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V. 2
THE PRIMA DONNA
AT ALL LIBRARIES.
MEMOIRS OF COUNT HORACE DE VIEL CASTEL:
A Chronicle of events, Political and Social, during the Reign of Napoleon III. Years
1851-1864. Including the Coup d'Etat, the Emperor's Marriage with Mademoiselle
de Montijo, Visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to Paris, &c. Together with
Anecdotes and Gossip of the Imperial Family and Court.
Translated and Edited by CHARLES BOUSFIELD. 2 vols. domy 8vo., 30s.
From the "TIMES," January 31, 1888.
"The Memoirs of M. de Viel Castel are extremely amusing because they are
excessively personal. He is emphatically what the French call a mauvaise langue;
he has a marvellous flair for scandalous anecdotes, which we may be sure lose nothing
in the telling; with a malicious memory which seems never to have been at fault. No
doubt, in the venal Court of the Second Empire, he found subjects enough for his
cynical humour; and if he had been constrained to defend actions for libel, he could
probably in most cases have mado a plausible defence. At all events, it would have
been dangerous to put him in the witness-box, and drive him to stir the mud in self-
defence under severe cross-examination. What makes his memoirs such entertaining
reading is that he has not only a good memory for bad stories, but that in his rapid
portraiture he shows something of the power, of the shrewd insight, and of the graphic
wit of a Saint-Simon.
"When we say that he spares no one, of course among the many hundred characters
he touches off there are rare exceptions to prove the rule. Considering that he had
but indifferent reason for being grateful, où the whole he treats the Emperor well.
He has nothing to say in praise of his morals-quite the reverse-but he highly com-
mends his courage, his reserve, and his constancy. He tells many anecdotes to illus-
trate the insouciant fatalism of the silent man of destiny, who believed his life to be
charmed so long as his mission was unaccomplished. The Emperor lived in a circle of
parasites and flatterers, whose selfishness he saw through, but whose services were so
far indispensable that he could do no better by dismissing them. According to the
Connt-and we have little doubt that he is right-the Emperor could only make his
exalted station endurable by falling back on the consolations of a cynical pessimism.
The friends whose fortunes he had made were ready to throw him over should the
wind change. The army was not to be trusted; the electorate was proverbially fickle.
As for the nearest Princes of his blood, he hated and was heartily ashamed of them.
They fleeced him freely; they caballed against him, and always encouraged their
coteries to abuse him. M. de Viel Castel lets down the Princess Mathilde lightly,
though he does not care to draw a veil over her domestic scandals; she was for loug
his patroness, and he had the run of her table.
"One of the most interesting things in the volumes is Colonel l'Espinasse's report of
how he carried out the Coup d'Etat as a soldier who understood nothing but his orders.
Viel Castel asked him if he would really have executed his threat of shooting the
Deputies had they persisted in resistance. 'Most certainly,' he replied; 'my head
was at stake, and I was not going to lose it through weak play.' When the President
had been assured in his place by the Coup d'Etat and the plébiscite, eager candidates for
office rallied round him with patriotic unanimity. Patronage, then and afterwards,
was indiscriminately prostituted, partly from the President's easy disposition, so long
as his personal interests were not touched; partly because corrupt men could only be
retained by corruption, In every chapter we come on scandalous examples of the
waste of the national wealth. With the single exception of Saint-Arnaud, Mr. King-
lake himself has not spoken so scathingly as Viel Castel of the President's confidants
and immediate entourage. He declares Saint-Arnaud to have been a spendthrift, over-
whelmed with debts; but subsequently, when alluding to the Marshal's death, he
tones down the translation of Kinglake's vie orageuse into a restless and rather
adventurous life,' and says that the Marshal's last years more than compensated for
the wildness of his youth.
"The Count writes throughout with the consistent animosity to England of a jealous
and narrow-minded Frenchman. He assures us that, through the entente cordiale,
while accepting State hospitalities at Windsor and returning them at Compiègne and
the Tuileries, the Emperor was really playing us false and looking forward to the war
of revenge. He criticizes the action of our statesmen from the most malevolent point
of view, and confirms himself in his credulous belief of English impotence with trans-
parently apocryphal utterances.
"What he has to tell about the Crimean war will be read with interest in relation
to Mr. Kinglake's recent volumes. It seems that at one time the Emperor's departure
was actually settled, and was only a question of days. What made him reconsider his
resolution was the attitude of Prince Jérôme, who desired to act as Regent in his
absence. In that event the Ministry threatened to resign, so the Emperor decided to
remain at the helm. Of course there are many sketches of social and literary cele-
brities. He talks of About and Prince Napoleon, when they were supposed to have
laid their heads together to compose a manifesto, as mixing like the waters of two
common sewers; and the epitaph on Eugène Sue is that his death is a scandal the less,
as he was a mediocre writer without morality or conviction, and a disreputable
individual in every sense. Perhaps in that instance we are not so much inclined as in
some others to blame Viel Castel for acting up to his maxim of de mortuis nihil nisi
malum.
"Through the scandals are scattered curious and piquant revelations."
REMINGTON & CO., HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

THE PRIMA DONNA
Her History and Surroundings from the Seventeenth to
the Nineteenth Century
BY
H SUTHERLAND
gun
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL II
EDWARDS
London
REMINGTON AND CO PUBLISHERS
HENRIETTA STREET COVENT GARDEN
1888
[All Rights Reserved]
Transfer to
шой
7.2
Preposterous ass! that never read so far
To know the cause why music was ordained!
Was it not to refresh the mind of man
After his studies or his usual pain?
Taming of the Shrew.
Shining ones who thronged
Eastward and westward making bright the night.
Light of Asia.
155085
Soprano, mezzo, even the contralto
Wished him five fathoms under the Rialto.
Beppo.
CHAP.
CONTENTS.
•
I. Jenny Lind …..
II. Bosio
III. Titiens
IV. Patti...
V. Pauline Lucca
VI. Christine Nilsson
VII. Albani
VIII. A Flight of Prime Donne ...
IX. Mdlle. Schneider, the Prima Donna of
Opera Bouffe
236
...
:
...
...
•
...
...
...
..
··
:
:
...
:
•••
...
:
:
...
·
•
XI. The Prima Donna as a Type
INDEX TO NAMES
INDEX TO OPERAS AND ORATORIOS
...
X. The Prima Donna and some Operatic
Conventions
...
1.
...
...
PAGE
1
...
39
53
64
125
135
162
181
246
265
... 293
299
CHAPTER I.
JENNY LIND.
MADAME LIND-GOLDSCHMIDT was one of the few perfect
singers of the century; though so many years have
passed since she appeared on the operatic stage that
this statement must, by most amateurs of the present
day, be taken on trust. She filled her last operatic
part at the end of the season of 1848. It is true
that, for many years afterwards, she was heard from
time to time at concerts, even down to the year
1866. But the Jenny Lind who touched the hearts
and turned the heads of all who heard her may be
said to have disappeared in little more than a year
from the day when, in the spring of 1847, she first
came before the London public. No great singer
had ever a shorter career, or a career that was more
brilliant. Born at Stockholm on 6th Oct., 1820 (or,
VOL. II.
B
2
THE PRIMA DONNA.
according to some chroniclers, 1821), Jenny Lind
sang before she was able to speak. She was the
daughter of educated parents, the father being a
teacher of languages, the mother a schoolmistress.
Little Jenny sang every air she happened to hear,
and did so without attracting much attention until
one day her lisping performances were heard by an
actress named Landberg, who, struck by the child's
musical genius, urged the parents to give her a
serious artistic training. They disliked the idea of
their child devoting herself to the stage, but with
their consent Frau Landberg spoke to Jenny herself
on the subject, and the result was that the young
girl was introduced to a well-known music-master
in Stockholm, who, after hearing her sing, pre-
dicted for her a
a most brilliant future. After
giving her some lessons, Jenny's master presented
her to Count Pücke, director of the Court Theatre,
with the view of getting her admitted to the School
of Music, which, like the theatre connected with it,
was under the Count's direction. But the little
girl made no favourable impression on the Inten-
dant, and it was not until after many representa-
tions that he could be induced to accept her.
Her teachers, when she had once passed the ordeal
of the Count's criticism, were Berg, principal sing-
ing-master of the school, and the composer Lindblad.
Attached to the School of Music was a small theatre
JENNY LIND.
3
for students; and there, when scarcely in her teens,
Jenny Lind appeared in child's parts with con-
siderable success. Soon afterwards, at the critical
period of from thirteen to fourteen, the voice of the
little girl became clouded, and she seemed to have
lost her upper notes. For a time she gave up sing-
ing altogether but, far from abandoning her musical
studies, she pursued them in a new direction, and
for some two or three years occupied herself chiefly
with harmony and the practice of the pianoforte.
Then the voice returned, and one night when the
fourth act of Robert le Diable was to be performed,
or at least sung, at a concert, Jenny Lind had the
part of "Alice" offered to her. She sang the
beautiful air " Quand je quittais la Normandie
with so much expression and so much charm that
everyone, even her own singing - master, was
astonished. Jenny, too, was herself a little sur-
prised when, the next morning, she was told that she
was now to appear on the boards, and that she had
already been cast for the part of "Agatha” in Der
Freischütz. Fortunately she had studied the music,
and there was no character which she was more
desirous of impersonating. Her success was already
ooked upon as certain when, to the admiration of
all present, she sang the part at the last rehearsal.
