carefully avoided. To throw +out those scintillant bubbles of sound which used to be looked upon as +the highest achievement in singing seemed to be an entirely natural +mode of expression with her. With the reasonableness of such a mode +of expression I am not concerned now; it is enough that Mme. Melba +came nearer to providing it with justification than any one of her +contemporaries of that day, except Mme. Sembrich, or any of her +contemporaries of to-day. Added to these gifts and graces, she disclosed +most admirable musical instincts, a quality which the people had been +taught to admire more than ever while they were learning how to give +reverence due to the dramatic elements in the modern lyric drama. + +I have already intimated that Mme. Melba's operas found little favor +with the public compared with "Carmen" and "Faust," and, perhaps, there +was in this more than a mere indication of the educational influence +left by the German period. I should have no hesitation whatever in +saying so had not the "Carmen" craze reached proportions which precluded +the thought that artistic predilections or convictions had anything to +do with it. So much of a mere fad did Mme. Calvé in "Carmen" become that +the public remained all but insensible to the merits of her immeasurably +finer impersonation of Santuzza in "Cavalleria Rusticana." It was in +Mascagni's opera that she effected her début on November 29, 1893, in +company with Señor Vignas, a Spanish tenor, squat and ungraceful of +figure, homely of features, restricted in intelligence, and strident of +voice. New York knew very little of Mme. Calvé when she came, though +she had already been twice as long on the stage as Mme. Melba, and even +after her first appearance Mr. Abbey met my congratulations on her +achievement with a dubious shake of the head, and the remark that, while +he hoped my predictions touching her popularity would be fulfilled, +he placed a much lower estimation on her powers than I. Not he, but +Mr. Grau, was responsible for her engagement, and his hopes were all +centered on Mme. Melba. Like most of our singers at the time, Calvé +came to New York by way of London. The rôle of Santuzza, which she had +created in Paris in January, 1892, and in London in the following May, +had been hailed with gladness in both cities, but her Carmen was as +inadequately appreciated in Paris as it was overestimated in New York +and London, especially in later years, when the capriciousness which +led her originally to break away from some of the traditions of the +rôle created by Galli-Marié. and thus cost her the understanding of +the Parisians, had become a fixed habit, which she pursued regardless +of decent moderation, sound principles, and good taste. + +The Parisians attested their artistic Bourbonism not only in declining +to recognize the excellence of the good features of Calvé's Carmen, but, +also, in failing to appreciate her touchingly beautiful Ophelia, to +the great grief of Ambroise Thomas, who went to Italy to see her in the +part, and believed that had she but been given the proper support in +Paris "Hamlet" would have ranked with "Faust" in popularity. Of course, +this was a fond composer's too good opinion of his opera, but the trait +of the Paris public which is unwilling to find merit in any change from +a performance which first won their admiration has frequently stood +in the way of first-class talent. To illustrate this I can relate an +anecdote which was repeated to me at an artistic dinner table in the +French capital in 1886. It is not for me to vouch for the truth of the +story, but give it as it was told to me in explanation of some amused +comments which I had made on the stiff conventionality of a performance +of "L'Africaine" which I had witnessed at the Grand Opéra. Faure, the +original of Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet, had been succeeded in the rôle by +Lassalle, whose fine art in newer works had met with full recognition +from press and public. To Lassalle's great surprise, his Hamlet, a +remarkably fine performance within the limit set by the pitiable +operatic travesty of Shakespeare's play, was received coldly, and there +was wide comment on the circumstance that he had ignored traditions of +performance, especially in the scene between the Prince and his mother. +In considerable distress he went to Faure, who had set the fashion: + +"What pose, gesture, effect of yours is it that I have failed to copy?" +he asked of his confrère. + +And Faure explained: + +At the first performance when he reached the scene in question, he had +found his throat suddenly clogged. Only by an act neither pleasant to +observe nor polite to describe, could he remove the obstruction, and at +a supreme moment he had improvised a movement which carried his face out +of sight of the audience, so that he might free his throat unnoticed. +Knowing nothing of the cause, the public applauded the effect, and the +singular nuance became a part of the "business" of the piece. + +When Mme. Calvé flashed upon New York in "Cavalleria Rusticana," +her impersonation startled me into the declaration that no finer +lyrico-dramatic performance had been witnessed in America within a +generation. Unhesitatingly I placed it by the side of Materna's +Brünnhilde, Brandt's Fidès, Niemann's Tristan and Siegmund, and +Fischer's Hans Sachs, without, of course, presuming to compare the +relative value of the dramatists' conceits. Even now I cannot recall +anything finer in the region of combined action and song. She held her +listeners so completely captive and swayed them so powerfully that she +compelled even the foolishly and affectedly frantic claquers, who had +seats near the stage, to hold their peace. They could only make their +boisterous clamor in response to the old-fashioned appeal made by +a high tone screeched by the stridulous tenor. There was as little +conventionality in her singing as in her acting, though she had not +yet adopted that indifference to rhythm which has marked her singing +in more recent years. She saturated the music with emotion. Much of it +she seemed to sing to herself, declaiming it like dramatic speech whose +emotional contents had been raised to a higher power by the melody. In +moments of extreme excitement one scarcely realized that she was singing +at all. Carried along by the torrent of her feelings, her listeners +accepted her song as the only proper and efficient expression for her +emotional state. The two expressions, song and action, were one; they +were mutually complemental. It was not nature subordinated to art, but +art vitalized by nature. It is not possible for me to compare her +Carmen with Galli-Marié's, which stood in the way of her appreciation +in the part in Paris. I have heard that that was so frank in one of +its expressions that it invited the interference of the Prefect of the +Seine. To me, at least, in Mme. Calvé's impersonation, it seemed that +I was enjoying my first revelation of some of the elements of the +character of the gypsy as it had existed in the imagination of Prosper +Mérimée when he wrote his novel. To me she presented a woman thoroughly +wanton and diabolically equipped with the wicked witcheries which +explained, if they did not palliate, the conduct of Don José. Here we +had a woman without conscience, but also without the capacity for even +a wicked affection; a woman who might have been the thief whom the +novelist describes, who surely carried a dagger in her corsage, and who +in some respects left absolutely nothing to the imagination, to which +even a drama like "Carmen" makes appeal. She came upon the stage as +Mérimée's heroine stepped into his pages: "poising herself on her +hips, like a filly from the Cordovan stud," and with a fine simulation +of unconsciousness, she seemed every moment about to break into one of +those dances which the satirist castigated in the days of the Roman +Empire: + + Nec de Gadibus improbis puellae + Vibrabunt sine fine prurientes + Lascivos docili tremore lumbos. + +Alas! Mme. Calvé's admiration for herself was stronger than her devotion +to an artistic ideal, and it was not long before her Carmen became +completely merged in her own capricious personality. + +Massenet's "Werther" (performed in Chicago, March 29) had its first New +York performance at the Metropolitan, April 19, 1894, with Mme. Eames, +Sigrid Arnoldson, Jean de Reszke, M. Martapoura, and Signor Carbone. +Signor Mancinelli conducted. The opera had one performance, and was +repeated once in the season of 1896-97. Then it disappeared from the +repertory of the Metropolitan, and has since then not been thought of, +apparently, although strenuous efforts have been made ever and anon +to give interest to the French list. I record the fact as one to be +deplored. "Werther" is a beautiful opera; as instinct with throbbing +life in every one of its scenes as the more widely admired "Manon" is in +its best scene. It has its weak spots as have all of Massenet's operas, +despite his mastery of technique, but its music will always appeal +to refined artistic sensibilities for its lyric charm, its delicate +workmanship, its splendid dramatic climax in the duo between Werther +and Charlotte, beginning: "Ah! pourvu que de voie ces yeux toujours +ouverts," and its fine scoring. It smacks more of the atmosphere of +the Parisian salon than of the sweet breezes with which Goethe filled +the story, but no Frenchman has yet been able to talk aught but polite +French in music for the stage, Berlioz excepted, and the music of +"Werther" is of finer texture than that of most of the operas produced +by Massenet since. + +The season of 1894-95, consisting again of thirteen weeks, began on +November 19th, and closed on February 16th. It was marked by a number of +incidents, some of which made a permanent impression on the policy of +the Metropolitan Opera House. Chief of these was a remarkable eruption +of sentiment in favor of German opera--so vigorous an eruption, +indeed, that it led to the incorporation of German performances in +the Metropolitan repertory ever after, though the change involved a +much greater augmentation of the forces of the establishment than the +consorting of French with Italian had involved. To this I shall give +the attention which it deserves presently. Other features were the +introduction of Saturday night performances of opera at reduced prices +(a feature which became permanent), the appearance of several new +singers, and the production of two novelties, one of them Verdi's +"Falstaff," of first-class importance. + +In their prospectus the managers promised a reformation of the chorus, +and announced the re-engagement of "nearly all the great favorites +of last year." The improvement of the chorus was not particularly +noticeable except in appearance; a number of young and comely American +women were enlisted, but their best service was to stand in front of the +old stagers who knew the operas, and could sing but who seemed to have +come down through the ages from the early days of the old Academy. The +phrase "nearly all" was an ominous one, for it betokened the absence +from the company of Mme. Calvé. The newcomers were Lucille Hill, Sybil +Sanderson, Zélie de Lussan, Mira Heller, and Libia Drog, sopranos; G. +Russitano and Francesco Tamagno, tenors, and Victor Maurel, who had been +a popular favorite twenty years before at the Academy of Music. Luigi +Mancinelli and E. Bevignani were the conductors, and Mr. Seidl was +engaged to give éclat to the Sunday evening concerts. Mme. Melba's chief +financial value to the management in the preceding season had been found +to lie in these concerts, which this year were begun earlier than usual, +and made a part of Melba's concert tour. The first opera was "Roméo et +Juliette," with the cast beloved of society, and on the second night +the introduction of the newcomers began. But woefully. The opera was +"William Tell," and Signorina Drog sang the part of the heroine in place +of Miss Hill, indisposed. Mathilde (or Matilda--the opera was sung in +Italian), does not appear in the opera until the second act, and then +she has the most familiar air in the opera to sing--"Selva opaca," an +air which then belonged to the concert-room repertory of most florid +sopranos. When Signorina Drog came upon the stage, it is safe to say +that no one regretted her substitution for the English singer except +herself. She was an exceedingly handsome person, who moved about with +attractive freedom and grace, and disclosed a voice of good quality, +especially in the upper register. She began her aria most tastefully, +but scarcely had she begun when her memory played her false. For a few +dreadful seconds she tried to pick up the thread of the melody but in +vain. Then came the inevitable breakdown. She quit trying, and appealed +pitifully to Signor Mancinelli for help. He seemed to have lost his +head as completely as the lady had her memory. So had the prompter, who +pulled his noddle into his shell like a snail and remained as mute. +Signor Tamagno entered in character, and indulged in dumbshow to a few +detached phrases from the orchestra. Then the awfulness of the situation +overwhelmed him, and he fairly ran off the stage, leaving Matilda alone. +That lady made a final appeal to the conductor, switched her dress +nervously with her riding whip, went to the wings, got a glass of water, +and then disappeared. The audience, which had good-humoredly applauded +till now, began to laugh, and the demoralization was complete. It would +have been a relief had the curtain fallen, but as this did not happen +Signor Tamagno, Signor Ancona, and Édouard de Reszke came upon the stage +and began the famous trio, in which Signor Tamagno sang with tremendous +intensity and power. It was a remarkable performance of a sensational +piece, and had it not been preceded by so frightful a catastrophe, and +interrupted by Tamagno himself to bow his acknowledgments, pick up a +bunch of violets thrown from a box, and repeat his first melody, its +effect would have been dramatically electrifying. There was a long wait +after the act to enable Signor Mancinelli to arrange the necessary cuts, +and after the stage manager had made an apology on behalf of Signorina +Drog, and explained that she had been seized with vertigo, but would +finish the opera in an abbreviated form, the representation was resumed. +It is due to the lady to add that she had never before attempted to sing +the part, and that on the third evening she materially redeemed herself +in "Aïda." Miss de Lussan, a native of New York, who had begun her +operatic career a few years before in the Boston Ideal Opera Company, +and had won a commendable degree of favor at Covent Garden as Carmen, +had been engaged in the hope of continuing the prosperous career of +Bizet's opera, but the hope proved abortive. It was the singer, not the +song, which had bewitched the people of New York--Calvé, not Bizet. +"Carmen" was excellently given, the charm of Melba's voice being called +on for the music of Micaela's part; but the sensation had departed, and +was waiting to be revived with the return of Calvé in the succeeding +season. + +The first novelty in this season was "Elaine," an opera in four acts, +words by Paul Ferrier, music by Herman Bemberg, brought forward on +December 17, 1894. "Elaine" was produced because Mme. Melba and the +brothers de Reszke wanted to appear in it out of friendship for the +composer, who had dedicated the score to them, and come to New York to +witness the production, as he had gone to London when it was given in +Covent Garden. In America Bemberg was a small celebrity of the salon and +concert room. His parents were citizens of the Argentine Republic, but +he was born in Paris, in 1861. His father being a man of wealth, he +had ample opportunity to cultivate his talents, and his first teachers +in composition were Bizet and Henri Maréchal. Later he continued his +studies at the Conservatoire, under Dubois and Massenet. In 1885 he +carried off the Rossini prize, and in 1889 brought out a one-act opera +at the Opéra Comique, "Le Baiser de Suzon," for which Pierre Barbier +wrote the words. "Elaine" had its first performance at Convent Garden in +July, 1892, with Mme. Melba, Jean and Édouard de Reszke, and M. Plançon +in the cast. It was then withdrawn for revision, and restored to the +stage the next year. If there is anything creditable in such a thing it +may be said, to Mr. Bemberg's credit, that, so far as I know, he was the +first musician who wrote music for Oscar Wilde's "Salome." The public, +especially the people of the boxes, lent a gracious ear to the new +opera, partly, no doubt, because of its subject, but more largely +because of Mme. Melba, Mme. Mantelli, the brothers de Reszke, Plançon, +and M. Castelmary, who were concerned in its production. All of Mr. +Bemberg's music that had previously been heard in New York was of the +lyrical order, and it seemed but natural that he was less successful in +the developing of a dramatic situation than in hymning the emotions of +one when he found it at hand. A ballad in the first act ("L'amour est +pur comme la fiamme"), the scene at the close ("L'air est léger"), a +prayer in the third act ("Dieu de pitié"), and the duets which followed +them are all cases in point. They mark the high tide of M. Bemberg's +graceful melodic fancy, and exemplify his good taste and genuineness of +feeling. It is not great music, but it is sincere to the extent of its +depth. For the note of chivalry which ought to sound all through an +Arthurian opera M. Bemberg has chosen no less a model than "Lohengrin"; +but his trumpets are feebler echoes of the original voice than his +harmonies on several occasions, as, for instance, the entrance of +Lancelot into the castle of Astolat. In general his instrumentation +is discreet and effective. He has followed his French teachers in the +treatment of the dialogue, which aims to be intensified speech. He +has also trodden, though at a distance, in the footsteps of Bizet and +Massenet in the device of using typical phrases; but so timidly has this +been done that it is doubtful if it was discovered by the audience. The +resources of the opera house in reproducing the scenes of chivalric life +were commensurate with the music of the opera in its attempt to bring +its spirit to the mind through the ear. It is more exciting to read of +a tournament in Malory than to see a mimic one on the stage. It is true +that there were men on horses who rode together three times, that a +spear was broken, and that they afterward fought on foot; but they +struck their spears together as if they had been singlesticks, instead +of receiving each his opponent's weapon on his shield, and when the +spear broke it was not all "toshivered." Then, when they had drawn their +swords, they did not "lash together like wild boars, thrusting and +foining and giving either other many sad strokes, so that it was marvel +to see how they might endure," as the gentle Sir Thomas would doubtless +have had them do. Still, the opera was enjoyed and applauded, as it +deserved to be for the good things that were in it, and the Lily Maid +had more lilies and roses and holly showered about her than she could +easily pick up and carry away. + +Miss Sybil Sanderson, who had gone to Paris from the Pacific Slope some +years before, and had achieved considerable of a vogue, particularly +in Massenet's operas, made her American début on January 16, 1895, in +Massenet's "Manon," in which M. Jean de Reszke sang the part of the +Chevalier des Grieux for the first time. The opera had been heard at the +Academy of Music, in Italian, nine years before, and this was its first +performance in the original French, a language which the fair débutante +used with admirable distinctness and charmingly modulated cadences, a +fact which contributed much to the pretty triumph which she celebrated +after the first act. She did not maintain herself on the plane reached +in this act. The second had scarcely begun before it became noticeable +that she was wanting in passionate expression as well as in voice, +and that her histrionic limitations went hand in hand with her vocal. +But she was a radiant vision, and had she been able to bring out the +ingratiating character of the music she might have held the sympathies +of the audience, obviously predisposed in her favor, in the degree +contemplated by the composer. This quality of graciousness is the most +notable element in Massenet's music. As much as anything can do so +it achieves pardon for the book, which is far less amiable than that +of "Traviata," which deals with the same unlovely theme. Another +quasi novelty was Saint-Saëns's "Samson et Dalila," which had one +performance--and one only--on February 8th to afford Mme. Mantelli +an opportunity to exhibit her musical powers, and Signor Tamagno his +physical. The music was familiar from performances of the work as an +oratorio; as an opera it came as near to making a fiasco as a work +containing so much good and sound music could. + +The most interesting event in the whole administration of Mr. Abbey and +his associates happened on February 4th, when Verdi's "Falstaff" was +presented. Signor Mancinelli conducted, and the cast was as follows: + + + Mistress Ford ...................... Mme. Emma Eames + Anne ............................... Mlle. de Lussan + Mistress Page ...................... Mlle. Jane de Vigne + Dame Quickly ....................... Mme. Scalchi + Fenton ............................. Sig. Russitano + Ford ............................... Sig. Campanari + Pistol ............................. Sig. Nicolini + Dr. Caius .......................... Sig. Vanni + Bardolph ........................... Sig. Rinaldini + Sir John Falstaff .................. M. Victor Maurel + (His original creation.) + + +To construct operas out of Shakespeare's plays has been an ambition +of composers for nearly two centuries. Verdi himself yielded to the +temptation when he wrote "Macbeth" forty years ago. Probably no one +recognized more clearly than he did when he wrote "Falstaff" how +the whole system of lyrico-dramatic composition should undergo a +transformation before anything like justice could be done to the +myriad-minded poet's creations. Who would listen now to Rossini's +"Otello"? Yet, in its day, it was immensely popular. A careless day it +was--the day of pretty singing, and little else; the day when there was +so little concern for the dramatic element in opera that the grewsome +dénouement of Rossini's opera is said once to have caused a listener +to cry out in astonishment: "Great God! the tenor is murdering the +soprano!" Then it might have been possible for a composer, provided he +were a Mozart, to find a musical investment for a Shakespearian comedy, +but assuredly not for a tragedy. No literary masterpiece was safe from +the vandalism of opera writers at that time, however, and Shakespeare +simply shared the fate of Goethe and their great fellows. With the dawn +of the new era there came greater possibilities, and now it may be said +we have a few Shakespearian operas that will endure for several decades +at least: let us say Nicolai's "Merry Wives of Windsor," Gounod's +"Romeo and Juliet," Verdi's "Othello" and "Falstaff." Ambroise Thomas's +"Hamlet" and Saint-Saëns's "Henry VIII" seem already to have outlived +their brief day, at least in all countries save France, where the +personal equation in favor of a native composer seems strong enough to +keep second-class composers afloat while it permits genius to perish. As +for Goetz's "Taming of the Shrew," it was too much like good Rhine wine, +and too little like champagne to pass as a comic opera. When Verdi's +last opera appeared the only Falstaff who had vitality was the fat +knight of Nicolai's work. Yet he had had many predecessors. Balfe +composed a "Falstaff" for the King's Theater in London, which was sung +with the capacious-voiced Lablache in the titular part, and Grisi, +Persiani, and Ivanoff in the cast. That was in 1838. Forty years earlier +Salieri had composed an Italian "Falstaff" for Vienna. In 1856 Adolphe +Adam produced a French "Falstaff" in Paris, and the antics of the greasy +knight amused the Parisians eighty-six years earlier in Papavoine's +"Le Vieux Coquet." Nicolai's predecessors in Germany were Peter Ritter, +1794, and Dittersdorf, 1796. + +Verdi's return to Shakespearian subjects after reaching the fulness +of his powers in his old age, and after he had turned from operas to +lyric dramas, is in the highest degree significant of the thoroughness +of the revolution accomplished by Wagner. The production of "Otello" +and "Falstaff" created as great an excitement in Italy as the first +performance of "Parsifal" did in Germany; and it must have seemed like +the irony of fate to many that Wagner should have to be filtered through +Verdi in order to bear fruit in the original home of the art form. But +that is surely the lesson of "Otello," "Falstaff," and the fervid works +of Leoncavallo, Mascagni, and Puccini. + +Even more strikingly than "Otello" this comic opera of the youthful +octogenarian disclosed the importance which Boito had assumed in the +development of Verdi. That development is one of the miracles of music. +In manner Verdi represents a full century of operatic writing. He began +when, in Italy at least, the libretto was a mere stalking horse on which +arias might be hung. All that he did besides furnishing vehicles for +airs was to provide a motive for the scene painter and the costumer. +Later we see the growth of dramatic characterization in his ensembles, +and the development of strongly marked and ingeniously differentiated +moods in his arias without departure from the old-fashioned forms. In +this element lay much of the compelling force of his melodies, even +those commonplace ones which were pricked for the barrel organ almost +before the palms were cool which first applauded them--like "Di quella +pira" and "La donna è mobile." Then set in the period of reflection. The +darling of the public began to think more of his art and less of his +popularity. Less impetuous, less fecund, perhaps, in melodic invention, +he began to study how to wed dramatic situations and music. This led him +to enrich his harmonies, and to refine his instrumentation, which in +his earlier works is frequently coarse and vulgar in the extreme. At +this stage he gave us "La Forza del Destino" and "Aïda." Now the hack +writers of opera books would no longer suffice him. He had already shown +high appreciation of the virtue which lies in a good book when he chose +Ghislanzoni to versify the Egyptian story of "Aïda." But the final step +necessary to complete his wonderfully progressive march was taken when +he associated himself with Boito. Here was a man who united in himself +in a creditable degree the qualifications which Wagner demanded for his +"Artist of the Future"; he was poet, dramatist, and musician. No one who +has studied "Otello" can fail to see that Verdi owes much in it to the +composer of "Mefistofele"; but the indebtedness is even greater in +"Falstaff," where the last vestige of the old subserviency of the text +to the music has disappeared. From the first to the last the play is +now the dominant factor. There are no "numbers" in "Falstaff"; there +can be no repetition of a portion of the music without interruption and +dislocation of the action. One might as well ask Hamlet to repeat his +soliloquy on suicide as to ask one of the characters in "Falstaff" to +sing again a single measure once sung. The play moves almost with the +rapidity of the spoken comedy. Only once or twice does one feel that +there is an unnecessary eddy in the current. + +And how has this play been set to music? It has been plunged into a +perfect sea of melodic champagne. All the dialogue, crisp and sparkling, +full of humor in itself, is made crisper, more sparkling, more amusing +by the music on which, and in which, it floats, we are almost tempted to +say more buoyantly than comedy dialogue has floated since Mozart wrote +"Le Nozze di Figaro." The orchestra is bearer of everything, just as +completely as it is in the latter-day dramas of Richard Wagner; it +supplies phrases for the singers, supports their voices, comments on +their utterances, and gives dramatic color to even the most fleeting +idea. It is a marvelous delineator of things external as well as +internal. It swells the bulk of the fat knight until he sounds as if he +weighed a ton, and gives such piquancy to the spirits of the merry women +(Mrs. Quickly monopolizing the importance due to Mrs. Page), that one +cannot see them come on the stage without a throb of delight. In spite +of the tremendous strides which the art of instrumentation has made +since Berlioz mixed the modern orchestral colors, Verdi has in +"Falstaff" added to the variegated palette. Yet all is done so +discreetly, with such utter lack of effect-seeking, that it seems as if +the art had always been known. The flood upon which the vocal melody +floats is not like that of Wagner; it is not a development of fixed +phrases, though Verdi, too, knows the use of leading motives in a sense, +but a current which is ever receiving new waters. The declamation is +managed with extraordinary skill, and though it frequently grows out +of the instrumental part, it has yet independent melodic value as the +vocal parts of Wagner's "Die Meistersinger" have. Through this Verdi +has acquired a comic potentiality for his voice parts which goes hand +in hand with that of his instrumental parts. + +But Verdi is not only dramatically true and melodious in his vocal +parts, he is even, when occasion offers, most simple and ingenuous. +There is an amazing amount of the Mozartian spirit in "Falstaff," and +once we seem even to recognize the simple graciousness of pre-Gluckian +days. Thus the dainty fancy and idyllic feeling which opens the scene in +Windsor Forest, with its suggestion of fays and fairies and moonlight +(a scene, by the way, for which Verdi has found entrancing tones, yet +without reaching the lovely grace of Nicolai), owes much of its beauty +to a minuet measure quite in the manner of the olden time, but which is, +after all, only an accompaniment to the declamation which it sweetens. +The finales of "Falstaff" have been built up with all of Verdi's +oldtime skill, and sometimes sound like Mozart rubbed through the +Wagnerian sieve. Finally, to cap the climax, he writes a fugue. A fugue +to wind up a comic opera! A fugue--the highest exemplification of +oldtime artificiality in music! A difficult fugue to sing, yet it runs +out as smoothly as the conventional tag of Shakespeare's own day, whose +place, indeed, it takes. It is a tag suggested by "All the world's a +stage," and though it is a fugue, it bubbles over with humor. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +UPRISING IN FAVOR OF GERMAN OPERA + + +In marshaling, in the preceding chapter, the chief incidents of the +period with which I am now concerned I set down the restoration of +German performances at the Metropolitan Opera House as the most +significant. There was a strong influence within the company working +to that end in the person of M. Jean de Reszke, who, though the +organization was not adapted to such a purpose, nevertheless strove +energetically to bring about a representation of "Tristan und Isolde" +in the supplementary spring season of 1895. Through him "Die +Meistersinger" in an Italian garb had been incorporated into the +repertory, and he was more than eager not only that it and the popular +operas "Tannhäuser" and "Lohengrin" should recover their original +estate as German works, but that he might gratify a noble ambition and +demonstrate how the tragic style of "Tristan" could be consorted with +artistic singing. He achieved that purpose in the season of 1895-96, +and set an example that will long be memorable in the annals of the +Wagnerian drama in America. But the force which compelled the reform was +an external one. It came from the public. To the people, as they spoke +through the box office, Abbey, Schoeffel & Grau were always readier to +give an ear than the stockholders or the self-constituted champions of +Italian opera in the public press. + +There had been talk of a rival German institution when Mr. Abbey +restored the Italian régime in 1891; but it was wisely discouraged by +the more astute friends of the German art, who felt that the influence +of seven years would bear fruit in time, and who placed the principles +of that art above the language in which they were made manifest. The +interregnum following the fire had led Mr. Oscar Hammerstein to enter +the field as an impresario on a more ambitious scale than ordinary, +and on January 24, 1893, he opened a Manhattan Opera House with a +representation in English of Moszkowski's "Boabdil." The "season" +lasted only two weeks, and the opera house has long since been +forgotten. It stood in the same Street as the present Manhattan Opera +House, and its site is part of that covered by Macy's gigantic +mercantile establishment. Though he had no opposition, Mr. Hammerstein +showed little of that pluck and persistence which have distinguished him +during the two seasons in which he has conducted a rival establishment +to the Metropolitan Opera House. After two weeks, within which he +produced "Boabdil," "Fidelio," and some light-waisted spectacular +things, he turned his theater over to Koster & Bial, who ran it as a +vaudeville house until the end of its short career. There were English +performances of the customary loose-jointed kind in the summer at the +Grand Opera House, the first series of which, beginning in May, 1893, +derived some dignity from the fact that it was under the management of +Mr. Stanton, who had conducted the Metropolitan Opera House for the +stockholders during the German seasons; and in November the Duff Opera +Company anticipated Mr. Abbey's forces by bringing out Gounod's +"Philémon et Baucis" in an English version. + +These things, however, contained no portents for the future of opera +in New York; they were the familiar phenomena which flit by in the +metropolis's dead seasons. Pregnant incidents came in the midst of +the regular season. It chanced that Mme. Materna, Anton Schott, Emil +Fischer, and Conrad Behrens, who had been identified with the earlier +German seasons, were in New York in February, 1894, and taking +advantage of that fact Mr. Walter Damrosch arranged two performances +of "Die Walküre," in the Carnegie Music Hall, for the benefit of local +charities. They were slipshod affairs, with makeshift scenery and a +stage not at all adapted for theatrical performances; but the public +rose at them, as the phrase goes, and Mr. Damrosch felt emboldened to +give a representation of "Götterdämmerung," with the same principals +at the Metropolitan Opera House, on March 28th. Again there was an +extraordinary exhibition of popular interest which the German Press +Club turned to good account by improvising a performance of "Tannhäuser" +for its annual benefit on April 9. Soon there was a great stir in the +German camp, but united action was hindered by the rivalry between Mr. +Damrosch and Mr. Seidl. The supplementary season at the Metropolitan +ended on April 27th, and under date of April 28th there appeared a +circular letter, signed individually by friends of Mr. Seidl, soliciting +subscriptions for a season of German opera in 1904-05. The plan +contemplated forty performances between November and May, on dates which +were not to conflict with the regular performances of Italian and French +opera. At the same time announcement was made of the organization of a +Wagner Society, whose purpose it was to support a season of Wagner's +operas at the Metropolitan Opera House, beginning on November 19, 1894, +and continuing for four weeks--twelve evening performances and four +matinées, the company to include "the greatest Wagnerian singers from +Bayreuth and other German opera houses." Personal friends of the two +conductors attempted to unite the rival enterprises, and a conference +was held at the office of William Steinway. The attempt failed because +Messrs. Seidl and Damrosch could not agree on a division of the artistic +labors and credits. Mr. Seidl withdrew from the negotiations. In less +than a week Mr. Damrosch announced that he had secured subscriptions for +his season amounting to $12,000, and also a guarantee against loss of +$10,000 more. On May 10th he sailed for Europe to engage his company. +When he returned in the fall he announced a season of twelve evening and +four afternoon performances, to be devoted wholly to Wagner's operas +and dramas, to begin on February 25, 1895. The prices ranged from $4 +for orchestra stalls to $1 for seats in the gallery. In his company were +Rosa Sucher, Johanna Gadski, Elsa Kutscherra, Marie Brema, Max Alvary, +Nicolaus Rothmühl, Paul Lange, Franz Schwarz, and Rudolph Oberhauser, +besides Emil Fischer and Conrad Behrens, who had been identified with +the earlier German regime. Adolf Baumann, of the Royal opera at Prague, +was engaged as stage manager, but lost his life in the wreck of the +North German Lloyd steamship Elbe on the voyage hitherward. + +The season began, as advertised, on February 25th and ended on March +23d, the sixteen performances receiving an additional representation to +enable Max Alvary to effect his one hundredth performance of Siegfried +in the drama of that name in the city where he "created" it, as the +French say. There were also an additional performance of "Lohengrin" and +three extra performances at reduced prices after the subscription. The +whole affair was Mr. Damrosch's own venture, he being at once manager, +artistic director, and conductor, but, as I have intimated, he had the +backing of an organization called the Wagner Society, which was chiefly +composed of women. The season came hard on the heels of the Italian +and French season. Mr. Damrosch's leading singers were familiar with +Wagner's works, but practically he had to build up his institution from +the foundation and to do it within an incredibly short time. With such +rapid work we are familiar in America, but in Germany to have suggested +such an undertaking as the organization of a company, the preparation of +a theater, and the mounting, rehearsing, and performing of seven of the +most difficult and cumbersome works in the repertory of the lyric drama +within the space of five or six weeks would have been to have invited +an inquest de lunatico. I do not wish to be understood as mentioning +these things wholly in the way of praise--the results from an artistic +point of view disclosed much too often that they were blameworthy--but +what credit they reflect upon the tremendous energy, enterprise, +and will power of Mr. Damrosch must be given ungrudgingly and +enthusiastically. Plainly he was inspired with a strength of conviction +quite out of the ordinary line of that spirit of theatrical speculation +upon which we have so often depended for the large undertakings in +music. It was a belief based on something like religious zeal, and under +the circumstances what he did was an even more remarkable feat than that +accomplished by his father in 1884. I sometimes thought at the time that +he was driven into the enterprise more by impulse than by reason, and +the fact that he occasionally had the same sort of a notion is evidenced +by a letter which I received from him in response to one of mine to him +near the close of the season. "Thanks for your congratulations on the +financial success so far," wrote the young manager. "I shall breathe +more freely after the next four weeks are over. The responsibility has +been a heavy one, and it is curious that no one seemed to share my +almost fatalistic belief in Wagner opera. Neither Abbey & Grau, nor +Seidl, nor anyone was willing to touch it, and I was finally driven into +it myself by an irresistible impulse which, so far, seems to have led +me right. I am glad now, for many reasons, that events have so shaped +themselves, and I think that the season will be productive of much good +for the future. A curious and interesting fact in connection with the +performances has been that the public came to hear the operas, and not +the singers." + +And such a success! Not only far in advance of what the fondest +Wagnerites had dared to hope for as a tribute to their master's art, +but one which compelled them to rub their eyes in amazement and grope +and stare in a search for causes. Twenty-one times in succession was +the vast audience room crowded, and when the time was come for striking +the balance on the subscription season there was talk, only a little +fantastic if at all, of receipts aggregating $150,000, or nearly $9,000 +a performance. I should like to keep the thought of this unparalleled +financial success separate from that of the artistic results attained. +Between the financial and artistic achievements there was a wide +disparity; but that fact only sufficed to emphasize the obvious lesson +of the season, namely, the vast desire which the people of New York +felt again to enjoy Wagner's dramas. Fortunately I can make a record +of the capaciousness of that hunger without necessarily lauding its +intelligence and discrimination. Great indeed must have been the hunger +which could not be perverted by the vast deal of slipshod work in +the scenic department of the representations, and the vaster deal of +bungling and makeshift in the stage management. Many an affront was +given to the taste and intelligence of the audiences, and dreadful was +the choral cacophony which filled some of the evenings. Yet the people +came; they came, as Mr. Damrosch observed in his letter, to hear +the dramas instead of the singers, and though "Lohengrin" had been +beautifully performed in the Italian season by artists like Nordica, +Jean and Édouard de Reszke, and Maurel in the cast, the public crowded +into the German representation as if expecting a special revelation from +Fräulein Gadski, a novice, and Herr Rothmühl, a second-rate tenor, Of +all the singers only Miss Marie Brema, a newcomer, and the veteran, Emil +Fischer, were entirely satisfactory. For the beautiful dramatic art of +Frau Sucher and for her loveliness of person and pose there was much +hearty admiration, but this could not close the ears of her listeners +to the fact that her voice had lost its freshness. The subscription +repertory, including the Alvary anniversary, was as follows: "Tristan +und Isolde," three times; "Siegfried," four times; "Lohengrin," twice; +"Götterdämmerung," twice; "Tannhäuser," twice; "Die Walküre," twice, +and "Die Meistersinger," twice. In a letter recently received from Mr. +Damrosch he says: "My first spring season of thirteen weeks in New York, +Chicago, Boston, and a few Western cities gave a profit of about +$53,000, leaving me with a large stock of Vienna-made scenery, costumes, +and properties." + +Mr. Damrosch had won the first battle of his campaign and taught a +lesson of lasting value to his old and experienced rivals. Warned by the +success of his experiment and stimulated by a petition signed by about +two thousand persons asking that German representations under Mr. Seidl +be included in the Metropolitan scheme, Messrs. Abbey, Schoeffel & Grau +made German opera a factor in the next season; but they did so in a +half-hearted way, which defeated its purposes and brought punishment +instead of reward. Nevertheless, German opera had returned to the +Metropolitan to stay, and henceforth will call for attention along with +the Italian and French performances in this history. Meanwhile, since +I have begun it, let me finish the tale of the impresarioship of Mr. +Damrosch. + +Flushed with victory, the young manager prepared a five months' +campaign for the year 1896, and sought for new worlds to conquer. +Philadelphia, in which city he began operations on February 20th, +treated him shabbily, but he did fairly well in New York and other +cities in the East and West. Unfortunately for him, he made an +invasion of the South, which was not ripe for serious opera, either +financially or artistically. A performance in one city of that section +which cost him over $3,000 brought him exactly $220. The difference +between the sums was what Mr. Damrosch paid to learn that knowledge +and love of Wagner's operas had not penetrated far into Tennessee. + +Experience is always purchased at large cost in the operatic field. +Abbey, Schoeffel & Grau refused Mr. Damrosch the use of the Metropolitan +Opera House for his second New York season, and he was driven to the +old, socially discredited Academy of Music. They did not look with +favoring eyes upon an enterprise which had achieved so tremendous a +triumph at its very start, and they provided a large percentage of the +wormwood which filled the cup which Mr. Damrosch drank in 1896; but they +embittered their own goblet by the procedure, and when the time came +for laying out the campaign of 1896-97 they were quite as ready as Mr. +Damrosch to sign a treaty of peace whose provisions promised to make +for the good of both sides instead of the injury of either. The rivals +agreed to keep out of each other's way as much as possible and even to +help each other by an occasional exchange of singers. By this means it +was purposed to widen the repertories of both companies, Mr. Damrosch +providing the Metropolitan establishment with a Brünnhilde and an +Isolde for Jean de Reszke's Siegmund, Siegfried, and Tristan, and the +Metropolitan company lending him in return Melba, Eames, and Calvé, or +others, to enable him to perform some of the Italian and French operas +which he had included in his list. Mr. Damrosch yielded Chicago to his +rivals and took Philadelphia in exchange. It was a wise compromise. +Mr. Damrosch lost $40,000 in 1896; he made $14,000 in 1897. The next +year, the Metropolitan Opera House being closed during the regular +subscription period, as will appear later in this record, Mr. Damrosch +entered into partnership with Charles A. Ellis, manager of the Boston +Symphony Orchestra, who had undertaken the management also of Mme. +Melba's American affairs, and Italian and French operas were added to +the German repertory. The regular season showed a good profit, most of +which, however, was frittered away in a spring tour made by Melba with +a portion of the company. By this time Mr. Damrosch had concluded that +he was too good a man and musician to surrender himself to the hateful +business of managing a traveling opera company, and he withdrew from the +partnership with Ellis, to whom he sold all his theatrical properties, +and returned to concert work and composition, though for two weeks in +the next season he was conductor of Mr. Ellis's company. + +And now to some of the details of the artistic work of these Damroschian +enterprises. The year 1896 was signalized by the appearance in America +of two singers who rapidly achieved first-class importance. These were +Katherina Klafsky and Milka Ternina. Mme. Klafsky was the wife of Herr +Lohse, whom Mr. Damrosch also engaged as assistant conductor. She came +here under a cloud, so far as the managerial ethics of Germany were +concerned. How much respect those ethics were entitled to may be judged +from the story. I have already said, in discussing the case of Mme. +Lehmann and her violation of contract with the Opera at Berlin, that a +speedy result of the success of German opera under Mr. Stanton was a +change of attitude on the part of the Intendanten of German theaters +toward the New York institution so soon as it was found that a handsome +proportion of the American earnings might be diverted into the pockets +of those Intendanten or the managers of municipal theaters. When Mr. +Damrosch engaged his second company Mme. Klafsky was a member of the +Municipal Theater in Hamburg, of which Pollini was director. When the +offer of an American engagement came to her she consulted with Herr +Pollini, who graciously gave his consent to her acceptance of it on +condition that she pay him one-half of her earnings. She refused to +agree to do this, and, fearing that Pollini would invoke the aid of the +courts to restrain her from coming to New York, she took French leave +of Germany more than two months before she was needed here. Her success +in America was emphatic, and after she had effected a reconciliation +with Pollini she was re-engaged by Mr. Damrosch to alternate with +Mme. Lehmann in the season of 1896-97. Within a fortnight of the +re-engagement she died in Hamburg from a trephining operation undertaken +to relieve her from the results of an injury to her skull, received +while in America. + +Mme. Klafsky and Mr. Alvary had sung in "Tristan und Isolde," with which +Mr. Damrosch began his campaign in Philadelphia on February 20th. Her +success was instantaneous, and her tremendous dramatic forcefulness, the +natural expression of an exuberant temperament, placed her higher in +public favor during the season than Mme. Ternina, whose refined and +ingratiating art did not receive full appreciation till later. Other +members of the Damrosch troupe of 1896 were Wilhelm Grüning, tenor, +and Demeter Popovici, bass, beside Gadski, Fischer, Alvary, and other +persons already known, but of smaller importance. The New York season +began at the Academy of Music on March 2d and ended on March 28th. The +operas were "Fidelio," "Lohengrin," "Siegfried," "Tannhäuser," "Die +Meistersinger," "Die Walküre," "Der Freischütz," and (in the original +English) Mr. Damrosch's "The Scarlet Letter." This opera had its first +performance in New York on March 6. Its libretto was written by George +Parsons Lathrop, a son-in-law of Hawthorne, who wrote the romance on +which it was based. The cast included Johanna Gadski as Hester Prynne, +Barron Berthald as Arthur Dimmesdale, Conrad Behrens as Governor +Bellingham, Gerhard Stehmann as the Rev. John Wilson, and William +Mertens as Roger Chillingworth. The greater part of the music had been +performed at concerts of the Oratorio Society on January 4 and 5, 1895. +The book of the opera proved to be undramatic in the extreme, a defect +which was emphasized by the execrable pronunciation of nearly all the +singers at the performance on the stage at the Academy. In the music Mr. +Damrosch essayed the style of Wagner, and did it so well, indeed, as to +deserve hearty admiration. He was helped, it is true, by factors frankly +and copiously copied from the pages of his great model. The nixies of +the Rhine peeped out of the sun-flecked coverts in the forest around +Hester Prynne's hut, as if they had become dryads for her sake; ever +and anon the sinister Hunding was heard muttering in the ear of +Chillingworth, and Hester wore the badge of her shame on the robes of +Elsa, washed in innocency. But such things are venial in a first work. +In frankly confessing his model (for it cannot be thought for a +moment that Mr. Damrosch expected his imitations to be overlooked) he +illustrated a rule which applies to all composers at the outset of their +careers. The fact must be noted, but it is much more to the purpose +that the young composer blended the elements of his composition with a +freedom and daring quite astonishing in their exhibition of mastery. +There is no sign of doubt or timorousness anywhere in the work, though +the moments are not infrequent when the utterance is more fluent than +significant. The typical phrases which he chose to symbolize the persons +and passions of the play are most of them deficient in plasticity, and +nearly all of them lack that expressiveness which Wagner knew so well +how to impress upon his melodic elements; the greater, therefore, was +the surprise that Mr. Damrosch was able to weave them together in a +fabric which moved steadily forward for more than an hour, and reflected +more or less truthfully and vividly the feeling of the dramatic +situations. Unfortunately there is little variety in this feeling, so +that in spite of Mr. Damrosch's effort, or, perhaps, because of it, +there is a deal of monotony in the music of the first act. There is a +fine ingenuity of orchestration throughout, however, and an amount +of daring in harmonization which sometimes oversteps the limits of +discretion. In an agonizing scene between Chillingworth and Hester at +the close of the first act the orchestra and the two chief personages +are wholly engrossed with an exposition of the dramatic feeling of the +moment, while the chorus (supposed to be worshiping in the neighboring +meeting-house) sing the "Old Hundredth" in unison and without +instrumental support. It is an admirable historical touch, and the +device is the approved one of using a psalm tune as a cantus firmus +to the remainder of the music; but Mr. Damrosch's harmonization of the +ensemble is such that we seem to hear two distinct and unsympathetic +keys. There was, after the second act, a scene upon the stage in honor +of Mr. Damrosch, in which, after several large wreaths had been bestowed +upon him, a representative of the Wagner Society came forward, and on +behalf of that body presented him with a handsome copy of Hawthorne's +story and the incorrect statement that the honor was paid to him as +the first American who had composed a grand opera on an American theme +which had been publicly produced. In this there were as many errors +of statement as in the famous French Academician's description of a +lobster. George F. Bristow's "Rip Van Winkle" was composed by a native +American and was brought out at Niblo's Garden long before Mr. Damrosch +was born in Breslau; while Signor Arditi, who hailed from Europe, like +Mr. Damrosch, brought out under his own direction and with considerable +success an opera entitled "La Spia," based on Cooper's novel. This +merely in the interest of the verities of history. + +The German season of 1907, a part of whose story I have already told, +began at the Metropolitan Opera House on March 8th and lasted four +weeks. It added no novelty to the local list, but had some interesting +features, among them a serial performance of the dramas of Wagner's +"Ring of the Nibelung," the first appearance of Mme. Nordica in the +Brünnhilde of "Siegfried" on March 24th, and the joint appearance of +Mmes. Lehmann and Nordica in "Lohengrin," the German singer, true to +her dramatic instincts, choosing the part of Ortrud. On April 1st +Xavier Scharwenka, who had taken a residence with his brother Philip +in New York, borrowed the company from Mr. Damrosch and on his own +responsibility gave a performance of his opera, entitled "Mataswintha." +The opera was produced under difficulties. It had withstood its baptism +of fire in Weimar seven months before, and Mr. Scharwenka had performed +portions of it at a concert for the purpose of introducing himself to +the people of New York. But the singers had to learn their parts from +the beginning, there was a great deal of pageantry which had to be +supplied from the stock furniture of the Metropolitan stage, the tenor +Ernst Kraus took ill and caused a postponement, and even thus the +chapter of accidents was not exhausted. When the performance finally +took place Herr Stehmann, a barytone, had to sing Herr Kraus's part, +which he had learned in two days. Under the circumstances it may be +the course of wisdom to avoid an estimation of the opera's merits +and defects and to record merely that it proved to be an extremely +interesting work and well worth the trouble spent upon its production. +Under different circumstances it might have lived the allotted time +upon the stage, which, as the knowing know, is a very brief one in the +majority of cases. The story of the opera was drawn from Felix Dahn's +historical novel "Ein Kampf um Rom." + +It is high time to get back again to the story of opera at the +Metropolitan Opera House under the direction of the lessees; but before +then chronological orderliness requires that attention be paid to an +incident outside the category of prime importance. This was the first +production in New York of Humperdinck's delightful fairy opera "Hänsel +und Gretel" at Daly's Theater on October 8, 1895. The production was +in English. The venture looked promising, and great interest was felt +in it. Mr. Seidl was charged with the musical direction. A company of +singers was brought together, partly from London, partly enlisted here. +Sir Augustus Harris, director of the opera at Covent Garden, was the +financial backer of the enterprise. As numerous an orchestra as the +score calls for could not be accommodated in the theater, but Mr. Seidl +did the best he could, and the band was commendable. Three of the +singers, Miss Jeanne Douste, Miss Louise Meisslinger, and Mr. Jacques +Bars, disclosed ample abilities; but the English manager had no +knowledge either of the needs of the opera or the demands of the New +York public; Sir Augustus's speech on the opening night, indeed, +disclosed ignorance also of the name of the composer and the history of +the work which he had clothed with considerable sumptuousness. It was +long remembered with amusement that to him Herr Humperdinck was "Mr. +Humperdinckel" and the opera some "beautiful music composed for this +occasion." And so great expectations were disappointed, and, after +worrying along from October 8th to November 15th, the opera was withdrawn +with a record of failure, not deserved by the work and only partly +deserved by the performance. We shall meet the opera again in the story +of opera at the Metropolitan Opera House a decade later, when it came +into its rights, and the public were able to testify their admiration +in the presence of the composer. + +The prospectus of Henry E. Abbey and Maurice Grau (which continued to be +the official style of the managers) for the season 1895-96, contained +this announcement: "The management has also decided to add a number of +celebrated German artists and to present Wagner operas in the German +language, all of which operas will be given with superior singers, equal +to any who have ever been heard in the German language. The orchestra +will be increased. . . . The chorus will be strengthened by a number of +young, fresh voices, to which will be added an extra German chorus." +Signor Mancinelli was not re-engaged as conductor, but Anton Seidl was. +After what I have told thus far in this chapter the causes which led to +this change of policy will be readily understood. The augmented company +was a formidable host, though its strength remained in the French and +Italian contingent. Had the German singers been equally capable, the +story of Mr. Damrosch's enterprise might have read differently. Mme. +Calvé returned and revived the furor over "Carmen"; Mesdames Melba, +Nordica, Scaichi, Mantelli, and Messrs. Jean and Édouard de Reszke, Pol +Plançon, Victor Maurel, and Castelmary remained; newcomers were Lola +Beeth, Frances Saville, Marie Brema (who had been brought from Europe by +Mr. Damrosch), Giuseppe Cremonini, Adolph Wallnöfer, Giuseppe Kaschmann +(who had been a member of Mr. Abbey's first company twelve years +before), and Mario Ancona. The regular subscription season consisted of +thirteen weeks (fifty-two performances), beginning on November 18th, and +there was a special subscription, at the same scale of prices, for a +season of ten performances of German operas, beginning on December 5th. +There were also performances at popular prices on Saturday evenings, +and the entire season, excluding the spring season, which developed but +little interest, compassed seventy-four representations. For these and +thirteen Sunday night concerts the public paid about $575,000. + +"Oh! how far are we from Covent Garden!" cried Jean de Reszke on the +night of November 27th, and he clipped in his arms the friend who had +come to offer his congratulations to the thunderous plaudits of the +audience. M. de Reszke was in a fine glow of enthusiasm. He had sung +and played Tristan and opened a new era in the style of Wagnerian +performances in New York. A few days later, while the drinking horn +was going from hand to hand at a medieval dinner given in honor of the +principal interpreters of Wagner's love drama (Mme. Nordica, Miss +Brema, the brothers de Reszke, and Mr. Seidl), he responded to a toast, +and in four languages, English, German, French, and Italian, celebrated +the advent of what he called "international opera." Why he neglected +to throw in a few Polish phrases for the benefit of his countryman +Paderewski, who sat opposite him at table, his hosts could not make +out, unless it was because he wanted his expressions of delight at the +achievement and prospect to be understood by all his hearers. High hopes +filled the hearts of all local lovers of the lyric drama at the period. +The promises of Abbey and Grau had stimulated the kindliest, heartiest, +cheeriest feeling on all hands. All bickerings between the adherents of +the various schools were silenced by the promulgation of a policy which +seemed as generous and public-spirited as it was liberal. Whenever it +was practicable New York was to have performances which should respect +not only the tongue, but also the spirit of the works chosen for +representation. That M. de Reszke had been an active agent in the +inauguration of the new régime was an open secret to his acquaintances, +and he bore public testimony when he supplemented his impersonation +of Tristan with a German Lohengrin. The significance of such an act, +coupled with Mme. Nordica's support of him in both performances, seemed +extraordinary even in the minds of those who were not inclined to attach +much importance to the language used in performance, so long as the +performance was imbued with a becoming spirit of sincerity and a desire +to make artistic purpose replace idle diversion. It looked as if through +the example of these two artists, seconded by the liberality of the +management, the people of New York were to take a long step forward in +musical culture--a step toward the foundation of an institution which +should endure and exemplify the esthetic, moral, and physical character +of the people of America. + +The expectations aroused by the announcement were woefully disappointed. +There were nights of wondrous brilliancy and of extraordinary splendor +in nearly every department. Some of the refulgence came from the +new ambitions with which M. de Reszke and Mr. Seidl inspired the +organization. The season had no prouder moments than those filled with +the performances of "Tristan" and "Lohengrin" vouchsafed the subscribers +to the regular subscription; but it had no deeper gloom than that which +settled upon the subscribers to the special German season on most of +the occasions set apart for them. The fate of "Fidelio" was utterly +grievous; two representations of "Tristan" filled their souls with +indignation instead of gratitude; there is no saintly intercession +which could have won redemption for "Tannhäuser." The performances of +"Tristan" and of the Italian "Lohengrin" at which Nordica, Brema, and +the brothers de Reszke sang were brilliantly successful, but in each +case the regular performance was made to precede that set apart for +the German subscription. The circumstance would alone have sufficed +to arouse suspicion that the management was at least willing to +discriminate against the special Thursday nights, and the suspicion was +wrought into conviction by the disparity between the performances of the +two subscriptions. If it was the purpose of Abbey & Grau to put German +opera on trial their method looked very unfair. "The drama for its +own sake as an art work, and not for the sake of the singer" is a +fundamental principle of German art, but it can only maintain its +validity with the help of adequate performances. Saving the four singers +who sang in Italian and French as well as German (Mme. Nordica, Miss +Brema, and the brothers de Reszke), the German singers of 1895-96 were +woefully inefficient, and the German season was an indubitable failure. + +I shall append a list of performances of the operas presented in the +seasons covered by this chapter and its predecessor, and its perusal +will, I think, enforce even upon a careless reader the fact that, +in spite of the shortcomings to which I have called attention, the +administration of Abbey & Grau yet marked a gigantic step in the +direction of dramatic sanity and sense over the lists which prevailed +in the period when this story began. In the consulship of Mapleson +the repertory might have been turned into verse quite as dramatic as +most of that of the opera books. Thus: + + + "Favorita," "Puritani," + "Lucia di Lammermoor," + "Marta," "Linda di Chamouni," + "La Traviata," "Trovatore"; + "Il Barbiere di Siviglia," + "Roberto il Diavolo," + "Don Pasquale," "Rigoletto," + "Faust," "Gli Ugonotti," "Un Ballo," + + +and so on for quantity. Of the old hurdy-gurdy list "Favorita," +"Traviata," "Trovatore," "Lucia," and "Rigoletto" were given, but +unitedly they had only ten representations, and most of them were on +Saturday nights, when popular prices prevailed. Even though Melba sang +in "Lucia," it had to be consorted at the last with "Cavalleria," +which Mme. Calvé made attractive. Against this fact we have the other +that "Carmen" alone had a greater number of representations than the +entire old-fashioned list, and that the operas which were most popular +after it were "Tristan und Isolde," "Faust," and "Lohengrin." + +Of the ten German performances three were devoted to "Tristan," two to +"Tannhäuser," one to "Fidelio," two to "Lohengrin," and two to "Die +Walküre." "Tristan," "Tannhäuser," and "Lohengrin" were in the repertory +of the regular subscription season. Only two unfamiliar works were +brought forward--Bizet's "Pêcheurs de Perles" (two acts only) and +Massenet's "La Navarraise"; but there was an interesting revival of +Boito's "Mefistofele" after a lapse of twelve years, and a more than +interesting revival of "Tristan und Isolde," with Mmes. Nordica and +Brema and the brothers de Reszke in the principal parts. Mme. Melba did +not join the company until December 27th; she added Massenet's "Manon" +to her repertory. Jean de Reszke increased the list of parts in which +he was known by adding Tristan to it and the German Lohengrin. Mme. +Nordica's new rôles were Isolde, Venus in "Tannhäuser," and Elsa in +German. Miss Brema's operas were "Tristan," "Lohengrin," "Orfeo," +"Aïda," and "Die Walküre," and, like Mme. Nordica, Mlle. Lola Beeth and +Signor Kaschmann, she sang in German as well as Italian. "La Navarraise" +was brought forward for Mme. Calvé on December 11, 1895; the two acts +of "Les Pêcheurs de Perles" at a matinée on January 11, 1896. + +Colonel Mapleson provided a prelude to the Metropolitan season of +1896-97 with a short season of Italian opera of the archaic sort at the +Academy of Music. The doughty manager could no longer fly his old London +colors, so he appeared as the sole director of "The New Imperial Opera +Company." With two or three exceptions all his singers were strangers +to the opera-goers of New York. Mme. Scalchi was again with him, and +Signor de Anna; but the rest were newcomers. Among them were Mme. +Hariclée-Darclée, Mme. Bonaplata-Bau, Susan Strong, and Mme. Giuseppina +Huguet, sopranos; Mme. Parsi, Mlle. Ponzano, and Mme. Meysenheim, +contraltos; Signori de Marchi, Randacio, Betti, Olivieri, and Durot, +tenors; Signori Ughetto and Alberti, barytones, and Pinto, Terzi, +Giordano, Borelli, and Dado, basses. The conductors, capable men both +of them, were Signori Bimboni and Tango. Within a fortnight "Aïda," +"Trovatore," "Traviata," "Les Huguenots," "Sonnambula," and "Faust" +had been sung and a new work brought out. This was "Andrea Chenier," +by Illica and Giordano, which had its first performance in America on +November 13, 1896, the cast being as follows: + + + Andrea Chenier ................................... Durot + Carlo Gerard ................................... Ughetto + Maddalena di Coigny ...................... Bonaplata-Bau + La Mulatta Bersi ............................ Meysenheim + La Contessa di Coigny .......................... Scalchi + Madelon .......................................... Parsi + Roucher ........................................... Dado + Il Romanziero .................................. Alberti + Fouquier Tinville ............................... ------ + Mathieu ........................................ Borelli + Un Incredibile | + L'Abate, poeta |............................... Giordano + Schmidt, Carceriere a San Lazzaro ................ Terzi + Il Maestro di Casa ............................ Olivieri + Dumas ............................................ Pinto + + +Tango conducted and the performance had a rude forcefulness quite in +keeping with the character of the opera. Under better conditions "Andrea +Chenier" would doubtless have held its own for a respectable space in +the local repertory. But the seeds of dissolution were germinating in +the company even before the performances began, and Colonel Mapleson did +not dare to appear long in rivalry with the Metropolitan when it opened +its doors on November 16th. In a week or so he went to Boston, where +after one or two performances the orchestra went on strike and the +Imperial Opera Company went to pieces. With it the last effort of the +veteran manager. Mapleson had held out a promise of the likelihood that +Giordano would come to New York to give personal superintendence to +the production of his opera and carried his fiction to the extreme of +telling a reporter of The Sun newspaper that the composer was in the +city. Meeting the reporter in the Academy of Music, I expressed my +doubt touching the correctness of his information, whereupon he pointed +out the gentleman whom Colonel Mapleson had introduced to him as the +composer. It was Giordano, the barytone! After its introduction to +America "Andrea Chenier" disappeared for nearly a dozen years, when, +on March 27, 1908, it had a single performance at the Manhattan Opera +House, so that Mme. Eva Tetrazzini, the wife of Cleofonte Campanini, +who had retired from the stage, might help at a gala representation in +honor of her husband. + +No season since the Metropolitan Opera House was opened was so full of +vicissitudes as that of 1896-97. First came the death of Mme. Klafsky, +who, under the reciprocal arrangement between Mr. Damrosch and Abbey & +Grau, was to sing the chief Wagner rôles with Jean de Reszke. This +happened in September, and was followed by the death of Mr. Abbey +(nominally the leader of the managing directors, though from the +beginning it was Mr. Grau who did the practical work of management), and +of Mr. William Steinway, who had formulated and carried through the plan +of reorganization which relieved the firm of Abbey, Schoeffel & Grau of +its burden of indebtedness and transferred it to the shoulders of the +Abbey, Schoeffel & Grau Company (Ltd.). Just before the season began +Mme. Nordica, who had won her way to a high place in the favor of the +public, and whose absence from the company's roster was widely and +sincerely deplored, came forward with a story charging her failure +to secure a re-engagement to the intrigues of Mme. Melba and M. Jean +de Reszke. So far as the gentleman was concerned the story seemed +improbable on its face, and long before the season was over Mme. Nordica +was willing to admit publicly that she had been misinformed as to the +facts in the case. It remained, however, that Mme. Melba had reserved +the exclusive right to herself to sing the röle of Brünnhilde in +Wagner's "Siegfried." It soon turned out that the failure to secure Mme. +Nordica was to cost the management dear. Mme. Melba sang the part once, +and so injured her voice that she had to retire for the season and cede +the rôle to Mme. Litvinne (the Mlle. Litvinoff of Colonel Mapleson's +company in 1885-86), who up to that time had not succeeded in convincing +the public that she was equal to so great a responsibility, although she +had been engaged to sing the part of Isolde after Mme. Klafsky's death +and the failure of negotiations between Mr. Grau and Mme. Nordica. The +manager's judgment was never at fault in these negotiations; he wanted +to secure the services of Mme. Nordica, for he well knew their value, +but the unhappy contract with Melba stood in his way, and Mme. Nordica +was beyond his reach when the failure of Melba's voice and her departure +for France on January 23d left the company crippled. Happily the +popularity which Mme. Calvé's impersonation of Marguerite in Gounod's +"Faust" had found restored that perennial work to its old position as +one of the principal magnets of the season. Mme. De Vere-Sapio was +engaged to make possible the production of such operas as "Hamlet," +"Le Nozze di Figaro," and Massenet's "Le Cid." Then there fell a double +blow: Mme. Eames went into a surgeon's hands and Mozart's scintillant +comedy had to be withdrawn. It was to have been given on February 10th. +Flotow's "Martha" was substituted for it, and in the midst of the +performance the representative of Tristan, M. Castelmary, fell on the +stage, fatally stricken with heart disease. + +It would be pleasant to say that the facts thus detailed exhaust the +story of the institution's misfortunes; but they do not. I have already +told of its financial outcome. Throughout the season a determined and +wicked effort was made to injure the opera, and was helped along by +columns of idle speculation and gossip in three or four newspapers. +Without ground, so far as anybody could see, the notion was given +publicity that there was grave doubt that opera would be given in the +following year. The talk seemed wholly gratuitous, for if there were +any signs of falling off in popular interest so far as the opera was +concerned or in the confidence and satisfaction of the stockholders +of the opera house company so far as Mr. Grau's administration was +concerned, it escaped the notice of experienced and interested +observers. The total attendance was larger than in the preceding season, +and the interest displayed in the representations was fully as keen. But +the newspaper gossips would have their way, and in the end turned out to +be prophets, for there was no opera in 1897-98, for reasons which will +have to be discussed in the next chapter. + +The season began on November 16th. The regular subscription was for +thirteen weeks, three nights a week and Saturday afternoons. Extra +subscription performances were thirteen Saturday nights and three +Wednesday afternoon representations at popular prices and an extra +week--three nights and a matinee--at subscription prices. There were, +therefore, in all, seventy-two performances, at which twenty-four +different operas were brought forward, as shown in the table which is to +follow. There was a less elaborate organization than in the preceding +season, but the average merit of the performances was higher, there +being no ill-equipped German contingent to spoil the record. There were, +however, quite as many German performances without the special singers +and the extra subscription. In place of the latter, an attempt was made +to give extra Wednesday matinées, but the experiment was abandoned after +three weeks. + +The most sensational incident of the season was the collapse of Mme. +Melba after her ill-advised effort to sing the music of Brünnhilde. To +the loveliness of her devotion and the loftiness of her ambition honest +tribute must be paid, but it must also be said that nature did not +design her to be an interpreter of Wagner's tragic heroines. Her vocal +and temperamental peculiarities put a bar to her singing the Brünnhilde +music. It did not lie well in her voice, and she was not then, and is +not now, of the heroic mould, and her experience should have taught her +that her voice would not admit of the expansion necessary to fit her +for that mould. That the music wearied her was painfully evident long +before the end of the one scene in which Brünnhilde takes part in +"Siegfried." Never did her voice have the lovely quality which had +always characterized it in the music of Donizetti and Gounod. It lost +in euphony in the broadly sustained and sweeping phrases of Wagner, and +the difference in power and expressiveness between its higher and lower +registers was made pitifully obvious. The music, moreover, exhausted +her. She plunged into her apostrophe with most self-sacrificing vigor +at the beginning of the scene, and was prodigal in the use of her voice +in its early moments; but when the culmination of its passion was +reached, in what would be called the stretto of the piece in the old +nomenclature, she could not respond to its increased demands. It was an +anti-climax. Wagner's music is like jealousy; it makes the meat it feeds +on if one be but filled with its dramatic fervor. Recall what I have +related of Mme. Lehmann's statement of how she was sustained by the +emotional excitement which Wagner's dramas created in her, and how it +made it easier for her to sing the music of Brünnhilde than that of +Norma. But Mme. Lehmann was a woman of intense emotionality, and her +voice was colored for tragedy and equal to its strain. It would be a +happiness to say the same of Mme. Melba, but no judicious person would +dream of saying it. "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory +of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth +from another star in glory." Mme. Melba should have been content with +her own particular glory. + +Massenet's "Le Cid" was the only novelty of the season It was given on +February 12, 1897, with the following distribution of parts: + + + Rodrigue (his original character) ............... Jean de Reszke + Don Diégue (his original character) .......... Édouard de Reszke + Le Roi ........................................... Jean Lassalle + Le Conte de Gormas (his original character) ........ Pol Plançon + St. Jacques | + L'Envoye Maure | .................................. Jacques Bars + Don Arras ......................................... Signor Corsi + Don Alonzo ................................. Signor de Vaschetti + L'Infante ................................... Clementine de Vere + Chimène ......................................... Felia Litvinne + + Conductor--Signor Mancinelli + + +The table of performances from 1893 to 1897 follows here: + + +PERFORMANCES IN REGULAR SUBSCRIPTION SEASONS + + Operas 1893-94 1894-95 1895-96 1896-97 + + "Faust" ..................... 8 7 8 10 + "Philemon et Baucis" ........ 4 0 2 1 + "Cavalleria Rusticana" ...... 7 3 7 4 + "Lohengrin" ................. 5 5 6 6 + "Lucia di Lammermoor" ....... 2 3 3 2 + "Hamlet" .................... 1 0 2 1 + "Roméo et Juliette" ......... 5 4 4 5 + "Orfeo" ..................... 1 0 1 0 + "Pagliacci" ................. 3 2 2 0 + "Les Huguenots" ............. 2 6 5 2 + "Carmen" ................... 12 7 11 7 + "Don Giovanni" .............. 1 3 0 3 + "Rigoletto" ................. 2 4 1 1 + "Die Meistersinger" ......... 3 0 1 3 + "L'Amico Fritz" ............. 2 0 0 0 + "Semiramide" ................ 3 1 0 0 + "Tannhäuser" ................ 2 0 3 3 + "Le Nozze di Figaro" ........ 3 0 0 0 + "La Traviata" ............... 1 1 2 3 + "Guillaume Tell" ............ 0 3 0 0 + "Aïda" ...................... 0 3 4 3 + "Il Trovatore" .............. 0 3 2 2 + "Otello" .................... 0 4 0 0 + "Mignon" .................... 0 1 0 0 + "Elaine" (Bemberg) .......... 0 2 0 0 + "Manon" (Massenet) .......... 0 4 0 0 + "Falstaff" .................. 0 3 3 0 + "Samson et Dalila" .......... 0 1 0 0 + "Tristan und Isolde" ........ 0 0 6 2 + "L'Africaine" ............... 0 1 0 1 + "La Favorita" ............... 0 0 2 2 + "La Navarraise" ............. 0 0 4 0 + "Fidelio" .................. 0 1 0 0 + "Die Walküre" ............... 0 0 2 0 + "Les Pêcheurs de Perles" .... 0 0 1 0 + "Mefistofele" ............... 0 0 2 4 + "Martha" .................... 0 0 0 2 + "Siegfried" ................. 0 0 0 6 + * "Werther" ................. 0 0 0 1 + "Le Cid" .................... 0 0 0 2 + + +* "Werther" had a single performance in the supplemental season +of 1893-94. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +BEGINNING OF THE GRAU PERIOD + + +From 1896 to the end of the season 1902-03 Maurice Grau was in name as +well as in fact the monarch of the operatic world of America. For a +brief space he also extended his reign to Covent Garden, but the time +was not ripe for that union of interests between London and New York +which has so long seemed inevitable, and his foreign reign was short. So +was his American dictatorship; but while it lasted it was probably the +most brilliant operatic government that the world has ever known from a +financial point of view, and its high lights artistically were luminous +in the extreme. At the end of the period Mr. Grau had retired from +operatic management forever, for though his desire to remain in active +employment was intense, his mental powers unweakened, and his will +strong, his health was hopelessly shattered, and before another lustrum +had passed he had gone down to his death, his last thoughts longingly +fixed on the institution which had brought him fame and fortune in +abundant measure. For several years he had maintained a beautiful summer +home at Croissy-Chatou, on the Seine, about ten miles from Paris. He +died in the French capital on March 14, 1907, of a disease of the heart +which had compelled his abandonment of active managerial life. + +Mr. Grau was an Austrian by birth, his birthplace being Brünn; but he +was brought to New York by his parents in 1854, when he was five years +old, and all his education and business training was American. He passed +through the classes of the city's public schools and was graduated from +the Free Academy, now the College of the City of New York, in 1867. He +then entered the Law School of Columbia College, and read law in the +office of Morrison, Lauterbach & Spitgarn. His uncle, Jacob Grau, was +an operatic and theatrical manager, and for him, as a boy, he sold +librettos in his opera house. This opened the way into theatrical life, +which proved to have such fascinations and hold such promises that he +abandoned the law without having sought admission to the bar, and in +1872 also abandoned the service of his uncle and embarked on his career +as manager. In association with Charles A. Chizzola, the joint capital +amounting to $1,500, he engaged Aimée, a French opéra bouffe singer, who +had made a hit two years before at the Grand Opera House, for a season +of seven weeks. His first week, in Bridgeport, Conn., paid the expenses +of the entire engagement. Aimée came to America again and again, and +always under Mr. Grau's management. The same year he managed the +American tours of Rubinstein and Henri Wieniawski, both of whom came to +America with the financial backing of Messrs. Steinway & Sons. It was +before the days of phenomenal honoraria. Rubinstein was content with +$200 a concert, and in eight months his energetic young manager had +cleared $60,000 on his engagement alone. The next year he organized the +Clara Louise Kellogg Opera Company, continued his management of Mlle. +Aimée, and brought to America the Italian tragedian, Tommaso Salvini. +In 1874 he managed three opéra bouffe and operetta companies, besides +Adelaide Ristori, and became lessee of the Lyceum Theater, in Fourteenth +Street. There was a season of financial stress, and in 1875 he severed +his connection with Chizzola, after another period of bad luck. In 1876 +he gave concerts, directed by Offenbach, in the Madison Square Garden, +which were a failure, but he recouped his losses from a forfeit of +$20,000, which the Italian Rossi paid to him rather than give up a +successful season in Paris. A highly successful tour of seventeen months +in South America, Cuba, and Mexico with an opéra bouffe troupe, headed +by the tenor Capoul, and Paola Marié continued his successes. In +1883 began his association with Messrs. Abbey and Schoeffel, whose +experiences, together with his own, at the Metropolitan Opera House +have repeatedly formed the subject of discussion in these chapters of +operatic history. + +The story of the management of the Metropolitan Opera House ended in +Chapter XVII with an account of the disasters which overtook Abbey, +Schoeffel, and Grau in 1897. Before the end of that season Mr. Grau +announced, what had frequently been hinted at in the newspapers, that +though he should obtain a lease of the opera house he would not give +opera in 1897-98. The announcement had been received with incredulity, +for though misfortune had overtaken the managers in Chicago and some of +their other enterprises had been unfortunate, the New York season had +turned out in all things successful. Besides, though, "Perjuria ridet +amantum Jupiter," the public had long before learned to laugh at the +oaths of managers. It turned out, however, that Mmes. Melba and Eames, +who had become favorites of the stockholders, were not available for +the next season, and the directors, who had learned to have confidence +in Mr. Grau, were willing to let him make the experiment of a year of +famine. As it turned out it cost them nothing except the performances, +and Mr. Grau and the friends who had rallied around him very little +money. The annual rental of $52,000 was made up to them by sub-rentals +of the building to other managers, chiefly to Messrs. Ellis and +Damrosch. Meanwhile the year of quiescence was put to a good purpose in +strengthening the hold which Mr. Grau had resolved to obtain on opera +in London as well as New York. Mr. Grau and his friends organized +the Maurice Grau Opera Company and easily obtained a lease of +the Metropolitan for three years and a release from the bankrupt +corporation, Abbey, Schoeffel & Grau (Ltd.). On May 4th the old company +accepted a report which recited the story of the season 1896-97, +recommended that it go out of business, and released Messrs. Schoeffel +and Grau from an obligation which they had entered into with the company +not to engage in opera management. All that remained for it to do was to +realize on the only valuable asset which it owned--the Tremont Theater, +in Boston. This it soon did by selling the property to Mr. Schoeffel, +who has managed it ever since. + +The way now being open, Mr. Grau organized his new company, composed +wholly of his friends. These were Edward Lauterbach, Charles Frazier, +Robert Dunlap, Roland F. Knoedler, Henry Dazian, B. Franklin de Frece, +F. W. Sanger, John W. Mackay, Sr., and Frederick Rullman. The capital +stock, paid up, was $150,000, of which the Metropolitan Opera and Real +Estate Company subscribed to $25,000. Mr. Grau was elected president +and general director, Mr. Lauterbach vice-president, and Mr. Frazier +treasurer. Mr. Sanger was made associate manager, with the specific +duty of looking after the affairs of the house itself, and Mr. Ernest +Goerlitz was appointed secretary. + +There was no regular subscription at the opera house in the season of +1897-98, but the public were not without comfort. From January 17 to +February 19, 1898, the Damrosch and Ellis company gave a series of +performances which provided an excellent substitute. Opera-lovers were +not even called on to forego the pleasure of hearing some of the singers +whom they had come to consider essential to their happiness under the +régime of Damrosch and Ellis's rivals. Mme. Melba was "not available" +for Mr. Grau, but she was for Mr. Ellis, who was managing all her +American business, and she headed the company. With her were Mme. +Nordica and Mme. Gadski, and among old popular favorites were Emil +Fischer and David Bispham. Other members of the company were Gisela +Staudigl, who had been heard in the first German seasons; Mlle. Seygard, +Mme. Brazzi, an American contralto with good presence, real warmth of +feeling, and correct instincts; Miss Mattfeld, an extremely serviceable +"juvenile," who remained such for years; Salignac and Rothmühl, tenors +respectively for the Italian and German operas; Campanari, barytone; +Ibos, a tenor, and Boudouresque, a bass whose name was picturesque. +Melba added "Traviata" to her repertory at the opening performance, and +later essayed "Aïda," only to prove, as she had done in the case of +"Siegfried," that there are things in music which are unlike the kingdom +of heaven in that they cannot be taken by violence. The repertory +consisted of "La Traviata," "Tannhäuser" "Die Meistersinger," "Aida," +"Lohengrin," "Il Barbiere," "Faust," "Der Fliegende Holländer," "Die +Walküre," "Siegfried," "Götterdämmerung," and "Les Huguenots." + +Before the next regular season began under the new Grau administration +Mr. Seidl, who would doubtless have continued in association with the +institution with which he had long and efficiently been connected, +died. The temporary suspension of the Metropolitan subscription season +had forced him more actively than ever into the concert field. He had +succeeded Mr. Theodore Thomas as conductor of the Philharmonic Society, +and continued the popular triumphs of that organization. He had also +organized a series of subscription orchestral concerts at the Hotel +Astoria, and his friends were developing plans for a new endowed +orchestra when he died, after an illness of only a few hours' duration, +supposed to have been caused by ptomaine poisoning. This was on the +night of March 28, 1898. His body was cremated after an imposing public +funeral at the Metropolitan Opera House on March 31st, participated in +by the Musical Mutual Protective Union, Männergesangverein Arion, the +Philharmonic Society, German Liederkranz, the Rev. Merle St. Croix +Wright, who delivered the memorial address, and Mr. H. E. Krehbiel, +chairman of the committee of arrangements, who read a despatch received +from Robert G. Ingersoll, who was absent from the city on a lecture +trip. The pall-bearers were A. Schueler (who had been a classmate of +the dead man at the Leipsic Conservatory); Oscar B. Weber, E. Francis +Hyde (president of the Philharmonic Society); Henry Schmitt, Albert +Stettheimer, Henry T. Finck (musical critic of The New York Evening +Post); Walton H. Brown, Louis Josephtal, H. E. Krehbiel (chairman of +the cornmittee of arrangements and musical critic of The New York +Tribune); Xavier Scharwenka, August Spanuth (musical critic of the New +Yorker Staats-Zeitung); Albert Steinberg (sometime musical critic of +The New York Herald); the Hon. Carl Schurz, Charles T. Barney, Rafael +Joseffy, Julian Rix, James Speyer, Edgar J. Levey (musical, critic of +The New York Commercial Advertiser); Dr. William H. Draper, Richard +Watson Gilder, Paul Goepel, E. M. Burghard, Eugene Ysaye, Victor +Herbert, George G. Haven, Zoltan Doeme, Edward A. MacDowell, and +Carlos Hasselbrink. + +Concerning Mr. Seidl's career I have already spoken at some length in +these chapters; it will be long before those who knew him intimately +will cease to talk about his personal characteristics, and to tell +anecdotes which illustrate those characteristics. He was one of those +strong personalities that give an interest to all manner of incidents, +even the commonplace. Like Moltke, he could hold his tongue in seven +languages; but it is a fact that all his friends must have observed +that his taciturnity never made his company any the less entertaining. +Moreover, when the mood was on him, he could talk by the hour, and then +his reminiscences of the years spent in the household of Wagner or the +story of his experiences while carrying the gospel of Wagner through +Europe were full of fascination. But the talkative mood seldom came +when a crowd was about him. He was indifferent to the many and fond of +the few; so his circle of intimate friends never grew large in spite of +the multitudes who sought his acquaintance, and though no combination +of circumstances could disturb his self-possession he seemed to be most +contented and comfortable when seated quietly with a single friend. Even +under such circumstances he could sometimes sit for minutes at a time +without speaking himself or expecting a word from his companion, yet +never show a sign of weariness or ennui. In this particular he was +something like Schumann, of whom it is related that once he spent an +hour with a bright young woman to whom he was fondly attached without +speaking a word. Knowing his peculiarities, she too remained silent, and +was rewarded for her self-restraint when he departed by hearing him say +that the hour had been one in which they had perfectly understood each +other. Seidl's hero, Wagner, was the very opposite of Schumann in this +particular, and there is a story which indicates that he must frequently +have been amused at his pupil's reticence. Coming to a rehearsal once he +found that Seidl had taken a cold which had robbed him completely of his +voice, so that he could give no instructions to the musicians. Wagner +laughed immoderately, and with mock seriousness upbraided him for his +bad habit of talking too much, which had now brought him to the pass +where he could not talk at all. + +Seidl's epistolary habits were like his conversational--he wrote as +little as he talked; but as the talking fit sometimes seized him, so did +the writing fit. Then he could devote hours to a letter which had the +proportions and sometimes the style of a formal essay. On such occasions +he was so prone to drop into a pulpit manner that I once taxed him with +it and asked an explanation. He paused for a moment and then smilingly +made a sort of half-confession that he had once been destined for the +priesthood. His Scriptural illustrations and "preachy" manner were +relics which had clung to him from that early day. They were the only +academic traces