Among the audience at the representation was the
famous and fascinating novelist, Frederika Bremer,
66
""
4
THE PRIMA DONNA.
1
who has described Jenny Lind's first appearance in
enthusiastic terms.
Jenny Lind was now the accepted favourite of
Stockholm opera-goers; and for nearly two years
afterwards she sang on the scene of her first ap-
pearance the principal soprano parts in Weber's
Euryanthe, in Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable, and in
Spontini's Vestale. Her first Italian part was
"Anna Bolena" in Donizetti's opera of that name,
considered, in the days before Lucia, Lucrezia Borgia,
and La Favorita, the composer's master-piece.
But it was not in Italian works that the young
Swedish singer was to make her greatest success;
and in the year 1840 the eyes of most ambitious
vocalists, as of musicians generally, were turned
towards Paris. "This city," wrote Heine, about
the year 1840, or a few years later, "is not simply
the capital of France, but of the whole civilized
world, and the meeting-place of its intellectual
notabilities. Assembled here is all that is great by
love or hatred, by feeling or thought, by knowledge
or power, by happiness or unhappiness, by the future
or by the past."
Among the "notabilities" spoken of by the
German poet and chronicler Jenny Lind was anxious
to range herself. But she did not yet consider her-
self fitted to compete with the greatest singers of
the day; and Paris had at that time a well-appointed
JENNY LIND.
5
100
Italian Opera, with Grisi and Persiani among the
vocalists, as well as the so-called Académie Royale
de Musique, or Grand Opera. At Paris, then, her
first visit was to the famous professor of singing,
Manuel Garcia, for many years past better known in
London than in Paris; who, after hearing her, recom-
mended her to take a long period of repose.
For
several weeks, or even months, the young vocalist
left to Nature the task of repairing the ravages
caused in her voice by premature exertion. Then
she visited Garcia again; and he put her through a
course of study, at the end of which he considered.
her fit to undertake an engagement for principal
parts, at the Paris Opera-house. Different accounts
have been published as to what now took place.
The German musical lexicographer, Mendel, declares
that Jenny Lind appeared publicly at the Paris
Opera, and sang without success. Larousse, in his
Dictionnaire du Dix-Neuvième Siècle," repeats
Mendel's error; and it is to be observed that neither
in the German nor in the French dictionary is the
name given of the opera in which Jenny Lind is said
to have appeared. If from Mendel, less accurate
than German editors generally are, and from La-
rousse, more accurate than French editors are gene-
rally supposed to be, we turn to the almost invariably
correct Castil Blaze, we find a detailed account of
a trial performance said to have been gone through

6
THE PRIMA DONNA.
CO
by Jenny Lind at the Paris Opera with a view to
an engagement, which, however, was not at the
time offered to her. The following, according to
the historian of the Académie Royale de Musique,
is what really took place:-
In the autumn of 1840, strongly recommended
by Garcia and by Meyerbeer, Jenny Lind applied for
an engagement at the Paris Opera-house. Mdlle.
Falcon, after succeeding Madame Dorus-Gras as
"Alice" in Robert le Diable, and in other analogous
parts, had in her turn left the theatre, and it was
natural to suppose that a new and competent repre-
sentative of the characters which Mdlle. Falcon had
now abandoned would be welcomed, or, at least, not
unfavourably received.
But the director of the Paris Opera-house, M.
Léon Pillet, was just then unduly interested in the
artistic success and general welfare of Madame Stolz;
and it was not thought desirable to engage a new
soprano when the reigning favourite possessed a
contralto voice and was on the look out for leading
contralto parts. It was for Madame Stolz that about
this time the part of "Léonore" in Donizetti's opera
of La Favorite, was specially composed, so that M.
Léon Pillet's "favouritism" (so to say) produced at
least one good result. But while increasing the
operatic repertory of Europe by one second-class
work, it prevented the French public from hearing
one of the first singers of her time.

JENNY LIND.
7
Meyerbeer had arranged that a hearing should be
given to Mdlle. Lind in the concert-room of the
Opera-house. The orchestra was present, and she
sang to full accompaniment three operatic scenes;
those of "Agatha" (Der Freyschütz), of "Alice"
(Robert le Diable), and of "Norma." No better
scheme could have been devised for exhibiting the
talent of the young vocalist in three very different
parts. But neither the singing of Jenny Lind nor
its approval by Meyerbeer was of any avail. The
so-called trial performance was but an empty farce.
Madame Stolz would tolerate no rival in the
domain over which she ruled; and without this
lady's permission M. Léon Pillet was afraid to make
a step. Justly susceptible, Jenny Lind did not
forgive the slight. The spretce injuria vocis was
felt; and when seven or eight years later, after her
brilliant success in London, an engagement was
offered to her at the Paris Opera-house, she refused
it without assigning any definite reason.
So far M. Castil Blaze. He is right in saying
that Jenny Lind never made a public appearance at
the Grand Opera of Paris; right also in saying that
she went through a trial performance at that
theatre in presence of Meyerbeer; and apparently
right, moreover, in saying that M. Léon Pillet did
not think it likely that Madame Stolz and Jenny
Lind would be able to get on together as members
of the same company.
8
THE PRIMA DONNA.
According, however, to M. Léon Pillet, who, on
retiring from the management of the Académie
Royale de Musique, published in 1847 a brief
account of his four years' management, there was
never any question of Jenny Lind's being engaged
at the Paris Opera-house. But let him speak in his
own words. This, then, is what M. Léon Pillet says
in his pamphlet of eighty-three pages, entitled:
"Académie Royale de Musique. Compte rendu de
la gestion depuis le 1er juin, 1840, jusqu'an 1er juin,
1846":
"Much has been said about Mdlle. Lind. It has
been asserted-
"I. That Meyerbeer presented her to me himself
four years ago, and that I refused to engage her.
"II. That since her success in Germany he had in
vain pressed me to engage her. It has even been
said that Mdlle. Lind herself applied for an engage-
ment; and in some theatrical journals the very
sum she is said to have asked, and which, it is said,
I refused, has been given.
"There are so many fables, as to which I may as
well set forth the truth.
"Four years ago, i.e., 1843, at the time when Meyer-
beer was seeking, not a soprano, but a tenor for
Le Prophète, he came to me just before leaving
Paris and asked me to let him hear on the stage
a young person who had been much praised to him.
JENNY LIND.
9
TANK TOPS
It is not for you,' he hastened to answer. 'She
is said to have a pretty voice, but not strong enough
for the Grand Opera. I want to see if it will be
of any use for Berlin.'
"I gave Meyerbeer all the facilities he had asked
for; placing at his disposition, not only the stage,
but an accompanist (M. Benoit). Then I myself
took him on to the stage with Mdlle. Lind, whom I
expected to hear, when suddenly I was told that the
committee, which still used to meet at the Opera,
wished to see me.
"I accordingly apologized to Meyerbeer and Mdlle.
Lind, and then left them without hearing a single
note. The next day I asked what Meyerbeer had
thought of his singer. He said, I was told, that
she was not without talent, but that she had still
much to learn.
"That did not show that she had produced a great
impression upon him; and he, indeed, thought so
little of her then for the opera that he did not
even mention her to me. It was only last year at
Cologne that, talking of Mdlle. Lind, he reminded
me of the circumstance which I have just related.
"As for the other assertion that Meyerbeer had
afterwards pressed me in vain to engage this singer,
it is as incorrect as the first.
1
"Meyerbeer did, indeed, say to me last winter
that he had the highest opinion of this artist's
10
THE PRIMA DONNA.
talent; that if it was possible to have her and
Madame Stolz at the same theatre it would be
admirable. But, he hastened to add, he thought it
impossible; that the same thing would happen
probably as with Nourrit and Duprez; that being
both sufficiently strong to occupy the first place at
a theatre, neither of them would consent to hold a
secondary position; that, moreover, Mdlle. Lind's
pecuniary demands would be very considerable, and
that as far as he was concerned he should be quite
content to have for the second part in the Prophète
Mdlle. Brambilla or Madame Rossi-Caccia.
"In order to have a clear conscience, however, I
begged him to ask Mdlle. Lind if she would consent
to leave the land of her triumphs for an engagement
at Paris. He refused to undertake this commission.
"I was about to make the proposition myself,
although without much hope, when M. Vatel (at
that time director of the Italian Theatre), who had
had the same idea as myself, communicated to me
the following letter, which he had just received:-
"MONSIEUR LE DIRECTEUR,
11
"I have had the honour to receive your
letter of the 13th November, and I beg you to for-
give me for having left you so long without a reply!
But before answering it was necessary for me to
reflect.
"I have decided, sir, to remain in Germany
JENNY LIND.
11
during the short time that I shall appear on the
stage.
´´ For the more I think of it the more I am con-
vinced that I am not for Paris nor Paris for me.
"I leave the theatre in a year from now, and
until then I have so much to do in Germany that I
cannot accept any engagement either for Paris or
for London.
666
"Permit me, however, to express to you my
gratitude for having thought me worthy to appear
before the first public in the world; and let me assure
you, Monsieur le Directeur, that I do you the least
harm in not incurring the risk of a failure.
"Believe me, etc.,
(Signed)
JENNY LIND.""
From Paris Jenny Lind had returned to Stock-
holm, where, on her reappearance at the Court
Theatre, she was received with unbounded enthu-
siasm. In 1843 she started once more on her
travels, and in the spring of that year accepted
an engagement at Copenhagen. From Copenhagen
she went back once more to her native Stockholm.
But Scandinavia was too small. Her ambition
embraced the whole of Europe--not to speak of
America, to which, as yet, she had probably never
given a thought. She wrote to Meyerbeer, whose
acquaintance she had made at Paris, and the com-
poser of Robert le Diable procured for her an engage-
12
THE PRIMA DONNA.
ment as second soprano at the Royal Opera-house
of Berlin. Here she made her first appearance as
Adalgisa " in Norma; but it was not until she took
the part of "Alice" that she produced any deep
impression on the Berlin public. The purity and
simplicity of this character were indeed perfectly
suited both to her nature and to her artistic style.
So great was the effect produced by Jenny Lind as
the peasant heroine of Meyerbeer's opera that news
of it soon reached London; and in a very few
weeks an emissary arrived at Berlin bearing pro-
posals on the part of Mr. Benjamin Lumley, at that
time manager of Her Majesty's Theatre. No definite
engagement, however, seems to have been offered,
and none, in any case, was accepted. Meanwhile
the Swedish vocalist was gradually acquiring a
European reputation. Meyerbeer entrusted to her
at Dresden the part of "Vielka" in his Camp of
Silesia, afterwards with many modifications to be-
come L'Etoile du Nord; and here she appeared as
"Amina,' "Norma" and "Maria," parts in which
she was soon to be heard at Her Majesty's Theatre.
Vienna was the scene of her next great triumphs,
and in 1846 she once more received propositions
from London. This time it was Mr. Bunn, manager
of Drury Lane Theatre, who wished to secure her
services; and with him she signed a formal con-
tract. Immediately afterwards a new offer arrived
""
66
JENNY LIND.
13
from Mr. Lumley; and preferring, in accordance
with the representations of her friends, Her
Majesty's Theatre to Drury Lane, she put aside
Mr. Bunn and agreed to sing for Mr. Lumley. A
sum of two thousand pounds offered to Mr. Bunn
by way of compensation was refused; and for some
time the action for damages with which the popular
vocalist was threatened
threatened by the disappointed
manager afforded abundant material to the gossips
of London. It may here be mentioned that in due
time Mr. Bunn's action was brought, the Court
awarding him by way of damages five hundred
pounds more than the sum that had been tendered
to him.
Jenny Lind sang for the first time in London
May 4th, 1847. The opera was Robert le Diable, and
the cast comprised Fraschini as "Robert; " Gardoni
as "Raimbaud" (the part in which Mario at the Paris
Opera-house made his first appearance on the stage);
Staudigl as "Bertram;" Castellan as "Isabelle;
and Jenny Lind as “Alice.” The house was
densely crowded; though, according to the Musical
World, the speculators in seats had so overdone
the business that several boxes were left without
occupants. "Jenny Lind," says a writer in the
journal just cited, "is young, of the middle height,
fair-haired, blue-eyed, neither stout nor slender, but
well proportioned, neither fat nor thin, but enough
""
14
THE PRIMA DONNA.
of the one for comeliness, and enough of the other
for romance, meek looking when her features are at
rest, full of animation and energy when they are at
play-like Fate when she frowns, like love when she
smiles-in short the very maiden of the German
poet's dreams, the Jungfrau of Schiller's ideal.
Jenny Lind is neither handsome nor plain, neither
pretty nor ugly, but something that hovers about the
abstract qualities of everything, catching a portion
of them, but resembling them in nothing." In this
not very direct, nor altogether intelligible description
of Jenny Lind's vague attractiveness is nevertheless
indicated the character of her peculiar charm.
The second part undertaken by Jenny Lind at
Her Majesty's Theatre was that of "Amina" in La
Sonnambula; and before the season closed the new
prima donna had also been heard as "Maria" in La
Fille du Régiment, as "Norma," and as "Susanna" in
Le Nozze di Figaro. In 1848 she returned and added
to her Anglo-Italian repertory "Lucia" in Doni-
zetti's opera, "Adina" in L'Elisir, and "Elvira
in 1 Puritani. In the winter of 1848, Jenny Lind
undertook a tour in the provinces; and, according
to Mr. Lumley, her share in the profits amounted
to £10,000. But in the course of the winter it
was rumoured that the "Swedish Nightingale "
had resolved to leave the stage. Mr. Lumley could
secure no contract from her except to give a series
""
JENNY LIND.
15
of six opera recitals at Her Majesty's,
scenery, dresses, or decorations."
The first recital, of Mozart's Magic Flute, took
place April 15th, 1849; and it was also the last. The
house was comparatively empty, and the audience,
which during the "Jenny Lind fever" had been
enthusiastic enough, was quite cold. A failure such
as this overcame the scruples of the artist, and the
prima donna exercised the lady's privilege of chang-
ing her mind. On April 26th she reappeared in
Sonnambula. One performance each of "Lucia"
and "La Figlia" followed; and on May 18th, 1849,
as "Alice" in Roberto, the fascinating prima donna
made her last appearance on any stage.
Mr. Lumley, with a formidable opposition to
encounter from the recently founded Royal Italian
Opera, was determined to give his new prima
donna every chance. He asked Verdi to compose
an opera specially for her; and the result was I
Masnadieri, produced under the composer's personal
direction, with Jenny Lind in the principal part.
This work, it may be added, founded on Schiller's
Robbers, is now entirely and deservedly forgotten.
The characters in which Jenny Lind appeared at
Her Majesty's Theatre have been already mentioned.
It has already, moreover, been set forth that her
operatic career in England lasted but two seasons,
and that with her second London season her career as
" without
16
THE PRIMA DONNA.
an operatic singer came to an end. Her perform-
ances in America must, of course, not be forgotten,
though they added less, perhaps, to her reputation
than to that of Mr. Barnum; who, abandoning for a
time his waxworks, wild beasts, and various kinds.
of human monstrosities, became for a brief season,
in view of the money to be made out of the Swedish
nightingale, a veritable impresario.
Mr. Barnum is generally credited with an un-
usual degree of smartness. But Mr. Frith, in his
recently published memoirs, tells a story of him
which proves that, smart or not, he was fair and
even generous. On arriving in America Jenny
Lind found that the terms she had made with Mr.
Barnum were not so advantageous as they might
have been; but she was bound by her contract, and
in default of a release was prepared to fulfil its con-
ditions. Immediately after the lady's arrival,"
writes Mr. Frith, "Mr. Barnum appeared. He
listened to reasons and explanations, all demon-
strating from the singer's point of view the
mistake that had been made; and he was assured
that if those reasons had no weight with him he
might rely upon every point of the engagement
being religiously carried out.
66 C
This, madam, is the document you signed in
England, is it not?' said Mr. Barnum, producing a
deed.
66
JENNY LIND.
17
"Undoubtedly,' said the lady,
to abide by it if I have been
vince-'
and I am ready
unable to con-
C
"Be so good as to destroy it. Tear it up,
madam; and if you will instruct your lawyer to
prepare another from your own dictation, naming
whatever you think fair for your services, I will
sign it without hesitation.'
"I remember my first meeting with the famous
songstress,' said Mr. Barnum, after Jenny Lind's
death.... It was on Sunday morning, Sept. 1st,
1850, on board the steamer Atlantic at quarantine,
where I slept all night in the residence of Dr. A. S.
Boane, then the health officer. After a few moments'
conversation with her she asked me where I had
heard her sing. "I never had the pleasure of see-
ing you before in my life," I replied. "How is it
possible that you dared risk so much money on a
person whom you never heard sing?" she asked, in
surprise. "I risked it on your reputation, which, in
musical matters, I would much rather have than my
own judgment," I answered. Although I relied
upon Jenny Lind's reputation as a great musical
artist, I also took largely into my estimate of her
success with all classes of the American public her
character for extraordinary benevolence and gener-
osity. Without this peculiarity in her disposition I
VOL. II.
C

18
THE PRIMA DONNA.
never would have dared make the engagement which
I did.'
". . . Jenny Lind's character for benevolence
became so generally known that her door was
beset by persons asking charity; and she was in the
receipt, while in the principal cities, of numerous
letters, all on the same subject. I know of many
instances in which she gave sums of money to
applicants varying from £4, £10, and £100 to
£200, and once she gave £1,000 to a Swedish
friend.
Jenny was in the habit of attending church
whenever she could do so without attracting notice.
She always preserved her nationality, and always
attended Swedish churches whenever they could be
found. She gave £200 to a Swedish church in
Chicago. While in Baltimore, my daughter Caroline,
who was mistaken for Jenny, went to church and
sang in the choir. What an exquisite singer!'
Heavenly sounds!' 'I never heard the like!' and
similar expressions were whispered through the
church. A funny incident, involving Horace Greely,
occurred upon Jenny's arrival in New York. She
was received at the Irving House that stood on the
north-west corner of Broadway and Chambers
Street. Greely came over, with his trousers tucked
into his boots and wearing his proverbial light-
coloured overcoat. He started to remove his over
6
CC

JENNY LIND.
19
*
coat when a friend said, 'Don't! it will destroy
your identity.' So he wore it to the room where
Jenny was, and after an introduction she said, 'I
have heard so much about that overcoat that I
would not have known you without it.' Jenny
Lind gave ninety-five concerts while in America,
and the aggregate receipts were £142,432, averag-
ing about £1,500. The net receipts amounted to
£35,000 odd. Of her half of the receipts of the
first two concerts she devoted £2,000 to charity in
New York. She afterwards gave charity concerts
in various cities."