about him, however. It is doubtful if any of his friends +ever heard him discuss a question in the theory or history of music. How +far his exact knowledge in the art went may not be said; but one thing +is certain--his practical knowledge embraced every measure of Wagner's +works. + +He seldom spoke of his conservatory days at Leipsic, and then generally +in a spirit of amusement. Complimented once by me on the excellence +of his pianoforte playing, he said: "Oh, I made quite a stir at a +conservatory examination once with Mendelssohn's 'Rondo Capriccioso.' +I was to be a pianist." That he could have been trained into a virtuoso +of merit I can easily believe, for without paying much regard to the +graces of pianoforte playing he yet had a remarkable command of those +tone qualities which are so helpful in expressive playing. He was +always eloquent at the pianoforte, especially when playing excerpts +from the dramas of Wagner. Then his performances were peculiarly full +and orchestral, a fact largely due to the circumstance that he never +confined himself to pianoforte arrangements, but preferred to play from +the orchestral score. That he appreciated the importance of giving +consideration to the peculiarities of instrumental media he illustrated +once when at a private rehearsal of music for one of my Wagnerian +lectures, at which he had intended to play, but had been prevented by +a sudden duty-call at the opera, he quickened the tempo considerably +for the pianist beyond that heard at his own readings of the opera, and +added in explanation: "Nie langweilig werden am Clavier!" ("One must +never be tedious at the pianoforte!") + +A few first representations of operas in this period outside of the +Metropolitan Opera House call for brief mention, if not for the sake of +the excellence of the productions, at least for the sake of completeness +in the record. Thus on May 16, 1898, a company of Italian singers, some +of whom had been singing in Mexico, some in South America, some in San +Francisco--the sort of a gathering that, I think, I have described +in these pages as New York's ordinary summer operatic flotsam and +jetsam--gave in Wallack's Theater the first representation of Puccini's +"La Bohème" which New Yorkers heard in their own city. The company was +first announced as the Baggetto Grand Italian Opera Company, which was +probably its official style in Mexico. In New York a hoary device of +juggling with the name of Italy's chief opera house was resorted to, and +it was called the Milan Royal Opera Company, of La Scala. Under either +title the company proved itself capable of a deal of stressful and +distressful singing, though a good impression was made by Giuseppe +Agostini, a youthful tenor, and Luigi Francesconi, a barytone. "La +Bohème" was performed on the opening night of the company's brief season +(it made shipwreck according to rule within four or five days), with the +following distribution of parts: + + + Mimi ........................... Linda Montanari + Musetta ...................... Cleopatra Vincini + Rodolfo ...................... Giuseppe Agostini + Marcello ..................... Luigi Francesconi + Schaunard ..................... Giovanni Scolari + Alcidero | + Benoit |.................... Antonio Fumagalli + Parpignol .................... Algernon Asplandi + + +Needless to say that scant justice was done to the play and score of +"La Bohème" by the vagrant singers, and that the good opinion which the +opera won later was shared by few among critics, lay and professional. +After ten years of familiar acquaintance with the work, I like it better +than I did at first, but it has not yet taken a deep and abiding place +in my affections. I see in it, however, an earnest and ingenious effort +to knit music, text, and action closer together than it was the wont of +Italian composers to do before the advent of Wagner set Young Italy in +a ferment. Music plays a very different rôle in it than it does in the +operas of Donizetti, Bellini, and the earlier Verdi. It does not +content itself with occasionally proclaiming the mood of a situation +or the feelings of a conventional stage person. It attempts to supply +life-blood for the entire drama; to flow through its veins without +ceasing; to bear along on its surface all the whims, emotions, follies, +and incidents of the story as fast as they appear; to body them forth +as vividly as words and pantomime can; to color them, vitalize them, +arouse echoes and reflections of them in the hearts of the hearers. But +this it can do only in association with other elements of the drama, and +when these are presented only in part, and then crudely and clumsily, +it must fail of its purpose. And so it happens that Puccini's music +discloses little of that brightness, vivacity, and piquancy which we are +naturally led to expect from it by knowledge of Mürger's story, on which +the opera is based, and acquaintance with the composer's earlier opera, +"Manon Lescaut." One element the two works have in common: absence of +the light touch of humor demanded by the early scenes in both dramas. +However, this is a characteristic not of Puccini alone, but all the +composers in the Young Italian School. They know no way to kill a +gnat dancing in the sunlight except to blow it up with a broadside of +trombones. Puccini's music in "La Bohème" also seems lacking in the +element of characterization, an element which is much more essential in +comedy music than in tragic. Whether they are celebrating the careless +pleasures of a Bohemian carouse or proclaiming the agonies of a +consuming passion, it is all one to his singers. So soon as they drop +the intervallic palaver which points the way of the new style toward +bald melodrama they soar off in a shrieking cantalena, buoyed up by the +unison strings and imperiled by strident brass until there is no relief +except exhaustion. Happy, careless music, such as Mozart or Rossini +might have written for the comedy scenes in "La Bohème," there is next +to none in Puccini's score, and seldom, indeed, does he let his measures +play that palliative part which, as we know from Wagner's "Tristan" and +Verdi's "Traviata,"--to cite extremes,--it is the function of music to +perform when enlisted in the service of the drama of vice and phthisis. + +On October 10, 1898, another band of strolling singers, which endured +for a week at the Casino, also performed "La Bohème," and the Castle +Square Opera Company of Henry W. Savage gave it in English at the +American Theater on November 28th of the same year. It did not reach +the Metropolitan Opera House until the season 1900-01. + +Stockholders and subscribers of the Metropolitan Opera House having +endured their year of privation, which, as we have seen, was not without +its moments of refreshment, Mr. Grau opened the regular subscription +season 1898-99 on November 29th. Its incidents of special interest +were not many. One was the return of Mme. Sembrich, who made what Mr. +Sutherland Edwards called Rosina's "double entry" in Rossini's "Barber" +on the second night of the season--November 31st. On the third night +Mme. Melba, who sang by the courtesy of Mr. Ellis, appeared in "Roméo +et Juliette." There were first appearances of several artists whose +names became fixed in the prospectuses for some years to come: Mme. +Ernestine Schumann-Heink as Ortrud in "Lohengrin" on January 9, 1899; +Ernest Van Dyck as Tannhäuser on the opening night; Albert Saléza as +Romeo on December 2, 1898; Suzanne Adams as Juliet on January 4, 1899; +Anton Van Rooy as Wotan in "Die Walküre" on December 14, 1898. Mr. +Franz Schalk, the conductor engaged for the German operas in place +of Mr. Seidl, who had taken part with Mr. Grau in the summer season +at Covent Garden and been engaged for the New York season that was +to follow, introduced himself to New York on the same occasion. + +Of acquaintances, more or less old, there were in the company +besides Mmes. Sembrich, Eames, Lehmann, Nordica, and Mantelli, Miss +Meisslinger, Miss Pevny, Frances Saville, Mr. Bispham, Mr. Dippel (who +had been a member of the last German company in 1890-91), Pol Plançon, +and Adolph Mühlmann. Newcomers besides those mentioned were Matilde +Brugière, Herman Devries (son of Mme. Rosa Devries, a dramatic singer +of renown half a century before), Henri Albers, barytone, and Lemprière +Pringle, an English singer, who had worked himself up in the ranks of +the Carl Rosa Opera Company. The two brothers, Jean and Édouard de +Reszke, whom New York had come to look upon as indispensable to perfect +enjoyment, were also members of the company. There were two cyclical +performances of "The Ring of the Nibelung" to keep good Wagnerites in +countenance, but Mr. Grau made his popular hit by a repetition of the +device which had been successful before with "Faust"--he gave "Les +Huguenots" with an "ideal cast." The device was simple, but it served. +Meyerbeer's opera had been given three times, when on February 20th he +announced it with Mme. Sembrich in the cast, and an all-'round advance +on prices on the basis of $7, instead of $5, for orchestra chairs. + +Only one novelty was produced in the season. This was Signor +Mancinelli's "Ero e Leandro," which had its first American performance +on March 10, 1899, with the composer in the conductor's chair. The +principal singers were Mme. Eames (Hero), Saléza (Leander), and Plançon +(Ariofarno). Mme. Schumann-Heink was set down to sing the prologue, but +illness prevented at the first representation, and the music was sung +by Mme. Mantelli. The opera had a pretty success and back of it was an +interesting history. Boito wrote the libretto for himself, but put it +aside when the subject of "Mefistofele" took possession of his mind. +Two of the numbers, which he had already composed, found their way into +the score of the later opera, one of them being the beautiful duet, +"Lontano, lontano, lontano," in the classical scene. Boito turned the +book over to Bottesini, who composed it, but failed to make a success +of it. Signor Mancinelli then took the libretto in hand and, having a +commission from the Norwich (England) festival of 1896 for a choral +work, he composed it and handed it in to be sung as a cantata. It +was sung at the festival. The next year it received its first stage +performance at Madrid and by way of Turin and Venice reached Covent +Garden, London, where it was produced on July 15, 1898. + +What a simple tale it is that has so twined itself around the hearts of +mankind that it has lived in classic story for ages and gotten into the +folk-tales of more than one European people! Hero is a priestess of +Aphrodite, who lives at Sestos, on the Thracian coast; Leander, a youth, +whose home is at Abydos, on the Asiatic shore, beyond the Hellespont. +The pair meet at a festival of Venus and Adonis and fall in love with +each other at sight. The maiden's parents are unwilling that she shall +cease her sacred functions to become a wife, and Leander swims the +strait every night, while Hero holds a torch at the window to direct him +to her side. One night there arises a tempest and Leander is drowned, +and his body cast up at the foot of the tower. Then Hero throws herself +upon the jagged rocks beside him, and the lovers are united in death. + + "That tale is old, but love anew + May nerve young hearts to prove as true," + +sang Byron after he had put discrediting doubts to shame by swimming the +Hellespont himself and catching an ague for his pains. A simple tale, +yet I have included more than is ordinarily found in the recital in +order to show how Boito utilized and added to it. A simple tale, but +with what lovely fervor have the poets sung it over and over again! +Byron could smile at his own Quixotic feat in the lines which he wrote +six days after its accomplishment, but in "The Bride of Abydos" he did +not attempt to conceal the affection which he felt for the tale, or his +pride in the fact that Helle's buoyant wave had borne his limbs as well +as Leander's; and who can without emotion call up Keats's picture of + + "Young Leander, toiling to his death," + +pursing his weary lips for Hero's cheek and smiling against her smiles +until he sinks, and + + "Up bubbles all his amorous breath"? + +Right nobly, too, did Schiller hymn the lovers and two centuries of +opera-writers--Italian, French, German, English, and Polish--have +sought to weave their pitiful story into lyric dramas. + +Boito, as I have said, wrote the book of "Ero e Leandro" for himself, +but eventually gave it to others. I can only speculate as to the cause +of Boito's abandonment of his intellectual child. Probably he concluded +that it lacked the dramatic elements which the composers of the last few +decades, paying tribute, willingly or unwillingly, to Wagner's genius, +have felt to be necessary to the success of a lyric drama. But dramatic +action need not always be summed up in movement. Wagner's greatest +tragedy has scarcely more external incident than "Ero e Leandro," and, +indeed, is like this opera, in that the interest in each of its three +acts centers in a meeting of the lovers and their publication of the +play enacting on the stage of their hearts. But it takes music like +Wagner's, music surcharged with passion, to body forth the growth of +the dramatic personages and make us blind to paucity of incident. When +thatcannot be had, then pictures and functions of all kinds, solemn +and festive, must be relied on to hold the interest. Boito built up +such pictures and grouped such functions about his simple tale with a +great deal of ingenuity. The eye is charmed at once with his classic +landscapes in the first act--the cypresses, myrtles, and blooming +oleanders, the temple portico, the statues and altar with its votive +offerings, the kneeling chorus of priestesses and sailors, Hero with her +ravishing robes (think of Mme. Eames in the part), the gallant Leander +and the stately archon Ariofarno. It is the scene of the lovers' meeting +at the festival, and to heighten its interest and provide something else +than hymns and rites, Boito has turned Leander into a victor in the +Aphrodisian games, both as swordsman and cytharist. Hero crowns him +with laurel, and he sings two odes, which Boito cleverly borrows from +Anacreon, the first without, the second with implied, but not expressed +credit. The odes are the most familiar of Anacreon's odes, however, and +no one could think of moral obliquity in connection with Boito's use of +them. They are the address to the lyre which the poet wishes to attune +to heroic measures, but which answers only in accents of love; and the +tale of how the poet took Eros, shivering, out of the cold night and +received a heart wound in return. Charmingly, indeed, do the odes fit +into the dramatic scheme and offer two set pieces as a contrast to the +solemn pronouncements of the archon and the excessive hymning of the +chorus. + +The development of the plot is now begun. Boito has created Ariofarno +to fill the place of the wicked nun of the German folk-tales. He is +obsessed with guilty love for Hero and seeks to divert her service from +the celestial Venus to the earthly. She scorns his offers of love, and +he leaves her with threats of vengeance. Filled with forebodings, she +seeks an omen in the voice of a sea shell which had been placed on +the altar of Aphrodite, the Sea-born. The words are charming, and the +occasion prettily prepared for a vocal show piece. She invokes the shell +as the cradle of Aphrodite, hears in its murmurs the song of the sea +nymphs, the humming of bees amid the oleander's aeolian whispers, and +the soft confessions of a mermaid. Then the sounds grow wild, and +stimulate her fancy to a picture of rushing waters, flying foam, and +wrathful surge--the vision which is realized in the last act. Here the +suggestion for musical delineation is obvious, and Signor Mancinelli +has utilized it in such a manner as to make his song (which, for +reasons that I shall not pursue, awakened memories of the ballatella +in "Pagliacci") the first really triumphant thing in the opera. The +rest of the act is chiefly devoted to a love duet, at the close of +which Hero, kneeling before the statue of the god, invokes Apollo to +admonish her of her fate. Ariofarno, in concealment, answers for the +god: "Death!" + +In the second act, which plays in the part of the temple of Aphrodite +devoted to the mysteries, Ariofarno carries out his plan of vengeance +against Hero. Professing to have received an oracular command to that +effect, he restores a service in an ancient town by the sea and to it +consecrates Hero, who is powerless to resist his will. The duty of the +priestess is to give warning of approaching storms, so that by priestly +rites the angry waters may be placated. While pronouncing her sentence +he, in an aside, offers to save her if she will accept his love. Again +he is spurned, and when he utters the words which condemn her to the +vigil Leander seeks to attack him. For this he is seized and banished +to the Asian shore. Hero takes the oath, the dancers rush in and begin +a bacchanalian, or Aphrodisian, orgy, while the chorus sings the "Io +paean." Here Signor Mancinelli has really written with a pen of fire. +The music is tumultuously exciting, though built on the learned forms, +and there is the happiest union of purpose and achievement. In the last +act, somewhat clumsily set and unnecessarily ambitious in its strivings +for spectacular realism, the dénoument is reached. Songs of sailors come +up from the sea; Hero sings her love and longing and lights her lover to +his fate. Their love duet is interrupted by the bursting of the tempest, +which had come upon them without being observed. The warning trumpet +which she should have sounded is heard from the vaults below, and the +chant of the approaching priests. Leander throws himself into the sea; +the archon upbraids Hero for neglect of duty and discovers its cause. +Her punishment, death, will be his vengeance, but the lifeless body of +Leander is hurled upon the rocks, and comes into view when a thunderbolt +tears away a portion of the tower wall. Hero sinks dead to the ground; +the archon rages at the escape of his victim, and an invisible choir +sings of a reunion of the lovers in death. + +As a composer Signor Mancinelli is an eclectic. It would not be easy +to specify any particular master as a model. He admires Wagner and has +proper appreciation of the dramatic values, the continuity of idea, +and the effect of development which flow from the recurrent use of +significant phrases; but his manner is not at all that of the later +Wagner whose influence, if found at all, must be sought in a few +harmonic progressions and in a belief in the potency of orchestral +color. Nearer to him than the master poet-musician are Verdi, +Ponchielli, Boito, and the eager spirits of Young Italy. His music is +as free as the later Verdi's from the shackles of set forms, but he is, +nevertheless, at his best when the book permits an extended piece of +lyric writing. This being so, it is disappointing that he has done so +little that is good in the opening scene where the book invited him to +consult the wants of the Norwich festival and to write in the cantata +style. In the first act, however, there is little to praise outside of +the settings of the two Anacreonic odes and the song to the shell. There +is much striving, but a paucity of plastic ideas. What might have been +an unconstrained lyrical outpouring, the prologue, mere thundering in +the index, because of the composer's mistaken impression that it ought +to be tragic, and in the "Ercles vein." When the rites begin and a +swelling paean is expected, there is much making of musical faces, but +no real beginning. Matters improve in the second act, where the part of +Ariofarno becomes dramatically puissant. Here there are noble passages +and the duet has moments of passionate intensity; but all these things +pale their ineffectual fires before the "Io paean," which is as thrilling +and well applied as anything that I can recall in the operas of the +decade which preceded "Ero e Leandro." + + + +CHAPTER XX + +NEW SINGERS AND OPERAS + + +There now remained four years of Mr. Grau's administration at the +Metropolitan Opera House. They were years of great activity, during +which the fortunes of the manager and the institution rose steadily. Mr. +Grau was no more of a sentimentalist in art than Mr. Abbey had been. He +was quiet, undemonstrative, alert, and wholly willing to let the public +dictate the course of the establishment. Outwardly he was always calm, +urbane, neither communicative nor secretive. I sat behind him during all +the years of his divided and undivided directorship, and never failed +of a pleasant greeting, no matter what the expression of The Tribune +had been on the morning of the day. He accepted congratulations with a +"Thank you!" which had cordiality in its timbre, and let the subject +fall at once. He met expressions of condolence in the same unperturbed +and uneffusive manner. Only once in all the years during which we sat +neighbors can I recall that he volunteered a remark indicative of +either satisfaction or disappointment. It was on the night of the first +performance of Reyer's "Salammbô," in the season 1900-01. He appeared in +his place early and extended his gloved hand in his ordinary manner, but +this time his eyes took a survey of the audience-room the while. Then, +still half turned, he remarked without a touch of feeling in the tone of +his voice: "Encouraging, isn't it? Some say the public want novelties." +He had expended a large sum on the production, and the public had met +him with half a house. + +If the public cared little for new things, it may occasionally have +disturbed the solitary musings of Mr. Grau, but it only emphasized his +public exhibitions of willingness to give the people the old things +which they liked. A strongly popular favorite had a safe hold on a long +tenure of service under him. Changes there had to be from year to year, +but so long as the public manifested a desire to listen to a high-class +singer, and there were no untoward circumstances to interfere, that +singer was re-engaged. Hence there came to be at the Metropolitan in the +higher ranks something like the theatrical stock companies of an earlier +generation. New singers there had to be, from time to time, but year +after year (the serious interruption is not yet) the subscribers were +assured before one season was ended that in the next they would still +be privileged to hear Mmes. Sembrich, Eames, Nordica, Schumann-Heink, +Ternina, Homer, and (until he retired from his active stage career) Jean +de Reszke, and Messrs. Édouard de Reszke, Van Dyck, Dippel, Scotti, +Plançon, Journet, Campanari, Mühlmann, Bispham, and Albert Reiss. The +presence of these artists of the first rank naturally determined the +character of the repertory, which was also cut to a pattern, since the +public always wanted to hear the artists whom they admired in the rôles +in which they were most admirable. The German Contingent made the +Wagnerian list inevitable, just as Mme. Sembrich made inevitable the +operas of the florid Italian school, and Mme. Eames the two favorite +operas of Gounod. These circumstances simplify the presentation of the +significant incidents of the remainder of this history. I have only +to take account of the entrance of a few stars into the Metropolitan +system, and the first production of a few operas--some of which came +only speedily to depart, others of which have remained in the +establishment's repertory. + +First, then, as to the American débuts. Newcomers of the first rank +there were none among the ladies in the season 1899-1900: the tenor, +Alvarez, effected his entrance on the Metropolitan stage on the opening +night of the season, December 18th, in Gounod's "Roméo et Juliette"; +Signor Scotti, barytone, who has remained a prime favorite ever since, +in "Don Giovanni," on December 27th; Fritz Friedrichs, whose success +in New York was inconsiderable compared with that which he had won in +Bayreuth in his famous character of Beckmesser in "Die Meistersinger," +on January 24, 1900. The subscription season of fifteen weeks consisted, +with all the extra performances, of 104 performances. It was full of +disappointments because of the illness of singers, and many performances +were slipshod because of evils that have remained with the institution, +in spite of many protests on the part of press and public, and promises +of reform on the part of the management. Several times the company was +divided so that performances might be given simultaneously in New York +and Philadelphia. Even when this was not done, the efficiency of the +forces was sapped by wearisome midnight journeys to and from the latter +city, which prevented adequate rehearsals. Nevertheless, there was a +supplemental season of two weeks. Herr Hofrath Ernst von Schuch, +director of the opera at Dresden, was a visitor, and conducted two +performances of "Lohengrin" and four concerts. No new operas were +produced. + +Before the regular subscription season, 1900-01, the Metropolitan Opera +House was the scene of an ambitious effort to habilitate opera in +English, which was made by Henry W. Savage in co-operation with Maurice +Grau. Mr. Savage had some years before established his Castle Square +Opera Company, organized in Boston, in the American Theater. The +repertory of the company was composed largely of operettas at first, +but gradually operas of large dimensions and serious import were added. +After the season 1899-1900 he entered into an arrangement with Grau to +occupy the Metropolitan Opera House from October 1 to December 15, 1900, +and under the title Metropolitan English Grand Opera Company the two +managers issued a prospectus which contained the names of nearly all the +singers then known favorably to the English opera stage in America. Many +of them had also sung in the Carl Rosa Opera Company, of England, and +there was a better command of routine in the organization than had +been known in English performances thitherto. The repertory was quite +as pretentious as that of the company of foreign artists regularly +domiciled at the Metropolitan, save that it did not include the later +dramas of Wagner. Instead, however, it comprised some light operas or +operettas, and some specifically English works. The promises of the +prospectus were fulfilled to the letter in respect both of singers and +operas, and though the enterprise proved to be less successful than had +been those of Mr. Savage in previous years (probably because of the air +of aristocracy which it wore, without being able to assume the social +importance which belonged only to the foreign exotic), it is deserving +of extended record. Some of the names of the singers stand as +prominently in the English record as in the American, and unexpected +laurels have been wound round the brows of some of them in still more +foreign fields. In the list were Ingeborg Ballstrom, Grace Van +Studdiford, Fanchon Thompson, Rita Elandi, Mae Cressy, Grace Golden, +Josephine Ludwig, Zélie de Lussan, Elsa Marny, Louise Meisslinger, +Frieda Stender, Phoebe Strakosch, Minnie Tracey, Barron Berthald, F. J. +Boyle, Philip Brozel, Forrest Carr, Lloyd d'Aubigne, Harry Davies, Harry +Hamlin, Homer Lind, William Mertens, Chauncey Moore, Winifred Goff, +William Paull, Lemprière Pringle, William Pruette, Francis Rogers, +Joseph F. Sheehan, Leslie Walker, William F. Wegener, and Clarence +Whitehill. The conductors were A. Seppilli and Richard Eckhold. The +operas performed were "Faust," "Tannhäuser," "Mignon," "Carmen," +"Trovatore," "Lohengrin," "The Bohemian Girl," "Traviata," "Romeo and +Juliet," "Cavalleria Rusticana," "Pagliacci," "Martha," "The Mikado," +and Goring Thomas's "Esmeralda." This last opera, a novelty in +America, was brought forward on November 19, 1900, with the following +distribution of parts: Esmeralda, Grace Golden; Phoebus, Philip +Brozel; Claude Frollo, Lemprière Pringle; Quasimodo, William Paull; +Fleur-de-Lys, Grace Van Studdiford; Marquis de Chereuse, Leslie Walker; +Gringoire, Harry Davies; Clopin, F. J. Boyle. + +Before taking up the history of the Metropolitan Opera House, record may +be made of the production of another novelty earlier in the year, also +by Mr. Savage's singers, but under the more democratic conditions which +prevailed at the American Theater. This was Spinelli's "A basso Porto," +which was given for the first time by the Castle Square Company on +January 22, 1900. + +Mr. Grau began the campaign of 1900-01 on the Pacific Coast, his first +performance being in Los Angeles on November 9th. Thence he went to +San Francisco, Denver, Kansas City, Lincoln, and Minneapolis, reaching +New York in time to open the subscription season on December 18th. The +season endured fifteen weeks, within which time eighty-two performances +were given. It was an eventful period. No fewer than eight singers +who achieved significance in the annals of the house effected their +entrances on the New York stage. Mme. Louise Homer made her début in +"Aïda" on December 22d; Mlle. Lucienne Bréval, in "Le Cid," on January +16th; Miss Marguarite Macintyre, in "Mefistofele," on January 14th; +Fritzi Scheff, in "Fidelio," on December 29th; Charles Gilibert, on the +opening night, in "Roméo et Juliette"; Imbart de la Tour, in "Aïda," on +December 22d; Robert Blass, in "Tannhäuser," on December 24th; Marcel +Journet, in "Aïda," on December 22d. The first of the operas given was +"La Bohème," but, as I have already explained, it was no novelty in +New York, having been performed by two Italian opera companies and in +an English version three years before. Novelties in every sense were +Puccini's "Tosca" and Reyer's "Salammbô." The former had its first +representation (it was also its first representation in America) on +February 4, 1901. Signor Mancinelli conducted, and the parts were +distributed as follows: Floria Tosca, Ternina; Cavaradossi, Cremonini; +Angelotti, Dufriche; Il Sagristano, Gilibert; Spoletta, Bars; Sciarrone, +Viviani; Un Carceriere, Cernusco; Scarpia, Scotti. + +The restraining influence of music has prevented the lyric drama from +acquiring the variety and scope of subject material adopted by the +spoken drama. For nearly two hundred years after its invention classic +legend and ancient history provided the stories which the opera composer +laid under tribute. Very properly dramatic song occupied itself at the +outset with a celebration of that fabled singer at the sound of whose +voice "rivers forgot to run and winds to blow." In the story of Orpheus +and Eurydice, as told in what is set down in history as the first opera, +music and love were mated; and they have not yet been divorced, though +both have undergone many and great changes of character. Love--gentle, +constant, chivalric, tried, and triumphant--has been hymned amid +pictures suggested by a millennium of human happenings, and its +expression has passed through all the phases that the development of +the most direct vehicle of emotional utterance could place at its +service--from the melodramatic strivings of the amateurs who stumbled +upon opera in their effort to reanimate the Greek drama to the glowing +scores of Richard Wagner, in which high art and profound science are +joined in a product as worthy of admiration as any other product of the +intellect fired by inspiration. In the progress from Peri to Wagner, +however, despite many daring and dubious adventures in new territories, +there has yet been an avoidance of material in itself ugly and +repulsive. We have been asked to contemplate the libertinism of Don +Juan, but at its worst it has served only as a foil to the virtue of +his victims, which in the end emerged triumphant. We have seen exposed +the monstrous double nature of Rigoletto, but only that the pathos of +paternal love should thereby be thrown into brighter relief. We have +seen convention sanctified by nature and approved by communal experience +set at naught by Wagner's treatment of mythological tales of unspeakable +antiquity, but only that the tragedy of human existence in its puissant +types might be kept before the world's consciousness. + +The relationship occupied by music to the drama, that is to the words, +the pantomime, the pictures and the play, in "Tosca" is that which it +occupies in melodrama--using the term in its original and correct +sense--with the single difference that the dialogue which is illustrated +and mildly expounded by the music, and which the instruments seek, more +or less vainly, to accentuate, emphasize, and intensify, is not uttered +in the speaking, but the singing voice. Even this difference, however, +disappears at some of the climacteric moments, and the actors resort +to the elocutionary devices which belong to the spoken drama, and, +foregoing pitch and rhythm, shout or whisper or hiss out the words which +tell of the feelings by which they are swayed. Thus the first principle +of music, which is melody, in Wagner as much as it was in Cimarosa or +Mozart, is sacrificed. Quite as significant as the degradation of music +thus illustrated is the degradation of the drama which has brought it +about. There has always been a restrictive and purifying potency in +melody. It has that which has turned our souls to sympathy with the +apotheosis of vice and pulmonary tuberculosis in Verdi's "Traviata," +which has made the music of the second act and the finale of "Tristan +und Isolde" the most powerful plea that can be made for Wagner's guilty +lovers. Nowhere else is the ennobling and purifying capacity of music +demonstrated as in the death song of Isolde. Without such palliation the +vileness, the horror, the hideousness of a play like "Tosca" is more +unpardonable in an operatic form than in the original. Its lust and +cruelty are presented in their nakedness. There is little or no time to +reflect upon the workings of perverted minds, to make psychological or +physiological studies, to watch the accumulation of causes and their +gradual development of effects, except in the moments, so plentiful +in Puccini's operas, in which music becomes a hindrance and an +impertinence. Dramatic action cannot be promoted by music. The province +of the art is to develop and fix a mood or celebrate a deed. Tosca can +sing of her love, her jealousy, her hate, her hope; she cannot sing her +frantic efforts to escape the lustful arms of Scarpia; she cannot sing +his murder (though she might have chanted its gory glory, if so she held +it, after the fact); nor can she sing her own destruction. In fact, +there is next to nothing in Sardou's drama fit for operatic song, either +in the sense that prevailed at the time of Paisiello or prevails in the +time of Wagner--which is now. In the opera a really fit incident for +the lyric drama borrowed from Sardou is expanded adroitly into a scene +which is both musically and dramatically effective. It is the scene in +which the cantata is sung in the Queen's apartments while Scarpia is +questioning Cavaradossi in his own. Here the set musical composition is +a background for the dramatic dialogue. Parallel scenes provide most of +the opportunities which Puccini has embraced for writing in what may +be called a sustained effort outside of the scenes between Tosca and +her lover in the first act. Thus the first finale has a pompous church +office as its background, with tolling of bells, the booming of cannon, +the pealing of a great organ, through all of which surges a stream of +orchestral melody bearing the declamatory shrieks of Scarpia. All of +this is purely irrelevant and external, and the device is cheap, but +it serves. Similar in musical purpose, but at the opposite end of the +color scheme, is the opening of the third act. The stage picture is +one of great beauty. The foreground shows the platform of the Castle +of St. Angelo. St. Peter's Cathedral and the Vatican are visible in the +background. It is urban Rome alone that is visible, but there are sounds +from the Campagna--the tinkling of sheep bells, the song of a shepherd +lad mingling with a strangely languorous and fragmentary orchestral +song. Then there arises from the distance the sound of church bells, +large and small, while the orchestral song goes on. It is all +mood-music, conceived with no necessary relationship to the drama, but +providing an atmosphere which is really refreshing after the sup of +horrors provided by the preceding act. Therefore, it must be accepted +gratefully like the dance tune over which Scarpia and his associates +declaim before the dreadful business of the second act begins, and the +piteous appeal to the Virgin which Tosca makes before she conceives +the idea of the butchery which she perpetrates a few minutes later. + +And the melodramatic music upon which Sardou's play floats,--what is +it like? Much of it like shreds and patches of many things with which +the operatic stage has long been familiar. There are efforts at +characterization by means of melodic, harmonic, and rhythmical symbols, +of which the most striking, and least original, is a succession of +chords which serves as an introduction to the first scene. This and +much else came out of Wagner's workshop, and, like all else of the same +origin in the score, is impotent because there is no trace of Wagner's +logical mind, either in the choice of material or its development. +Phrases of real pith and moment are mixed with phrases of indescribable +balderdash, yet these phrases recur with painful reiteration and with +all the color tints which Puccini is able to scrape from a marvelously +varied and garish orchestral palette. The most remarkable feature, the +feature which shows the composer's constructive talent in its brightest +aspect, is the fluency of it all. Even when reduced to the extremity +of a tremolo of empty fifths on the strings pianissimo, or a single +sustained tone, Puccini still manages to cling to a thread of his +melodramatic fabric and the mind does not quite let go of his musical +intentions. + +Reyer's "Salammbô" was brought forward for the first time on March 20, +1901, with the following cast: Salammbô, Lucienne Bréval; Taanach, +Miss Carrie Bridewell; Matho, Albert Saléza; Shahabarim, Mr. Salignac; +Narr-Havas, Mr. Journet; Spendius, Mr. Sizes; Giscon, Mr. Gilibert; +Authorite, Mr. Dufriche; Hamilcar, Mr. Scotti. Signor Mancinelli +conducted. The opera received a brilliant representation. Mr. Grau +had piled up the stage adornments with a lavish hand, and, though it +disappeared from the Metropolitan stage after two performances, material +traces remained for years in the settings of other spectacular operas. +The scenes were all reproductions of the Paris models and exquisitely +painted; the costumes were gorgeous to a degree. Mlle. Bréval's beauty +(Semitic, as became the character) shone radiant in the part of the +heroine, and she sang and acted with an intensity that in its supreme +moments was positively uplifting. Flaubert's brilliant novel supplied +the material out of which "Salammbô" was constructed. The romance has a +large historical incident for a background, namely, the suppression of +a mutiny among the mercenaries of the Carthaginians in the first Punic +war. Running through the gorgeous tissue which the French novelist wove +about this incident is the thread of story which Camille du Locle drew +out for Reyer's use--the story of the rape of the sacred veil of Tanit +by the leader of the revolting mercenaries, his love for Salammbô, +daughter of the Carthaginian general; her recovery of the veil, with its +consequence of disaster to her lover, and the pitiful death of both at +their own hands. The authors of the opera were adepts in the field of +what might be called musical spectacle. M. du Locle had a hand in both +of the operas written for Paris, "Les Vêpres Sicilienne," and "Don +Carlos." Under the eyes of Verdi at Sant' Agata he wrote the prose +scenario of "Aïda," which Ghislanzoni turned into Italian verse for the +composer. If a prodigal and sumptuous heaping up of stage adornments +could make the success of an opera, "Salammbô" would have been one of +the greatest triumphs of the French lyric stage; but pompous pictures +are not the be-all and end-all of opera, even in Paris, and the +fortunate co-operation of du Locle and Verdi was not repeated in the +collaboration of du Locle and Reyer. + +There are, however, merits in "Salammbô" which entitle it to a better +fate than befell it in New York. The people in the story have marked +dramatic physiognomies; indeed, had M. Reyer's skill in characterization +been half so great as M. Flaubert's, and M. du Locle's, there would have +been much to praise in the work. The characters are admirably drawn, and +show as much individuality in their intellectual and moral traits as +they do in their physical--the crafty Greek, the treacherous Numidian, +the energetic and manly Carthaginian, the storm-tossed heroine, and the +lovelorn Lybian are good dramatic types, even if stamped with stage +conventions. A genius in musical characterization, like Mozart, Wagner +or Verdi, would have found means for making their utterances as +picturesque as their presences; but this was beyond the powers of Reyer. +His tastes are modern, his aims far above the frivolity which afflicts +some of his colleagues, but his abilities do not keep pace with his +ambition. His models are easily found; he clasps hands most warmly with +Berlioz, and has some of the Frenchman's peculiarly Gallic reverence +for Spontini and Gluck. There are indications in the score that "Les +Troyens" occupied much of his attention while he was engaged upon it, +and I fancy that that ambitiously planned, but star-crossed work, was +also familiar to the librettist. This need not excite special wonder, +for the association of ideas was close enough. The second part of +Berlioz's tragedy is also Carthaginian, and ends with Dido's prophetic +vision of the hero who should avenge her wrongs on Rome. That Reyer also +venerates Wagner but shows itself more in the use of the German master's +harmonic progressions than in the adoption of his methods. He adopts +the device of reiterated phrases, but his purpose in doing so I could +not discover. Two short melodies, which are the themes of his brief +instrumental introduction, are brought forward again and again, but fail +to disclose their relationship to any of the agencies or elements in +the story, and without a sign of that organic development which is the +distinguishing characteristic of Wagner's creative style. Reyer's +orchestration is discreet and free from all taint of that instrumental +Volapük which is so marked in the Young Italian school. His subject +invites the use of Oriental intervals, and he employs them with the +discretion which is noticeable in "Aïda," but not with Verdi's +effectiveness. Some of his devices are admirable, others simply bizarre. +As a whole the music is monotonous in character and color, but it is +dignified and earnest, and for this it deserves praise. + +Mme. Sembrich had absented herself from Mr. Grau's company in the season +1900-01 in order to make a tour of the country with a small opera +company of her own; she returned to the Metropolitan fold in the next +season, however, and has not been errant since. The newcomers in 1901-02 +were de Marchi, the tenor, who sang first in "Aïda" on January 17, 1902; +Albert Reiss, a German tenor and specialist in Wagner's Mime, and +Tavecchia, bass. The last-named made no deep impression, and faded +out of view, but Mr. Reiss has been a strong prop of the Wagnerian +performances ever since, and has proved himself an exceedingly useful +artist in many respects. Mr. Walter Damrosch joined Mr. Grau's forces as +conductor of the German operas; with him were associated Signor Sepilli +and M. Flon. The record of the subscription season embraced thirty-three +subscription evenings, eleven subscription matinées, the same number of +popular priced performances on Saturday nights, nine extra performances, +including four afternoons devoted to "The Ring of the Nibelung," and a +gala performance in honor of Prince Henry of Prussia. The additions to +the institution's repertory consisted of "Messaline," by Isidore de +Lara, and "Manru," by Ignace Jan Paderewski. Concerning these novelties +I shall have a word to say presently; the importance of the German +prince's visit, from a social point of view, asks that it receive +precedence in the narrative of the season's doings. This right royal +incident took place on the evening of February 25, 1902. The opera house +never looked so beautiful before, nor has it looked so beautiful since, +as when it was garbed to welcome the nation's guest, a brother of +the German Emperor. The material most used in adorning the house was +Southern smilax, which all but hid all that is ordinarily seen of the +auditorium and the corridors. All the box and balcony fronts were +covered with it, and strings of it hung at the sides of the proscenium +opening from the top of the opening to the stage. These strips of green +foliage were thickly studded with white and green electric lights. The +same scheme was carried out above the stage opening, where long garlands +of smilax, gleaming with tiny white and green lamps, were hung in +festoons, while the apex was formed by a standard of American and German +flags and shields. On the balcony and box fronts the screens of smilax +were relieved with frequent bunches of azaleas and marguerites, and with +stars of white lamps shining through the green. The royal box was formed +by removing the partitions separating five boxes in the middle of the +lower tier. The front was decorated with American beauty roses, in +addition to the smilax. The interior was hung with crimson velvet, and +across its front was a canopy of crimson velvet and white satin. Behind +the royal box the corridor on which it opened was cut off from the other +boxes by hangings of tapestry. One of the most beautiful effects of all +was made by the ceiling, where the chandeliers shone through a network +of strings of smilax and white and green electric lights radiating +from the center like the strands of a cobweb. As may be guessed, +the brilliancy of the audience was in harmony with that of the +audience-room. The price of tickets for the stalls on the main floor +was thirty dollars, and the chairs in the other parts of the room cost +proportionately. Persons who could pay such sums to witness the function +could also afford to dress well, and at no public affair in my time has +New York seen such a display of gowns and jewels. The musical program +was elaborate, but that was the least important feature of the evening. +Mr. Grau had determined to disclose the entire strength of his company, +and to that end, settling the order in some diplomatic manner, into the +secret of which he let neither reporter nor public, he made a program +according to which Mesdames Gadski and Schumann-Heink and Messrs. +Dippel, Bispham, Mühlmann, and Édouard de Reszke were to perform the +first act of "Lohengrin," Mesdames Calvé, Marilly, and Bridewell and +Messrs. Alvarez, Declery, Gilibert, Reiss, and Scotti the second act of +"Carmen"; Mesdames Eames and Homer and Messrs. Campanari, Journet, and +De Marchi the third act of "Aïda," Mme. Ternina and Messrs. Van Dyck, +Blass, Bars, Reiss, Mühlmann, Viviani, and Van Rooy the second act of +"Tannhäuser," Mesdames Sembrich and Van Cauteren, and Messrs. Vanni, +Bars, Dufriche, Gilibert, and Salignac the first act of "La Traviata," +and Mlle. Bréval and Mr. Alvarez the first scene from the fourth act of +"Le Cid." It was a generous rather than a dainty dish to set before a +king's brother, but it served fully to disclose the wealth of resource +in New York's chief operatic institution, and the performances took +on a heightened brilliancy from the beautiful appearance of the +audience-room, and the spirit of joyous excitement which animated the +audience. Up to the last moment no one familiar with the interior +workings of Mr. Grau's harmonious, yet unruly empire, felt certain +that the program would be carried out as planned; and it was not. It +was very late when the curtain of smilax and light fell on the act +of "Tannhäuser," and, the prince having left the house long before, +followed by a large portion of the audience, who had come to see +royalty, not to hear regal singers, Mme. Sembrich put down her little +foot and refused to sing. Otherwise everything went off according to +program. + +"Messaline" was produced at the Metropolitan Opera House on January 22, +1902. The list of those who took part in its performance reads thus: + + + Messaline ..................................... Mme. Calvé + Tyndaris .................................... Miss Marilly + La Citharode ........................... Miss Van Cauteran + Tsilla .............................. Miss Juliette Roslyn + Leoconce ............................. Miss Helen Mapleson + Helion ....................................... Mr. Alvarez + Myrtille | + Olympias | ................................... Mr. Journet + Myrrho ...................................... Mr. Gilibert + Gallus ....................................... Mr. Declery + Un Rameur de Galère .......................... Mr. Dufriche + Un Mime Alexandrin ............................ Mr. Viviani + Un Poète d'Atellanes ......................... Mr. Giaccone + Le Loeno ........................................ Mr. Vanni + Un Marchand d'Eau ............................. Mr. Maestri + L'Edile ........................................ Mr. Judels + Harés .......................................... Mr. Scotti + Conductor, M. Flon + +When Mr. Grau produced "Salammbô" it was possible for the writers in the +newspapers to give a detailed account of the purport and progress of the +story, and also an account of its panoramic furniture without offending +decency. This is scarcely possible in the present instance. "Salammbô" +was written many years ago, before the conviction had dawned upon the +minds of opera makers that thugs and thieves, punks and paillards, were +proper persons to present as publishers of operatic themes. Since then +there has grown up in Italy a notion that the mud of the slums is +ennobling material for celebration by the most ethereal of the arts, +and in France that lust and lubricity are lofty inspirations for +dramatic song. Gautier's delectable account of one of Cleopatra's +nights has furnished forth an opera book; the mysteries of Astarte +have been hymned, and Phryne, Thaïs, and Messalina have been held up +to the admiring views of the Parisians clothed in more or less gorgeous +sound--and little else. There is no parallel between this movement on +the part of opera and the contemporary tendency of the spoken drama. +Those diligent regenerators of society, Ibsen, Pinero & Co., affect +a moral purpose to conceal an obvious aim from the simpleminded; the +French makers of opera are franker, for they seek to glorify impudicity +in the persons of its greatest historical representatives by lavishing +upon the subject the most gorgeous pictures, the most ingenious +theatrical contrivances, and the most sensuous music at their command. +"Messaline" is a case in point. This work has Armand Sylvestre and +Eugène Morand, two brilliant Frenchmen in their way, for the authors of +its book, and Isidore de Lara, at the time chief of the drawing-room +musicians of London, as its composer. The story of the opera is a sort +of variant of "Carmen" set in an antique key, its heroine being an +historic Roman empress instead of a gipsy cigarette girl. But any one +who shall take the trouble to glance at the sixth satire of Juvenal will +recognize that all its motives were drawn from that source. The likeness +to "Carmen" is accidental, after all, though Bizet's opera was not +without influence upon the work of librettists and composer. Like +Carmen, Messalina, merely to gratify her lust, draws an honest-minded +and supposedly pure man into her toils, and then throws him over for +the next man she meets who is handsomer and lustier. In Bizet's opera +the men are the soldier Don José, and the bullfighter, Escamillo; in +De Lara's Harés, a singer, and Helion, a gladiator. Both operas end with +the arena as a background--the Plaza de Toros in Seville, on the one +hand, the Roman Circus, on the other. But here the resemblances end +unless we pursue the traces of Bizet's music into De Lara's score, and +this I shall not do, out of respect for the most brilliant composer that +France has produced since Berlioz. Echeon, the harper; Glaphyrus or +Ambrosius, the flute players, who are castigated in Juvenal's diatribe +against marriage, are the prototypes of Messaline's first victim, as +also is Pollio, whom a lady of lofty rank so loved that she kept for her +kisses the plectrum with which he had strummed his lyre. That lyre she +had incrusted with jewels, and for the sake of him who twanged it she +had not hesitated to veil her face before the altar of Janus, and speak +the mystic formula after the officiating priest. ("What more could she +do were her husband sick?" asks Juvenal; "what if the physicians had +despaired of her infant son?") As for Helion, his prototype is the +gladiator Sergius, save that we are permitted to find him comely to look +upon, and not as one galled by his helmet, having a huge wen between his +nostrils and "acrid rheum forever trickling from his eye." + +So, too, in the exposition of Messalina's character the librettist, +while constructing an entirely fanciful tale, and omitting all reference +to the most notorious of her amours (the one which at the last wrung +the decree of her death from the generally complacent Claudius), +nevertheless managed to indicate Juvenal's description in the song which +Harés sings against her, a recital by Myrrho, a scene in the slums, +which she visits in disguise, and where she is rescued from a gang of +roisterers by Helion, and in the scene of her wooing of the gladiator. +(This scene, as it was played by Mme. Calvé, may not be pictured here.) +A glimmer of palliation might be read out of a few passages in the +book, and at the end there is an indication of something better than +the groveling carnality of the woman whose name has been a byword for +nineteen centuries in her offer of herself to Helion's sword, and her +opening the door to the lurking assassin when the gladiator refuses to +strike in obedience to his old vow to avenge the supposed death of his +brother. But all of the stage Messalina's words and acts up to that time +give the lie to the thought of her capability of feeling a single throb +of pure sentiment. She is presented as all beast, and there is not one +moment of cheer to relieve the horror of a play which shows how her +lewdness compasses the death of two loving brothers, who, unknown +to each other, were both her lovers. At the end the hand of Harés, +stiffened in death, clings to her robe, and brings her face to face with +that death which the veritable Messalina was too cowardly to give to +herself when her own mother pleaded with her to do so at the fateful +meeting in the garden of Lucullus. + +But there is often palliation in music. To this fact I have called +attention before. Music can chasten and ennoble; but not music like Mr. +De Lara's, which, when it strives for anything, strives to give an added +atmosphere to the incontinence portrayed by the stage pictures, and +proclaimed in the text. It is not dangerous music, however, for it is +impotent, with all its blatant pretense. The composer seeks to fill +the opening scene with languor and lassitude; he fills it with ennui +instead. If De Lara's music were a hymning of anything, I should say it +was a hymning of sensuality in its lowest terms; but there are neither +eloquent melodies nor moving harmonies in the score. De Lara is a feeble +distemper painter. The current of his music never really flows; it moves +sluggishly now and then, and eddies lazily about every petty incident. +In the scene of debauchery in the second act, it waits for a xylophone +to rattle an accompaniment to the dice; it holds its breath for a +muted horn to obtrude its voice with an inane vulgarity which would be +laughable were it not pitiful to hear it in a work which is admirable +in its dramatic contrivance and scenic equipment. + +Mr. Paderewski's opera, "Manru," had its first performance on February +14, 1902. Mr. Damrosch conducted. The composer, who had taken a hand +in the preparations, listened to the representation from a box, and +the list of performers was this: + + + Ulana ................................... Mme. Sembrich + Hedwig ..................................... Mme. Homer + Asa ................................ Miss Fritzi Scheff + Manru ........................ Alexander van Bandrowski + Oros ..................................... Mr. Mühlmann + Jagu ........................................ Mr. Blass + Urok ...................................... Mr. Bispham + + +"Manru" had its original performance at the Court Opera in Dresden, on +May 29, 1901. Before reaching New York it was given in Cracow, Lemberg, +Zurich, and Cologne, and Mr. Bandrowski, whom Mr. Grau engaged to sing +the titular part, had already sung it twenty times in Europe. Its +production at the Metropolitan Opera House brought scenes of gladsome +excitement. Hero worshipers had an opportunity to gratify their passion +in connection with a man who had filled a larger place in the public eye +for a decade than any of his colleagues the world over; students were +privileged to study a first work by an eminent musician, whose laurels +had been won in a very different field; curiosity lovers had their +penchant gratified to the full. The popular interest in the affair was +disclosed by the fact that never before in the season had the audience +at the Metropolitan been so numerous or brilliant; naturally the +presence of the admired composer whetted interest and heightened +enthusiasm. Long before the evening was over Mr. Paderewski was drawn +from his secluded place in a parterre box by the plaudits of the +audience, and compelled to acknowledge hearty appreciation of his +achievement along with the artists who had made it possible. Despite +the flaws which were easily found in the work, "Manru," the performance +showed, is a remarkable first opera. There will scarcely ever be a +critic who will say of it as one of the composers now set down as a +classic said of the first opera of a colleague, that first operas, like +first litters of puppies, ought properly to be drowned. "Manru" has had +its day, but it was brilliant while it lasted, and it is possible that +now it is not dead, but only sleeping. The story, badly told in the +libretto made after a Polish romance by a friend of the composer, Dr. +Nossig, has the charm of novelty, and beneath it there lies a potent +dramatic principle. But more than the story, more than the picturesque +costumes and stage furniture, there is a fascination about the music +which grew with each hearing. Many of its characteristic details are +based upon national idioms, but on the whole Mr. Paderewski wrote like +an eclectic. He paid his tribute to the tendency which Wagner made +dominant (where is the composer of the last thirty years who has not?) +and, indeed, has been somewhat too frank in his acknowledgment of his +indebtedness to that master in falling into his manner, and utilizing +his devices whenever (as in the second act) there is a parallelism in +situation; but he has, nevertheless, maintained an individual lyricism +which proclaims him an ingenuous musician of the kind that the art never +needed so much as it needs it now. As a national colorist Mr. Paderewski +put new things upon the operatic palette. + +"Manru" is not an opera to be disposed of with a hurried ultimatum on +either book or music. From several points of view it not only invites, +it clamors for discussion. The book is awkwardly constructed, and its +language is at times amazingly silly; yet the fundamental idea is kept +before the mind persistently and alluringly by the devices of the +composer. A Gipsy who forsakes his wife and child because he cannot +resist the seductions of a maid of his own race would ordinarily be a +contemptible character, and nothing more; but in this case, despite the +want of dramatic and literary skill in the libretto, Manru is presented +as a tragic type who goes to merited destruction, indeed, but doing +so nevertheless creates the impression that he is less the victim of +individual passion than of a fatality which is racial. I can easily +fancy that the Polish novelist from whom the story was borrowed +presented the psychological fact more eloquently than the librettist, +but it is a question whether or not he did so more convincingly than Dr. +Nossig plus Mr. Paderewski. Mr. Leland (after Mr. Borrow the closest of +literary students of the Gipsies) has pictured for us the Romany's love +for roaming, and our sympathy with his propensity. We look wistfully at +the ships at sea, and wonder what quaint mysteries of life they hide; +we watch the flight of birds and long to fly with them anywhere, over +the world and into adventure. These emotions tell us how near we are +to be affected or elected unto the Romany, who belong to out-of-doors +and nature, like birds and bees. Centuries more than we think of have +fashioned that disposition in the black-blooded people, and made it an +irresistible impulse. Thus the poetical essence of Manru's character +is accounted for, and the librettist has given it an expression which +is not inept: + + + With longings wild my soul is fill'd, + Spring's voices shout within me; + Each fiber in my soul is thrill'd + With feelings that would win me. + In bush and brake + The buds awake, + Of nature's joy the woods partake, + And bear me helpless, spent, along + Where freedom lives far from the throng; + Thus pours the mountain torrent wild, + That stubborn rocks would check; + Thus rolls the molten lava stream, + Dispersing havoc dire, supreme, + Enfolding, whelming all in wreck! + Thus flies the pollen on the breeze + To meet its floral love; + The song, outgushing from the soul, + Thus seeks the starry vault above. + Is it a curse? + There is no other life for me. + 'Tis written in the book of fate: + Thy race must ev'ry pledge abate + And wander, rove eternally! + But why? and where? + I know it not,-- + I needs must fare! + + +But such a life is lawless, it creates infidelity, nourishes +incontinence; its seeming freedom is but slavery to passion, and +this, too, the poet proclaims in Manru's confession that faithfulness +is impossible to one to whom each new beauty offers irresistible +allurement, and whose heart must remain unstable as his habitation. + +Into the music of Manru's songs, which tell of these things, Mr. +Paderewski has poured such passionate emotional expression as makes them +convincing, and he has done more. Music is the language of the emotions, +and the Gipsies are an emotional folk. The people of Hungary have +permitted the Gipsies to make their music for them so long, and have +mixed the Romany and Magyar bloods so persistently, that in music +Gipsy and Hungarian have become practically identical terms. It was a +Hungarian gentleman who said: "When I hear the 'Rakoczy' I feel as if +I must go to war to conquer the whole world. My fingers convulsively +twitch to seize a pistol, a sword, or bludgeon, or whatever weapon may +be at hand; I must clutch it, and march forward." It is because of this +spirit, scarcely overstated in this story, that the Austrian Government, +fearful of the influence of the "Rakoczy" during periods of political +excitement, has several times prohibited its performance on public +occasions, and confiscated the copies found in the music shops. Mr. +Paderewski makes admirable use of this passion as a dramatic motive. +When neither the pleadings of his tribal companions nor the seductive +artifices of Asa suffice to break down Manru's sense of duty to his wife +and child, the catastrophe is wrought by the music of a gipsy fiddler. + +As the subject of the opera has to do with the conflict between +Christian and Pagan, Galician and Gipsy, so the music takes its color +now from the folk-song and dance of Mr. Paderewski's own people, and +anon from the Gipsies who frequent the mountainous scenes in which +the opera plays. The use of an Oriental interval, beloved of Poles +and Gipsies, characterizes the melos of the first act; the rhythm of a +peasant dance inspires the ballet, which is not an idle divetissement, +but an integral element of the play, and Gipsy fiddle and cimbalom lend +color and character to the music which tempts Manru to forget his duty. +The contest in Manru's soul has musical delineation in an extended +orchestral introduction to the last act, in which Gipsy and Polish music +are at war, while clouds and moon struggle for the mastery in the stage +panorama. + +The season 1902-03 may be said to have been eventful only in its tragic +outcome, of which I have already spoken--Mr. Grau's physical collapse. +There was a painful and most unexpected echo a few weeks after the doors +of the opera house had been closed for the summer vacation in the death +of Mr. Frank W. Sanger, who had been acting as associate manager with +Mr. Grau, and who had been largely instrumental in persuading Mr. Grau +to abandon work and seek health in France. The season covered seventeen +weeks, and comprised sixty-eight subscription nights, seventeen +subscription matinées, seventeen popular Saturday nights, and six extra +performances--ninety-one performances in all. Promises of a serial +performance of the chief works of Verdi and Mozart had to be abandoned, +partly on account of the illness of Mme. Eames. Only one new opera was +brought forward, and that under circumstances which reflected no credit +on the institution or its management, the opera (Miss Ethel Smyth's "Der +Wald") not being worth the labor, except, perhaps, because it was the +work of a woman, and the circumstances that private influences, and not +public service, had prompted the production being too obvious to invite +confidence in the opera. Simply for the sake of the integrity of the +record mention is made that the production took place on March 11, 1903, +that Alfred Hertz conducted, and that Mme. Gadski, Mme. Reuss-Belce, +Georg Anthes, Mr. Bispham, Mr. Blass, and Mr. Mühlmann were concerned +in the performance. The newcomers in Mr. Grau's forces were Mme. +Reuss-Belce, Georg Anthes, Emil Gerhäuser, Aloys Burgstaller, and the +conductor of the German operas, Mr. Hertz, who, like Mr. Burgstaller, +has remained ever since, and they were all active agents in promoting +the sensational feature of the first season of the administration which +succeeded Mr. Grau's. I have tabulated the performances which took place +in the subscription seasons under Mr. Grau as follows: + + +THE GRAU PERIOD, 1898-1903 + + Operas 1898-1899 *1899-1900 1900-1901 1901-1902 1902-1903 + + "Tannhäuser," .............. 6 5 4 2 4 + "Il Barbiere" .............. 4 4 0 0 3 + "Roméo et Juliette" ........ 6 5 4 3 2 + "La Traviata" .............. 2 2 0 1 4 + "Die Walküre" .............. 4 6 3 3 3 + "Siegfried" ................ 1 2 1 1 3 + "Nozze di Figaro" .......... 3 4 0 2 1 + "Carmen" ................... 2 11 0 7 3 + "Lohengrin" ................ 7 7 6 4 7 + "Faust" .................... 7 9 5 5 7 + "Tristan und Isolde" ....... 5 3 4 3 4 + "Don Giovanni" ............. 4 1 1 0 1 + "Aïda" ..................... 3 5 3 5 7 + "Les Huguenots" ............ 4 2 3 3 3 + "Das Rheingold" ............ 1 2 1 1 2 + "Götterdämmerung" .......... 1 2 2 2 2 + "Martha" ................... 1 0 0 0 0 + "L'Africane" ............... 1 1 1 0 0 + "Rigoletto" ................ 1 1 1 0 1 + "Le Prophète" .............. 2 2 0 0 1 + + "Ero e Leandro" .......... 2 0 0 0 2 + "Lucia di Lammermoor" ...... 1 2 2 0 0 + "Il Trovatore" ............. 0 3 0 0 1 + "Der Fliegende Holländer" .. 0 3 1 0 0 + "Mignon" ................... 0 1 0 0 0 + "Don Pasquale" ............. 0 3 0 1 1 + "Cavalleria Rusticana" ..... 0 6 3 4 1 + "Pagliacci" ................ 0 1 0 1 6 + "Die Meistersinger" ........ 0 4 2 1 2 + "Die Lustigen Weiber" ...... 0 1 0 0 0 + "Fidelio" .................. 0 1 1 0 0 + "The Magic Flute" .......... 0 5 0 3 2 + "La Bohème" ................ 0 0 5 0 3 + "Mefistofele" .............. 0 0 2 0 0 + "Le Cid" ................... 0 0 3 2 0 + + "Tosca" .................. 0 0 3 3 4 + + "Salammbô" ............... 0 0 2 0 0 + "Fille du Régiment" ........ 0 0 0 3 6 + + "Messaline" .............. 0 0 0 3 0 + "Otello" ................... 0 0 0 3 3 + + "Manru" .................. 0 0 0 3 0 + "Ernani" ................... 0 0 0 0 3 + "Un Ballo in Maschera" ..... 0 0 0 0 1 + + "Der Wald" ............... 0 0 0 0 2 + + * Performances in the supplementary season included. + + Novelties. + + +Massenet's "Manon" had two performances with Saville and Van Dyck in the +season 1898-'99; but both were outside the subscription. + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +HEINRICH CONRIED AND "PARSIFAL" + + +A prologue dealing with other things may with propriety accompany this +chapter, which is concerned with the history of the Metropolitan Opera +House under the administration of Mr. Heinrich Conried. It is called +for by the visit which Pietro Mascagni made to the United States in +the fall of 1902. Signor Mascagni came to America under a contract +with Mittenthal Brothers, theatrical managers, whose activities had +never appreciably touched the American metropolis nor the kind of +entertainment which they sought to purvey. These things are mentioned +thus early in the story so that light may be had from the beginning on +the artistic side of the most sensational fiasco ever made by an artist +of great distinction in the United States. The contract, which was +negotiated by an agent of the Mittenthals in Italy, was for fifteen +weeks, during which time Signor Mascagni obligated himself to produce +and himself conduct not more than eight performances of opera or +concerts a week. For his personal services he was to receive $60,000, in +weekly payments of $4,000, with advances before leaving Italy and on +arriving in New York. The contract called for performances of "Iris," +"Cavalleria Rusticana," "Zanetto," and "Ratcliff" by a company of +singers and instrumentalists to be approved by Signor Mascagni. The +composer was hailed with gladness on his arrival by his countrymen, and +his appearance and the three operas which were unknown to the American +public were awaited with most amiable and eager curiosity. The first +performance took place in the Metropolitan Opera House on October 8, +1902, and was devoted to "Zanetto" and "Cavalleria Rusticana," both +conducted by the composer. There was a large audience and much noisy +demonstration on the part of the Italian contingent, but the unfamiliar +work proved disappointing and the performance of "Cavalleria" so rough +that all the advantages which it derived from Mascagni's admirable +conducting failed to atone for its crudities. There were three +representations at the Metropolitan Opera House the first week, all +devoted to the same works, and one at the Academy of Music in Brooklyn. +Meanwhile promises of "Iris" and "Ratcliff" were held out, and work +was done most energetically to prepare the former for performance. +Rehearsals were held day and night and the Saturday evening performance +abandoned to that end. "Ratcliff" was never reached, but "Iris" was given +on October 16th with the following cast, which deserves to go on record +since it was the first representation of the opera in the United States. + + + Iris .......................................... Marie Farneti + Osaka ..................................... Pietro Schiavazzi + Kyoto ..................................... Virgilio Bellatti + Il Cieco ................................ Francesco Navarrini + Una Guecha ................................. Dora de Fillippe + Un Mercianola ............................... Pasquali Blasio + Un Cencianola ............................ Bernardino Landino + + +I shall not tell the story of "Iris," which five years after was adopted +into the repertory of the Metropolitan Opera House, it seemed for +the purpose of giving Mme. Eames an opportunity to contend with Miss +Geraldine Farrar in the field of Japanese opera; but the opera calls +for some comment. Why "Iris"? It might be easier to answer the question +if it were put in the negative: Why not "Iris"? The name is pretty. +It suggests roseate skies, bows of promise, flowery fields, messages +swiftly borne and full of portent. The name invites to music and to +radiant raiment, and it serves its purpose. Mascagni and his librettist +do not seem to have been able to find a term with which to define their +creation. They call it simply "Iris"; not a "dramma per musica," as the +Florentine inventors of the opera did their art-form; nor a "melodramma" +nor a "tragedia per musica"; nor an "opera in musica," of which the +conventional and generic "opera" is the abbreviation; nor even a "dramma +lirico," which is the term chosen by Verdi for his "Falstaff" and +Puccini for his "Manon Lescaut." In truth, "Iris" is none of these. It +begins as an allegory, grows into a play, and ends again in allegory, +beginning and end, indeed, being the same, poetically and musically. +Signor Illica went to Sâr Peladan and d'Annunzio for his sources, +but placed the scene of "Iris" in Japan, the land of flowers, and so +achieved the privilege of making it a dalliance with pseudo-philosophic +symbols and gorgeous garments. Now, symbolism is poor dramatic matter, +but it can furnish forth moody food for music, and "Sky robes spun of +Iris woof" appear still more radiant to the eye when the ear, too, is +enlisted. Grossness and purulence stain the dramatic element in the +piece, but when all is over pictures and music have done their work of +mitigation, and out of the feculent mire there arises a picture of +poetic beauty, a vision of suffering and triumphant innocency which +pleads movingly for a pardoning embrace. + +There are many effective bits of expressive writing in the score of +"Iris," but most of them are fugitive and aim at coloring a word, a +phrase, or at best a temporary situation. There is little flow of +natural, fervent melody. What the composer accomplished with tune, +characteristic but fluent, eloquent yet sustained, in "Cavalleria +Rusticana," he tries to achieve in "Iris" with violent, disjointed +shifting of keys and splashes of instrumental color. In this he is +seldom successful, for he is not a master of orchestral writing, that +technical facility which nearly all the young musicians have in the same +degree that all pianists have finger technic. His orchestral stream is +muddy; his effects generally crass and empty of euphony. He throws the +din of outlandish instruments of percussion, a battery of gongs, big and +little, drums and cymbals, into his score without achieving local color. +Once only does he utilize it so as to catch the ears and stir the fancy +of the listeners--in the beginning of the second act, where there is a +murmur of real Japanese melody. As a rule, however, Signor Mascagni +seems to have been careless in the matter of local color, properly so, +perhaps, for, strictly speaking, local color in the lyric drama is for +comedy with its petty limitations, not for tragedy with its appeal to +large and universal passions. Yet it was in the lighter scenes, the +scenes of comedy, like the marionette show; the scenes of mild pathos, +like the monolognes of Iris, in which the music helped Signorina +Farneti, with her gentle face, mobile, expressive and more than comely, +and her graceful, intelligent action, to present a really captivating +figure of sweet innocence walking unscathed through searing fires of +wickedness and vice, and the scenes of mere accessory decoration, like +that of the laundresses, the mousmé in the first act, with its purling +figure borrowed from "Les Huguenots" and its unnecessarily uncanny +col legno effect conveyed from "L'Africaine," that the music seemed +most effective. "Zanetto" is nothing more than an operatic sketch in one +act. In its original shape, as it came from the pen of François Coppée, +under the title "Le Passant," the story is a gracious and graceful idyl. +A woman of the world, sated and weary with a life of amours, meets a +young singer, feels the sensations of a pure love pulsing in her veins +and sends him out of her presence uncontaminated. Here are poetry and +beauty; but not matter for three-quarters of an hour of a rambling +musical dialogue, such as the librettists and composer of "Cavalleria +Rusticana" have strained and tortured it into. A drawing-room sketch +of fifteen minutes' duration might have been tolerable. To add to the +dulness of the piece, Mascagni, actuated by a conceit which would have +been dainty and efective in the brief sketch hinted at, wrote the +instrumental parts for strings, harp, and an extremely sparing use of +the wood-wind choir and horn. Harmonies there are of the strenuous kind, +but they are desiccated; not one juicy chord is heard from beginning to +end, and the vitality of the listening ear is exhausted long before the +long-drawn thing has come to an end. + +Signor Mascagni entered upon his second week with disaster staring him +in the face, and before it was over it was plain to everyone that the +enterprise was doomed to monumental failure. The public after the first +night became curiously apathetic. This apathy would have been justified +had any considerable number of the city's habitual opera-patrons +attended any of the performances. The welcome came from the Italians +dwelling within the city's boundaries; the performances themselves +could arouse no enthusiasm. The singers were on a level with the usual +summer itinerants; the orchestra, made up partly of inexperienced men +from Italy and non-union players from other cities, was unpardonably +wretched. It was foolishly reckless in the composer to think that with +such material as he had raked together in his native land and recruited +here he could produce four of his operas within a week of his arrival in +America. He must have known how incapable, inexperienced, and unripe the +foreign contingent of his orchestra was. The energy with which he threw +himself into the task of trying to repair his blunders won the sympathy +of the members of the critical guild, though it did not wholly atone for +his conscious or unconscious misconception of American conditions. It +was not pleasant to think that he had so poor an opinion of American +knowledge and taste in music that before coming he thought that anything +would be good enough for this country. His experience in Italy ought +to have made him something of a student of musical affairs in other +countries than his own, and he was unquestionably sincere in his hope +that the American tour would win for him and his music the sympathetic +appreciation which his countrymen had begun to withhold from him. +Granting the sincerity of his desire to present himself fairly as a +candidate for the good-will of the American people, it was inconceivable +that he should have connived at or suffered such an inadequate +preparation for the production of his works. Had he come to New York a +month earlier than he did it would not have been a day too early. + +After his New York fiasco Signor Mascagni went to Boston, where troubles +continued to pile upon him till he was overwhelmed. He fell out with his +managers, or they with him, and in a fortnight he was under arrest for +breach of contract in failing to produce the four operas agreed upon. +He retorted with a countersuit for damages and attached theatrical +properties in Worcester which the Mittenthals said did not belong to +them, but to their brother. The scandal grew until it threatened to +become a subject of international diplomacy, but in the end compromises +were made and the composer departed to his own country in bodily if not +spiritual peace. One achievement remained: the Musical Protective Union +of New York had asked the federal authorities to deport the Italian +instrumentalists under the Alien Labor Contract Law, and the Treasury +Department at Washington decided in its wisdom that no matter how poor a +musician a musician might be, he was not a laboring man, but an artist, +and not subject to the law. Exit Mascagni. + +On February 14, 1903, the directors of the Metropolitan Opera and Real +Estate Company by a vote of seven to six adopted a resolution directing +the executive committee "to negotiate with Mr. Heinrich Conried +regarding the Metropolitan Opera House, with power to conclude a lease +in case satisfactory terms can be arranged." This was the outcome of a +long struggle between Mr. Conried and Mr. Walter Damrosch, a few other +candidates for the position of director of the institution making feeble +and hopeless efforts to gain a position which all the world knew had, +after many vicissitudes, brought fortune to Mr. Grau. The public seemed +opera-mad and the element of uncertainty eliminated from the enterprise. +Mr. Conried had been an actor in Austria, had come as such to New York, +and worked himself up to the position of manager of a small German +theater in Irving Place. He had also managed comic operetta companies, +English and German, in the Casino and elsewhere, and acted as stage +manager for other entrepreneurs. For a year or two his theater had +enjoyed something of a vogue among native Americans with a knowledge +of the German tongue, and Mr. Conried had fostered a belief in his +high artistic purposes by presenting German plays at some of the +universities. He became known outside the German circle by these means, +and won a valuable championship in a considerable portion of the press. +In the management of grand opera he had no experience, and no more +knowledge than the ordinary theatrical man. But there was no doubt about +his energy and business skill, though this latter quality was questioned +in the end by such an administration as left his stockholders without +returns, though the receipts of the institution were greater than they +had ever been in history. He had no difficulty in organizing a company, +which was called the Heinrich Conried Opera Company, on the lines laid +down by Mr. Grau, and acquiring the property of the Maurice Grau Opera +Company, which, having made large dividends for five years, sold to its +successor at an extremely handsome figure. Mr. Conried began his +administration with many protestations of artistic virtue and made a +beginning which aroused high expectations. To these promises and their +fulfillment I shall recur in a résumé of the lustrum during which Mr. +Conried was operatic consul. Also I shall relate the story of the +principal incidents of his consulship, but for much of the historical +detail shall refer the reader to the table of performances covering the +five years. The new operas produced within the period were but few. +Some of them are scarcely worth noting even in a bald record of events; +others have been so extensively discussed within so recent a period that +they may be passed over without much ado here. + +Mr. Conried succeeded to a machine in perfect working order, the +good-will of the public, agreements with nearly all the artists who were +popular favorites, an obligation with the directors of the opera-house +company to remodel the stage, and a contract with Enrico Caruso. Mr. +Grau had also negotiated with Felix Mottl, had "signed" Miss Fremstad, +and was holding Miss Farrar, in a sense his protégée, in reserve till +she should "ripen" for America. The acquisition of Caruso was perhaps +Mr. Conried's greatest asset financially, though it led to a reactionary +policy touching the opera itself which, however pleasing to the +boxholders, nevertheless cost the institution a loss of artistic +prestige. I emphasize the fact that Mr. Conried acquired the contract +with Signor Caruso from Mr. Grau because from that day to this careless +newspaper writers, taking their cues from artful interviews put forth +by Mr. Conried, have glorified the astuteness of the new manager in +starting his enterprise with a discovery of the greatest tenor of his +day. Many were the stories which were told, the most picturesque being +that Mr. Conried, burdened with the responsibility of recruiting a +company, had shrewdly gone among the humble Italians of New York and by +questioning them had learned that the name of the greatest singer alive +was Caruso. Confirmed in his decision by his bootblack, he had then gone +to Europe and engaged the wonder. Caruso's reputation was made some +years before he came to America, and Mr. Grau had negotiated with him at +least a year before he got his signature on a contract for New York. Let +the story stand as characteristic of many that enlivened the newspapers +during the Conried period. A dozen of the singers who were continuously +employed throughout the Conried period had already established +themselves in public favor when his régime opened. They were Mme. +Sembrich, Mme. Eames (who was absent during his first year), Mme. +Homer, and Messrs. Burgstaller, Dippel, Reiss, Mühlmann, Scotti, +Van Rooy, Blass, Journet, Plançon, and Rossi. To these Mr. Conried +associated Caruso, Marion Weed, Olive Fremstad, Edyth Walker, Ernst +Kraus (the tenor who had been a member of one of Mr. Damrosch's +companies), Fran Naval, Giuseppe Campanari, Goritz, and a few people of +minor importance. Miss Weed and Miss Fremstad and Messrs. Caruso and +Goritz became fixtures in the institution; Miss Walker remained three +years; Herr Kraus and Herr Naval only one season. The second season +witnessed the accession of Bella Alten, Mme. Senger-Bettaque (who dated +back to the German régime), Mme. Eames (returned), Signora De Macchi +(an Italian singer whose failure was so emphatic that her activity ended +almost as soon as it began), Mme. Melba (for one season), Mme. Nordica +(for two seasons), Josephine Jacoby (for the rest of the term), and a +couple more inconsequential fillers-in. The third year brought Signorina +Boninsegna (who I believe had a single appearance), Lina Cavalieri (who +endured to the end), Geraldine Farrar (still with the company and bearer +of high hopes on the part of opera lovers for the future), Bessie Abott +(a winsome singer of extremely light caliber), Marie Mattfeld (an +acquaintance of the Damrosch days), Mme. Schumann-Heink (returned for +a single season), Marie Rappold, Mme. Kirkby-Lunn, Carl Burrian, +Soubeyran and Rousselière, tenors; Stracciari, barytone, and Chalmin +and Navarini, basses. The list of German dramatic sopranos was augmented +in the last year by Mme. Morena and Mme. Leffler-Burkhardt, the tenors +by Bonci (who had been brought to America the year before as opposition +to Caruso by Mr. Hammerstein), Riccardo Martin (an American), George +Lucas; the basses by Theodore Chaliapine, a Russian, and a buffo, +Barocchi. Among the engagements of the first season which gave rise to +high hopes in serious and informed circles was that of Felix Mottl, as +conductor of the German operas and Sunday night concerts (which it was +announced were to be given a symphonic character and dignity), Anton +Fuchs, of Munich, as stage manager, and Carl Lautenschläger, of the +Prinz Regententheater, Munich, as stage mechanician, or technical +director. These two men did notable work in "Parsifal," but in +everything else found themselves so hampered by the prevailing +conditions that after a year they retired to Germany, oppressed with a +feeling something akin to humiliation. Likewise Herr Mottl, who made an +effort in the line of symphony concerts on the first Sunday night of the +season and then withdrew, to leave the field open to the old-fashioned +popular operatic concert, which Mr. Conried commanded and the public +unquestionably desired. His experiences in putting half-prepared operas +on the stage also discouraged Herr Mottl, and he went through the season +in a perfunctory manner and departed shaking the Metropolitan dust from +his feet, and promptly installed his polished boots in the directorship +of the Royal Court Theater at Munich. + +The season opened on November 23, 1903, with "Rigoletto"; Mme. Sembrich +reappeared as Gilda and Caruso effected his American début as the Duke. +His success was instantaneous, though there was less enthusiasm +expressed by far on that occasion than on his last appearance, five +years later. In the interval admiration for a beautiful voice had grown +into adoration of a singer--an adoration which even sustained him +through a scandal which would have sent a man of equal eminence in any +other profession into disgraceful retirement. The season compassed +fifteen weeks, from November 23d to March 5th, within which period there +were ninety-seven performances of twenty-seven works, counting in a +ballet and a single scene from "Mefistofele," in which Mme. Calvé, who +joined Mr. Conried's forces after the season was two-thirds over, and +yet managed to give four performances of "Carmen," helped to improve a +trifle the pitiful showing made by the French contingent in the list. +The French element, which had become a brilliant factor in the Grau +period, began to wane, and subsequently the German was eliminated as far +as seemed practicable from the subscription seasons. The boxholders were +exerting a reactionary influence, and Mr. Conried willingly yielded to +them, since he could thus reserve certain sensational features for the +extra nights at special prices and put money in his purse. This policy +had a speedy and striking illustration in the production of Wagner's +"Parsifal," which made Mr. Conried's first year memorable, or, as some +thought, notorious. Certainly no theatrical incident before or since +so set the world ringing as did the act which had been long in the mind +of the new manager, and which was one of the first things which he +announced his intention to do after he had secured the lease from the +owners of the opera house. The announcement was first made unofficially +in newspaper interviews, and confirmed in the official prospectus, which +set down Christmas as the date of production. A protest--many protests, +indeed--followed. Mme. Wagner's was accompanied with a threat of legal +proceedings. The ground of her appeal to Mr. Conried was that to perform +the drama which had been specifically reserved for performance in +Bayreuth by the composer would be irreverent and illegal. To this Mr. +Conried made answer that inasmuch as "Parsifal" was not protected by +law in the United States his performance would not be illegal, and that +it was more irreverent to Wagner to prevent the many Americans who could +not go to Bayreuth from hearing the work than to make it possible for +them to hear it in America. Proceedings for an injunction were begun in +the federal courts, but after hearing the arguments of counsel Judge +Lacombe decided, on November 24, 1903, that the writ of injunction +prayed for should not issue. The decision naturally caused a great +commotion, especially in Germany, where the newspapers and the +composers, conductors, and others who were strongly affiliated with +Bayreuth manifested a disposition to hold the American people as a +whole responsible, not only for a desecration of something more than +sacrosanct, but of robbery also. The mildest term applied to Mr. +Conried's act, which I am far from defending, was that it was "legalized +theft." It was not that, because in civilized lands thievery cannot be +made lawful. It was simply an appropriation of property for which the +law, owing to the absence of a convention touching copyright and +performing rights between Germany and the United States at the time, +provided neither hindrance nor punishment. Under circumstances not at +all favorable to success, had success been attainable (there was always +something more than a suspicion that the proceedings were fomented by +enemies of Mr. Conried in New York), Mme. Wagner tried by legal process +to prevent the rape of the work, but the courts were powerless to +interfere. Having passed triumphantly through this ordeal, Mr. Conried +found himself in the midst of another. A number of clergymen, some +eminent in their calling and of unquestioned sincerity, others mere +seekers after notoriety, attacked the work as sacrilegious. A petition +was addressed to the Mayor of the city asking that the license of +the Metropolitan Opera House be revoked so far as the production of +"Parsifal" was concerned. The petition was not granted, but all the +commotion, which lasted up to the day of the first performance, was, +as the Germans say, but water for Conried's mill. He encouraged the +controversy with all the art of an astute showman and secured for +"Parsifal" such an advertisement as never opera or drama had in this +world before. + +Mr. Conried had concluded at the outset of his enterprise that +"Parsifal" was too great a money-maker to be included in the regular +subscription list of the season. He followed his general prospectus +with a special one, in which he announced five performances of Wagner's +festival drama on special dates, under special conditions, and at +special prices. The first was set down for December 24; the prices for +the stalls on the main floor, the first balcony, and the boxes which +were at his disposal were doubled (orchestra stalls, $10), but seats +in the upper balcony and the topmost gallery were sold at the regular +price. The first performance took place on December 24th, the cast +being as follows: + + + Kundry .................................... Milka Ternina + Parsifal .............................. Alois Burgstaller + Amfortas ................................. Anton Van Rooy + Gurnemanz .................................. Robert Blass + Klingsor ................................... Otto Görlitz + Titurel .................................. Marcel Journet + First Esquire ................................ Miss Moran + Second Esquire ............................ Miss Braendle + Third Esquire .............................. Albert Reiss + Fourth Esquire ............................... Mr. Harden + First Knight .................................. Mr. Bayer + Second Knight .............................. Mr. Mühlmann + A Voice .................................... Louise Homer + + +Anton Fuchs and Carl Lautenschläger were in charge of the stage; Mr. +Hertz conducted. The first half of the season had been sacrificed to the +production. As such things are done at Bayreuth and in the best theaters +of Germany the preparations were inadequate, but the results achieved +set many old visitors to the Wagnerian Mecca in amaze. So far as the +mere spectacle was concerned Mr. Conried's production was an improvement +on that of Bayreuth in most things except the light effects. All of +Wagner's dramas show that the poet frequently dreamed of things which +were beyond the capacity of the stage in his day--even the splendidly +equipped stage of the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. Later improvements +in theatrical mechanics made their realization in more or less degree +possible. The greatest advance disclosed by New York over Bayreuth was +in the design and manipulation of the magical scenes of the second +act. Such scenes as that between Parsifal and the Flower Maidens +were doubtless in the imagination of Wagner, but he never saw their +realization. Up to the time of which I am writing the Bayreuth pictures +were exaggerated and garish. In New York every feature of the scene +was beautiful in conception, harmonious in color, graceful in action, +seductive as the composer intended it to be--as alluring to the eye +as the music was fascinating to the ear. At a later performance +Weingartner, conductor and composer, now director of the Royal Imperial +Court Opera of Vienna, sat beside me. After the first act he spoke in +terms generally complimentary about the performance, but criticized its +spirit and execution in parts. When the scene of the magical garden was +discovered and the floral maidens came rushing in he leaned forward in +his chair, and when the pretty bustle reached its height he could wait +no longer to give voice to his admiration. "Ah!" he exclaimed in a +whisper, "there's atmosphere! There's fragrance and grace!" The music of +the drama was familiar to New Yorkers from many concert performances. +Once, indeed, there was a "Parsifal" festival in Brooklyn, under the +direction of Mr. Seidl, in which all the music was sung by the best +singers of the Metropolitan Opera House on a stage set to suggest the +Temple of the Grail. Only the action and the pictures were new to the +city's music lovers. Nevertheless the interest on the part of the public +was stupendous. The first five representations were over on January +21st, but before then Mr. Conried had already announced five more, +besides a special day performance on Washington's Birthday, February +22d. After the eleventh performance, on February 25th, Mr. Conried +gave out the statement to the public press that the receipts had been +$186,308; that is, an average of $16,937.17. But this was not the end. +Under Mr. Grau the custom had grown up in the Metropolitan Opera House +of a special performance, the proceeds of which were the personal +perquisites of the director. In all the contracts between the director +and his artists there was a clause which bound the latter to sing for +nothing at one performance. Before his retirement Mr. Grau grew ashamed +of appearing in the light of an eleemosynary beneficiary under such +circumstances, and explained to the newspapers that the arrangement +between himself and the singers was purely a business one. Nevertheless +he continued to avail himself of the rich advantage which the +arrangement brought him, and in the spring closed the supplementary +season with a performance of an olla podrida character, in which all of +the artists took part. Mr. Conried continued the custom throughout his +administration, but varied the programme in his first year by giving a +representation of "Parsifal" instead of the customary mixed pickles. +The act was wholly commercial. That was made plain, even if anyone had +been inclined to think otherwise, when subsequently he substituted an +operetta, Strauss's "Fledermaus," for the religious play, and called on +all of his artists who did not sing in it to sit at tables in the ball +scene, give a concert, and participate in the dancing. A year later he +gratified an equally lofty ambition by arranging a sumptuous performance +of another operetta by the same composer, "Der Zigeunerbaron," and +following it with a miscellaneous concert. That operetta was never +repeated. + +In the seasons 1904-05 and 1905-06 "Parsifal" was again reserved for +special performance at double the ordinary prices of admission, and it +was not until a year later that the patrons of the Metropolitan were +permitted to hear it at the ordinary subscription rates. By that time +it had taken its place with the Nibelung tragedy, having, in fact, a +little less drawing power than the more popular dramas in the tetralogy. +The reason was not far to seek. The craze created by the first year +had led to all manner of shows, dramas, lectures with stereopticon +pictures which were a degradation of the subject. Only one of the +results possessed artistic dignity or virtue, and this justified the +apprehension of the poet-composer touching what would happen if his +unique work ever became a repertory piece. Mr. Savage in 1904-05 carried +"Parsifal" throughout the length and breadth of the land in an English +version, starting in Boston and giving representations night after night +just before the Metropolitan season opened in the New York Theater. +Nevertheless there were eight performances at the Metropolitan in that +season and four in the season that followed. At regular rates in 1906-07 +only two performances were possible. All of Mr. Conried's artistic +energies in his second season were expended on the production of "Die +Fledermaus," which he gave for his own benefit under the circumstances +already referred to, on February 16th. The season lasted fifteen weeks, +and consisted of ninety-five performances of thirty operas and two +ballets, outside of the supplementary season, which, let me repeat, are +not included in the statistics which I am giving. An incident of the +second season was the collapse of the bridge which is part of the first +scene of "Carmen," and the consequent injury of ten choristers. The +accident happened on the night of January 7, 1905, while the performance +was in progress. Fortunately nobody was killed. + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +END OF CONRIED'S ADMINISTRATION + + +A visit from Engelbert Humperdinck to attend the first German +performance of his "Hänsel und Gretel" on November 25th, a strike of the +chorus which lasted three days, a revival of Goldmark's "Königin von +Saba" which had been the chief glory of the second German season twenty +years before, and the squandering of thousands of dollars and so much +time that nearly all of the operas in the repertory suffered for lack +of rehearsals on a single production of Strauss's operetta "Der +Zigeunerbaron," were the chief incidents of the season of 1905-06. That +is to say, the chief local incidents. Out in San Francisco the company +was overwhelmed by the catastrophe of the earthquake, which sent it back +a physical and financial wreck. The calamity tested the fortitude and +philosophy of Mr. Conried as well as the artists, but through the gloom +there shone a cheering ray when Mme. Sembrich, herself one of the chief +sufferers from the earthquake, postponed her return to her European home +long enough to give a concert for the benefit of the minor members of +the company, and distributed $7,691 to musicians who had lost their +instruments and $2,435 to the chorus and technical staff. + +The season of 1906-07 marked highwater in the artistic activities of Mr. +Conried's institution. It was the year of "Salome" and the coming of +Signor Puccini to give éclat to the production of his operas. Outside of +"Salome" there was only one real novelty in the season's repertory, and +that, "Fedora," might easily have been spared; but the current list of +the house was augmented by no less than seven works, namely, "Fedora," +"La Damnation de Faust," "Lakmé" (which had been absent from the list +for many years), "L'Africaine," "Manon Lescaut," "Madama Butterfly," and +"Salome." Berlioz's dramatic legend, "La Damnation," had been a popular +concert piece ever since its first production by Dr. Leopold Damrosch at +a concert of the Symphony Society more than twenty-five years before, +and its novel features were those which grew out of the abortive efforts +of Raoul Gunsbourg to turn it into a stage play. + +In the presence of the composer, who was received with great acclaim by +a gathering notable in numbers and appearance, and amid scenes of glad +excitement which grew from act to act, Puccini's "Manon Lescaut" was +performed for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera House on the +evening of January 18, 1907. Signor Puccini reached the theater in the +middle of the third act and, unnoticed by the audience, took a seat in +the directors' box in the grand tier. After the first act the orchestra +saluted him with a fanfare and the audience broke into applause which +lasted so long that, finding it impossible to quiet it by rising and +bowing his acknowledgments, he withdrew into the rear of the box out +of sight so that the performance might go an. After the second act he +sent the following statement in French to the representatives of the +newspapers: + +"I have always thought that an artist has something to learn at any age. +It was with delight, therefore, that I accepted the invitation of the +directors of the Metropolitan Opera House to come to this new world of +which I saw a corner on my visit to Buenos Ayres and with which I was +anxious to get better acquainted. What I have seen to-night has already +proved to me that I did well to come here, and I consider myself happy +to be able to say that I am among my friends, to whom I can speak in +music with a certainty of being understood." + +"Manon Lescaut" was not wholly new to the opera-goers of New York, for +it had had one or two performances by a vagrant Italian company at +Wallack's Theater in May, 1898; but to all intents and purposes it was +a novelty, for the musical itinerants of nine years before were not +equal to the task set by Puccini, and gave a perversion rather than a +performance of the opera. Why it should have waited so long and for the +stimulus of the coming of the composer before reaching the Metropolitan +Opera House was not easily explained by those admirers of the composer +who knew or felt that in spite of the high opinion in which. "La +Bohème," "Tosca," and "Madama Butterfly" were held, "Manon Lescaut" +is fresher, more spontaneous, more unaffected and passionate in its +dramatic climaxes, as well as more ingratiatingly charming in its comedy +element, than any of its successors from Puccini's pen. The voice of the +composer rings unmistakably through its measures, but it is freer from +the formularies which have since become stereotyped, and there are a +greater number of echoes of the tunefulness which belongs to the older +period between which and the present the opera marks a transition. Abbé +Prévost's story, familiar to all readers of French romance, had served +at least four opera composers before Signor Puccini. In 1830 Halévy +brought forward a three-act ballet dealing with the story; Balfe wrote a +French opera with the title in 1836, Auber another in 1856, and Massenet +still another in 1884. Scribe was Auber's collaborator, and their opera, +which like Puccini's ended with the scene of Manon's death in America, +received a touch of local color from the employment of Negro dances and +Créole songs. It would be interesting to see the old score now that the +artistic value of the folk-songs of the Southern States as an incentive +to a distinctive school of music has challenged critical attention and +aroused controversy. Massenet's opera, which through the influence of +Minnie Hauk was produced at the Academy of Music on December 23, 1885, +dropped out of the local repertory until the restoration of the Italian +régime as has been related elsewhere in this book. The opening and +closing incidents in Massenet's opera are the same as are used by +Puccini, though MM. Meilhac and Gille, the French librettists, did not +think it necessary to carry the story across the ocean for the sake of +Manon's death scene. In their book she succumbs to nothing that is +obvious and dies in her lover's arms on the way to the ship at Havre +which was to transport her to the penal colony at New Orleans. The third +act of Puccini's opera plays at Havre, its contents being an effort to +free Manon, the deportation of a shipload of female convicts, including +Manon, and the embarkation of des Grieux in a menial capacity on the +convict ship. Here the composer makes one of his most ambitious attempts +at dramatic characterization: there is a roll-call and the woman go to +the gang-plank in various moods, while the by-standers comment on their +appearance and manner. The whole of the last act, which plays on a +plateau near New Orleans, is given up to the lovers. Manon dies; des +Grieux shrieks his despair and falls lifeless upon her body. Puccini has +followed his confrères of the concentrated agony school in introducing +an orchestral intermezzo. He does this between the second and third acts +and gives a clue to its purposed emotional contents by providing it with +a descriptive title, "Imprisonment. Journey to Havre," and quoting a +passage from the Abbé Prévost's book in which des Grieux confesses the +overpowering strength of his passion and determines to follow Manon +wherever she may go, "even to the ends of the world." Here, at least, +we recognize a sincere effort to make the interlude something more than +a stop-gap or a device to make up for the paucity of sustained music +in the course of the dramatic action. + +"Madama Butterfly" in the original Italian had been anticipated by a +long series of English performances by Mr. Savage's company at the +Garden Theater, beginning on November 12th. This production is deserving +of record. Walter Rothwell was the conductor, and the principal singers +in the cast were Elza Szamosy, a Hungarian, as Cio-Cio-San; Harriet +Behne as Suzuki, Joseph F. Sheehan as Pinkerton, and Winifred Goff as +Sharpless. The opera reached the Metropolitan Opera House on February +11, 1907, when it was sung in the presence of the composer by the +following cast: + + + Cio-Cio-San ........................... Geraldine Farrar + Suzuki .................................... Louise Homer + Pinkerton ....................................... Caruso + Sharpless ....................................... Scotti + Goro ............................................. Reiss + Conductor, Arturo Vigna + + +A great deal of the sympathetic interest which "Madama Butterfly" evoked +on its first production and has held in steady augmentation ever since +was due to the New York public's familiarity with the subject of the +opera created by John Luther Long's story and Mr. Belasco's wonderfully +pathetic drama upon which this much more pretentious edifice of Messrs. +Illica, Giacosa, and Puccini is reared. To the popular interest in story +and play Japan lent color in more respects than one, having at the time +a powerful hold upon the popular imagination. We have had the Mikado's +kingdom with its sunshine and flowers, its romantic chivalry, its +geishas and continent and incontinent morals upon the stage before,--in +the spoken drama, in comic operetta, in musical farce, and in serious +musical drama. Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan used its external motives +for one of their finest satirical skits, an incomparable model in its +way; but the parallel in serious opera was that created by Signor +Illica, one of the librettists of "Madama Butterfly," and Signor +Mascagni. The opera was "Iris," the production of which at the +Metropolitan Opera House helped to emphasize the failure of the +composer's American visit. "Iris" is a singular blending of allegory +which had a merit quite admirable though ill-applied, and tragedy of the +kind to which I have already several times referred in this book. In +"Iris" as in "Madama Butterfly" we have Japanese music,--the twanging of +samisens and the tinkling of gongs; but it was more coarsely applied, +with more apparent and merely outward purpose, and it was only an +accompaniment of a vision stained all over with purulence and grossness. +"Madama Butterfly" tells a tale of wickedness contrasted with lovely +devotion. Its carnality has an offset in a picture of love conjugal and +love maternal, and its final appeal is one to infinite pity. And in this +it is beautiful. Opera-goers are familiar with Signor Puccini's manner. +"Tosca" and "La Bohème" speak out of many measures of his latest opera, +but there is introduced in it a mixture of local color. Genuine Japanese +tunes come to the surface of the instrumental flood at intervals and +tunes which copy their characteristics of rhythm, melody, and color. As +a rule this is a dangerous proceeding except in comedy which aims to +chastise the foibles and follies of a people and a period. Nothing is +more admirable, however, than Signor Puccini's use of it to heighten the +dramatic climaxes; the merry tune with which Cio-Cio-San diverts her +child in the second act and the use of a bald native tune thundered out +fortissimo in naked unison with periodic punctuations of harmony at the +close are striking cases in point. Nor should the local color in the +delineation of the break of day in the beginning of the third act, and +the charmingly felicitous use of mellifluous gongs in the marriage scene +be overlooked. Always the effect is musical and dramatically helpful. +As for the rest there are many moments of a strange charm in the score, +music filled with a haunting tenderness and poetic loveliness, music +in which there is a beautiful meeting of the external picture and the +spiritual content of the scene. Notable among these moments is the scene +in which Butterfly and her attendant scatter flowers throughout the room +in expectation of Pinkerton's return. Here melodies and harmonies are +exhaled like the odors of the flowers. + +Giordano's "Fedora," first performed on December 5, 1906, was given with +this distribution of parts: + + + Fedora ................................ Lina Cavalieri + (Her first appearance.) + Olga ..................................... Bella Alten + Dimitri ............................... Marie Mattfeld + Un piccolo Savojardo ................ Josephine Jacoby + Loris Ipanow ........................... Enrico Caruso + De Siriex ............................. Antonio Scotti + Il Barone Rouvel | + Desiré | ........................ Mr. Paroli + Cirillo .................................... Mr. Bégué + Borow ................................... Mr. Mühlmann + Grech ................................... Mr. Dufriche + Boleslaw Lazinski ........................ Mr. Voghere + Lorek ................................... Mr. Navarini + Conductor, Arturo Vigna + + +The opera is an attempt to put music to the familiar play by Sardou; an +utterly futile attempt. A more sluggish and intolerable first act than +the legal inquest it would be difficult to imagine. Fragments of +inconsequential tunes float along on a turgid stream, above which the +people of the play chatter and scream, becoming intelligible and +interesting only when they lapse into ordinary speech. Ordinary speech, +however, is the only kind of speech that an expeditious drama can +tolerate, and it is not raised to a higher power by the blowing of brass +or the beating of drums. The frankest confession of the futility of +Giordano's effort to make a lyric drama out of "Fedora" is contained in +the fact that only those moments in his score are musical in the +accepted sense when the play stops, as in the case of the intermezzo +which cuts the second act in two, or when the old operatic principles +wake into life again, as in Loris's confession of love. Here, in the +first instance, a mood receives musical delineation, and in the second a +passion whose expression is naturally lyrical receives utterance. One +device new to the operatic stage, in its externals at least, is +ingeniously employed by the composer: the conversation in which Fedora +extorts a confession from Loris is carried on while a pianist entertains +a princess' guests with a solo upon his instrument. But the fact that +singing tones, not spoken, are used adds nothing to the value of the +scene. + +On returning from Europe late in the summer of 1906 Mr. Conried +announced his intention to produce Richard Strauss's "Salome," and his +forces had no sooner been gathered together than Mr. Hertz began the +laborious task of preparing the opera--if opera it can be called--for +performance. There can scarcely be a doubt that Mr. Conried hoped for +a sensational flurry like that which had accompanied the production of +"Parsifal"; but, with an eye to the main chance, he confined his first +official proclamation to a single performance, which, in connection with +a concert by all his chief singers not concerned in the opera, was to +be given for his annual benefit. Evidently he felt less sure about the +outcome of this production than he had about that of "Parsifal," and was +bound to reap all the benefits that could come from a powerful appeal to +popular curiosity touching so notorious a work as Strauss's setting of +Oscar Wilde's drama. The performance took place with many preliminary +flourishes beyond the ordinary on January 22d. Two days before there was +held a public rehearsal, which was attended by about a thousand persons +who had received invitations, most of them being stockholders of the +opera house, old subscribers, stockholders of Mr. Conried's company, +writers for the newspapers, and friends of the artists and the +management. The opera was given with the following cast: + + + Salome ................................. Miss Fremstad + Herodias ................................... Miss Weed + Herodias's Page ..................... Josephine Jacoby + Herod's Page .......................... Marie Mattfeld + Herod ................................... Carl Burrian + Jochanaan ............................. Anton Van Rooy + Narraboth ............................. Andreas Dippel + First Jew .................................. Mr. Reiss + Second Jew ................................. Mr. Bayer + Third Jew ................................. Mr. Paroli + Fourth Jew .................................. Mr. Bars + Fifth Jew ............................... Mr. Dufriche + First Nazarene ........................... Mr. Journet + Second Nazarene ........................... Mr. Stiner + First Soldier ........................... Mr. Mühlmann + Second Soldier ............................. Mr. Blass + A Cappadocian .............................. Mr. Lange + Conductor, Alfred Hertz + + +Concerning the effect produced upon the public by the performance of the +work I shall permit Mr. W. P. Eaton, then a reporter for The Tribune, +to speak for me. + + +The concert was over a little after nine, and the real business of the +evening began at a quarter to ten, when the lights went out, there was a +sound from the orchestra pit, and the curtains parted on "Salome." The +setting for "Salome" is an imaginative creation of the scene painter's +art. The high steps to the palace door to the right, the cover of the +cistern, backed by ironic roses in the center, and beyond the deep night +sky and the moonlight on the distant roofs. Two cedars cut the sky, +black and mournful. Against this background "Salome" moves like a +tigress, the costumes of the court glow with a dun, barbaric splendor, +and the red fire from the tripods streams silently up into the night +till you fancy you can almost smell it. Here was atmosphere like +Belasco's, and saturated with it the opera moved to its appointed end, +sinister, compelling, disgusting. + +What the opera is is told elsewhere. It remains to record that in the +audience at this performance, as at the dress rehearsals on Sunday, the +effect of horror was pronounced. Many voices were hushed as the crowd +passed out into the night, many faces were white almost as those at the +rail of a ship. Many women were silent, and men spoke as if a bad dream +were on them. The preceding concert was forgotten; ordinary emotions +following an opera were banished. The grip of a strange horror or +disgust, was on the majority. It was significant that the usual applause +was lacking. It was scattered and brief. + + +In this there is no hyperbole; it fails of a complete description +only in neglecting to chronicle the fact that a large proportion of +the audience left the audience-room at the beginning of the bestial +apostrophe to the head of the Baptist. It was because of this pronounced +rejection of the work by an audience which might have been considered +elected to it in a peculiar manner that it was a sincere cause of regret +that the action of the directors of the Metropolitan Opera and Real +Estate Company caused a prohibition of further performances. It would +have been better and conduced more to artistic righteousness if the +public had been permitted to kill the work by refusing to witness it. In +my opinion there is no doubt but that this would have been the result +had Mr. Conried attempted to give performances either at extraordinary +or ordinary prices. Immediately after his benefit performance he +announced three representations outside of the subscription, the first +of which was to take place on February 1st. Two days after the first +performance, the directors of the opera house company held a meeting and +adopted the following resolution, which was promptly communicated to Mr. +Conried: + + +The directors of the Metropolitan Opera and Real Estate Company consider +that the performance of "Salome" is objectionable and detrimental to the +best interests of the Metropolitan Opera House. They therefore protest +against any repetition of this opera. + + +Under the terms of the contract between the directors and Mr. Conried, +such a protest was the equivalent of a command, disobedience of which +would have worked a forfeiture of the lease. Mr. Conried parleyed, +pleading his cause voluminously in the public prints, as well as +before the directors, meanwhile keeping his announcement of the three +performances before the people. But the sale of tickets amounted to next +to nothing, and Mr. Conried yielded with as much grace as possible, when +on January 30th the directors refused to modify their action, though +they expressed a willingness to recoup Mr. Conried for some of his +expenses in mounting the opera. The directors who took this action were +J. P. Morgan, William K. Vanderbilt, G. G. Haven, Charles Lanier, George +F. Baker, D. O. Mills, George Bowdoin, A. D. Juilliard, August Belmont, +and H. McK. Twombly. Representatives of Mr. Conried's company who argued +the case before the directors were Otto H. Kahn, Robert Goelet, James +Speyer, H. R. Winthrop, and R. H. Cottenet. For some time Mr. Conried +talked about performing the opera in another theater, and the directors +of his company formally agreed that he might do so on his own +responsibility; but nothing came of it. Mr. Conried had probably seen +the handwriting on the wall of his box office. The next year there were +more solemn proclamations to the effect that it would be performed +outside of New York. Boston sent in a protest, and the flurry was over, +except as it was kept up in silly and mendacious reports sent to the +newspapers of Germany touching the influences that had worked for the +prohibition. There never was a case which asked for less speculation. +Decent men did not want to have their house polluted with the stench +with which Oscar Wilde's play had filled the nostrils of humanity. +Having the power to prevent the pollution they exercised it. + +A reviewer ought to be equipped with a dual nature, both intellectually +and morally, in order to pronounce fully and fairly upon the qualities +of this drama by Oscar Wilde and Richard Strauss. He should be an +embodied conscience stung into righteous fury by the moral stench +exhaled by the decadent and pestiferous work, but, though it make him +retch, he should be sufficiently judicial in his temperament calmly to +look at the drama in all its aspects and determine whether or not as a +whole it is an instructive note on the life and culture of the times +and whether or not this exudation from the diseased and polluted will +and imagination of the authors marks a real advance in artistic +expression, irrespective of its contents or their fitness for dramatic +representation. This is asking much of the harassed commentator on the +things which the multitude of his readers receive as contributions to +their diversion merely and permit to be crowded out of their minds by +the next pleasant or unpleasant shock to their sensibilities. He has not +the time, nor have his readers the patience, to enter upon a discussion +of the questions of moral and esthetic principle which ought to pave the +way for the investigation. If he can tell what the play is, what its +musical investiture is like, wherein the combined elements have worked +harmoniously and efficiently to an end which to their authors seemed +artistic, and therefore justifiable, he will have done much. In the case +before us even this much cannot be done until some notions which have +long had validity are put aside. We are only concerned with "Salome" in +its newest form,--that given it by the musical composer. If it shall +ever win approbation here, as it seems to have done in several German +cities, it will be because of the shape into which Richard Strauss has +moulded it. + +Several attempts had been made to habilitate Oscar Wilde's drama on the +New York stage, and had failed. If the opera succeeds it will be because +a larger public has discovered that the music which has been consorted +with the old pictures, actions, and words has added to them an element +either of charm or expressive potentiality hitherto felt to be lacking. +Is that true? Has a rock of offense been removed? Has a mephitic odor +been changed to a sweet savor by the subtle alchemy of the musical +composer? Has a drama abhorrent, bestial, repellent, and loathsome been +changed into a thing of delectability by the potent agency of music? +It used to be said that things too silly to be spoken might be sung; +is it also true that things too vile, too foul, too nauseating for +contemplation may be seen, so they be insidiously and wickedly glorified +by the musician's art? As a rule, plays have not been improved by being +turned into operas. Always their dramatic movement has been interrupted, +their emotional current clogged, their poetry emasculated by the +transformation. Things are better now than they were in the long ago, +when music took no part at all in dramatic action, but waited for a mood +which it had power to publish and celebrate; but music has acquired its +new power only by an abnegation of its better part, by assuming new +functions, and asking a revaluation of its elements on a new esthetic +basis. In "Salome" music is largely a decorative element, like the +scene,--like the costumes. It creates atmosphere, like the affected +stylism of much of Oscar Wilde's text, with its Oriental imagery +borrowed from "The Song of Solomon," diluted and sophisticated; it gives +emotional significance to situations, helping the facial play of Salome +and her gestures to proclaim the workings of her mind, when speech has +deserted her; it is at its best as the adjunct and inspiration of the +lascivious dance. In the last two instances, however, it reverts to +the purpose and also the manner (with a difference) which have always +obtained, and becomes music in the purer sense. Then the would-be +dramatist is swallowed up in the symphonist, and Strauss is again the +master magician who can juggle with our senses and our reason and make +his instrumental voices body forth "the forms of things unknown." + +It would be wholly justifiable to characterize "Salome" as a symphonic +poem for which the play supplies the program. The parallelism of which +we hear between Strauss and Wagner exists only in part--only in the +application of the principle of characterization by means of musical +symbols or typical phrases. Otherwise the men's work on diametrically +opposite lines. With all his musical affluence, Wagner aimed, at least, +to make his orchestra only the bearer and servant of the dramatic word. +Nothing can be plainer (it did not need that he should himself have +confessed it) than that Strauss looks upon the words as necessary evils. +His vocal parts are not song, except for brief, intensified spaces at +long intervals. They are declamation. The song-voice is used, one is +prone to think, only because by means of it the words can be made to +be heard above the orchestra. Song, in the old acceptance of the word, +implies beauty of tone and justness of intonation. It is amazing how +indifferent the listener is to both vocal quality and intervallic +accuracy in "Salome." Wilde's stylistic efforts are lost in the flood of +instrumental sound; only the mood which they were designed to produce +remains. Jochanaan sings phrases, which are frequently tuneful, and when +they are not denunciatory are set in harmonies agreeable to the ear. +But by reason of that fact Jochanaan comes perilously near being an +old-fashioned operatic figure--an ascetic Marcel, with little else to +differentiate him from his Meyerbeerian prototype than his "raiment of +camel's hair and a leather's girdle about his loins," and an inflated +phrase which must serve for the tunes sung by the rugged Huguenot +soldier. Strauss characterizes by his vocal manner as well as by his +themes and their instrumental treatment; but for his success he relies +at least as much upon the performer as upon the musical text. A voice +and style like Mr. Van Rooy's give an uplift, a prophetic breadth, +dignity, and impressiveness to the utterances of Jochanaan which are +paralleled only by the imposing instrumental apparatus employed in +proclaiming the phrase invented to clothe his pronouncements. Six horns, +used as Strauss knows how to use them, are a good substratum for the +arch-colorist. The nervous staccato chatter of Herod is certainly +characteristic of this neurasthenic. This specimen from the pathological +museum of Messrs. Wilde and Strauss appears in a state which causes +alarm lest his internal mechanism fly asunder and scatter his corporeal +parts about the scene. The crepitating volubility with which Strauss +endows him is a marvelously ingenious conceit; but it leans heavily for +its effect, we fear, on the amazing skill of Mr. Burrian, not only in +cackling out the words synchronously with the orchestral part, but in +emotionally coloring them and blending them in a unity with his facial +expression and his perturbed bodily movements. Salome sings, often in +the explosive style of Wagner's Kundry, sometimes with something like +fluent continuity, but from her song has been withheld all the +symmetrical and graceful contours comprehended in the concept of melody. +Hers are the superheated phrases invented to give expression to her +passion, and out of them she must construct the vocal accompaniment to +the instrumental song, which reaches its culmination in the scene which, +instead of receiving a tonal beatification, as it does, ought to be +relegated to the silence and darkness of the deepest dungeon of a +madhouse or a hospital. + +Here is a matter, of the profoundest esthetical and ethical +significance, which might as well be disposed of now, so far as this +discussion is concerned, regardless of the symmetrical continuity of the +argument. There is a vast deal of ugly music in "Salome,"--music that +offends the ear and rasps the nerves like fiddlestrings played on by a +coarse file. In a criticism of Strauss's "Symphonia Domestica" I took +occasion to point out that a large latitude must be allowed to the +dramatic composer which must be denied to the symphonist. Consort a +dramatic or even a lyric text with music and all manner of tonal devices +may derive explanation, if not justification, from the words. But in +purely instrumental music the arbitrary purposes of a composer cannot +replace the significance which must lie in the music itself--that is +in its emotional and esthetic content. It does not lie in intellectual +content, for thought to become articulate demands speech. The champions +of Richard Strauss have defended ugliness in his last symphony, the work +which immediately preceded "Salome," and his symphonic poems on the +score that music must be an expression of truth, and truth is not always +beautiful. In a happier day than this it was believed that the true and +the beautiful were bound together in angelic wedlock and that all art +found its highest mission in giving them expression. But the drama has +been led through devious paths into the charnel house, and in "Salome" +we must needs listen to the echoes of its dazed and drunken footfalls. +The maxim "Truth before convention" asserts its validity and demands +recognition under the guise of "characteristic beauty." We may refuse +to admit that ugliness is entitled to be raised to a valid principle +in music dissociated from words or stage pictures, on the ground that +thereby it contravenes and contradicts its own nature; but we may no +longer do so when it surrenders its function as an expression of the +beautiful and becomes merely an illustrative element, an aid to dramatic +expression. What shall be said, then, when music adorns itself with its +loveliest attributes and lends them to the apotheosis of that which is +indescribably, yes, inconceivably, gross and abominable? Music cannot +lie. Not even the genius of Richard Strauss can make it discriminate in +its soaring ecstasy between a vile object and a good. There are three +supremely beautiful musical moments in "Salome." Two of them are purely +instrumental, though they illustrate dramatic incidents; the third is +predominantly instrumental, though it has an accompaniment of word and +action. The first is an intermezzo in which all action ceases except +that which plays in the bestially perverted heart and mind of Salome. A +baffled amorous hunger changes to a desire for revenge. The second is +the music of the dance. The third is the marvelous finale in which an +impulse which can only be conceived as rising from the uttermost pit +of degradation is beatified. Crouching over the dissevered head of +the prophet, Salome addresses it in terms of reproach, of grief, of +endearment and longing, and finally kisses the bloody lips and presses +her teeth into the gelid flesh. It is incredible that an artist should +ever have conceived such a scene for public presentation. In all the +centuries in which the story of the dance before Herod has fascinated +sculptors, painters, and poets, in spite of the accretions of lustful +incident upon the simple Biblical story, it remained for a poet of our +day to conceive this horror and a musician of our day to put forth his +highest powers in its celebration. There was a scene before the mental +eye of Strauss as he wrote. It was that of Isolde singing out her life +over the dead body of Tristan. In the music of that scene, I do not +hesitate to say again, as I have said before, there lies the most +powerful plea ever made for the guilty lovers. It is the choicest +flower of Wagner's creative faculty, the culmination of his powers as +a composer, and never before or since has the purifying and ennobling +capacity of music been so convincingly demonstrated. Strauss has striven +to outdo it, and there are those who think that in this episode he +actually raised music to a higher power. He has not only gone with the +dramatist and outraged every sacred instinct of humanity by calling +the lust for flesh, alive or dead, love, but he has celebrated her +ghoulish passion as if he would perforce make of her an object of that +"redemption" of which, again following Wagner but along oblique paths, +he prates so strangely in his opera of "Guntram." + +It is obvious on a moment's reflection that, had Strauss desired, the +play might easily have been modified so as to avoid this gruesome +episode. A woman scorned, vengeful, and penitent would have furnished +forth material enough for his finale and dismissed his audience with +less disturbance of their moral and physical stomachs. But Strauss, to +put it mildly, is a sensationalist despite his genius, and his business +sense is large, as New Yorkers know ever since he wound up an artistic +tour of America with a concert in a department store. When Nietszche +was the talk of Germany we got "Also Sprach Zarathustra." Oscar Wilde's +play, too unsavory for the France for which it was written, taboo +in England because of its subject, has been joyously acclaimed in +Germany, where there are many men who are theoretically licentious +and practically uxorious; and Strauss was willing that his countrymen +should sup to their full of delights and horrors. + +To think back, under the impressions of the final scene, to the dance +which precipitated the catastrophe is to bring up recollections of +little else than the striking originality of its music, its piquancies +of rhythm and orchestration, its artfully simulated Orientalism, and the +thrilling effect produced by a recurrence to the "love music" ("Let me +kiss thy mouth, Jochanaan,") at a moment before the frenetic close, when +the representation of Salome (a professional dancer, Miss Froehlich, was +deftly substituted for Miss Fremstad at the Metropolitan performance) +approaches the cistern in which the white flesh, black hair, and red +lips of her idolatry are immured, and casts wistful glances into its +depths. Since the outcome was to be what it became it would have been +folly in Mr. Conried's performance to attempt to disguise the true +character of the "Dance of the Seven Veils." Miss Froeblich gave us +quite unconcernedly a danse du ventre; not quite so pronounced as it +has been seen in the Oriental quarters at our world's fairs, not quite +so free of bodily covering as tradition would have justified. Yet it +served to emphasize its purpose in the play. This dance in its original +estate is a dramatic dance; it is, indeed, the frankest example of +terpsichorean symbolism within the whole range of the pantomimic dance. +The conditions under which Wilde and Strauss introduce it in their drama +spare one all need of thought; there is sufficient commentary in the. +doddering debility of the pleading Herod and the lustful attitude of +his protruding eyes. There are fantastical persons who like to talk +about religious symbolism in connection with this dance, and of forms +of wonship of vast antiquity. The dance is old. It was probably danced +in Egypt before the Exodus; in Greece probably before Orpheus sang and + + "Ilion, like a mist, rose into towers." + +But it is not to be seriously thought that from those days to this +there was ever any doubt as to its significance and its purpose, which +is to pander to prurient appetites and arouse libidinous passions. +Always, too, from those days to this, its performers have been the +most abandoned of the courtesan class. + +There is not a whiff of fresh and healthy air blowing through "Salome" +except that which exhales from the cistern, the prison house of +Jochanaan. Even the love of Narraboth, the young Syrian captain, for the +princess is tainted by the jealous outbursts of Herodias's page. Salome +is the unspeakable; Herodias, though divested of her most pronounced +historical attributes (she adjures her daughter not to dance, though +she gloats over the revenge which it brings to her), is a human hyena; +Herod, a neurasthenic voluptuary. A group of Jews who are shown +disputing in the manner of Baxter Street, though conveyed by Wilde from +Flaubert's pages, are used by Strauss to provide a comic interlude. +Years ago a musical humorist in Vienna caused much amusement by writing +the words of a quarrel of Jewish pedlers under the voices of the fugue +in Mozart's overture to "The Magic Flute." Three hundred years ago +Orazio Vecchi composed a burlesque madrigal in the severe style of that +day, in which he tried to depict the babel of sounds in a synagogue. +Obviously the musical Jew is supposed to be allied to the stage Jew and +to be fit food for the humorist. Strauss's music gives a new reading to +Wilde; it is a caricature in which cacophony reigns supreme under the +guise of polyphony. There are five of the Jews, and each is pregnantly +set forth in the theme with which he maintains his contention. + +This is but one of many instances of marvelous astuteness in the +delineation and characteristic portions of the music. The quality which +will he most promptly recognized by the public is its decorative and +illustrative element. The orchestra paints incessantly; moods that are +prevalent for a moment do not suffice the eager illustrator. The passing +word seizes his fancy. Herod describes the jewels which he promises to +give to Salome so she relieve him of his oath, and the music of the +orchestra glints and glistens with a hundred prismatic tints. Salome +wheedles the young Syrian to bring forth the prophet, and her cry, +"Thou wilt do this thing for me," is carried to his love-mad brain by a +voluptuous glissando of the harp which is as irresistible as her glance +and smile. But the voluptuous music is no more striking than the tragic. +Strauss strikes off the head of Jochanaan with more thunderous noise +upon the kettle-drums than Wagner uses when Fafner pounds the life +out of Fasolt with his gigantic stave; but there is nothing in all of +Wagner's tragic pages to compare in tenseness of feeling with the moment +of suspense while Salome is peering into the cistern and marveling that +she hears no sound of a death struggle. At this moment there comes an +uncanny sound from the orchestra that is positively blood-curdling. The +multitude of instruments are silent--all but the string basses. Some +of them maintain a tremolo on the deep E flat. Suddenly there comes a +short, high B flat. Again and again with more rapid iteration. Such a +voice was never heard in the orchestra before. What Strauss designed it +to express does not matter. It accomplishes a fearful accentuation of +the awful situation. Strauss got the hint from Berlioz, who never used +the device (which he heard from a Piedmontese double-bass player), but +recommended it to composers who wished to imitate in the orchestra "a +loud female cry." Strauss in his score describes how the effect is to be +produced and wants it to sound like a stertorous groan. It is produced +by pinching the highest string of the double-bass at the proper node +between the finger-board and the bridge and sounding it by a quick jerk +of the bow. This is but one of a hundred new and strange devices with +which the score of "Salome" has enriched instrumental music. The dance +employs a vast apparatus, but the Oriental color impressed upon it at +the outset by oboe and tambour remains as persistent as its rhythmical +figure, which seems to have been invented to mark the sinuous flexure +of the spine and the swaying of the hips of the dancer. Devices made +familiar by the symphonic poems are introduced with increased effect, +such as the muting of the entire army of brass instruments. Startling +effects are obtained by a confusion of keys, confusion of rhythms, +sudden contrasts from an overpowering tutti to the stridulous whirring +of empty fifths on the violins, a trill on the flutes, or a dissonant +mutter of the basses. The celesta, an instrument with keyboard and +bell tone, contributes fascinating effects, and the xylophone is +used;--utterances that are lascivious as well as others that are +macabre. Dissonance runs riot and frequently carries the imagination +away completely captive. The score is unquestionably the greatest +triumph of reflection and ingenuity of contrivance that the literature +of music can show. The invention that has been expended on the themes +seems less admirable. Only the pompous proclamation of the theme which +is dominant in Jochanaan's music saves it from being called commonplace. +A flippant hunter of reminiscences might find its prototype in the "Lady +Moon" chorus of Balfe's "Bohemian Girl." There is no greater originality +in the theme which publishes Salome's amorousness for the white flesh of +Jochanaan, which time and again shows its kinship to the andante melody +in the first movement of Tschaikowsky's "Pathétique" symphony, but +becomes more and more transfigured in its passionate loveliness when it +aids the beatification of the more than ghoulish princess. There is no +escape from the power of the music when it soars to grandiose heights in +the duet between Salome 'and the prophet, the subsequent intermezzo and +the wicked apotheosis. It overwhelms the senses and reduces the nervous +system of the listeners to exhaustion. + +The subscription season of 1906-07 at the Metropolitan Opera House began +on November 26th and lasted seventeen weeks, compassing sixty-eight +subscription performances of twenty-three operas and twenty-nine extra +performances. Mr. Conried announced at the close of the supplementary +season that his receipts had aggregated $1,005,770.20; but this sum +doubtless included the receipts from the Boston season. The season +1907-08 began on November 18th and lasted twenty weeks. There were one +hundred subscription performances (Thursday having been added to the +subscription nights), twenty Saturday popular representations, and +three special. Twenty-seven operas were in the list, but only one of +them was new. This was Francesco Cilèa's "Adniana Lecouvreur," which +was brought forward on the opening night of the season, and had one +repetition afterward, notwithstanding that it had been incorporated +in the repertory to give Signor Caruso an opportunity to appear in a +new work together with Mme. Cavalieri. The cast was as follows: + + + Adriana Lecouvreur ........................ Lina Cavalieri + La Principessa .......................... Josephine Jacoby + Mlle. Jouvenot ............................ Marie Mattfeld + Mlle. Dangeville ............................. Mme. Girerd + Maurizio ................................... Enrico Caruso + L'Abate .................................... Georges Lucas + Michonnet ................................. Antonio Scotti + Il Principe ............................... Marcel Journet + Quinault .................................... Mr. Barocchi + Poisson ..................................... Mr. Raimondi + Maggiordomo ................................. Mr. Navarini + Conductor, Rudolfo Ferrari + + +Cilèa has in this work attempted to put the familiar play of Scribe and +Legouvé into music. Formerly, as we all know, composers used to try to +make operas out of plays. The result is for the greater part a sort of +spectacle recalling familiar things to the eye, accompanied by an +undercurrent of music occasionally breaking into melody and buoying up +long stretches of disjointed and fragmentary conversation, out of which, +under the best of circumstances, it would be difficult to construct a +drama and from which it is not possible to extract the pleasure which +one can still find in the old-time style of entertainment derisively +called a concert in costume. The manner of "Adriana Lecouvreu" is more +or less that of Puccini, Giordano, and Spinell--to mention the names +that immediately preceded Cilèa's across the ocean--but it is only in +the manner, not in the matter, except, as some disagreeable seekers +after reminiscences will say, when that matter is borrowed. There is +some graceful music in the score and some strains which simulate. +passion; but to find in any of its parts the kind of music which +vitalizes the word or heightens the dramatic situation is a hopeless +task. It is melodramatic music, which becomes most fluent when there is +least occasion for it, and which makes its best appeal when the heroine +declaims above it in the speaking voice (as she does in the climax of +the third act, when Adrienne recites a speech from Racine's "Phèdre" +in order to accuse the Princess of adultery), when it inspires the +heroine carefully and particularly to blow out every light in a large +drawing-room, or when it accompanies a ballet which is neither a part +of the play nor an incidental divertissement, but only a much-needed +device to give the composer an opportunity for a few symmetrical pieces +of music. Even here, however, this music must serve as a foil for the +everlasting chit-chat of the people of the drama. A pitiful work it +was with which to open a season. Mascagni's "Iris" was brought out +on December 6th, and after it was all too late there was a carefully +studied performance of "Don Giovanni" and a sumptuously, too +sumptuously, mounted production of "Fidelio." These two works +practically summed up the labors accomplished by Gustav Mahler, though +he produced excellent representations (except scenically) of "Tristan" +and "Die Walküre." Mr. Mahler, having laid down the directorship of the +Court Opera at Vienna, was brought to New York by Mr. Conried, and his +coming had raised high the expectations of the lovers of German opera. +The record must also include the enlistment in the Metropolitan forces +of Madame Berta Morena and Madame Leffler-Burckhardt, whose influence +upon the season would have been much more marked had not Mr. Conried's +policy of catering principally to the Italianissimi prevented them +from becoming as large factors as they deserved to be. + +When Mr. Conried issued his prospectus for his fifth season it had +already long been an open secret that some of the men whom he had +invited to share the glories and the profits of his administration had +decreed his downfall. During the fourth season he had been ill with +sciatic neuritis, and there was no improvement in his physical condition +when he entered upon his duties in 1907-08. His ability to attend to the +arduous labors of the managing directorate was questioned. Worse than +this, the air for months had been full of whispers of scandalous doings +in the business department, and the chorus of dissatisfaction with +the artistic results of his directorate, which had begun in the first +season, had been swelling steadily. Two seasons before he had put forth +a disingenuous apology for his administration, comparing the cost and +difficulties of producing opera in the preceding season with the cost +and difficulties under Mr. Grau. The matter was one which affected the +stockholders of his company only so far as the finances were concerned; +as to the difficulties, it was not easy to see how they could have been +less formerly than now, when there was so much more money to spend, +and so much more had been spent in improving the facilities for opera +giving. The patrons of the establishment found large ground for +complaint in contrasting the artistic achievements with the flamboyant +promises which had been made when the new administration came in. Mr. +Conried had told them that his first aim was to raise the standard of +performance, and to this end he had banished all thought of profit from +his mind. He was going to continue to employ the most refulgent +"stars" in the world, but to abolish the "star" system. The season in +Philadelphia was to be abandoned so that there might be more time for +rehearsals, and less exhaustion of his artistic forces. Opera in English +was to be added to opera in Italian, French, and German. As for the +French and Italian works they were to be given as they had been under +Mr. Grau, but the German was to be raised to a higher plane. Not one of +these promises was redeemed. Italian operas were given great prominence +over French, and the additions to the Italian list, which were really +new, were of the poorest sort. Perfunctoriness, apathy, and ignorant +stage management marked the German performances, which were all +but eliminated from the subscription list. There were evidences +of high striving at the outset in the engagement of Messrs. Mottl, +Lautenschläger, and Fuchs, as I have already said, but the results were +negligible because the men were unable to employ their capacities. +There were sensational features, like the production of "Parsifal" and +"Salome," but there were humiliating ones, like the prostitution of a +great establishment for the performance of "Die Fledermaus" and "Der +Zigeunerbaron" to deck out the Herr Direktor's benefits. The blight +of commercialism had fallen on the institution. On February 11, +1908, Mr. Conried resigned, and announcement was officially made +of a reorganization of his company, and the engagement of Giulio +Gatti-Casazza and Andreas Dippel as managers of the opera for the +season 1908-09. + +Following is a table of performances during the subscription seasons +of Mr. Conried's administration: + + +THE CONRIED PERIOD: 1902-'08 + + Operas 1903-4 1904-5 1905-6 1906-7 1907-8 + + "Rigoletto" ................. 5 2 5 2 4 + "Die Walküre" ............... 4 4 3 2 3 + "La Bohème" ................. 3 3 5 7 7 + "Aïda" ...................... 6 5 4 6 5 + "Tosca" ..................... 4 4 3 6 7 + "Tannhäuser" ................ 5 9 4 5 4 + "Cavalleria Rusticana" ...... 8 3 0 1 0 + "Pagliacci" ................. 5 3 3 4 4 + "Lohengrin" ................. 5 6 5 5 2 + "La Traviata" ............... 3 4 2 3 6 + "Il Barbiere" ............... 4 2 2 0 6 + "Lucia di Lammermoor" ....... 3 3 5 4 1 + "Tristan und Isolde" ........ 4 2 3 4 6 + "The Magic Flute" ........... 4 0 0 0 0 + "Siegfried" ................. 2 2 3 4 3 + "L'Elisir d'Amore" .......... 4 1 2 0 0 + "Carmen" .................... 4 4 2 1 0 + "Coppèlia" (ballet).......... 4 1 0 0 0 + "La Dame Blanche" (Ger.) .... 1 0 0 0 0 + "Faust" ..................... 4 4 5 4 6 + "Mefistofele" .............. *2 0 0 0 7 + "Romèo et Juliette" ......... 2 4 0 5 0 + "Nozze di Figaro" ........... 1 2 0 0 0 + + "Parsifal" ............... 11 8 4 2 0 + "Fidelio" ................... 1 1 0 0 3 + "Das Rheingold" ............. 1 2 2 1 0 + "Götterdämmerung" ........... 1 2 3 1 0 + "La Gioconda" ............... 0 4 4 0 0 + "Die Meistersinger" ......... 0 7 4 0 4 + "Lucrezia Borgia" ........... 0 1 0 0 0 + "Don Pasquale" .............. 0 2 2 1 0 + "Die Puppenfee" (ballet) .... 0 1 0 0 0 + "Les Huguenots" ............. 0 4 0 0 0 + "Un Ballo in Maschera" ...... 0 2 0 0 0 + + "Die Fledermaus" .......... 0 4 1 0 0 + "Die Königin von Saba" ...... 0 0 5 0 0 + "Hänsel und Gretel" ......... 0 0 11 8 5 + "La Favorita" ............... 0 0 4 0 0 + "La Sonnambula" ............. 0 0 2 0 0 + "Il Trovatore" .............. 0 0 4 0 6 + "Don Giovanni" .............. 0 0 2 0 4 + "Martha" .................... 0 0 4 3 3 + "Der Zigeunerbaron" ......... 0 0 1 0 0 + + "Fedora" .................. 0 0 0 4 3 + + "La Damnation de Faust" ... 0 0 0 5 0 + "Lakmé" ..................... 0 0 0 3 0 + "L'Africaine" ............... 0 0 0 2 0 + "Manon Lescaut" ............. 0 0 0 3 5 + "Madama Butterfly" .......... 0 0 0 5 6 + + "Salome" .................. 0 0 0 1 0 + + "Adriana Lecouvreur" ...... 0 0 0 0 2 + "Der Fliegende Holländer" ... 0 0 0 0 4 + "Iris" ...................... 0 0 0 0 5 + "Mignon" .................... 0 0 0 0 5 + + * One scene only. + Novelties. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +HAMMERSTEIN AND HIS OPERA HOUSE + + +Before the close of the season 1905-06 at the Metropolitan Opera House, +Mr. Oscar Hammerstein, who was building a large theater in Thirty-fourth +Street, between Eighth and Ninth avenues, announced that the building +would be called the Manhattan Opera House, that it would be exclusively +his property and under his management, and that it was to be devoted to +grand opera. + +It is no reflection on Mr. Hammerstein to say that many who have been +prompt and generous in their recognition of his achievements since, +looked upon his enterprise as quixotic, down to the very day of +the opening of his house. True, he was known to be a manager of +extraordinary resource and indomitable energy, but he had dallied more +or less with the operatic bauble without disclosing any ambition to have +his name written among the managerial wrecks which have been cast upon +the shores of Italian Opera, from Handel's day to ours, It was easy to +recall that the new opera house was not his first, but that he had built +one in the same street, given it the same name thirteen years before, +and begun a season of grand opera with an ambitious novelty, only to +abandon the enterprise after a fortnight. He had even tried German +opera with no less popular an artist than Mme. Lehmann in his earlier +opera house in Harlem, and entered into rivalry with an established +institution in 1891 for the production of "Cavalleria Rusticana," then +the reigning sensation of the hour in Europe. + +When the old Manhattan Opera House, so soon abandoned to the uses of +vaudeville, opened its doors with Moszkowski's "Boabdil," on January +23, 1893, there was no rival operatic establishment in the city, for +the interior of the Metropolitan had been destroyed by fire, and +Abbey, Schoeffel & Grau were resting on their oars for a season while +the question whether or not the home of the costly and fashionable +entertainment should be restored was under discussion by its owners. +Yet Mr. Hammerstein was discouraged by two weeks of failure. It was not +strange that many observers refused to believe that he was of the stuff +out of which opera managers are made. He did not seem illogical enough, +though he showed some symptoms of having been bitten by the opera habit. + +Neither was there much to encourage belief in his announcements in the +manner in which he put them forth. He began early in the spring by +saying that he had engaged Jean and Édouard de Reszke, and kept their +names before the people almost up to the time of the opening. He went +abroad to engage artists, and even after his return it looked as if it +would be a physical impossibility to complete his theater in time for +the date set for opening. In fact it was not completed, but when the +season arrived he was ready to attempt all that he had said he would do, +except keep some wild promises about singers; and when the season closed +the fact that loomed largest in the restrospect was the undaunted +manner in which he had carried on a difficult and dangerous enterprise, +compelling a large element of the public to respect and admire him, and +making it possible for him to lay out a second season on lines of real +pith and moment, and carry an admirable enterprise to an admirable +conclusion. + +Mr. Hammerstein began his first season on December 3, 1906, and closed +it on April 20, 1907. There were a few admirable artists in his company, +but the majority were either inexperienced or of the conventional +Italian type. His principal soprano leggiero was Mlle. Pinkert, a Polish +singer of good routine and fine skill; his dramatic soprano, Mlle. Russ, +whose knowledge of the conventions of the stage was complete, and +expressive powers excellent, though they exerted little charm. He had a +serviceable mezzo in Mme. De Cisneros (formerly a junior member of the +Metropolitan Opera Company, under her maiden name, Broadfoot). Miss +Donalda, a Canadian soprano of no little charm, helped to make the +lyric operas agreeable. But the strength of the company lay in the male +contingent--Bonci, the most famous of living tenors, after Caruso, whom +Mr. Conried thought it wise to carry over to the Metropolitan Opera +House, thus precipitating a controversy, which, as such things go, was +of real assistance to the manager whom the rival sought to injure; +Maurice Renaud, the most finished and versatile of French operatic +artists, whom the foresight of Maurice Grau had retained for the +Metropolitan, but whose contract Mr. Conried canceled at the cost of a +penalty; M. Charles Dalmorès, a sterling dramatic tenor; M. Gilibert, a +French baritone of refined qualities; Mme. Bressler-Gianoli, who, coming +some years before in a peripatetic French company to the Casino, had +stirred the enthusiasm of the critics with her truthful, powerful, and +unconventional performance of Carmen; Ancona, a barytone who had been +an admired member of the Metropolitan company, and a serviceable bass +named Arimondi. Melba and Calvé came later in the season. + +Exaggerated stories of Mr. Hammerstein's success followed the close of +his season, and if all that Mr. Hammerstein himself said could have been +accepted in its literalness the lesson of the season would have been +that the people who live in New York and come to New York in the winter +season were willing to spend, let me say, one and three-quarter millions +of dollars every year for this one form of entertainment. It would +appear, also, that fad and fashion were not the controlling impulse in +this vast expenditure; for the chief things which fad and fashion had +to offer at the Metropolitan Opera House were noticeably absent from +the Manhattan. On a score of occasions there were large gatherings +representative of wealth and what is called society at the house in +Thirty-fourth Street, but generally the audiences were distinct in their +composition. It almost seemed as if Mr. Hammerstein had been correct in +his deduction, that there were enough people in New York who wanted to +go to the opera, but were excluded from the Metropolitan by the extent +of the subscription, to support a second house. If this was so it +marked a marvelous change from the time of the last operatic rivalry, +which ruined both Mapleson and Abbey, and destroyed the prestige of the +Academy of Music forever. Perhaps the city's growth in population and +wealth furnished the explanation; I can scarcely believe from a study of +the doings at the two houses that a growth in musical taste and culture +was the determining factor. Twenty years ago such a list of operas as +that presented by Mr. Hammerstein in his first season would have spelled +ruin to any manager. Not even the prestige of Adelina Patti would have +saved it. There was not a novelty in the list. + +Many things contributed to the measure of success which Mr. Hammerstein +won. There was a large fascination in the audacity of the undertaking, +and its freedom from art-cant and affectation. Curiosity was irritated +by the manager's daring, and admiration challenged by the manner in +which he kept faith with the public. He seemed to be attempting the +impossible, but he accomplished all that he said he would do. It is +no secret--in fact, Mr. Hammerstein himself proclaimed it--that his +artistic achievements were due in an overwhelming degree to the +efficiency of Signor Cleofonte Campanini, his artistic director. But not +to his efficiency alone--to his devotion and zeal also. Signor Campanini +was not only the artistic director--he was also almost exclusively the +conductor of the performances. His zeal fired all the forces employed at +the opera house. A company gathered together from the ends of the earth +succeeded in giving one hundred and thirteen performances of twenty-two +operas, and making many of the performances of really remarkable +excellence. The reason was obvious at nearly every presentation; from +the principals down to the last person in the chorus and orchestra, +every one had his heart in his work. Not only the desire to do +their duty, but the pardonable ambition to do better than the rival +establishment, inspired singers and players alike. It so happened that +on one Saturday evening the same opera--Verdi's "Aïda"--was performed +at both houses. A newspaper reporter carried the intelligence to +the Manhattan Opera House that half the seats were empty at the +Metropolitan, while the new house was crowded. The curtain was down at +the time, and a score of the performers on the stage, headed by the +conductor himself, at once formed a ring and danced a dance of triumph. + +For musical effects, as well as some dramatic, there were distinct +advantages with the new house. The disposition of the seats and stage +brought the listeners and performers nearer together. The acoustical +conditions at the Manhattan Opera House were admirable; there could be +no such feeling of intimacy at the Metropolitan Opera House as existed +here. The quality appealed to the music lover pure and simple, and him +only, however, for in the things which make the opera a fashionable +social diversion the new building was deficient and woefully inferior +to the old. + +The lovers of good singing were surprised by the excellence of Mr. +Hammerstein's singers, especially the male contingent--a surprise +which was heightened by the protestations, to which they had long been +habituated, that there was no talent left in Europe comparable with that +engaged at the Metropolitan. When in the face of such assertions the +voices and the art of tenors like Bonci and Dalmores, and of barytones +like Renaud and Ancona, were brought into notice their actual merit +seemed doubled. The women singers of the first rank, save Mmes. +Melba and Calvé, who appeared in what would have been called "star" +engagements under the old theatrical stock régime, were in no way +comparable with those of the Metropolitan Opera House, but those of +the second rank were superior--a circumstance which was emphasized by +the better ensemble performances, for which a discriminating public +soon learned to thank Signor Campanini and the esprit de corps with +which he inflamed the establishment's forces. + +The opening of the season, on December 3 1906, had been proclaimed a +week earlier, so as to make it synchronous with that of the Metropolitan +Opera House; but Mr. Hammerstein's house was not ready, nor were his +singers or stage fixtures. The fact looked ominous, and the enterprise +took a lugubrious beginning a week later, when "I Puritani," which had +been chosen as the opening opera because it was looked upon in Europe +as affording to Signor Bonci his finest artistic opportunity, failed to +arouse any public interest. It was an experience which Mr. Hammerstein +was destined to have again and again with operas like "Dinorah," +"Mignon," "Fra Diavolo," "Il Barbiere," and "Un Ballo in Maschera," +for which the public seemed suddenly to have lost all liking, while +still clinging to works of equal antiquatedness. + +From the opening night to the closing the operas of the list were +produced on the dates and in the succession indicated in the following +table, which tells also the number of times each opera was performed. +It must be stated, however, that there were a number of occasions in +the course of the season when two operas or portions of several operas +were performed on a single evening. This accounts for the large number +of times that Mascagni's "Cavalleria" and Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci" +were given, the latter being also helped in the record by the fact +that it was twice bracketed with Massenet's "Navarraise." + + + Opera First performance Times + + "I Puritani" ................. December 3 ............. 2 + "Rigoletto" .................. December 5 ............ 11 + "Faust" ...................... December 7 ............. 7 + "Don Giovanni" ............... December 12 ............ 4 + "Carmen" ..................... December 14 ........... 19 + "Aïda" ....................... December 19 ........... 12 + "Lucia di Lammermoor" ........ December 21 ............ 6 + "Il Trovatore" ............... January 1 .............. 6 + "La Traviata" ................ January 2 .............. 3 + "L'Elisir d'Amore" ........... January 5 .............. 3 + "Gil Ugonotti" ............... January 18 ............. 5 + "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" .... January 21 ............. 2 + "La Sonnambula" .............. January 25 ............. 3 + "Pagliacci" .................. February 1 ............ 10 + "Cavalleria Rusticana" ....... February 1 ............. 8 + "Mignon" ..................... February 7 ............. 3 + "Dinorah" .................... February 20 ............ 1 + "Un Ballo in Maschera" ....... February 27 ............ 2 + "La Bohème" .................. March 1 ................ 4 + "Fra Diavolo" ................ March 8 ................ 4 + "Marta" ...................... March 23 ............... 4 + Manzoni Requiem (Good Fri.) .. March 29 ............... 1 + "La Navarraise" .............. April 10 ............... 2 + + +On three occasions the regular procedure was interrupted for the sake +of matters of temporary and special interest. Thus, on March 2d, +there was a miscellaneous bill, made up of an act of "Dinorah," one +of "Faust," and all of "Cavalleria Rusticana"; on April 19th, the +performance was little else than a concert, at which fragments of six +operas, some of which were not in the repertory, were sung; while on +Good Friday, Verdi's Requiem Mass, composed in honor of Manzoni, took +the place of an opera, and was sung to popular prices, though it was +on a regular opera night. + +The subscription was so small that it seemed unnecessary to +differentiate in the table between regular and extra performances. Of +the latter there were twenty on Saturday nights, at popular prices, +besides others given on holidays and for benefits. Though it is to be +noted as a matter of history that the competition of the Manhattan Opera +House did not appreciably affect the subscription of the Metropolitan, +it is also to be noted that as a rule the attendance on the Saturday +night popular performances was larger at the new house. + +A few of the incidents of the season deserve to be passed in review. +Of the singers whose presence in Mr. Hammerstein's company lent +distinction to it, Signor Bonci appeared on the opening night in "I +Puritani." The opera failed to awaken interest, but Bonci caught the +popular fancy and held it to the end. Toward the close of February, +however, it was announced that he had made a contract with Mr. Conried +to sing at the Metropolitan Opera House the next season. Mr. Hammerstein +first met the move of his rival by announcing the engagement of Signor +Zenatello, but afterward began legal proceedings to prevent Signor Bonci +from fulfilling his contract with the manager of the house in upper +Broadway. M. Renaud, the great French barytone, effected his entrance +in "Rigoletto," but he was not in his best voice and condition, and +only later conquered recognition for his fine talents. The opera, +however, took its place on the popular list, since it employed, at +different times, the finest talent at the command of the management. +The first large and complete triumph by an opera was won on December +14th, by "Carmen," in which Mme. Bressler-Gianoli appeared as the +heroine. She enacted the part fifteen times before Mme. Calvé came to +take back the territory which had so long belonged to her. + +A second success followed hard on the heels of "Carmen." This was +"Aïda," the triumph of which was one of ensemble, in which the chorus, +under Signor Campanini, played no small part. Mme. Melba's coming, on +January 2d, was the signal for the awakening of society's interest in +Mr. Hammerstein's enterprise. She remained until March 25th, when she +said farewell in a performance of Puccini's "Bohème," the production +of which by Mr. Hammerstein in defiance of the rights of Mr. Conried +(according to the allegations of the publishers, Ricordi) and the +legal proceedings ending with the granting of an injunction against +Mr. Hammerstein at the end of his season, was one of the diverting +incidents of the merry operatic war. Mme. Melba sang three times +in "La Traviata," five times in "Rigoletto," twice in "Lucia di +Lammermoor," once in "Faust," and four times in "La Bohème." + +The Bonci incident and the interest created in Mr. Hammerstein's +enterprise by Mme. Melba's popularity stimulated interest in the +offerings for a second season, which the manager answered by announcing +the engagement, besides Zenatello and Sammarco, of Nordica and +Schumann-Heink, and the re-engagement of Renaud, Bressler-Gianoli, +Gilibert, and Dalmores. He also opened his subscription for the next +season on March 19th, and announced the day after that he had received +subscriptions amounting to $200,000, of which $110,000 had come from +the four principal ticket speculators in the city. Mme. Calvé, who was +engaged to give éclat to the conclusion of the season, effected her +entrance on March 27th, and sang nine times--four in "Carmen," three +in "Cavalleria Rusticana," and two in "La Navarraise." + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +A BRILLIANT SEASON AT THE MANHATTAN + + +The prospectus which Mr. Hammerstein published for his second season +was magnificently grandiloquent in its promises, but the season itself +marvelous in its achievements. Eight operas "never produced in this city +or country," "masterpieces of the most celebrated composers," which were +his "sole property," were to be brought forward, in addition to many +familiar works. He announced the engagement of "the greatest sopranos, +mezzo sopranos, contraltos, barytones, and bassos of the operatic +world." The eight new operas were to be Massenet's "Thaïs," Debussy's +"Pelléas et Mélisande," Charpentier's "Louise," Breton's "Dolores," +Massenet's "Jongleur de Notre Dame," Saint-Saëns's "Hélène," Offenbach's +"Les Contes d'Hoffmann," and "an opera by our American composer, Victor +Herbert." Offenbach's charming opera had been heard in New York before, +from a French company managed by Maurice Grau, but it required a memory +that compassed twenty-five years to recall that fact; so in respect +of it Mr. Hammerstein's slip was venial at the worst. His list of the +greatest singers in the world read as follows: Sopranos: Nellie Melba, +Lillian Nordica, Mary Garden, Gianinna Russ, Camille Borello, Ludmilla +Sigrist, Giuseppina Giaconia, Helen Koelling, Fanny Francisca, Mauricia +Morichina, Jeanne Jomelli, Emma Trentini, and Alice Zeppilli; mezzo +sopranos and contraltos: Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Bressler-Gianoli, +Eleanore de Cisneros, J. Gerville-Reache, Emma Zaccaria, Gina Sevarina; +tenors: Giovanni Zenatello, Amadeo Bassi, Charles Dalmorès, Jean +Perier, Leone Cazauran, Carlo Albani, Emilio Venturini, Francesco Daddi; +barytones: Maurice Renaud, Charles Gilibert, Mario Sammarco, Vincenzo +Reschiglian, Mario Ancona, Hector Dufranne, Nicolo Fossetta; bassos: +Adamo Didur, Victorio Arimondi, Luigi Mugnoz; basso buffo: Fernando +Galetti-Gianoli. Cleofonte Campanini was again musical director. + +These the magnificent promises. Had half of them been kept the fact +would have amazed a public whom long experience had taught to put no +more faith in the promises of impresarios than in those of princes. As +a matter of fact, barring the extravagant attributes alleged to be due +to the singers, the majority of whom were worse than mediocre, more +than half were kept, and the deficiency more than counterbalanced +by new elements which were introduced from time to time, as happy +emergencies called for them. Chief of these was the engagement of Luisa +Tetrazzini; of which more in its proper place. The official announcement +was of subscription performances on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday +evenings, and Saturday afternoons, for twenty weeks. Also there were to +be twenty Saturday evenings at popular prices. Just before the opening +of the season there was semi-official talk of popular performances also +on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, which, had it been realized, would +have kept the opera company as busy with a large repertory as the +ordinary theatrical company with its single play running through a +season. A beginning was made with the Thursday performances, but Mr. +Hammerstein concluded after a short trial of the experiment, that the +game was not worth the candle, and so abandoned it. Before the close of +the season Mr. Hammerstein announced an extra week of five performances, +which he invited his subscribers to enjoy without money and without +price, on the ground that the exigencies of the season had compelled him +to repeat operas on subscription nights. The season of twenty-one weeks, +which began on November 4, 1907, and ended on March 28, 1908, was thus +made to embrace 116 representations in all; that is to say, eighty +subscription nights and matinées, twenty popular Saturday nights, +five performances in the extra week, and eleven special afternoons +and evenings. The discrepancy between these figures and the total of +the last column in the appended table, showing the dates of first +productions in the season, and the number of performances given to each +opera, is accounted for by the fact that nine times in the course of +the season the entertainment consisted of two operas, and once there +was a bill of shreds and patches from various operas. + +To complete the statistical record of the company's activity, it must be +added that two performances were given in Philadelphia, and that there +were eighteen concerts on Sunday nights, at the last few of which operas +were given in concert form. Twice the opera house was kept closed on +Sunday nights because of the enforcement of a rigid interpretation of +the law prohibiting theatrical entertainments on Sunday. + +A study of the list of performances shows that the 116 performances were +distributed among twenty-three operas. Of these four had never been +given in New York before (they were "Thaïs," "Louise," "Siberia," and +"Pelléas et Mélisande"), three had been given in New York, but so long +ago that they were to all intents and purposes novelties ("Les Contes +d'Hoffmann," "Crispino e la Comare," and "Andrea Chenier"), and three, +though familiar to the public, were new to the house ("La Gioconda," +"La Damnation de Faust," and "Ernani"); the other thirteen were in the +Manhattan repertory for the season of 1906-07. + + + Opera Composer First performance Times given + + + "La Gioconda," Ponchielli ................ Nov. 4 4 + "Carmen," Bizet .......................... Nov. 5 11 + "La Damnation de Faust," Berlioz ......... Nov. 6 3 + "Trovatore," Verdi ....................... Nov. 9 5 + "Aïda," Verdi ............................ Nov. 11 9 + "Les Contes d'Hoffmann," Offenbach ....... Nov. 15 11 + "Thaïs," Massenet ........................ Nov. 24 7 + "Faust," Gounod .......................... Nov. 28 4 + * "La Navarraise," Massenet .............. Dec. 9 5 + * "Pagliacci," Leoncavallo ............... Dec. 9 9 + "Ernani," Verdi .......................... Dec. 11 1 + "Rigoletto," Verdi ....................... Dec. 20 5 + "Un Ballo in Maschera," Verdi ............ Dec. 27 4 + "Don Giovanni," Mozart ................... Dec. 28 3 + * "Cavalleria Rusticana," Mascagni ....... Dec. 31 4 + "Louise," Charpentier .................... Jan. 3 11 + "La Traviata," Verdi ..................... Jan. 15 5 + "Lucia di Lammermoor," Donizetti ......... Jan. 20 8 + "Siberia," Giordano ...................... Feb. 5 3 + "Pelléas et Mélisande," Debussy .......... Feb. 19 7 + "Dinorah," Meyerbeer ..................... Feb. 26 1 + "Crispino e la Comare," Ricci brothers ... Mar. 6 3 + "Andrea Chenier," Giordano ............... Mar. 27 1 + --- + 124 + * Parts of double bills. + + +When Mr. Hammerstein issued his prospectus in the early autumn he +promised to produce no less than eight operas which had never been +performed in America. Managerial promises of this kind are generally +made and accepted in a Pickwickian sense, but Mr. Hammerstein came +nearer than is the custom to keeping his, though the season closed with +his subscribers waiting for "Dolores," by Breton; "Le Jongleur de Notre +Dame," by Massenet, and "Hélène," by Saint-Saëns. He also promised +performances of three German operas ("Lohengrin," "Tannhäuser," and +"Tristan und Isolde"), a new American opera in English, to be composed +by Victor Herbert, and the following operas from the standard list, +viz., "Le Prophète," Massenet's "Manon," "Roméo et Juliette," +"Mefistofele," and "La Bohème." He had fought in the courts for the +privilege of performing the last opera in the preceding season, but +abandoned it without contention this season in the face of Mr. Conried's +assertion that he had purchased the exclusive rights to all Italian +performances of Puccini's operas in the United States. It is not likely +that the statement about Mr. Herbert's opera was taken very seriously +in any quarter; he is a prolific and marvelously ready writer of comic +operetta scores, but it is not likely that he will ever attempt to find +a suitable grand opera book and set it to music within six or eight +months, while occupied, as he is, with a multitude of other enterprises. +Mr. Hammerstein had promised in his prospectus that there would also be +performances in German of "Lohengrin," "Tannhäuser," and "Tristan und +Isolde." This part of the manager's scheme went by the board early +in the season. It was contingent upon the presence in the company of +singers familiar with the three works of Wagner. Of such there was only +one when the season began, and she, Mme. Nordica, remained a member +of Mr. Hammerstein's forces only six weeks, during much of which time +she was idle. Mme. Schumann-Heink, though announced as a member of the +company, interrupted her concert activity only long enough to sing once, +and then she sang in an Italian opera ("Il Trovatore"), albeit she did +her part in German. + +Up to the coming of Signorina Tetrazzini Mr. Hammerstein pinned his +faith on the interest which might be aroused in his French novelties. On +the second subscription night he came forward with Berlioz's "Damnation +de Faust," with which he had contemplated adorning his first season, and +for which he had prepared the scenic outfit. The undramatic character of +the transformed cantata had caused its failure at the Metropolitan Opera +House in the season of 1906-07, and not even the fine performance of M. +Renaud, whose impersonation of Mephistopheles is one of the noblest +memories left by the season, the excellent singing of M. Dalmorès, and +the beautiful pictures could save it. There was a long wait between the +first and second representations, and after one more trial the work was +abandoned. Meanwhile, however, Offenbach's "Contes d'Hoffmann," which +had had a few performances at the Fifth Avenue Theater twenty-five years +before, was brought forward. Again Messrs. Renaud and Dalmorès were +admirably fitted with parts and scant justice done to the opera in +the distribution of the women's rôles; but the charm of Offenbach's +music overcame the defects of performance, and the opera achieved so +pronounced a success that it could be given with profit eleven times +before M. Renaud's departure from New York after the performance of +February 4th. + +The libretto of "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" proclaims a phase of French +literary taste which made heroes two generations ago out of two foreign +romancers,--the German E. T. A. Hoffmann and the American Edgar Allan +Poe. Very much alike were these two men in some of their strongest +characteristics. Both were possessed of genius of a high order; both led +lives of dissipation, which wrecked them physically; both found their +fantastic creations in the world of supernaturalism which imagination, +stimulated by alcoholic indulgence, presented to them as realities. This +is literally true, at least, of Hoffmann, who, coming home from his +nightly carouses with the boon companions, whom he has celebrated in +his "Serapion's Brüder" (the coterie somewhat vulgarly parodied in the +beginning and end of Offenbach's opera), was wont to call for his wife +to sit beside him through the remainder of the night to ward off the +ghostly, ghastly, grisly creatures which his own perfervid imagination +had conjured up. Sixty years ago France was full of admiration for the +weird tales of Hoffmann, and in view of the singular vicissitudes of +the fantastic romancer's life, some of them quite as startling as the +adventures which he ascribed to his imaginary creatures, it was not +at all strange that Barbier and Carré should have conceived the idea +of making him the hero of a play dealing with incidents of his own +invention. In 1851 they brought out their play in five acts at the +Odéon. It did not endure long, but it made so deep an impression on +the mind of Offenbach that when he was seized with the ambition to +write a serious work, which he might leave to the world as a legacy, +to prove that his ambitions went beyond the things with which he amused +the careless folk of the Second Empire, he turned to the old play for +his libretto. + +In a way it was a happy choice. If an author was to be blended with his +creations and utilized for operatic purposes, history might be searched +in vain for a better subject than Hoffmann. He was jurist, court +councillor, romancer, caricaturist, scene painter, theatrical manager, +and musical composer. In several ways he is living in the musical annals +to-day. His opera, "Undine," is forgotten, though it was highly praised +by Carl Maria von Weber, who had not feared soundly to abuse Beethoven; +but his literary creation, the Chapelmaster Kreissler, lives in +Schumann's "Kreissleriana," and other conceits of his filtered through +Jean Paul, in other compositions by the same master. His criticisms, +though cast in fantastic form, opened the eyes of many to the beauties +of Gluck, Mozart, and Beethoven. His admiration for Mozart went to such +an extreme that he cast aside part of his baptismal name in order to +substitute for it one of the given names of his hero--Amadeus. Of this +admiration neither Offenbach nor his librettists were unaware, for +when Hoffmann and Nicklausse come into the tavern where the roystering +students greet them, in the prologue, they are still so full of the +opera "Don Giovanni," to which they had just been listening, that +Nicklausse quotes the words of Leporello's first song, and Offenbach +reverently quotes the music. + +Let no one think that the production of "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" was in +any way analogous with the operetta performances with which Mr. Conried +lowered the status of the Metropolitan Opera House when he performed +"Die Fledermaus" and "Der Zigeunerbaron" at his benefits. No serious +reader of mine will expect to see in this place dispraise of the genius +of Johann Strauss; but the works mentioned are operettas in form and +in spirit, while "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" was conceived in an entirely +different vein, and shows the musician who composed it in a character +that no one would dream was his who knew him only as the composer of the +Bouffes Parisiens. It is a pathetic, but also lovely, document in proof +of the fact that with all his frivolity he wanted to die at least in the +odor of artistic sanctity. The piquant rhythms and prettily superficial +melodies of his musical farces were a perfect reflex of the careless +art-feeling of his day, just as the farces themselves were admirably +adjusted to the taste of the boulevardiers who basked in the sunshine of +Napoleon the Little, and laughed uproariously while their Emperor and +their social institutions were being castigated by the cynical German +Jew and his librettists. "He was the Beethoven of the sneer," said Émil +Bergerat, when Offenbach died, and then with a fantastic pencil worthy +of the caricaturist Hoffmann himself, he drew a dreadful picture of +Offenbach and his times; of the mighty fiddler beating time upon the +well-filled goatskin and sawing away across the strings, his mouth +widened with a grin "like some drunken conception of Edgar Poe's, or +some fantasy of Hoffmann, while the startled birds flew back to heaven, +the moon split herself back to her ears, and the stars giggled behind +their cloud-fans." The planetary system only revolved to frisky rhythms, +and the earth herself, like a mad top, hummed comically about the +horrified sun. En avant la musique! and the old edifice crumbled in dust +around the musician. To Bergerat Offenbach was the great disillusioner +of the age, the incarnation of what he conceived to be the spirit of the +nineteenth century, a spirit that hated and contemned the past, mocked +at the things which the simplicity of preceding centuries held sacred, +threw ridicule upon social sentiments, rank, caste, ceremonialism, +learning, and religion. + +The composer of "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" is nothing of this. The opera +was the child of his old age. He loved it, and labored over its score +for years. It is full of lovely melody (the barcarolle of the second act +will always exert a potent and lovely influence) fluent from beginning +to end, and rich in dramatic characterization. No one is likely to +listen to the trio at the culmination of the third act (that dealing +with the fate of a singer's daughter) without realizing what a really +admirable power of expression was that which Offenbach, for reasons +explained by the spirit of the times and his own moral nature, chose +to squander so many years on his opéas bouffes. Frequently the melodic +line in the opera rises to admirable heights; always melody, harmony, +and orchestration are refined, unless a burlesque effect is aimed at, +as in the ballad of "Kleinzack," and Nicklausse's song of the doll. +Offenbach's opera had its first performance on November 14, 1907, the +cast being as follows: + + + Olympia ...................................... Zepilli + Giulietta .................................... Jomelli + Antonia ...................................... Borello + Nicklausse ............................... De Cisneros + A Voice ..................................... Giaconia + Hoffman ..................................... Dalmorès + Cornelius | + Dappertutto | + Dr. Miracle | ................................. Renaud + Spalanzni | + Grespel | ................................. Gilibert + Lindorff | + Schlemihl | .................................. Crabbe + Cochenille | + Pitichinaccio | ................................ Daddi + Frantz ............................... Gianoli-Galetti + Hermann .................................. Reschiglian + Nathaniel .................................. Venturini + Luther ...................................... Fossetta + Conductor, Cleofonte Campanini + + +On November 25, 1907, Mr. Hammerstein brought forward Massenet's +"Thaïs," to signalize the first appearance in America of Miss Mary +Garden. The opera was produced with the following cast: + + + Thaïs ....................................... Mary Garden + Crobyle ........................................ Trentini + Myrtale ........................................ Giaconia + Albine .................................. Gerville-Reache + Athanaël ......................................... Renaud + Nicias ......................................... Cazouran + Palemon .......................................... Mugnoz + Un Serviteur ................................ Reschiglian + Conductor, Campanini + + +With this work French opera won its second triumph. The charm of Miss +Garden's personality was felt, but her singing compelled less tribute, +and though the opera had seven representations before the departure of +M. Renaud compelled its withdrawal, its success was due much more to him +than to his fair companion. The Thaïs of MM. Gallet and Massenet is not +the Thaïs of classical story, who induced Alexander to burn the palace +of the Persian kings at Persepolis--"who like another Helen, fired +another Troy"--but she is of her tribe. Also of the tribe of Phryne, +Laïs, and Messalina, who live in history and in art because of their +beauty and their pruriency, their loveliness and licentiousness. The +operatic Thaïs is the invention of Anatole France, who borrowed her +name for a courtesan of Alexandria some centuries after the historic +woman lived. With the help of suggestions borrowed from the stories of +innumerable saints who fled from the vicious world into the desert, +and industriously cultivated sanctity and bodily filth, of converted +trollops and holy Anthonys, he constructed a tale of how one of these +desert saints, filled with ardor to save the soul of a cyprian who +had the gay world of Alexandria at her feet, went to her, persuaded +her to put her sinful life behind her, enter the retreat of a saintly +sisterhood and die in grace, while he, falling at the last into the +clutches of carnal lust, repented of his good deed and wrought his own +damnation. Changing the name of the unfortunate zealot from Paphnuce to +Athanaël, M. Louis Gallet made an opera-book out of France's story, and +Massenet set it to music. It is a delectable story, but it fell into the +hands of master craftsmen, and the admirers of "art for art's sake" and +at any cost, have cause to rejoice at the treatment which it received. +Glimpses into the life of the frowsy fraternity of cenobites, and +fragments of their doleful canticles are not engaging in themselves, but +they are fine foils to pictures of antique vice and the songs and dances +of classic voluptuaries. There are splendid dramatic potentialities for +those who like such things and those who find profit in exploiting in +the juxtaposition cheek by jowl of saintliness and sin; of Christian +hymning and harlotry; of virtue in a physical wrestle with vice, and +coming out triumphant, but handing the palm over to the real victor at +the end; in the picture of a monk sprinkling the couch of Venus with +holy water, and decking his cowl with roses. + +Also there was a large personal note in the original creation of +"Thaïs," and there was a large personal note in its reproduction. It is +not altogether a pleasant one for the lover of real art to listen to. +Had there been no Sybil Sanderson, it is doubtful if Massenet would ever +have been directed to the subject. True, he had shown a predilection +for frail women as his heroines before, as witness Marie Magdalen, Eve, +Herodias, and Manon Lescaut; but in the works which exploited these +women the personal equation did not enter so far as the world knows or +the printed page discloses. But when he wrote "Thaïs" it was neither +histrionic nor musical art that be aimed primarily to exploit, but the +physical charms of an individual. Something was needed for the jaded +boulevardiers of Paris to leer at while they feebly clapped their hands +and piped "Ah, charmante! Ravissante!" It may be that the fine command +of Oriental color which is supposed to have affinity in the idioms of +music with voluptuousness in all its forms, had something to do with +the case, but the whole structure of the piece, superb as it is in its +contrasting elements, and theatrically ingenious and effective, points +nevertheless to the unfortunate Sanderson. And in the same way its +Parisian revival points to Madame Cavalieri and Miss Garden, and its +American production to the latter. For the sake of gifted singers and +accomplished actors merely, the opera was not created, and will not +be kept alive. It rests for its success on the kind of argument which +Phryne, of classic story, presented to her austere judges. + +The brilliancy of the play, its masterly handling of contrasts equally +gratifying to the scenic artist, the actor, and the composer, challenged +admiration and won it in large measure at the Manhattan performances. +From the ordinary theatrical point of view it would not be easy to pick +a quarrel with the drama. It would be almost churlish when there is so +much to be grateful for, to pick flaws in M. Massenet's score. In the +first place, compared with the vast volume of stuff poured forth by +his younger colleagues of Italy, and even by some of his confrères of +France, it makes appeal for approval by its evidences of consummate +technical mastery. It never trickles; it never grows stagnant; it never +gropes; it never fails for want of matter and manner in utterance. +Its current is smooth and self-reliant. It carries action and scene +buoyantly and unceasingly, even if it does not always expound them +deeply or give them adequate external adornment. When it has no real +warmth it simulates it admirably. Its texture is well-knit. There is +purpose, not deep, not long-sustained, but, so far as it goes, logical, +in the composer's application of the system of typical or representative +phrases. There is, too, a measure of appositeness in the structure and +character of his themes--the themes of asceticism, of Athanaël, of +Thais. There is mastery of local color which makes the composer's use +of Oriental tints as dramatically appropriate as it is engaging in all +the scenes of ancient profligacy which fill the center of the artist's +canvas. + +M. Massenet's orchestra is an active agent in the development of the +drama, and the episodes in which it becomes dominant are not pauses +in the action created because of a felt need for something besides an +undercurrent for the inane chatter of dialogue; instead they carry on +the psychological action, the concealed drama which is playing on the +stage of the hearts of the people concerned in the story. There is +fitness in the interlude, in which Thaïs disposes herself to reproduce +the pantomime of the loves of Aphrodite and Adonis, and a pretty touch +of significance in the reminiscence of the music which had disturbed +Athanaël's dream in the first act. There is more than mere musical +charm in the intermezzo which follows the scene in which the monk wakes +into life the conscience of the courtesan. She has defied him to the +last, but the struggle in her soul has begun, and while he sleeps on +the steps of her house the progress and outcome of the struggle are +portrayed in the instrumental number which Massenet has called a +"Religious Meditation." In itself it is not unlike scores of pieces +similarly intituled, but it is made significant by its introduction of +the theme of Thaïs in a chastened mood, in the garb of solemn gravity; +and the melody of the violin solo, borne up by almost indefinable +harmonies, and floated by harp arpeggios, recurs again before the death +scene of Thaïs to delineate her ecstasy and Athanaël's despair. Though +the intermezzo, thus admirably motived, marks the highest flight of +Massenet's genius in this opera, there are many other pages in the score +which might be chosen for praise. Enough that while the admirers of +"Manon" and "Werther" are not likely to find the music of those operas +equaled, they will yet find much to fascinate them in "Thaïs." + +I have said, in effect, that the chief triumph in the performance +of Massenet's opera was won by M. Renaud. Miss Garden had, indeed, +established herself as a popular favorite, but it was not until the +production of Charpentier's "Louise," on January 3, 1908, an opera with +which her name was more intimately associated in popular report, that +it could be said without qualification that French opera had won its +battle. The principal parts in this opera were distributed amongst Mr. +Hammerstein's singers thus: + + + Louise ..................................... Miss Mary Garden + Julien .................................. M. Charles Dalmorès + Mother of Louise ...................... Mme. Bressler-Gianoli + Father of Louise ........................ M. Charles Gilibert + Irma ................................... Mlle. Alice Zeppilli + Camille ..................................... Mlle. Morichini + Gertrude ..................................... Mlle. Giaconia + Suzanne ............................... Mlle. Helene Koelling + King of the Fools .............................. M. Venturini + A Ragpicker .................................. M. Reschiglian + A Junkman ......................................... M. Mugnoz + Elise | + A Street Sweeper | ........................... Mlle. Severina + A Street Arab ................................ Mlle. Trentini + An Apprentice ................................. Mlle. Sigrist + Conductor, Campanini + + +"Louise" had made a great noise, both in a literal and figurative +sense, during the greater part of the preceding eight years. It had +made the rounds of the principal opera houses on the European continent, +but most of the noise came from Paris, and among those who sat in +Mr. Hammerstein's boxes and stalls on the occasion of its American +production there were many who had already made the acquaintance of the +work at the Opéra Comique, in the French capital. It is likely that +their interest in the performance was mingled more or less with curious +questionings touching the attitude which local opera-lovers would assume +toward it. There is a vast difference in the mood in which Americans go +to public entertainments in Paris and at home. In a sense, though not a +large or dignified one, the tragic element in the story of Charpentier's +opera is universal; but its representation is in every particular +the most local and circumscribed of any opera ever written. I am not +disposed to waste much time or space in a discussion of things to +which the patrons of our playhouses have often exhibited a callous +indifference. It is only to justify a hurried analysis of the artistic +nature of the work that attention is called to some of its essential +characteristics. "Louise" is not a French opera, though its score is +French, its people speak French, and its music echoes French measures +when it is original, and also when borrowed or imitated. "Louise" is +Parisian in its gaiety, its passions, its vulgarity, and its artistic +viciousness. If music could in itself give expression to ethical ideas, +it would also be proper to say that this score is Parisian in its +immorality. Coupled with its story, which glorifies the licentiousness +of Paris and makes mock of virtue, the sanctity of the family tie, and +the institutions upon which social stability and human welfare have +ever rested and must forever rest, the music may also be set down as +immoral. Certain it is that there is nothing in it that is spiritually +uplifting, and as little that makes for gentleness and refinement of +artistic taste. It is not French in the historic sense, because it +rudely tramples upon all the esthetic principles for which the French +composers, from Lully to the best of Charpentier's contemporaries have +stood--elegance, grace, and beauty of expression. + +It is, however, characteristic of the times--characteristic in subject +and in utterance. To the intellectual and moral anarchism universally +prevalent among the peoples of Western culture, which desires to +have idealism outraged, sacred things ridiculed, high conceptions of +beauty and duty dragged into the gutter, and ugliness, brutality, and +bestiality placed upon a pedestal so long as a consuming thirst for +things hot in the mouth may be slaked, it makes a strong appeal. To +Mr. Hammerstein its success meant much. It was a reward for another +exhibition of a bold and adventurous spirit; of his skill in gathering +together a band of artists splendidly capable of presenting the works +which he was trying to make the prop of a new lyric theater in the +American metropolis; of a daringly enterprising purpose to make all +the elements of his new productions harmonious and alluring--the stage +pictures, the action, the singing, and the instrumental music. This +achievement he accomplished when not only the large and striking +features of the opera--its scenic outfit, its pictures of popular +carousal on the heights of Montmartre, the roystering realism of the +scene in a dressmakers' shop, the splendid acting of Miss Garden and +Mme. Bressler-Gianoli, the fine singing of M. Dalmorès, and the more +than superb acting and singing of M. Gilibert--found their complement +in the finish of a hundred little details, insignificant in themselves, +but singularly potent in helping to create the atmosphere without which +"Louise" would be little better than Bowery melodrama,--a play that +would be a hundred times more effective if its hero and heroine were +represented as living in Williamsburg, swelling at the spectacle of +the lights spanning the East River, and longing for the fleshpots of +the so-called "Tenderloin District" in New York. + +The story of "Louise," in brief, is that of a sewing-girl who lives with +her parents on Montmartre, up to which, night after night, blink and +beckon the lights of the gay city. An artist, who is her neighbor, wooes +her and offers marriage, but her parents, a harsh, unsympathetic mother +and a tender-hearted father, are rigid in their objections to him +because of his insufficient means and loose character. Her lover lures +her out of her workshop, and, after he has inculcated in her the +doctrine of free love and free life, she leaves her parents to consort +with him. The artist's jovial companions make her queen of a Montmartre +festival for a purpose wholly extraneous to the story, but one that +serves the composer, who is his own librettist, and in the midst of the +merrymaking the mother appears and pleads with the girl to return to her +home to comfort her dying father. Her lover permits her to do so on her +promise to return to him. At home her father entreats her to give up her +life of dishonor. She listens to him petulantly. The music of a fète in +the city below, voices calling her from a distance, and the flashing +lights in the great city below, throw her into a frantic ecstasy; she +sings of her love and calls to her lover. The mother thinks her mad, +but the father drives her out of the house, only to repent and call +after her a moment later. But she is gone, and the drama ends with the +father shaking his fist at the city, and shrieking at it his hatred +and detestation. + +The thoughts of opera-goers will naturally revert to "La Bohème"; but +there are many points of difference between the story which Puccini's +librettist pieced together out of Mürger's tales of bohemian life more +than half a century ago, and this one of to-day. The differences are all +in favor of the earlier opera. It was in a letter written by Lafcadio +Hearn to me that he called attention to the fact that under the levity +of Mürger's picturesque bohemianism there was apparent a serious +philosophy, which had an elevating effect upon the characters of the +romance. "They followed one principle faithfully,--so faithfully that +only the strong survived the ordeal,--never to abandon the pursuit of an +artistic vocation for any other occupation, however lucrative, not even +when she remained apparently deaf and blind to her worshipers." There is +very little in Puccini's opera to justify this observation, but the +significant fact remains that throughout the dramatic development of the +piece the bohemian artists and their careless companions grow in the +sympathy of the audience. For one thing, there is no questioning their +sincerity. For this there is only one parallel in Charpentier's opera. +There is, in fact, only one really dramatic character in it. It is that +of the father; in him there is honest, human feeling, a tenderness and +love which yield only to a moment of passion when he is perplexed in the +extreme and at a moment when the last drop of sympathy for Louise has +oozed away. Her tender regard for her father is pathetic in the first +act, where it is set against the foil of her mother's harshness. In +the last act, however, she is petulant, irascible, and cold, until the +moment of frenzy, when she surrenders to the call of Paris and her +wretched passion. Julien is scantily and unconvincingly sketched. There +is little indeed even to indicate sincerity in his love for Louise; at +first, while she sings of the ecstasy of first love, he calmly reads a +book; and when he responds, it is to invoke her to join him in a paean +in praise, not of their love, but of Paris. Does she find him, when she +rushes down the stairs, pursued by her father's broken-hearted calls? +One can feel no certainty on the point. The last impression is only +that she has gone to plunge into the flood of wickedness, never to be +seen again. + +It was said some years ago, when "Louise" was celebrating its first +triumphs, that the opera was the first number of a projected trilogy, +and that Charpentier would tell us the rest of the story of the +sewing-girl in other operas. But the years have passed, the composer +has grown rich and is giving no sign. Instead, there is an organized +"Louise" propaganda in Paris. Funds are raised to send the working girls +of the city to the opera in droves, there to hear the alluring call to +harlotry, under the pretense that the agonies of the father will preach +a moral lesson. + +There are dramatic strength and homogeneity only in the first and last +acts of the opera. The scenes between are shreds and patches, invented +to give local color to the story. In the original form the picture +of low life at dawn on Montmartre, in which charwomen, scavengers, +ragpickers, street sweepers, milkwomen, policemen, and others figure, +was enlivened by a mysterious personage called Le Noctambule, who +proclaimed himself to be the soul of the city--the Pleasure of Paris. +It was a part of the symbolism which we are asked also to find in the +flitting visions of low life and the echoes of street cries in the +music. But it was a note out of key, and Mr. Campanini eliminated it, +with much else of the local color rubbish. And yet it is in the use of +this local color that nearly all that is original and individual in the +score consists. Until we reach the final scene of the father's wild +anguish there is very little indeed that is striking in the music, +except that which is built up out of the music of the street. We hear +echoes of the declamatory style of the young Italian veritists in the +dialogue, much that is more than suggestive of the mushy sentimentality +of the worst of Gounod and Massenet in the moments when the music +attempts the melodic vein, and no end of Wagnerian orchestration in the +instrumental passages which link the scenes together. Some of this music +is orchestrated with great beauty and discretion, like the preludes, but +all that is conceived to accompany violent emotion is only fit to "tear +a cat in" or to "make all split." The score, in fact, is chiefly a +triumph of reflection, of ingenious workmanship, and there is scarcely +a moment in the opera that takes strong hold of the fancy, for which +the memory does not immediately supply a model, either dramatic or +musical, or both. Wagner's marvelous close of the second act of "Die +Meistersinger," with the night watchman walking through the quiet +streets flooded with moonlight, singing his monotonous chant, is feebly +mimicked at the close of the first scene of the second act of "Louise," +when, all the characters of the play having disappeared, an Old Clothes +Man comes down a staircase crying his dolorous (all the street cries +are strangely melancholy) "Marchand d'habits! Avez-vous des habits a +vendr'?" while from the distance arise the cries of the dealers in +birdseed and artichokes. The spinning scene in "The Flying Dutchman," +which reproduces a custom of vast antiquity, is replaced in "Louise" +with a scene in the dressmaker's workshop, in which the chatter of the +girls and the antics of the comédienne are borne up by the music of the +orchestra, with the click-click of the sewing machines to make up for +the melodious hum of Wagner's spinning wheels. Puccini's bohemians meet +in front of the Café Momus, enlivened by the passing incidents of a +popular fête; Charpentier's bohemians celebrate the crowning of the Muse +of Montmartre with a carnival gathering and ballet. It is this fête, we +fancy, which formed the nucleus around which Charpentier built his work. +Twice before "Louise" was brought forward he had utilized the ideas of +the popular festival at which a working girl was crowned and made the +center of a procession of roysterers, and a musical score with themes +taken from the noises of Paris. His "Couronnement de la Muse," composed +for a Montmartre festival, was performed at Lille in 1898; from Rome he +sent to Paris along with his picturesque orchestral piece, "Impressions +d'Italie," a symphonic drama, "La Vie du Poète," for soli, chorus, +and orchestra, in which he introduced "all the noises and echoes of a +Montmartre festival, with its low dancing rooms, its drunken cornets, +its hideous din of rattles, the wild laughter of bands of revelers, and +the cries of hysterical women." But even here M. Charpentier is original +in execution only, not in plan. There is scarcely a public library in +the large cities of Europe and America which does not contain a copy +of Georges Kastner's "Les Voix de Paris," with its supplement, "Cris +de Paris," a "Symphonie humoristique," with its themes drawn from the +cries of the peripatetic hucksters and street venders of the French +Capital; and as if that were not enough, historic records and traditions +trace the use of street cries as musical material back to the sixteenth +century. There seems even to have been a possibility that a "Ballet des +Cris de Paris" furnished forth an entertainment in which the Grand +Monarch himself assisted, for the court of Louis XIV. + +French opera had won its battle; but even now, the way was not wholly +clear and open, for the successful operas were too few and their +repetition caused some grumbling. + +At this critical moment the star of Luisa Tetrazzini rose in London +and threw its glare over all the operatic world. Two years before +Mr. Conried had engaged the singer while she was in California, but +had failed to bind the contract by depositing a guarantee with her +banker. He failed, it is said, because when he wanted to complete the +negotiations he could not find her. Mr. Hammerstein also negotiated +with her for the season of 1906-07, so he said, but she proved elusive. +Neither of the managers felt any loss at his failure to secure her. The +London excitement may have set Mr. Conried to thinking; Mr. Hammerstein +it stirred to action. On December 1st he announced that he had engaged +her for the season of 1908-09, and hoped to have her for a few +performances before the end of the season of 1907-08. A fortnight later +he proclaimed that she would effect her New York entrance on January +15th, and that he had secured her for fifteen representations in the +current season, with the privilege of adding to their number. Mr. +Conried threatened proceedings by injunction, but his threats were +brutum fulmen; she made her début on the specified date in "La +Traviata," and when the season closed she had added seven performances +(one in Philadelphia) to the fifteen originally contemplated. In New +York she sang five times in "Traviata," eight times in "Lucia," once +in "Dinorah," three times in "Rigoletto," three times in "Crispino e +la Comare," and once in a "mixed bill." She was rapturously acclaimed +by the public and a portion of the press. It is useless to discuss +the phenomenon. The whims of the populace are as unquestioning and +as irresponsible as the fury of the elements. That was seen in the +Tetrazzini craze in New York and in London; it was seen again in the +reception given to that musically and dramatically amorphous thing, +"Pelléas et Mélisande." This was as completely bewildering to the +admirers of the melodrama as to those who are blind and deaf to its +attractions. It should have been more so, for it is more difficult to +affect to enjoy "Pelléas et Mélisande" than to yield to the qualities +which dazzle in the singing of Tetrazzini. Nevertheless, "Pelléas et +Mélisande" had seven performances within five weeks. + +Debussy's opera was performed for the first time on February 19, 1908, +the parts being distributed as follows: + + + Arkël ........................................ M. Arimondi + Pelléas ........................................ M. Perier + Golaud ....................................... M. Dufranne + Mélisande .................................... Miss Garden + Yniold ..................................... Mlle. Sigrist + Geneviéve ........................... Mme. Gerville-Reache + Un Médecin ..................................... M. Crabbe + Conductor, Sig. Campanini + + +The production of "Pelléas et Mélisande" was the most venturesome +experiment that Mr. Hammerstein had yet made and the one most difficult +to explain on any ground save the belief that a French novelty, no +matter what its character or its merits, would win profitable patronage +in New York at the moment. There was nothing in the history of the work +itself to inspire the confidence that it would make a potent appeal to +the tastes of the opera-lovers of New York. Nowhere outside of Paris +had it gained a foothold, and its success in Paris was like that which +any esthetic cult or pose may secure if diligently and ingeniously +exploited. Mr. Hammerstein knew this and he had seen the work at the +Opéra Comique. It could not have escaped his discerning mind that only +a small element in the population of even so cosmopolitan a city as +New York could by any possibility possess the intellectual and esthetic +qualifications necessary to enthusiastic appreciation of the qualities, +not to say merits, of the work. These qualifications are quite as much +negative as they are positive. It is not enough to the appreciation of +"Pelléas et Mélisande" that the listener shall understand French. He +must have a taste--and this must be an acquired one, since it cannot +be born in him--for the French of M. Maeterlinck's infantile plays, +"Pelléas et Mélisande" being on the border-line between the marionette +drama and that designed for the consumption of mature minds. He must, +moreover, have joined the inner brotherhood of symbol worshipers, and +be able to discern how it is that the world-old story of the union of +December and May, of blooming youth and crabbed age with its familiar +(and, as some poets and romancers would have us believe, inevitable) +consequences, can be enhanced by much chatter about crowns and rings +dropped into wells, white-haired beggars lying in a cave, stagnant and +mephitic pools, fluttering doves, departing ships, kings who lose their +way while hunting and are dashed against trees at twelve o'clock, maids +who know not whence they came or why they are weeping, and a whole +phantasmagoria more, out of all proportion to the simple incidents of +the tragedy itself. + +This so far as the literary side of the matter is concerned. On +the musical much more is demanded. He must recognize unrhythmical, +uncadenced, disjointed, and ejaculatory prose dialogue, with scarcely a +lyrical moment in it, as a fit vehicle for music. He must not only be +willing to forego vocal melody, but even the semblance of melody also +in the instrumental music upon which the dialogue floats; for everybody +knows since the Wagnerian drama came into being that words which are in +themselves incapable of melodious flow may be the cause of melody in the +orchestral music which accompanies them. [There is here no allusion to +tune in the conventional sense, tune made tip of motive, phrase, period +and section, but to a well modulated succession of musical intervals, +expressing a feeling or illustrating a mood.] He who would enjoy the +musical integument of this play must have cultivated a craving for +dissonance in harmony and find relish in combinations of tones that +sting and blister and pain and outrage the ear. He must have learned +to contemn euphony and symmetry, with its benison of restfulness, and +to delight in monotony of orchestral color, monotony of mood, monotony +of dynamics, and monotony of harmonic device. + +It is not at all likely that Mr. Hammerstein expected to find a +sufficient number of opera-goers thus strangely constituted among +the patrons of his establishment to justify him in the astonishing +exhibition of enterprise or venturesomeness illustrated by the +production of "Pelléas et Mélisande" with artists brought especially +from Paris only because they had been concerned in the Parisian +performances, with new scenery, and at the cost of much money and labor +spent in the preparation. It is therefore safe to assume that he counted +on the potent power of public curiosity touching a well-advertised +thing. He had fared well with Mme. Tetrazzini in presenting operas which +represent everything that "Pelléas et Mélisande" is not. In this he had +much encouragement. He played boldly, and won. + +"Pelléas et Mélisande" as it came from the hands of M. Maeterlinck, and +in the only form which the author recognizes, had been presented in +New York in an English version. What has been said above about the +qualifications of him who would rise to an enjoyment of the music with +which Debussy has consorted it ought to serve also to characterize that +music. Nothing has been exaggerated, nothing set down in a spirit of +illiberality. No student of music can be ignorant of the fact that the +art, being a pure projection of the human will, is necessarily always +in a state of flux, and in its nature, within the limitations that +bound all the manifestations of beauty, lawless. M. Debussy might have +proclaimed and illustrated that fact without in his capacity of a +critical writer having sought to throw odium on dead masters who were +better than he and living contemporaries who are at least older. The +little Parisian community who pass the candied stick of mutual praise +from mouth to mouth would nevertheless have given him their plaudits. In +his proclamation of the principles of musical composition as applied to +the drama he has proclaimed principles as old as opera. It needed no man +who has outlived the diatonic scale to tell us that vocal music should +be written in accordance with the rhythm and accents of the words, and +that dramatic music should be an integral element of the drama, or, as +he puts it, be "the atmosphere through which dramatic emotion radiates." +The Florentine inventors of monody told us that, Gluck echoed them, +Wagner re-enunciated the principle, and no modern composer has dreamed +of denying its validity. The only question is whether or not such +admirable results have been attained by M. Debussy; whether his music +sweetens or intensifies or vitalizes the play. That question must be +answered by the individual hearer. No one should be ashamed to proclaim +his pleasure in four hours of uninterrupted, musically inflected speech +over a substratum of shifting harmonies, each with its individual tang +and instrumental color; but neither should anybody be afraid to say that +nine-tenths of the music is a dreary monotony because of the absence +of what to him stands for musical thought. Let him admit or deny, as +he sees fit, that the principle of symphonic development is a proper +concomitant of the musical drama, but let him also say whether or +not what to some appears a flocculent, hazy web of dissonant sounds, +now acrid, now bitter-sweet, maundering along from scene to scene, +unrelieved by a single pregnant melodic phrase, stirs within him the +emotions awakened by a union of melody, harmony, and rhythm, either in +the old conception or the new. Debussy has had his fling at Wagner and +his system of construction in the lyric drama; yet he adopts his system +of musical symbols, It is almost a humiliation to say it. There is +sea music and forest music in "Pelléas et Mélisande." What a flight +of gibbering phantoms there would be if the fluttering of Tristan's +pennants or the "hunt's up" of King Mark's horns could be heard even +for a moment! + +It would be difficult accurately and honestly to say what was the +verdict of the audience touching the merit of the work; concerning +the performance there was never a question. The first three acts were +followed by a respectful patter of applause. When Mr. Campanini came +into the orchestra to begin the fourth act he received an ovation +which was both spontaneous and cordial. The dramatic climax, which is +accompanied by superb music of its kind, is reached in the scene of +Pelléas's killing at the end of the fourth act. This stirred up hearty +enthusiasm, and after all the artists, Mr. Campanini, and the stage +manager had shared in the expression of enthusiastic gratitude, Mr. +Hammerstein was brought before the curtain. He made a brief speech, +saying that by its appreciation of the opera, with its poetical beauty +and musical grandeur, New York had set itself down as the most highly +cultivated city in the world, and that for himself the only purpose he +had had in producing it was to endear himself to the city's people! +Would that one dared to exclaim: "O sancta simplicitas!" + +Mr. Hammerstein did not perform all the novelties which he had promised +in his prospectus, but to make good the loss he brought forward two +operas, one a complete novelty, which he had not promised. This was +Giordano's "Siberia." More surprising was the fact that only one day +before the close of the season he produced the same composer's "Andrea +Chenier" under circumstances which made the occasion a gala one for +Signor Cleofonte Campanini, the energetic and capable director who +more than anyone else had made the marvelous achievements of the +Manhattan company possible. The production of "Andrea Chenier" was not +contemplated when Mr. Hammerstein came forth in the summer with his +official announcement of the season; it had, however, been promised +by Mr. Conried, who seems to have found that the production of two +novelties of a vastly inferior kind taxed to the limit the resources of +the proud establishment in Broadway. There it was permitted to slumber +on with "Otello," "Der Freischütz," and "Das Nachtlager von Granada," +whose titles graced Mr. Conried's prospectus. That circumstance may +have had something to do with Mr. Hammerstein's resolve at the eleventh +hour to add it to the list of five other new productions which he had +already placed to his credit. If so, he gave no indication of the fact +but permitted the announcement to go out that the performance was a +compliment to Signor Campanini and his wife, who, as Signora Tetrazzini, +had retired from the operatic stage after singing in the opera three +years before. Incidentally the circumstance appealed to whatever +feelings of gratitude the patrons of the Manhattan Opera House felt +toward Signor Campanini and also to the popular curiosity to hear a +sister of the Tetrazzini whose coming to the opera was the season's +chief sensation. + +The occasion was well calculated to set the beards of memory mongers to +wagging. Those who could recall some of the minor incidents of a +quarter-century earlier remembered that the indefatigable director of +to-day was a modest maestro di cembalo at the Metropolitan in its +first season, and on a few occasions when his famous brother Italo +Campanini sang was permitted to try his "prentice hand" at conducting. +Next they recalled that four years later, when that brother made an +unlucky venture as impresario and sought to rouse the people of New York +to enthusiasm with a production of Verdi's "Otello" it was Cleofonte +Campanini who was the conductor of the company and Signorina Eva +Tetrazzini who was the prima donna. The original American production +of "Andrea Chenier" took place at the Academy of Music on November 13, +1896. At the revival on March 27, 1908, the parts were distributed as +follows: + + + Maddalena de Coigny ................. Mme. Tetrazzini-Campanini + Andrea Chenier ..................................... Sig. Bassi + Carlo Gerard ................................... Sig. Sainmarco + Contessa de Coigny ............................ Sig'ra Giaconia + Bersi ......................................... Sig'ra Seppilli + Madelon ...................................... Mme. De Cisneros + Roucher ........................................... Sig. Crabbe + Fouquier-Tinville ............................... Sig. Arimondi + A Story Writer | + Mathieu, a sansculotte | ................. Sig. Gianoli-Galetti + An Incroyable .................................. Sig. Venturini + Abbé ............................................... Sig. Daddi + Schmidt, a jailor ............................... Sig. Fossetta + Major Domo ................................... Sig. Reschiglian + Dumas, president of the tribunal .................. Sig. Mugnoz + Conductor, Sig. Campanini + + +"Siberia" was performed on February 5, 1908, with the following cast: + + + Stephana ................................... Sig'ra Agostinelli + La Fanciulla .................................. Sig'ra Trentini + Nikona ........................................ Sig'ra Zaccaria + Vassili ........................................ Sig. Zenatello + Gleby ........................................... Sig. Sammarco + Walitzin .......................................... Sig. Crabbe + Alexis .......................................... Sig. Casauran + Ivan | + The Sergeant | ................................. Sig. Venturini + The Captain ....................................... Sig. Mugnoz + The Invalid .............................. Sig. Gianoli-Galetti + Miskinsky .................................... Sig. Reschiglian + L'Ispravnik | + The Cossack | + The Inspector | ................................. Sig. Fossetta + Conductor, Sig. Campanini + + +Giordano's opera is an experiment along the lines faintly suggested by +Mascagni in "Iris," but boldly and successfully drawn by Puccini in +"Madama Butterfly" and Charpentier in "Louise." The Italian disciples of +verismo are in full cry after nationalism and local color. A generation +ago the scenes, the characters, and the subject of an opera were of no +concern to the composer. His indifference to anachronism was like that +of Shakespeare, whose stage-folk, whether supposed to be ancient Greeks, +Romans, or Bretons, were all sixteenth-century Englishmen. When Verdi +wrote his Egyptian opera he was content with a little splash of +Orientalism which colors the chant of the priestess in the temple of +Phtha; the rest of the music is Italian. So the Germans remained German +in their music, and the Frenchmen continued to speak their own idioms, +saving a few characteristic rhythms for the incidental ballet. Mascagni +injected a little twanging of the Japanese samiesen into the music of +"Iris" but let the effort to obtain local color stop there. + +Nevertheless the hint was seized upon by both Giordano and Puccini, and +apparently at about the same time. The former made an excursion into +Russia, the latter into Japan; Signor Illica acted as guide for both. +The more daring of the two was Puccini, for Japan is musically sterile, +while Russia has a wealth of characteristic folk-song unequaled by +that of any other country on the face of the earth. Nevertheless there +is nothing more admirable in the score of "Madama Butterfly" than the +refined and ingenious skill with which the composer bent the square-toed +rhythms and montonous tunes of Japanese music to his purposes. + +The dramatic structure of "Siberia" is not strong. Incidents of convict +life in Siberia which have formed the staple of Russian fiction for +so long are depended on to awaken interest and provide picturesque +stage-furniture, while sympathy is asked for the heroine who obtains +"redemption" by an honest love and a heroic sacrifice. Of course, that +the requisite degree of piquancy may not be wanting, the martyr is +a bawd who surrenders the luxuries of St. Petersburg provided by a +princely lover, to endure the privations of the Siberian mines with that +lover's successful rival. Only in the "redemption motive," so to speak, +is there any likeness between the story of the opera and Tolstoi's +"Resurrection," or the play based on that book which had been seen in +New York five years before, though the two had been associated in the +gossip of the theaters. There are three acts. The first, in which the +young officer Vassili, with whom the heroine Stephana is in love, draws +his sword against his superior officer, Prince Alexis, and thereby draws +down on himself the sentence of banishment to the mines, plays in a +palace in St. Petersburg, which the Prince had given to Stephana, who is +his mistress. The second act discloses incidents in the journey of the +convicts through Siberia, Vassili being joined at a station by Stephana, +who has sacrificed her all to follow him into exile. In the third act +phases of convict life and customs belonging to the Russian Easter +festival are disclosed, and there is a resumption of the dramatic story +which now hurries rapidly to its tragic conclusion. Gleby, the seducer +of Stephana, is found among a gang of new arrivals at the mines, and the +governor of the province, who had been among her old admirers, renews +his protestations of devotion and promises her liberty and a life of +pleasure. Him she repulses gently and proclaims the joy which Siberia +has brought to her. Gleby also attempts to regain his old influence over +her, but is cast aside with contumely. Thereupon he denounces her to the +community. She and her lover determine to escape but are betrayed and +the heroine is shot in her attempted flight. She dies "redeemed." + +"Siberia" has no overture. In place of an instrumental introduction +there is a chorus of mujiks, which, Russian in idea as well as in +harmonization and manner of performance, introduces at once the most +interesting as it is the most effective element in the score. Without +this element the opera would be deplorably dull, so far as its music +is concerned. Giordano's original melody is for the greater part +commonplace and unexpressive. The dramatic scenes between the lovers in +each of the acts are passionate only to ears accustomed or willing to +find passion in strenuousness. Throughout Stephana and Vassili sing as +the Irishman played the fiddle--by main strength. In the second act +there is much more to warm the fancy and delight the ear. Here the +lack of an opening overture is made good by an extended instrumental +introduction of real beauty and power. In a way the music is both +meteorological and psychological; it pictures the dreary waste of +country; it seems to speak of the falling snow and biting frost; but it +also gives voice to the heavy-heartedness which is the prevailing mood +of the act. It introduces, too, as a thematic motive, the opening phrase +of the Russian folk-song which the convicts sing as they enter. This +melody is one of the gems of Russian folk-song so much admired by the +composers of the Czar's empire that there are few of them who have not +put it to artistic use. It is "Ay ouchnem," the song originally created +for the bargemen of the Volga, who to its sighing and groaning measures, +with broad straps across their breasts, towed heavy vessels against the +current of the river. Now it is also used by workmen to assist them in +the lifting and carrying of burdens. Giordano makes excellent use of it +at the end as well as at the beginning of the act, though as a direct +quotation, not for thematic treatment as Puccini uses the Japanese +themes in his score. This is one of the characteristics of Giordano's +opera and one which illustrates his inferiority as a musician to his +more successful rival. In the second act a semi-chorus of women quote +again from Russian folk-song by singing the melody of the air known to +all musical folklorists by its German title, "Schöne Minka." In the +third act there is a Russian Easter canticle which has little of the +Russian character but makes an agreeable impression upon the popular +ear by reason of its effective use of bell-chimes. There is another +folk-melody in the opera which has gained publicity in a manner +different from that which made "Ay ouchnem" and "Schöne Minka" widely +known; it is the melody of the "Glory" song--"Slava"--which Beethoven +used in the scherzo of one of his Rasoumowski Quartets. + +The season was not without its humorous incidents. A quarrel of Messrs. +Conried and Hammerstein over MM. Dalmorès and Gilibert, who were enticed +away from their old allegiance by Mr. Conried but would not stay +bought, was one of these. Another was a circular letter sent out by Mr. +Hammerstein on December 23d, scolding his subscribers because they were +not coming up to his help against the mighty. The letter caused much +amused comment amongst the knowing, who asked themselves whether it was +the scolding of the innocent or the coming of "Louise," Tetrazzini, +and "Pelléas et Mélisande" which turned the tables in the favor of the +manager. Mr. Hammerstein seemed to believe that the letter had been +efficacious. + + + +APPENDIX I + +THREE SEASONS AT THE METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE + + +Season 1908-1909 + + +The twenty-fourth regular subscription season of grand opera at the +Metropolitan Opera House began on November 16th, 1908, and ended +on April 10th, 1909. The subscription was for one hundred regular +performances in twenty weeks, on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday +evenings, and Saturday afternoons. In their prospectus the directors, +Messrs. Giulio Gatti-Casazza and Andreas Dippel, announced a change of +plan in respect of the Saturday night performances which had been given +for a number of years. Those at the reduced prices which had hitherto +prevailed were to be limited to the first twelve and the last two weeks +of the season; the others were to be at regular rates. From the end of +February till April a series of special performances on Tuesday and +Saturday nights was projected. Wagner's "Parsifal" was to be reserved +for the customary holiday performances, and there were to be two +performances of other works, the proceeds of which were to go into a +pension and endowment fund, the establishment of which, it was hoped, +would help to give greater permanency to the working forces of the +institution. There was a promise of a large increase in the orchestra +as well as the chorus, not only to give greater brilliancy to the local +performances, but also to make possible a division of the company, with +less injury than used to ensue, when it became necessary to give two +performances on the same day--one in the Metropolitan Opera House and +one in Philadelphia or Brooklyn as the case might be. + +These plans were carried out practically to the letter, Mr. +Gatti-Casazza reinforcing the Italian side of the house, and Mr. Dippel +the German, with artists, scenery, and choristers, as each thought +best, under the supervision of the Executive Committee of the Board of +Directors of what became the Metropolitan Opera Company as soon as +that style could be legally adopted. The management found it less easy +to keep its word in reference to the repertory. Eight novelties were +promised, viz.: D'Albert's "Tiefland," and Smetana's "The Bartered +Bride" in German; Catalani's "La Wally," Puccini's "Le Villi," and +Tschaikowsky's "Pique Dame" in Italian; Laparra's "Habafiera" in French; +Frederick Converse's "Pipe of Desire," and either Goldmark's "Cricket on +the Hearth," or Humperdinck's "Königskinder" in English. Only the first +four of these works was produced. A promise that three operas of first +class importance--Massenet's "Manon," Mozart's "Nozze di Figaro," and +Verdi's "Falstaff"--would be revived was brilliantly redeemed. To the +subscription season of twenty weeks one week was added for Wagner's +Nibelung drama and extra performances of "Aïda" and "Madama Butterfly," +and Verdi's "Requiem," composed in honor of Manzoni, having been twice +brilliantly performed in the series of Sunday night concerts which +extended through the season, was repeated instead of an opera on the +night of Good Friday. The extra performances, outside of those of +the last week, were the holiday representations of "Parsifal" on +Thanksgiving Day, New Year's Day, Lincoln's birthday, and Washington's +birthday, and benefit performances for the French Hospital, the German +Press Club, the Music School Settlement, and the Pension and Endowment +Fund benefit. To the latter one of the Sunday night concerts was also +devoted. At the operatic benefit performance, as also at a special +representation at which Mme. Sembrich bade farewell to the operatic +stage in America (on February 6th, 1909), the program was made up of +excerpts from various operas--a fact which must be borne in mind (as +must also the double bills at regular performances) when the following +tabulated statement of the season's activities is studied. The table +which now follows gives the list of all the operas performed in the +order of their production and the number of representations given to +each in the entire season of twenty-one weeks: + + + Opera First performance Times + + "Aïda" ......................... November 16 .......... 