On landing at New York Jenny Lind found
herself at once surrounded by crowds of enthusi-
astic admirers, who had never, indeed, heard her
sing, but who had read rapturous accounts of the
effect her singing produced on others. She was
hailed as a great European celebrity, and the day of
her arrival it would be no small distinction even to
have seen her. She drove to her hotel, and would
probably have retired to rest, for it was already
nearly midnight; but at twelve o'clock some
30,000 persons assembled in front of the Irving
House, where she had put up, and at the agreeable
hour of one in the morning a band of one hundred

I once met Mr. Horace Greely in Paris, when his identity
was marked by a singularly bad hat, which he told me he had worn
across the Atlantic and in all weathers.
20
THE PRIMA DONNA.
and thirty musicians, preceded by 700 members of
the Fire Brigade, came to serenade her.
In view of the great demand for tickets it was
decided to sell them to the highest bidder, and those
who wished to hear Jenny Lind at her first concert
had to compete at auction for the honour. The
newspapers thought it interesting to publish a fac-
simile of the concert tickets, and they printed the
names of those who had secured the best places.
The extravagant purchaser of the first ticket sold
by auction for the first of Jenny Lind's concerts in
America was a hatter named Genin, who, entering
into the spirit of Mr. Barnum's ingenious device,
turned it to account for his own particular benefit.
It was, of course, for advertising purposes, and in
order that his name might be proclaimed throughout
the length and breadth of the American Continent,
that Mr. Genin gave two hundred and twenty-five
dollars for his stall; and for some days his name was
as well known as that of the great singer herself.
It was an insane thing, all the same, to give so
much money for a concert ticket; and it is possibly
from Mr. Genin's famous investment that the pro-
verb "Mad as a hatter" is derived.
Those who could not afford the luxury of hearing
Jenny Lind were anxious, at least, to see her; and
whenever she drove out she was followed by crowds,
which sometimes degenerated into mobs. Public
JENNY LIND.
21
receptions, too, were arranged for her, at which she
presided like a queen, though with less formality.
The famous singer made her first appearance
before an American audience at Castle Garden,
11th September, 1850. The concert hall was
crowded in every part, and when the "Swedish
nightingale" stepped on to the platform she was
saluted by an audience of 7,000 persons, who
shouted most vociferously.) Her principal solo was
"Casta Diva," from Norma. She sang with Belletti,
the baritone, in the duet from Rossini's Turco in
Italia; and she was also heard in the trio for
soprano voice and two flutes from Meyerbeer's
Camp of Silesia, afterwards transplanted to L'Etoile
du Nord, where it now figures. The programme
moreover contained some Swedish national airs, in
which the singer created as much enthusiasm as in
any of her operatic pieces.
Out of the 26,000 dollars realized by this concert,
Jenny Lind gave her share of the profits-10,000
dollars to the principal New York charities; and
this was but the first of many like donations made
by her during her tour in the United States.
At Boston the celebrated vocalist sang for the first
time on the 1st of October, and here, at the Tremont
Temple, she renewed the success which she had
gained at New York. Her professional visits in-
cluded Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Rich-

22
THE PRIMA DONNA.
mond, Charleston, and Havana. The tour was but
a limited one, compared with those made thirty-
five years later by Madame Adelina Patti. But in
Jenny Lind's days there was no railway through
the Rocky Mountains; nor was California worth
visiting at a time when San Francisco scarcely
existed.
At Baltimore the adored vocalist was bowing
one evening from the balcony of her hotel to a
crowd which had assembled to applaud her. She
somehow dropped her shawl; when, instead of
restoring it, her admirers tore it to shreds and
chivalrously pocketed the pieces.
In June, 1851, after paying a stipulated forfeit of
30,000 dollars, Jenny Lind separated herself from
Mr. Barnum, her ingenious and enterprising busi-
ness partner, and soon afterwards chose as her
partner for life Mr. Otto Goldschmidt, a pianist of
considerable ability, who, during the latter part of
her tour, had accompanied her in a double sense.
Mr. Otto Goldschmidt had played with success in
London at the concerts of the Musical Union, and
after his return to England he produced an oratorio
on the subject of “ Ruth.”
Madame Goldschmidt left America in 1852.
During her various American tours she had gained
enormous sums of money, of which a good portion
was distributed by her in donations and endow-
Ï
JENNY LIND.
23
ments. After making ample provision for her
parents, she had still a very large capital at her
own disposal. Since her first appearance at Her
Majesty's Theatre she had sung for only two
seasons on the stage, and she seemed now to have
decided to relinquish even concert singing.
On
no terms could she be prevailed upon to sing when,
on her return from America, she passed through
England on her way to Germany. Here she settled
for a time at Dresden, where, it will be remembered,
she had sung eight years before in Meyerbeer's
Camp of Silesia.
In 1856, however, she came back to London, and
accepted an engagement for oratorio at Exeter
Hall. But a singer who abandons opera for
operatic concerts, and operatic concerts for ora-
torio, is on the way towards not singing at all;
and after her appearances at Exeter Hall, beginning
late in 1856 and ending early in 1857, Jenny Lind
retired into private life, from which she was never
again to emerge, except at rare intervals, to sing on
some special occasion for charitable purposes.
(The American tour played an important part in
Jenny Lind's life; for we have seen that in the
United States she made the acquaintance of Mr.
Otto Goldschmidt, her future husband. Much
was said during the tour in America about her
charitable gifts, but far less than the facts would
24
THE PRIMA DONNA,
I
have justified. Her profits from the tour were
immense, and so also were the sums which she
spent in founding musical scholarships and in con-
tributing to the support of benevolent institutions.
After her return to Europe in 1852 Madame Lind-
Goldschmidt gave concerts, but sang no more on
the stage. Some years later she interested herself
in the Bach choir, whose performances were directed
by her husband; and when the Royal College of
Music was started she volunteered her services as a
teacher of singing. That they were readily accepted
need scarcely be added. In private life Madame
Lind-Goldschmidt was much esteemed; and by those
who knew her personally she will be remembered as
an ornament, not only of the concert-room and
above all of the operatic stage, but of the society,
everywhere, in which she moved.)
Although such musicians as Méndelssohn, Meyer-
beer, and Moscheles were enthusiastic in their
admiration of Jenny Lind, critics, and critics of
eminence, were found who, oddly enough, or, as
some will say, naturally enough, professed them-
selves not altogether satisfied with her.
"There surely," said an esteemed writer in the
Musical World, "never was such a fuss about any
one individual in the world of art." Elsewhere
the same writer observes: "The Catalani fever was
nothing to it, the Sontag fever nothing to it, even
:
JENNY LIND.
25
•
the Paganini fever was a fool to it. So great is the
turmoil, so terrible the confusion, so furious the
whirlwind, so plentiful the dust, that not a critic
but is blind as the public, and gropes about in the
dark chamber of sophism, dealing buffets right and
left, sometimes hitting upon the wall of truth, but
as often stumbling against the chairs and tables of
chicanery. We own that, like our brothers of the
goose-quill, we have been strangely bothered. Some-
thing has given our judgment a sprain, and it is for
the nonce incapable of exercising its functions.
And so we have fallen in with the crowd; but for
the life of us we cannot undertake to swear whether
we be in the right or whether we be in the wrong.'
Mr. Chorley made a point of showing that he
could not allow himself to be carried away by the
general enthusiasm, and he wrote on the subject
("Musical Recollections of the Last Half-Cen-
tury"): "To my ear she invariably sang some-
what sharp, and I could by no means consider
any prima donna to be a great artist who was only
positively successful in four operas--Roberto, La
Sonnambula, La Figlia del Reggimento, and Le Nozze
di Figaro, her Norma' having been a complete
failure."
""
It may be more interesting to see what opinion
was entertained of Jenny Lind by the great musi-
cians with whom she came in contact.
Beginning
26
THE PRIMA DONNA.
with her childhood Sir Julius Benedict wrote of her
in Scribner's Magazine (May, 1881):-
"Without personal attractions, deprived even of
the simplest enjoyments of childhood, she sought
and found in music a little world of her own in which
she could forget the entire absence of true motherly
affection and the many other troubles of her dismal
home.:
"She succeeded in making her naturally harsh
and unbending organ supple and pliant. To acquire
by dint of unceasing study the most perfect shake;
to blend the different registers of her voice so skil-
fully as effectually to conceal any break; to execute
passages and runs with a full, rich tone, instead of
the thin, wiry quality which generally belongs to
bravura singers; to be infallible in her intonation
-these were the great aims she accomplished."
The trio for voice and two flutes in the Camp of
Silesia, chiefly associated later on with Adelina
Patti in L'Etoile du Nord, gave rise to "frantic
demonstrations." Moscheles was present on one
occasion, and thus referred to it in a private letter:
"Jenny Lind has fairly enchanted me. She is
unique in her way, and her song with two con-
certante flutes is perhaps the most incredible feat in
the way of bravura singing that can possibly be
heard." Moscheles, indeed, showed himself no
less fascinated by Jenny Lind than Meyerbeer
1
JENNY LIND.
27
before him. When on a visit to London in 1847
he thus wrote to his friends in Germany: "What
shall I say of Jenny Lind? I can find no words.
adequate to give you any real idea of the impression
she has made. Independently of the fact that the
language of panegyric is exhausted, this wonderful
artist stands too high in my judgment to be dragged
down by common-place complimentary phrases, such
as newspaper writers so copiously indulge in.
I wanted to know her off the stage as well as on,
but as she lives some distance from me I asked her in
a letter to fix upon an hour for me to call. Simple
and unceremonious as she is, she came the next day
herself, bringing her answer verbally. So much
modesty and so much greatness united are seldom
to be met with; and, although her intimate friend,
Mendelssohn, had given me an insight into her noble
character, I was surprised to find them so apparent
on first acquaintance. I had to play her my fantasia
on her Swedish songs. Mendelssohn had chosen the
subjects with me, and she said many pretty things
about my characteristic treatment of her national
airs. We returned her visit at Old Brompton, where
she lives far from the noise of the capital and the
arena of her brilliant performances."
When it was proposed by the Birmingham Fes-
tival Committee that Mendelssohn should offer
her an engagement for the forthcoming Elijah,
28
THE PRIMA DONNA.
he replied: "If you can have Jenny Lind for the
festival, by all means have her, for there is now no
singer on the continent to be compared to her.
But although she has no fixed engagement neither
at Berlin or elsewhere, I fear it will be difficult to
make her come, as they are all mad about her and
force her into more engagements than she can
accept."
When the Committee urged that Mendelssohn
himself should write to her, he answered: "Your
question about Jenny Lind is very important to the
success of the Festival, as I consider her, without
hesitation, the first singer of the day, and perhaps
of many days to come. But I am not able to under-
take the negotiation which your chairman would en-
trust me with, as I know how much she is sur-
rounded with engagements of all sorts, and how
little likely it is that I could get a positive answer
from her, unless a formal application from the Com-
mittee had previously been made to her. It is by
no means certain that such an application would be
successful, but, at any rate, I think it the only way
if there is one. When you formerly wrote to
me about the same subject I was at Berlin, and
spoke to her about it, but then she said she should
not go to England; she had declined already
twice, so I am sure she will not come to London at
least. At present I am afraid by beginning to
JENNY LIND.
29
talk or correspond with Jenny Lind about this sub-
ject I should do your cause no good, and I therefore
beg to be excused."
C
I have quoted Sir Julius Benedict's opinion about
this marvellous singer, and to his article in
Scribner I must again turn for an account of the
reasons which made her retire from the stage.
Sir Julius states that "the principal cause of her
retirement was the objection of a gentleman to whom
she was engaged-an engagement afterwards broken
off-to her further appearance on the stage." He
mentions also another reason likely to have exercised
a very powerful influence. "It cannot be denied,"
he says,
"that it was only in five parts she held an
undisputed sway over her audiences. . . . Her sphere
being thus limited, it was natural that she should
hesitate before continuing her theatrical engage-
ments, feeling, as she did, the immense responsibility
of maintaining a position so exceptional, so glorious,
but also so dangerous. . Her strength did not
equal her ambition, which was almost as great as
her talent. When on the stage, and in order that
nothing should interfere with what she looked upon
as her mission, she would give up all the pleasures of
social intercourse, invariably refusing dinners and
evening parties, and sacrificing the best years of her
life to her feeling of duty. How often did she tell
me that, knowing what the public had a right to
30
THE PRIMA DONNA.
+
expect from her, and being fully aware that any
shortcomings in her performances would destroy the
prestige she had acquired after so many years of
trial, she felt that she could not continue the strain
for any length of time without being crushed beneath
the weight of the self-created difficulties of her
position. The exacting demands of opera and con-
cert goers had been so exceptionally raised, not only
by her own merit, but by often injudicious eulogies
in the Press, that each of her new characters was
looked forward to as a necessary improvement on all
its predecessors. Unless the already over-anxious
artist had thrown all her soul into the impersonation
of new works, there would have been an outcry of a
diminution in her efficiency. Such constant excite-
ment was too much for her physical and moral
strength, and thus her resolution to abandon the
scene of her triumphs became almost a necessity.
The chroniclers of the period say but little upon the
subject of Jenny Lind's impersonation of "Lucia."
According to Sir Julius Benedict, however, it was
one of her best parts. Who," he asks, "having
seen Jenny Lind in 'Lucia,' can ever forget the ex-
pression of mental agony, the fixed look of threaten-
ing insanity, the stifled voice of a heart rent in twain
by despair, and rising to an almost painful climax of
hopeless passion, in her last scene, when, in her
madness, she is recalling the vows of her lover and
୮
'
""
JENNY LIND.
31
6
'
her own dream of happiness? . . . Where she stood,
however, alone and unrivalled, and where the most
difficult judge could hardly detect a flaw, was in the
part of Alice' and of the Figlia.' The whole
conception of the simple French peasant girl was a
histrionic and musical achievement such as has rarely
been seen or heard. In another style similar praise
must be awarded to the representation of the adopted
daughter of the regiment. Every nuance, from
mutinous archness to the most emphatic expression
of grief, a variety of vocal effects-now a dazzling
display of bravura, now an unassuming melody—
left no room for criticism.”
Having cited some slightly supercilious criticisms
of Jenny Lind's singing from the pen of Mr. Chorley,
I may, by way of counterpoise, and, as an act of
justice to the writer, appeal from Chorley affected
and hypercritical, to Chorley natural and appre-
ciative.
"Of all the singers whom I have ever heard," he
once wrote, "Mdlle. Lind was, perhaps, the most
assiduous. Her resolution to offer the very best of
her best to her public seemed part and parcel of her
nature, and of her conscience. Not a note was
neglected by her-not a phrase slurred over.
Her execution was great, and, as is always the case
with voices originally reluctant, seemed greater than
it really was. Her shake was true and brilliant ;
32
THE PRIMA DONNA.
her taste in ornament was altogether original.
She used her pianissimo tones so as to make them
resemble an effect of ventriloquism.
The wild,
queer northern tunes brought here by her, her care-
ful expression of some of Mozart's great airs, her
mastery over such a piece as The Bird Song' in
Haydn's Creation, and, lastly, the grandeur of in-
spiration with which the 'Sanctus' in Mendelssohn's
Elijah was led by her, are so many things to leave
on the mind of all who have heard them, so many
indelible prints. These are the triumphs, in my
poor judgment, which will stamp Madame Lind-
Goldschmidt's name in the Golden Book of Singers."
One of the most valuable and most interesting
books on the subject of music and musicians, Mos-
cheles' "Life," contains many passages concerning
Jenny Lind, her charming disposition and her de-
lightful singing.
"Mendelssohn," he says in one place, "took
good care not to miss the children's party at
Moscheles' house. Our conversation was purely
on musical subjects, whilst the others laughed and
played with the children. I had to put before him
an offer from Chappell, who wanted to have the
copyright of an opera which he was to write. The
subject proposed was The Tempest; the opera was
to be in the regular Italian style, for Lumley. Not
a note has been written, and yet the work is already
JENNY LIND.
33
announced for Jenny Lind's appearance in the
coming season. Later on Mendelssohn completely
abandoned the plan of setting music to the subject,
and wrote to say so, to the disappointment of the
Directors.'
In lieu of the opera on the subject of The Tempest
which Mendelssohn was to have composed, a not
very brilliant work on the same theme by Halévy
was brought out.
After Jenny Lind's marriage to Mr. Otto Gold-
schmidt, Moscheles heard her sing at Leipsic, and
thus describes the event-
C
"One thing that was joyfully welcomed by all
of us at Leipzig was the appearance here of the
Lind-Goldschmidts, for the first time since their
marriage. Madame Lind-Goldschmidt sang for the
Pension Fund,' and was our star at the subscrip-
tion concert. She can tone down her glorious voice
to a pianissimo whisper, and the sound, however
attenuated, is distinctly audible in the remotest
corner of the Concert Room. She is wonderfully
versatile. After astounding everyone with her 'fiori-
ture,' and stirring all hearts with her deeply expres-
sive singing, she becomes at once exquisitely naïve,
and sings a Kinderlied' by Taubert, or the 'Son-
nenschein' in a style that makes her hearers feel
young again. Goldschmidt played in a great deal
of beautiful music. In Chopin's Concertos, Mendels-
VOL. II.
D
34
THE PRIMA DONNA.
sohn's Variations Sérieuses,' a prelude by Bach,
and some drawing-room pieces, he proved himself a
genuine artist, earnest and thorough, with no strain-
ing for show or effect. I was so glad to be able to
be of service to him, and to prove my great respect
and esteem for him, by lending him my Erard
piano."
'
Again Moscheles writes: "We have passed some
delightful hours with the Goldschmidts, meeting
them at a friendly dinner and at a matinée given by
Preusser, where Otto Goldschmidt played his trio, a
well-written, clear, and melodious composition,
which gave me great pleasure. The Goldschmidts
paid us a visit at the Conservatoire, and seemed
perfectly satisfied with the performances of the
pupils, especially that of the youthful Fritz Gerns-
heim, who highly distinguished himself in Men-
delssohn's Serenade' and 'Allegro.' Madame
Goldschmidt repeatedly expressed her esteem for
an institution to which her husband owed his
musical education, and this she did not only in
words but in songs as well, for she sang Mendels-
sohn's Psalm, 'Hear my prayer,' so exquisitely
that none who heard it can ever forget the impres-
sion she created."