8 + "Die Walküre" .................. November 18 .......... 5 + "Madama Butterfly" ............. November 19 .......... 8 + "La Traviata" .................. November 20 .......... 5 + "Tosca" ........................ November 21 .......... 6 + "La Bohème" .................... November 21 .......... 7 + "Tiefland" ..................... November 23 .......... 4 + "Parsifal" ..................... November 26 .......... 5 + "Rigoletto" .................... November 28 .......... 3 + "Carmen" ....................... December 3 ........... 6 + "Faust" ........................ December 5 ........... 7 + "Götterdämmerung" .............. December 10 .......... 5 + "Le Villi" ..................... December 17 .......... 5 + "Cavalleria Rusticana" ......... December 17 .......... 7 + "Lucia di Lammermoor" .......... December 19 .......... 2 + "Il Trovatore" ................. December 21 .......... 5 + "Tristan und Isolde" ........... December 23 .......... 4 + "L'Elisir d'Amore" ............. December 25 .......... 2 + "Pagliacci" .................... December 26 .......... 5 + "La Wally" ..................... January 6 ............ 4 + "Le Nozze di Figaro" ........... January 13 ........... 6 + "Die Meistersinger" ............ January 22 ........... 5 + "Manon" ........................ February 3 ........... 6 + "Tannhäuser" ................... February 5 ........... 7 + "The Bartered Bride" ........... February 19 .......... 6 + "Fidelio" ...................... February 20 .......... 1 + "Falstaff" ..................... March 20 ............. 3 + "Don Pasquale" ................. March 24 ............. 1 + "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" ...... March 25 ............. 2 + "Siegfried" .................... March 27 ............. 2 + "Das Rheingold" ................ April 5 .............. 1 + + +SUMMARY + + + Subscription weeks .......................................... 20 + Extra week ................................................... 1 + Regular performances (afternoons and evenings) ............. 120 + Special representations of the dramas in "Der Ring" .......... 4 + Special benefit and holiday performances .................... 10 + Italian operas in the repertory ............................. 17 + German operas in the repertory .............................. 10 + French operas in the repertory ............................... 3 + Bohemian opera in the repertory .............................. 1 + German representations ...................................... 45 + Italian representations ..................................... 79 + French representations ...................................... 19 + Oratorial performance on opera night ......................... 1 + Double bills ................................................ 11 + Mixed bills .................................................. 2 + Novelties produced ........................................... 4 + + +To arrive at the sum of the company's activities there must be added +fifteen performances given in the new Academy of Music in the Borough +of Brooklyn; twenty-four performances in the Academy of Music, +Philadelphia; and four performances in the Lyric Theater, Baltimore. +Brooklyn and Baltimore were privileged to hear "Hänsel und Gretel," +which was denied to the Borough of Manhattan. + +There was an unusual number of artists new to New York in the company. +With Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the Italian General Manager, came Arturo +Toscanini, who, though an Italian, chose Wagner's "Götterdämmerung" as +the opera in which to make a striking demonstration of his extraordinary +abilities as a conductor. It was he, too, who prepared the revival of +"Falstaff" and the production of the two Italian novelties, "Le Villi" +and "La Wally." His assistant in the Italian department was Signor +Spetrino, to whom was intrusted the Italian and French operas of lighter +caliber. Of the two German conductors, Mr. Mahler and Mr. Hertz, neither +was a newcomer. The former brought about the revival of "Le Nozze di +Figaro" and the production of "The Bartered Bride," two of the most +signal successes of the season. Mr. Hertz placed "Tiefland" on the +stage and added to his long Wagnerian record the first performance +heard in America of an unabridged "Meistersinger." Singers new to +the Metropolitan Opera House Company were Miss Emmy Destinn (whose +engagement had been effected by Mr. Conried some two years before), +Mmes. Alda, Gay, Di Pasquali, L'Huillier, Ranzenberg, and Flahaut; and +Messrs. Amato (an admirable barytone), Grassi, Didur (a bass who had +sung in previous seasons in Mr. Hammerstein's company), Hinckley, +Feinhals, Schmedes, Jörn, and Quarti. + +A painful and pitiful incident of the season was the vocal shipwreck +suffered by Signor Caruso. After the first week of March he was unable +to sing because of an affection of his vocal organs. At the last matinée +of the subscription season and again on the following Wednesday evening, +he made ill-advised efforts to resume his duties, but the consequences +were distressful to the connoisseurs and seemed so threatening to his +physician that it was deemed advisable to relieve him of his obligation +to go West with the company. + + +Season 1909-1910 + + +This, the twenty-fifth subscription season at the Metropolitan Opera +House, began on November 15th, 1909, and ended on April 2nd, 1910, +and thus endured twenty weeks. But the twenty weeks of the local +subscription by no means summed up the activities of the Metropolitan +company; there was a subscription series of twenty representations in +the Borough of Brooklyn, a subscription series of two representations +each week during the continuance of the Metropolitan season at the New +Theater in the Borough of Manhattan, many special performances, and +subscription representations in Philadelphia and Baltimore which, +though they did not belong to the local record must still be mentioned +because of the influence which they exerted on the local performances. +The first performance of the company took place in Brooklyn on +November 8th, and before the season opened at the official home of +the company representations had also been given in the distant cities +mentioned which heard twenty performances each. There were also eleven +performances in Boston, five in January and six in the last week +of March. After all this there still remained before the company a +Western tour and a visit to Atlanta, Ga. The season began with a +proclamation of harmonious cooperation between the General Manager, +Signor Gatti-Casazza, and the Administrative Manager, Mr. Dippel, and +ended with what amounted to the dismissal of the latter, who solaced +himself by accepting the directorship of the Chicago-Philadelphia Opera +Company, which was called into existence after the principal financial +backers of the Metropolitan Opera House had retired Mr. Hammerstein +from the field by the purchase of the opera house which he had built in +Philadelphia and paid him for abandoning grand opera at the Manhattan +Opera House in New York, which had been the Metropolitan's rival for +four years. The season of operas of a lighter character than those given +at the Metropolitan Opera House which was undertaken at the New Theater, +a beautiful playhouse built for high purposes by a body of gentlemen +most of whom were interested in the larger institution, proved to be a +disastrous failure for reasons which are not to be discussed here, but +which were not wholly disconnected with the causes which, a year later, +led to the abandonment of the New Theater to the same uses to which the +other playhouses of the city are put. + +The local season can be most clearly and succinctly set forth in tabular +form, it being premised that apparent discrepancies between the number +of meetings and the number of performances are to be explained by the +fact that frequently two, and sometimes three, works were brought +forward on one evening or afternoon. These double and triple bills +came to be very numerous in the last month, when it was found that +the Russian dancers, Mme. Pavlowa and M. Mordkin, exerted a greater +attractive power than any opera or combination of singers: + + +SUBSCRIPTION SEASON AT THE METROPOLITAN + + Opera First performance Times given + + "La Gioconda" ................. November 15 ......... 5 + "Otello" ...................... November 17 ......... 6 + "La Traviata" ................. November 18 ......... 3 + "Madama Butterfly" ............ November 19 ......... 6 + "Lohengrin" ................... November 20 ......... 6 + "La Bohème" ................... November 20 ......... 6 + "Tosca" ....................... November 22 ......... 6 + * "Cavalleria Rusticana" ...... November 24 ......... 7 + * "Pagliacci" ................. November 24 ......... 7 + "Il Trovatore" ................ November 25 ......... 6 + "Tristan und Isolde" .......... November 27 ......... 5 + "Aïda" ........................ December 3 .......... 6 + "Tannhäuser" .................. December 4 .......... 4 + "Manon" ....................... December 6 .......... 3 + "Siegfried" ................... December 16 ......... 2 + "Orfeo ed Eurydice" ........... December 23 ......... 5 + "The Bartered Bride" .......... December 24 ......... 1 + "Faust" ....................... December 25 ......... 5 + "Rigoletto" ................... December 25 ......... 2 + "Die Walküre" ................. January 8 ........... 3 + "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" ..... January 15 .......... 3 + "Germania" .................... January 22 .......... 5 + "L'Elisir d'Amore" ............ January 27 .......... 1 + * "Hänsel und Gretel" ......... January 29 .......... 1 + "Don Pasquale" ................ February 2 .......... 2 + "Stradella" ................... February 3 .......... 2 + "Fra Diavolo" ................. February 6 .......... 3 + "Falstaff" .................... February 16 ......... 2 + "Das Rheingold" ............... February 24 ......... 1 + "Werther" ..................... February 28 ......... 2 + * "Coppelia" (ballet) ......... February 28 ......... 4 + "Götterdämmerung" ............. March 4 ............. 1 + "Pique Dame" .................. March 5 ............. 4 + "Der Freischütz" .............. March 11 ............ 2 + * "The Pipe of Desire" ........ March 18 ............ 2 + "Die Meistersinger" ........... March 26 ............ 2 + * "Hungary" (ballet) .......... March 31 ............ 2 + "La Sonnambula" ............... April 2 ............. 1 + + * Performed only in double bills. + + +SUMMARY + + Weeks in the season ........................................ 20 + Subscription performances ................................. 120 + Number of operas produced .................................. 36 + German operas .............................................. 11 + Bohemian opera .............................................. 1 + Russian opera ............................................... 1 + English opera ............................................... 1 + Italian operas ............................................. 18 + French operas ............................................... 4 + German performances ........................................ 34 + French performances ........................................ 13 + Italian performances ....................................... 79 + English performances ........................................ 2 + Double bills (including ballets and divertissements) ....... 23 + Number of ballets ........................................... 2 + Performances of complete ballets ............................ 6 + + +EXTRA REPRESENTATIONS AT THE METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE + + "Parsifal," Thanksgiving matinée, November 25. + "Hänsel und Gretel," special matinées, December 21 and 28. + "La Bohème," benefit of Italian charities, January 4. + "Manon," benefit of French charities, January 18. + "Das Rheingold," serial matinées of "Der Ring," January 24. + "Die Walküre," serial matinées of "Der Ring," January 27. + "Siegfried," serial matinées of "Der Ring," January 28. + "Götterdämmerung," serial matineés of "Der Ring," February 1. + "Stradella," benefit of German Press Club, February 15. + "Vienna Waltzes," ballet, benefit of German Press Club, February 15. + "Parsifal," special matinée on Washington's birthday, February 22. + "La Gioconda," benefit of Italian charities, February 22. + Mixed bill, benefit of Opera House Pension Fund, March 1 + "Aïda" and ballet divertissement, benefit of the Legal Aid Society, March 15. + "Hänsel und Gretel" and "Coppelia," ballet, special matinée, March 15. + "Parsifal," Good Friday matinée, March 25. + + +SUMMARY + + + Total number of extra performances ...................... 16 + German operas ............................................ 7 + German representations .................................. 11 + French opera ............................................. 1 + French representation .................................... 1 + Italian operas ........................................... 3 + Italian representations .................................. 3 + Miscellaneous program .................................... 1 + Double bills (operas, ballets, and divertissements) ...... 5 + + +PERFORMANCES AT THE NEW THEATER + + + Opera First performance Times + + "Werther" ................................ November 16 ..... 4 + "The Bartered Bride" ..................... November 17 ..... 2 + "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" ................ November 25 ..... 3 + "Czar und Zimmermann" .................... November 30 ..... 4 + * "Il Maestro di Capella" ................ December 9 ...... 3 + "Cavalleria Rusticana" ................... December 9 ...... 3 + "La Fille de Madame Angot" ............... December 14 ..... 4 + "Don Pasquale" ........................... December 23 ..... 3 + * "Le Histoire de Pierrot" (pantomime) ... December 28 ..... 4 + * "Pagliacci" ............................ January 6 ....... 2 + "Fra Diavolo" ............................ January 11 ...... 2 + "Manon" .................................. February 3 ...... 1 + "L'Elisir d'Amore" ....................... February 4 ...... 1 + "L'Attaque du Moulin" .................... February 8 ...... 4 + "La Bohème" .............................. February 17 ..... 2 + "Stradella" .............................. February 22 ..... 1 + "Madama Butterfly" ....................... March 4 ......... 1 + "Tosca" .................................. March 22 ........ 1 + "La Sonnambula" .......................... March 23 ........ 1 + * "The Awakening of Woman" (ballet) ...... March 31 ........ 1 + * "The Pipe of Desire" ................... March 31 ........ 1 + * "Hungary" (ballet) ..................... March 31 ........ 1 + * "Coppelia" (ballet) .................... April 1 ......... 1 + + * In double bills only. + + +SUMMARY + + + Number of performances ................................ 40 + Number of operas produced ............................. 19 + German operas .......................................... 2 + Bohemian opera ......................................... 1 + English opera .......................................... 1 + Italian operas ......................................... 9 + French operas .......................................... 6 + German representations ................................. 7 + French representations ................................ 15 + Italian representations ............................... 20 + English representation ................................. 1 + Double bills (including ballets and divertissements) .. 15 + Pantomime .............................................. 1 + Ballets ................................................ 3 + + +THE BROOKLYN SEASON + + + Opera Date of Performance + + "Manon" ........................................ November 8 + "Tannhäuser" ................................... November 15 + "Madama Butterfly" ............................. November 22 + "Tosca" ........................................ November 29 + "Lohengrin" .................................... December 6 + "Martha" ....................................... December 13 + "Il Trovatore" ................................. December 20 + "Il Maestro di Capella" and "Pagliacci" ........ January 3 + "Aïda" ......................................... January 17 + "Faust" ........................................ January 27 + "Fra Diavolo" .................................. January 31 + "Stradella" and divertissement ................. February 7 + "L'Attaque du Moulin" .......................... February 13 + "La Bohème" .................................... February 21 + "Otello" ....................................... February 28 + "La Gioconda" .................................. March 7 + "Il Barbiere" and divertissement ............... March 14 + "Rigoletto" .................................... March 21 + "Der Freischütz" ............................... March 29 + "Madama Butterfly" and "Hungary" (ballet) ...... April 4 + + +There was an extra performance of "Hänsel und Gretel," and ballet +divertissement on Christmas day. New York was never before in its +history so overburdened with opera. The following table offers an +analytical summary of the entire season: + + + Subscription performances .................................... 160 + Total performances ........................................... 197 + Operas produced ............................................... 41 + German operas produced ........................................ 13 + Italian operas produced ....................................... 18 + French operas produced ......................................... 7 + Bohemian opera produced ........................................ 1 + Russian opera produced ......................................... 1 + English opera produced ......................................... 1 + German representations ........................................ 56 + Italian representations ...................................... 115 + French representations ........................................ 23 + Double bills (including ballets and divertissements) .......... 48 + Performances of complete ballets .............................. 12 + + +"The Awakening of Woman" and "Hungary" have been treated as ballets in +this record simply for the sake of convenience. They were, in fact, a +testimonium paupertatis to the feature which had aroused the greatest +interest during the dying weeks of the season. The public wanted to see +the two Russians dance; the management cared so little for artistic +integrity that it did not trouble itself to keep its promises even as +to the ballet. "Vienna Waltzes," which had figured in the prospectus, +was performed but once, and then only because it was demanded by the +German Press Club for its annual benefit. "Die Puppenfee," "Sylvia," +"Les Sylphides," and "Chopin," though on the program, were not given, +short divertissements after long operas being made to take their +place. Operatic novelties promised but not given were: Leo Blech's +"Versiegelt," Goetzl's "Les Précieuses Ridicules," Goldmark's "Cricket +on the Hearth," Humperdinck's "Königskinder," Laparra's "La Habannera," +Lehar's "Amour des Tziganes," Leroux's "Le Chemineau," Maillart's "Les +Dragons des Villars," Offenbach's "Les Contes d'Hoffmann," Rossini's +"Il Signor Bruschino," Suppé's "Schöne Galatee," and Wolf-Ferrari's "Le +Donne Cuiose." The works which had a first production in New York were +Franchetti's "Germania;" Tschaikowsky's "Pique Dame," Converse's "Pipe +of Desire," and Bruneau's "L'Attaque du Moulin." In familiar operas the +public was permitted to see new impersonations of Elsa, Floria Tosca, +and Santuzza by Mme. Fremstad, and of Floria Tosca by Miss +Farrar. Notable achievements from an artistic point of view were the +representations of "Tristan und Isolde" and "Die Meistersinger," +under the direction of Signor Toscanini, and "Pique Dame," under +Herr Mahler. + + +SEASON 1910-1911 + + +The twenty-sixth season at the Metropolitan began on November 14th, and +ended on April 15th, thus embracing twenty-two weeks. When the public +was invited to subscribe for the season in the summer, performances were +promised in French, Italian, German, and English. In the preceding two +years there had been talk of producing Goldmark's "Heimchen am Heerd" +("The Cricket on the Hearth") and Humperdinck's "Königskinder" in +English, and so there was again this; but on his return from Europe in +the fall Signor Gatti put a quietus on it immediately by proclaiming +that the project was impracticable. Nevertheless, in midseason he +announced an opera in English by an American composer (Arthur Nevin's +"Twilight"), and withdrew it, although the public had been told to +expect it. Meanwhile a somewhat singular combination of circumstances +led to a partial fulfilment of the promise in the prospectus. Mr. +Dippel, who had undertaken the management of the Chicago Opera Company +(renamed the Philadelphia-Chicago Company after the Chicago season was +over and that in Philadelphia begun), had carried with him from New +York the purpose to give opera in the vernacular. He was encouraged in +this by Mr. Clarence Mackay and Mr. Otto Kahn, the chief backers of +the Chicago institution, but the Chicago season was not long enongh +to enable him to bring it to fruition. For his second season at the +Manhattan Opera House, Mr. Hammerstein had promised to produce an +English opera "by our American composer, Victor Herbert" (see p. 372). +This opera, entitled "Natoma," had been offered to Signor Gatti-Casazza, +and an act of it tried with orchestra on the stage of the Metropolitan; +but the director did not care to produce it. It was then offered to +Mr. Dippel, who accepted it, and produced it first in Philadelphia +and then at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, where the +Philadelphia-Chicago company gave a subscription series of French operas +on Tuesdays from January to April. To this incident there is a pendant +of more serious purport. The Directors of the Metropolitan Opera Company +had met what seemed to them a challenge on the part of Mr. Hammerstein +by offering a prize of $10,000 for the best opera in English by a +native-born American composer. The time allowed for the competition was +two years and the last day for the reception of scores September 15th, +1910. On May 2nd the jury of award, composed of Alfred Hertz, Walter +Damrosch, George W. Chadwick, and Charles Martin Loeffler, announced +that the successful opera was a three-act musical tragedy entitled +"Mona," of which the words were written by Brian Hooker, the music +by Professor Horatio Parker of Yale University. + +The change of plan occasioned by the abandonment of the representations +at the New Theater and in Baltimore, the latter city being left to the +ministrations of Mr. Dippel's organization, brought with it a large +reduction of the Metropolitan forces, but the smaller company +nevertheless gave eight performances in Philadelphia and fourteen in +Brooklyn besides those called for by the subscription and special +representations in New York. Support on occasions had been promised by +the affiliated companies in Chicago and Boston, but the little that was +offered was not very graciously received by the New York public. Mme. +Melba sang once in "Rigoletto," and once again in "Traviata," one of the +two performances being in the regular subscription list. Then she was +announced as ill, and departed for England. Mlle. Lipowska sang a few +times, as also did Signor Constantino (who had been a member of Mr. +Hammerstein's company and was now the principal tenor in Boston), but +the public was indifferent to these performances of the old Verdi +operas. + +Interesting incidents were the visits of Signor Puccini and Herr +Humperdinck to superintend the rehearsals and witness the first +performances on any stage of their operas, "La Fanciulla del West" and +"Königskinder," the latter of which was sung in the original German +instead of the promised English. For the Italian opera the management +had arranged two special performances at double prices; these were +popular failures in spite of the interest excited by Mr. David Belasco's +play "The Girl of the Golden West," on which the opera was based. The +presence of the Russian dancers, who had won much favor in the preceding +season, was particularly fortunate in the closing weeks of the season, +when another failure of Signor Caruso's voice threatened disaster. Mme. +Pavlowa and her companion, M. Mordkin, supported by a very mediocre +troupe of dancers, had discovered themselves to their admirers before +the opera season opened. They then took part in the Metropolitan +entertainments until the end of the first week of January. Thereupon +they departed, but came back very opportunely for the second fortnight +of March. + +The rest of the story may be read out of the following table and +remarks. There were twenty-two weeks of opera with subscription +performances on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings, and +Saturday afternoons. At these performances operas were given as follows: + + +REGULAR METROPOLITAN SUBSCRIPTION PERFORMANCES + + + Opera First Performance Times + "Armide" ............................... November 14 ....... 3 + "Tannhäuser" ........................... November 16 ....... 5 + "Aïda" ................................. November 17 ....... 6 + "Die Walküre" .......................... November 18 ....... 4 + "Madama Butterfly" ..................... November 19 ....... 5 + "La Bohème" ............................ November 21 ....... 5 + "La Gioconda" .......................... November 23 ....... 6 + "Rigoletto" ............................ November 24 ....... 3 + "Cavalleria Rusticana" (double bill) ... November 25 ....... 5 + "Pagliacci" (double bill) .............. November 25 ....... 7 + "Lohengrin" ............................ November 28 ....... 5 + "Il Trovatore" ......................... December 1 ........ 5 + "Faust" ................................ December 10 ....... 4 + "Orfeo ed Eurydice" .................... December 10 ....... 5 + "La Fanciulla del West" ................ December 26 ....... 7 + "Königskinder" ......................... December 28 ....... 7 + "Tristan und Isolde" ................... January 4 ......... 4 + "Roméo et Juliette" .................... January 13 ........ 2 + "Siegfried" ............................ January 14 ........ 1 + "Die Meistersinger" .................... January 20 ........ 4 + "Germania" ............................. February 1 ........ 2 + "La Traviata" .......................... February 2 ........ 2 + "Tosca" ................................ February 8 ........ 5 + "Die Verkaufte Braut" .................. February 15 ....... 4 + "Otello" ............................... February 27 ....... 5 + "Ariane et Barbe-Bleue" ................ March 29 .......... 4 + "Hänsel und Gretel" (doublebill) ....... April 6 ........... 2 + + +There were ten Saturday evening subscriptions at regular prices at +which the following operas were given, viz.: "Cavalleria Rusticana" +and "Pagliacci," "Madama Butterfly," "Il Trovatore," "Parsifal," +"Lohengrin," "Thaïs" (Chicago Opera Company), "Aïda," "Königskinder," +"Tannhäuser," and "Tosca." There were holiday, benefit, and special +performances as follows: + + +EXTRA PERFORMANCES + + Opera First Performance Times + + "Parsifal" ............................ November 24 ........ 3 + "La Traviata" ......................... November 29 ........ 1 + "La Fanciulla del West" ............... December 10 ........ 2 + "Cavalleria" and ballet ............... December 24 ........ 1 + "Hänsel und Gretel" ................... December 26 ........ 4 + "Königskinder" ........................ December 31 ........ 3 + "Aïda" ................................ January 7 .......... 1 + "Rigoletto" ........................... January 14 ......... 1 + "Roméo et Juliette" ................... January 21 ......... 1 + "Die Meistersinger" ................... January 28 ......... 1 + "Das Rheingold" ....................... February 2 ......... 1 + "Madama Butterfly" .................... February 4 ......... 2 + "Die Walküre" ......................... February 9 ......... 1 + "Siegfried" ........................... February 13 ........ 1 + "Götterdämmerung" ..................... February 22 ........ 1 + "La Bohème" and ballet ................ March 30 ........... 1 + Mixed bill ............................ April 6 ............ 1 + +Twenty-six representations; sixteen operas. + + +There was also an extra subscription season by the Chicago Opera +Company, which made a showing as follows: + + +SUBSCRIPTION SEASON OF THE PHILADELPHIA-CHICAGO COMPANY + + + Opera First Performance Times + + "Thaïs" ........................................ January 24 ....... 1 + "Louise" ....................................... January 31 ....... 2 + "Pelléas et Mélisande" ......................... February 7 ....... 1 + "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" ........................ February 14 ...... 1 + "Carmen" ....................................... February 21 ...... 1 + "Natoma" (once in double bill) ................. February 28 ...... 3 + "Il Segreto di Susanna" (in double bill) ....... March 14 ......... 2 + "Le Jongleur de Notre Dame" (in double bill) ... March 14 ......... 1 + "Quo Vadis" .................................... April 4 .......... 1 + +Eleven evenings, one extra, nine operas, three double bills. + + +METROPOLITAN PERFORMANCES IN BROOKLYN + + + Opera First Performance Times + + "Il Trovatore" ......................... November 19 ....... 1 + "Orfeo ed Eurydice" .................... November 26 ....... 1 + "Tannhäuser" ........................... December 3 ........ 1 + "Cavalleria" (double bill) ............. January 3 ......... 1 + "Pagliacci" (double bill) .............. January 3 ......... 1 + "Lohengrin" ............................ January 17 ........ 1 + "Königskinder" ......................... January 24 ........ 1 + "La Bohème" ............................ January 31 ........ 1 + "Rigoletto" ............................ February 7 ........ 1 + "Madama Butterfly" ..................... February 21 ....... 1 + "Tosca" ................................ February 28 ....... 1 + "Aïda" ................................. March 7 ........... 1 + "Otello" ............................... March 14 .......... 1 + "La Fanciulla del West" ................ March 18 .......... 1 + "Parsifal" ............................. March 21 .......... 1 + +Fourteen representations, fifteen operas, one double bill. + +The novelties produced in the season were Gluck's "Armide," Puccini's +"La Fanciulla del West," Humperdinck's "Königskinder," Dukas's "Ariane +et Barbe-Bleue," Herbert's "Natoma," Wolf-Ferrari's "Il Segreto di +Susanna," and Nouguet's "Quo Vadis." + + + +APPENDIX II + +TWO SEASONS AT THE MANHATTAN OPERA HOUSE + + +The third season of opera under the sole direction of Mr. Oscar +Hammerstein at the Manhattan Opera House, New York, began on November +9th, 1908, and lasted twenty weeks until March 27th, 1909. During +this period there were five regular performances each week. Had there +been no deviation from the rule there would have been one hundred +representations, but advantage was taken of occasions which seemed +auspicious to give extra performances, and therefore there were also +representations on Thanksgiving Day, New Year's Day, Washington's +birthday, and to signalize by special attention (and, incidentally, +special prices) the coming of Richard Strauss's delectable "Salome." +So there were added four performances to the weekly five originally +set down for Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings, and +Saturday afternoons. + +In his prospectus, issued in the summer, Mr. Hammerstein specifically +promised to produce "Samson et Dalila," by Saint-Saëns, "Salome," by +Richard Strauss, "Le Jongleur de Notre Dame" and "Grisélidis," by +Massenet, and "Princesse d'Auberge," by Jan Blockx. He brought forward +all of these except "Grisélidis." In the list of operas which he was +less specifically bound to perform were Massenet's "Manon," Bizet's +"Les Pécheurs des Perles," Verdi's "Falstaff," Bréton's "Dolores," +Giordano's "Andrea Chenier" and "Siberia," Puccini's "Madama Butterfly," +Donizetti's "Linda di Chamounix," Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera" and +"Ernani," all of which fell by the board. The chief features of interest +in the season were the productions of the novelties, "Salome," "Le +Jongleur de Notre Dame" (with Mary Garden in the part of the Juggler, +which was written for a man), and "Princesse d'Auberge," and the series +of performances headed by Mme. Melba, who opened the sixth week of the +season on December 14th in "La Bohème," and concluded her engagement on +January 11th in "Rigoletto." Her performances were confined to these two +operas and "Otello." For the rest let the following table speak: + + + Opera First performance Times + + "Tosca" ....................... November 9 ............ 5 + "Thaïs" ....................... November 11 ........... 7 + "Samson et Dalila" ............ November 13 ........... 6 + "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" ..... November 14 ........... 3 + "Lucia di Lammermoor" ......... November 18 ........... 7 + "Gli Ugonetti" ................ November 20 ........... 2 + "Carmen" ...................... November 26 ........... 2 + "Le Jongleur de Notre Dame" ... November 27 ........... 7 + "Cavalleria Rusticana" ........ December 4 ............ 5 + "Pagliacci" ................... December 4 ............ 5 + "Rigoletto" ................... December 5 ............ 5 + "Traviata" .................... December 12 ........... 5 + "La Bohème" ................... December 14 ........... 5 + "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" ....... December 16 ........... 7 + "Otello" ...................... December 25 ........... 6 + "Pelléas et Mèlisande" ........ January 6 ............. 4 + "Crispino e la Comare" ........ January 9 ............. 3 + "Salome" ...................... January 28 ........... 10 + "Aïda" ........................ February 10 ........... 2 + "La Sonnambula" ............... February 13 ........... 3 + "Louise" ...................... February 19 ........... 5 + "I Puritani" .................. February 26 ........... 2 + "Il Trovatore" ................ March 1 ............... 1 + "Princesse d'Auberge" ......... March 10 .............. 3 + "La Navarraise" ............... March 20 .............. 1 + + +Total number of performances, 111; number of representations, 104; total +number of operas, 25; operas composed in Italian, 14; in French, 9; +in German, 1; in Flemish, 1; Italian representations, 59; French, 52. +The difference between the number of representations and the total of +performances of the different operas is due to the fact that on seven +occasions two operas were given on the same afternoon or evening. + + +SEASON 1909-1910 + +Before beginning his fourth season Mr. Hammerstein opened his house for +a season of "educational" opera, as he called it at first, which began +on August 30th, 1909, and lasted until October 30th, 1909. In this +preliminary season Mr. Hammerstein not only made trial of a considerable +number of singers, some of whom remained with him throughout the regular +season, but also experimented with operas, some of which went over into +the subscription repertory with no considerable change either in casts +or settings, while others, notably "La Juive" and "Le Prophète," might +well have done so. In them also some singers of notable excellence +were heard, like Zerola, the tenor; William Beck, the barytone, and +Marguerite Sylva, but after the regular season got under way they +were heard from chiefly in the newspapers in connection with the +disaffections and disagreements which were almost incessant. + +In the season proper Mr. Hammerstein tried to give opéra comique, as he +politely called it, though it was largely opéra bouffe, and when the +experiment proved a failure he courageously abandoned it. The proceeding +has its parallel in the so-called "lyric" opera conducted by the +Metropolitan management of the New Theater. After pondering the matter +for a space, Mr. Hammerstein substituted opera at popular prices on +Saturday evenings for the opéra bouffe, with a result of which we are +not in a position to speak. + +The promises of an impresario, whether made positively, like "The +following operas will be performed," or vaguely, like "The repertory +will be selected from the following lists"--an old and favorite +device--are always accepted by the public in a Pickwickian sense. Mr. +Hammerstein did not disturb the precedents in this respect, but he +came creditably near to keeping his definite promises. He said that +"Hérodiade," "Elektra," "Grisélidis," and "Sapho" would be among his +novelties, and they were. He said that "Cendrillon," "Feuersnoth," +"The Violin Maker of Cremona," and Victor Herbert's "Natoma" would +also be given--and they were not. Of old works the only ones promised +in the list of grand operas and not given were "Crispino e la Comare," +"Siberia," "Lohengrin," "I Puritani," "Meistersinger," and "Le +Prophète." Most of them were easily spared, especially the two Wagnerian +operas, the futility of which in French must have been obvious after Mr. +Hammerstein had admitted the failure of his French singers to grasp the +spirit of "Tannhäuser." + +Here is the tabular record: + + + Opera First performance Times + + "Hérodiade" ...................... November 8 ........... 6 + "Traviata" ....................... November 10 .......... 4 + "Aïda" ........................... November 12 .......... 3 + "Thaïs" .......................... November 13 .......... 6 + "Cavalleria Rusticana" ........... November 13 .......... 4 + "Pagliacci" ...................... November 13 .......... 8 + "Lucia di Lammermoor" ............ November 16 .......... 7 + "La Fille de Madame Angot" ....... November 16 .......... 2 + "Sapho" .......................... November 17 .......... 3 + "La Fille du Régiment" ........... November 22 .......... 4 + "Mascotte" ....................... November 23 .......... 1 + "Carmen" ......................... November 25 .......... 6 + "Tosca" .......................... November 26 .......... 3 + "Les Dragons des Villars" ........ November 27 .......... 2 + "Le Jongleur de Notre Dame" ...... December 4 ........... 5 + "Les Cloches de Corneville" ...... December 4 ........... 3 + "Faust" .......................... December 8 ........... 3 + "Tannhäuser" ..................... December 10 .......... 3 + "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" .......... December 25 .......... 8 + "Trovatore" ...................... January 8 ............ 2 + "La Bohème" ...................... January 14 ........... 5 + "Grisélidis" ..................... January 19 ........... 4 + "Samson et Dalila" ............... January 28 ........... 2 + "Elektra" ........................ February 1 ........... 7 + "Rigaletto" ...................... February 11 .......... 4 + "Louise" ......................... February 23 .......... 2 + "La Navarraise" .................. February 28 .......... 2 + "Salome" ......................... March 5 .............. 4 + "Pelléas et Mélisande" ........... March 11 ............. 3 + "Lakmé" .......................... March 21 ............. 1 + Mixed bill ....................... March 25 ............. 1 + + +After the conclusion of the season Mr. Hammerstein sold his Philadelphia +Opera House, which had been opened a week after the performances began +in New York, to a company of gentlemen largely interested in the +Metropolitan, and entered into an obligation with them not to give grand +opera in New York City for ten years. It seems appropriate, therefore, +to print the following tabular record of his performances during his +four years' management of the Manhattan Opera House: + + + Operas 1906-1907 1907-1908 1908-1909 1909-1910 + + "Aïda" ..................... 12 9 2 3 + "Andrea Chenier" ............ 0 1 0 0 + "Ballo in Maschera" ......... 2 4 0 0 + "Barbiere di Siviglia" ...... 2 0 3 0 + "Bohème" .................... 4 0 5 5 + "Cavalleria" ................ 8 4 3 4 + "Carmen" ................... 19 11 2 6 + "Contes d'Hoffmann" ......... 0 11 7 8 + "Cloches de Corneville" ..... 0 0 0 3 + "Crispino e la Comare" ...... 0 3 3 0 + "Damnation de Faust" ........ 0 3 0 0 + "Dinorah" ................... 1 1 0 0 + "Don Giovanni" .............. 4 3 0 0 + "Dragons des Villars" ....... 0 0 0 2 + "Elektra" ................... 0 0 0 7 + "Elisir d'Amore" ............ 3 0 0 0 + "Ernani" .................... 0 1 0 0 + "Faust" ..................... 7 4 0 3 + "Fille de Mme. Angot" ....... 0 0 0 2 + "Fille du Régiment" ......... 0 0 0 2 + "Fra Diavolo" ............... 4 0 0 0 + "Gioconda" .................. 0 4 0 0 + "Grisélidis" ................ 0 0 0 4 + "Héodiade" .................. 0 0 0 6 + "Huguenots" ................. 5 0 2 0 + "Jongleur de Notre Dame" .... 0 0 7 5 + "Lakmé" ..................... 0 0 0 1 + "Louise" .................... 0 11 5 2 + "Lucia di Lammermoor" ....... 6 8 7 7 + "Martha" .................... 4 0 0 0 + "Mascotte" .................. 0 0 0 1 + "Mignon" .................... 3 0 0 0 + "Navarraise" ................ 2 5 1 2 + "Otello" .................... 0 0 6 0 + "Pagliacci" ................ 10 9 5 8 + "Pelléas et Mélisande" ...... 0 7 4 3 + "Princesse d'Auberge" ....... 0 0 3 0 + "Puritani" .................. 2 0 2 0 + "Rigoletto" ................ 11 5 5 4 + "Salome" .................... 0 0 10 4 + "Samson et Dalila" .......... 0 0 6 2 + "Siberia" ................... 0 3 0 0 + "Sapho" ..................... 0 0 0 3 + "Sonnambula" ................ 3 0 3 0 + "Tannhäuser" ................ 0 0 0 3 + "Thaïs" ..................... 0 7 7 6 + "Traviata" .................. 3 5 5 4 + "Tosca" ..................... 0 0 5 3 + "Trovatore" ................. 6 5 1 2 + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Chapters of Opera, by H.E. 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