-
Jenny Lind has been made the heroine of a good
many anecdotes, nor has their number decreased
since her death. It is said that on one occasion,
JENNY LIND.
35
when she sang for the first time at Vienna, the
audience insisted, as usual, on hearing her sing a
second time the popular rondo finale of La Sonnam-
bula. She was very tired, but at the same time
very anxious to oblige the public. She accordingly
walked up to the footlights and exclaimed, with an
imploring look: "Five minutes for lemonade!"
What could be done but grant the delay so patheti-
cally demanded? The five minutes soon passed
away, and Jenny Lind, refreshed and enlivened,
attacked "Non Giunge" with the most brilliant
effect.
When Jenny Lind first came to England Mr.
Lumley had made it one of the conditions of her
engagement that she should sing nowhere except at
his theatre, and to this rule there were to be no
exceptions. Accordingly, when Her Majesty re-
quested her (commanded would, I believe, be the
more accurate word) to sing at the Palace she
could only reply by an apology. Jenny Lind was
afraid, however, lest the Queen should think
her ungrateful. She accordingly drove to Bucking-
ham Palace, gave her card to one of the sentries,
and desired that it might be carried to Queen
Victoria. The proper functionary was sent for,
and he was just explaining how impossible it was
for him to announce Mdlle. Lind, when someone of
superior authority interfered and took the card to
36
THE PRIMA DONNA.
the Queen. Notwithstanding the informality of her
visit, Jenny Lind was at once received.
Jenny Lind, a typical daughter of the North,
had nothing Southern or Oriental in her nature.
She cannot, then, like the Grisis, the Pastas, the
Garcias, and (to such a point can ethnical arrogance
be carried) like Rossini, be claimed as of Jewish
race; but it was her destiny throughout her public
career to be surrounded, influenced, and greatly
benefited by Jews. She created the part of
"Ruth" in her husband's oratorio, and the Jews
may well regard her as one who, like the Moabite
maiden, was a stranger in the midst of the chosen
people.
Among musicians of eminence, Meyerbeer was
the first to appreciate and befriend her. He
arranged for her, at the Paris Opera-house, that trial
performance which, through no fault on his part, did
not lead to a public appearance; and it was Meyer-
beer who got her engaged at the Berlin Opera-
house, and who, at Dresden, in his Camp of Silesia,
gave her for the first time an opportunity of
creating an original part. Moscheles, another Jew,
who was afterwards to become one of her warmest
friends, heard her in the Camp of Silesia, and imme-
diately afterwards wrote to his wife: "Jenny Lind
has truly enchanted me; while Mendelssohn, who
was one of the most enthusiastic of all her admirers,
در
W
JENNY LIND.
37
said of her in one of his letters: "In my whole life
I have not seen an artistic nature so noble, so
genuine, so true as is that of Jenny Lind. Natural
gifts, study, and depth of feeling I have never seen
united in the same degree; and, although one of
these qualities may have been more prominent in
other persons, the combination of all three has
never existed before."
Jenny Lind's London manager was Mr. Benjamin
Lumley, a Jew; and when she started for America
she was accompanied, as musical conductor of the
tour, by Benedict, also a Jew. The sixth of the
Jews whom she was to number among her friends
and to place above all the others was Mr. Otto
Goldschmidt, whom she met during the American
tour and married before it came to an end.
Jenny Lind, one of the sweetest singers and
most charming women of our time, died peacefully
Nov. 2nd, 1887, at Malvern Wells, where she had
built herself a house and made herself a home.
CC
My last remembrance," writes Canon Holland in
the interesting and touching account of Jenny Lind
contributed by him to Murray's Magazine (Dec.,
1887), "is of her kindly waving her hand in good-
bye as she sat in her great chair, very white but
still impressive and vigorous, with the sweet English
hills and woods about her steeped in delicious sun-
light.
38
THE PRIMA DONNA,
"Shortly after she became worse, and never left
her bed again. She was almost too weak to speak,
but her daughter, who hardly ever left her during
all this pitiful time, wrote to me that one morning
as they drew the blinds to let her beloved sun
stream in upon her, she sang three or four bars of
Schumann's Sonnenschein. She longed to die, and
hoped eagerly that it might be on her birthday,
October 6th, but her great vitality dragged on
the long struggle, and not until November 2nd, All
Hallows' Day, did her soul pass away with a few
soft sighs. She was buried amid the sweetest music,
sung by the choirs in Malvern Abbey Church, and
with wreaths and flowers which not only loaded
the hearse, but filled a separate car.
So they
laid her body to rest under the Malvern Hills, and
'over her grave' (says one) 'it seemed as if the
very birds would sing more sweetly than elsewhere.
For the music in her was ever an inspiration, which
lifted her as the lark is carried heavenward by its
song-the lark, her own chosen symbol, carved
over her house-door; the lark, the winged thing
that 'singing ever soars,' and 'soaring ever sings."
OTHER singers as accomplished, as graceful, as
fascinating as Bosio may since her death have
appeared; but with her died a number of characters
which, to the more ancient of opera-goers, will always
be associated with her memory.
CHAPTER II.
There is no such "merciless invoker of the ghosts
of the past
as music; and there are certain
melodies which will always recall more forcibly than
any painting could do the girlish figure, the artless
manner, and the exquisite voice of the well-named
66
BOSIO.
""
CC
Angiolina" Bosio. The happy, spontaneous strain
which accompanies the entry of the jester's daughter
in Rigoletto suggests but one "Gilda
and no
one can ever please again in the Elixir of Love, those
whose one ideal "Norina" is no more. The true
Zerlina," too, is dead-Auber's no less than
Mozart's; and the opera of the Traviata again
99
40
THE PRIMA DONNA.
1
becomes unintelligible now that we have lost the only
woman who knew how to invest the part of "Vio-
letta" with a grace and delicacy which, instead of
improbable, made the passionate love of "Alfred "
appear the most natural in the world.
A mere enumeration of the qualities which dis-
tinguished Madame Bosio would not give those who
are unfortunate enough never to have heard or seen
her any fair idea of her grace or her beauty. Literality
kills as surely as the photograph, and one can give
no better illustration of the impossibility of" describ-
ing" Madame Bosio than by mentioning the fact
that all the photographic portraits of her are more
unlike the original than such things usually are. A
dog or a prize-fighter may be photographed to per-
fection. But portrait painting by machinery becomes.
more and more incorrect in proportion to the
delicacy and refinement of the model; and the photo-
graphs of Madame Bosio are the most inaccurate
ever seen. Raphael's "St. Cecilia" is like her, at
least in expression; because St. Cecilia is the true
type of the class to which Angiolina Bosio belonged,
and because there must necessarily be a family like-
ness between all women who are endowed with the
most exquisite musical sensibility. Even for one
who for several years never at any time or at any
place missed an opportunity of hearing Madame
Bosio it is difficult to tell what was the colour of her
BOSIO.
41
eyes, or the number of her years, at the time of her
early death, or the compass of her voice. She always
looked young and charming; and whenever she sang
she seemed never to have sung so well before. She
poetized every part she undertook. No one ever saw
her assume a theatrical pose, or play to the audi-
ence, or make any kind of "point." But no one
possessing the slightest appreciative power who had
seen her as "Gilda" could for many years after
her death have cared to hear Rigoletto again.
To show what wonderful natural gifts Madame
Bosio possessed I may mention a fact which will
appear incredible, but which is nevertheless true.
The most accomplished vocalist in Europe, who
never sang more easily than when she was singing
the most difficult passages, not only knew nothing
of music as a science, but could not even read from
notes.
I have mentioned the parts which Madame
Bosio made specially her own. If asked to state
generally what class of characters she represented
with the greatest success, I should reply all that
are essentially feminine; in which category one
places neither "Norma," nor "Semiramide," nor
"Lucrezia Borgia." She played "Lucrezia" in
Paris, and "Semiramide" in St. Petersburg; but
she had too gentle and tender a nature to look like
either of those personages. Fancy the aforesaid
42
THE PRIMA DONNA.
St. Cecilia in the character of "Lady Macbeth,"
or a dove in the plumage of a hawk. The genius
of Bosio was like that of an elegiac poet; she could
be graceful, tender, touching, but not tragic.
In St. Petersburg, where Madame Bosio received
more applause from the public and more distin-
guished attention from the Court than any vocalist
who had ever visited the Russian capital before, the
news of her death produced the saddest effect.
In less than two years the St. Petersburg Com-
pany had lost its two most distinguished members,
who, in their respective lines, were the greatest
artists in the world. On the occasion of Alexander
the Second's coronation at Moscow the incomparable
duet in the second act of the Elixir was sung by
Madame Bosio and Lablache (Una accompanied by
the Lion), and to such perfection that notwithstand-
ing the rule which forbids applause in the presence
of the Emperor, the audience were quite unable to
restrain their enthusiasm. The names of these
singers belong now to the history of Italian Opera;
and Angiolina Bosio takes rank in the annals of the
past with the tender, sensitive Malibran, who, like
her, was cut off in the prime of her life and in the
fulness of her genius.
The first time I had the happiness of hearing
Madame Bosio was at Moscow in the autumn of
1856, during the festivities in honour of the corona-
BOSIO.
43
tion of the Emperor Alexander II. She was the
first prima donna who made any marked impression
upon me; and I cannot but associate her with the
occasion of my first becoming acquainted with her
expressive beauty, her graceful talent.
As interesting, in a different way, though less
fascinating than the singing of Angiolina Bosio, was
the performance, during the co ronation festivities, of
the national Russian opera, by Glinka, called Zisn
Za Tsarya, or, Life for the Tsar. Emperors succeed
one another on the Russian throne; but Glinka's
opera still maintains its prestige, and when Alex-
ander III. ascended the throne Zisn Za Tsarya was
again laid under contribution, a highly dramatic
scene being transferred from the stage to real life, and
from the opera, to which it had belonged for nearly
fifty years, to the public square on which it actually
took place upwards of two centuries and a half ago.
The last scene, or epilogue, of Glinka's Life for the
Tsar represents the triumphal entry into Moscow of
the Tsar Michael Fedorovitch, first of the Romanoffs,
after the defeat of the Poles, who, having occupied
the Russian capital, were driven from it by a
general rising of the inhabitants.* But this theatrical
*It is the province of the modern historian to destroy as much
as possible the picturesque, the dramatic, the anecdotic character
of history; and Professor Kostomaroff has proved that the Polish
invaders of 1612 never entered the district inhabited by the hero
of Glinka's opera. So much the worse for the facts; the opera still
remains.
44
THE PRIMA DONNA.
picture was reproduced, less as a show than as a
reality, when Alexander III. entered the Red Square,
beneath the battlements of the Kremlin, even as
in 1612 it was entered under auspicious circum-
stances by his ancestor, the founder of the reigning
dynasty. Except that the uniform of the troops
forming the Imperial escort was entirely different,
the scene was in its external features not so
much a reproduction as a repetition of the scene of
1612. The peasantry and workmen of Russia wear
the same costumes now that they wore in the seven-
teenth century, and any number of centuries before.
The half-picturesque, half-grotesque church of Basil
the Blessed stands where it has stood since the days
of Ivan the Terrible, a contemporary of Queen Eliza-
beth; and the denteated walls of the Kremlin are, in
spite of the injuries they received during the fires and
explosions of 1812, just what they were when first.
built as a protection against the Tartars.
The music to which the entry was made, the
hymn sung in honour of the newly-crowned Tsar,
was new, or at least little more than forty years
old. But Glinka has given to his hymn, which
is at the same time a march, a thoroughly
Russian, and, moreover, a somewhat archaic, char-
acter; and but for the rich harmony and the
elaborate, constantly varied instrumentation with
which he has beautified and decorated the theme, as
BOSIO.
45
he presents it again and again, the theme itself—very
simple, very quaint, and, as before said, quite Russian
might certainly belong to the early part of the
seventeenth century. Those who have heard Glinka's
orchestral scherzo on a national Russian dance-tune
called "Kamarinskaia will remember that the
""
first phrase of that cunningly worked piece consists
of only five notes. So also does the first phrase of
the Hymn of Triumph in Life for the Tsar; and in
the second phrase there are peculiarities which,
apart from mere simplicity, are decidedly Russian in
character. A far better authority on this subject
than myself, the late Prince George Galitzin, pointed
out some twenty years ago, in his notes to the pro-
gramme of a concert of Russian music given by him at
St. James's Hall, that Glinka's Hymn of Triumph
contains Slavonian elements, whereas the official
National Anthem is cosmopolitan in character,
suggesting now the Sicilian Mariners' hymn, now
that "God Save the Queen " which it served to
replace.
According to Prince Galitzin—and the story, true
or false, was not invented by him, but has somehow
become legendary-the Emperor Nicholas determined
one day that Russia must no longer employ on State
occasions the "God Save the Queen" of the English,
which is also the "Heil dir im Sieger Kranz" of the
Prussians, but that she must have a National Anthem
46
THE PRIMA DONNA.
of her own. The Sovereign who, in reply to an
address from the Holy Synod pointing out that the
Russians prayed for the dead but did not believe in
Purgatory, and asking whether, according to the
doctrine of the Russian Church, Purgatory did or
did not exist, wrote on the margin of the document
at a moment's notice "No Purgatory;" this Sovereign
could not be expected to hesitate very long as to the
choice of a National Anthem. He called upon
Russian composers to furnish specimens of national
and patriotic music; and from the various hymns,
marches, and anthems sent in, selected two composi-
tions, one by Glinka, the other by Lvoff, for perfor-
mance in presence of a chosen assembly of courtiers
and dilettanti. Glinka's hymn and march produced
a good effect, though the fact of its being character-
istically Russian was not calculated to help it in
those days, when to be Russian was, with most per-
sons, and especially those of the Court, equivalent to
being vulgar. Lvoff, however, in the orchestral accom-
paniments to his "God Save the Emperor," had
introduced such a number of trumpets and drums
that Nicholas, touched in his military instincts by
this excessive sonority, was quite carried away, and
in a moment of enthusiasm awarded the victory to
"General" Lvoff, who, it must be explained, owed his
title not to his love of warlike instruments, but to the
grade held by him in the State service. His office
BOSIO.
47
involved the direction of the choir of the Imperial
Chapel and the superintendence of the Court music
generally. This had enabled him, in a very literal
sense, to gain the ear of the Emperor; and it may
have been partly to his own personal influence, and
not entirely to the amount of brass and percussion
employed in the orchestration of his hymn, that
the choice of that hymn was due. It was enough
that Glinka's hymn should not have pleased the
Emperor above all other hymns for the Slavophils
and the malcontents generally in Russia to attach
the highest importance to it; which, however, as
before pointed out, they were justified in doing on
Slavonian and national grounds. Glinka's "Hymn
of Triumph," with its thoroughly popular character
(for, stripped of its artistic surroundings, it is
little more than a Russian dance), came in any
case to be looked upon as the National Anthem of
Russia in opposition to the State Anthem composed
for the Emperor Nicholas with deafening accom-
paniments of drums and trumpets by the State
official,
"General" Lvoff. Glinka himself, it may
here be explained, was no political malcontent,
though, in common with all educated men not in
the Government service, he may have been so
regarded by the Emperor Nicholas. He was the
son of a rich landed proprietor in the neighbour-
hood of Smolensk, and it was at the house of one of
48
THE PRIMA DONNA.
his relations in the Smolensk province or
"C govern-
ment" that he made his first important studies in
music, and above all in orchestration. This worthy
gentleman, like the Rasoumouskys and the Galitzins,
whose names have been handed down to us in con-
nection with some of the Beethoven quartets, and
like numbers of Russian proprietors who have never
been heard of out of their own country, maintained
a private orchestra, composed of serfs specially
educated in music. The education of the serf
musicians was sometimes superintended by the pro-
prietor himself, who, if he happened to be a com-
poser, enjoyed admirable opportunities for getting
his works executed. After working with and for
his relative's orchestra as a youth, Glinka entered
the Corps of Engineers, and remained in it a suffi-
cient time to stamp him as a willing servant of the
State. Then he left the army and went first to
Milan, then to Berlin, to pursue his musical studies
in a systematic manner.
The opera of Zisn Za Tsarya, or, Life for the Tsar,
in which Glinka's Tsar-rejected composition now
figures, and to the score of which it may possibly
have belonged when presented for the great National
Anthem competition as an independent piece, was
produced at Moscow in 1843; and since that
year it
has been played so often that the melodies, for the
most part of Russian type, in which it abounds are
BOSIO.
49
familiar to all Russia. Luckily for the success of
the work it is based on a story which appeals at
once to the patriotism and the loyalty of the public.
Nor is there anything in this loyalty which could
shock even a Nihilist, unless, indeed, the Nihilism of
the unhappy man were of so comprehensive a char-
acter as to leave him nothing in the way of heart.
The plot of the piece, which was written by Count
Rosen, turns upon the devotion of a peasant named
Ivan Soussanin, who sacrificed his life to ensure
the safety of the Tsar Michael. The action, as
before mentioned, takes place at the time of the
occupation of Moscow by the Poles, just two cen-
turies and three-quarters ago. In the first act the
miserable condition of Russia is set forth; also the
affection of the peasant hero, the aforesaid "Ivan
Soussanin," for his family, which yields only in
intensity to his love for the Tsar.
This parti-
cular Tsar is a worthy object of devotion, for he
thinks only of the liberation of his country from the
dominion of the hated Poles, and meanwhile is in a
position of danger and distress. He is even a fugi-
tive in the woods, and here the sturdy "Ivan Sous-
sanin" will, in the last act, be ordered by the Poles
to find him.
The whole of the second act is occupied with an
exhibition of Polish festivities at Moscow. To the
Russians throughout the opera homeliness, combined
VOL. II.
E
50
THE PRIMA DONNA.
with honesty, is attributed; while the Poles are
represented as brilliant and warlike, but at the same
time light-hearted and frivolous. To judge by their
demeanour in Glinka's work they do nothing when
the battle is once at an end but drink, dance, and
enjoy themselves. The whole, indeed, of the second
or Polish act consists of ballet-music in the national
Polish style. A lively, highly-rhythmical mazurka,
with a great number of themes and constant con-
trasts of instrumentation, is followed by a stately
but very brilliant polonaise, which in turn is suc-
ceeded by an animated krakoviak; and the suite of
dances is, if I remember rightly, brought to a con-
clusion by some sort of coda. The mazurka is
especially popular with the Russians, who trouble
themselves no more about its Polish origin than we
in England do about the possibly anti-English origin
of an Irish ballad; and the opening phrase of the
mazurka is used in "leading motive" fashion when-
ever in the third act there is any question of the
Poles or their doings. Glinka, by the way, has
made a more remarkable use of this device in his
Ruslan and Ludmila, where the bad character,
"Tchernomor," is persistently accompanied by a
hideous descending scale consisting entirely of
whole tones. In the third act of Zisn Za Tsarya
we have to deal with a wood; a snowstorm; “Ivan
Soussanin," who has taken farewell of his much-
BOSIO.
51
loved family that he may devote himself to his
country's liberation; and a band of Polish soldiers
under one of their highly-military, mazurka-dancing
officers. The Poles are in pursuit of the unhappy
Tsar, who has taken flight, and is supposed to be
somewhere in the forest. "Ivan Soussanin" is
seized, and, in accordance with the laws of war
(though in disregard of those of humanity), is ordered
to act as guide and lead the Polish troops to the
Tsar's place of concealment. "Ivan Soussanin "
is, in his ordinary mood, light-hearted and jocular.
He possesses, moreover, a taste for practical
jokes. Instead, then, of making any objections to
the task imposed upon him by his country's
oppressors, he declares himself quite ready to exe-
cute it, and, telling the Poles to follow him, leads
them merrily into the thicket until at last, more and
more involved in the hopeless labyrinth and half-
frozen by the cold (for there is a pitiless wind and
the snow is still falling), they adopt a stern tone
towards Ivan and ask him whether he has been
trifling with them. The patriotic peasant asks in
return whether they really supposed him capable of
betraying his Sovereign into the hands of his enemies,
and then, exposing his breast to their swords, sings
to them to do their worst, and singing dies.
The curtain falls on the group formed by "Ivan
Soussanin" defying the Poles and the Poles preparing
52
THE PRIMA DONNA.
I
to strike him. In the epilogue we see the Soussanin
family regretting the heroic Ivan, but in no
whining spirit. He has died for his country and
his Tsar. A monument, seen on the stage, has
been erected to his memory; and the Prince whose
life he saved now enters Moscow amid the applause
of his subjects and at the head of his troops.
CHAPTER III.
1
TITIENS.
THE question whether England is or is not a musical
nation has been discussed often enough, and would
have been settled long ago if anything in this world
could be settled by mere argument. But as the
expression, "musical nation," can be understood in
several different senses, and as disputants seldom
take the trouble to explain what their propositions
are really intended to signify, it is probable that the
controversy as to whether and to what extent Eng-
land may be considered a musical nation will be
continued for many a long year. Meanwhile, those
who wish to arrive at the truth in connection with
this matter, will do well to remember that "musical
nation" is a description which may be fitly applied
to a nation which gives birth to great composers,
great singers, and great instrumental musicians, but
which is not equally suited to a nation which enjoys
54
THE PRIMA DONNA.
and appreciates good music without producing much
of it in any form. The music executed in the
principal concert-rooms and at the principal opera-
houses of Europe is almost always the work of
Italian, German, or French composers; and in the
list of singers and instrumental musicians whose
fame extends over the whole civilized world, the
names of but few Englishmen or Englishwomen will
be found. It has been held that music thrives only
where the grape ripens, and there is much truth in
the theory so far as the cultivation of the art from
the composer's and singer's point of view is con-
cerned. But as wine may be thoroughly enjoyed in
lands where, out of hothouses, there are no vines,
so music may be fully appreciated in countries where
great composers are rare phenomena, and where
music, though not absolutely wanting as a national
product, yet never attains the importance of an article
of export. There is no kind of music worth hearing
which, sooner or later, does not get heard in Eng-
land; and there are no musical artists of true merit
who, whatever their origin, cannot count upon re-
ceiving in England unbounded and permanent hos-
pitality. The list of foreign composers who, from
the time of Handel to that of Sir Julius Benedict,
have settled in England would be a long one; and
it would be interminable if to this list were added the
names of those who have visited this country for a
TITIENS.
55
time and have written works specially for produc-
tion at our opera-houses and concert-rooms. But
the most remarkable document of the kind would
be a catalogue of all the eminent singers who, during
the last century and a half or more, have accepted
engagements in England. It would be seen that,
since the first introduction of the comparatively
modern entertainment called Opera, every vocalist
of European celebrity has, during some portion of
his or her career, sung in London; while no incon-
siderable number of distinguished foreign artists
have made London their home.
No one of the great prime donne, however,
became so thoroughly English as Mademoiselle
Titiens at the time of her lamented death had
become. The late Madame Grisi ended by settling
in London; but during the first part of her career
she belonged as much to France as to England, and
more to Italy, the land of her birth, than to either
of the two countries which she turn by turn adopted.
A great portion, too, of Madame Adelina Patti's life
has been spent in England; and London is the only
capital in which that admirable artist has sung
season after season, without one break, for a period
of seventeen years. Mdlle. Titiens, however, made
her first appearance in London two years earlier than
Madame Adelina Patti, and for nearly twenty years
she lived almost exclusively in England. During
56
THE PRIMA DONNA.
the whole of that time Mdlle. Titiens sang every
season at Her Majesty's Theatre, or "Her Majesty's
Opera," as the establishment was called, when, for
a certain number of years, it was located at Drury
Lane. Every autumn her services were in request
for our provincial festivals, and the very year of her
death she was engaged for the two great triennial
musical celebrations of Gloucester and of Leeds.
A certain number of operatic characters may be
said to die with Mdlle. Titiens. For a time, at least,
it will be very difficult to find a "Norma" or a
"Lucrezia Borgia;" while it will be impossible to
meet with a perfect representative of "Donna
Anna" or of "Fidelio." Years hence, when a new
impersonation of Mozart's or of Beethoven's heroine
is attempted, the candidate for the highest honours
of lyric art will be tried by the standard of the great
dramatic singer whose loss we still deplore. Not to
suffer in such parts as those just named, by com-
parison with Malle. Titiens, will be an advantage
reserved for those who must indeed be pronounced
incomparable. Nor will it be by her artistic merits
alone that Mdlle. Titiens will be remembered. The
qualities that go towards the making up of a really
great prima donna are many and varied. Besides a
fine and powerful voice, a perfect style, and high
dramatic ability, she must possess great physical
strength and that particular kind of force, half
1
TITIENS.
57
physical, half moral, which is known by the name of
46
"nerve." This species of courage enabled Mdlle.
Titiens to do her duty, and more than her duty to
the public, at times when many a vocalist, of perhaps
equal merit in a purely artistic point of view, would
have given way. Like other singers, Mdlle. Titiens
must have been now and then indisposed, and from
time to time seriously unwell. But when was an
excuse ever put forward on her behalf? The first
time that, after having been announced to sing, she
found herself absolutely unable to appear, she was
already suffering from the incurable malady which a
few months later was to carry her off. It savours of
presumption to speculate as to whether the end of
any human being might or might not have been
happier. But as regards Mdlle. Titiens's artistic
fame, it is scarcely to be regretted that she should
have died at a time when her reputation was at
its highest. She continued singing, not, indeed, until
her death, but until the moment had arrived for the
first of a series of terrible operations to be performed,
of which the immediate effect was naturally to in-
capacitate her for appearing on the stage. Opera-
goers know well that Mdlle. Titiens was never more
expressive as a singer, never more impressive as an
actress, than at the beginning of the season which
was to
to prove her last It had already been
made known to her that she was in a dangerous
:
58
THE PRIMA DONNA.
condition and that she must place herself in the
hands of a surgeon. But she was determined not.
to give up her active career until she should be
absolutely forced to do so; and she sang through an
entire evening, and sang with her invariable success,
well knowing that on the fall of the curtain she was
to take farewell of her ideal existence as an operatic
heroine, to lead-certainly for some considerable
time, probably until the end of her days-the life of
a suffering invalid. But, true heroine that she was,
she persevered at her appointed duties until she was
suddenly incapacitated by a wound she knew before-
hand she was to receive. What high faculties of
endurance and of self-concentration she must have
possessed to be able thus, at the very last moment,
to forget what threatened her in her very existence
in order to devote herself entirely to her work as an
artist! Her courage will long be spoken of by those
who happen to have known something of the closing
period of her life, though it will be by her artistic
qualities, and by her love for the noblest creations of
the lyric stage, that she will be known to posterity.
Mendel, in his "Musical Lexicon," speaks of
Mdlle. Titiens as "the celebrated prima donna of
Her Majesty's Theatre;" and, in fact, with the
exception of one season, that of 1869, when she sang
at the Royal Italian Opera as principal dramatic
soprano of the combined company, jointly directed
TITIENS.
59
by Messrs. Gye and Mapleson, Mdlle. Titiens sang
at Her Majesty's Theatre from 1859, the year of
her first appearance in London, until 1877, the year
of her death. Born at Hamburgh in 1831 of Hun-
garian parents (her real name was Tietjens), she
came out in her native city, at the age of 18, as
"Lucrezia Borgia," one of her most famous parts.
From Hamburgh she went to Frankfort, at that
time the capital of the Germanic Confederation; and
from Frankfort to Vienna, where she particularly
distinguished herself by her truly admirable imper-
sonation of "Valentine" in Les Huguenots. In
oratorio Mdlle. Titiens sang as finely as in opera;
and she had not been many months in England
when engagements were offered to her at our great
provincial festivals.
Mdlle. Titiens sang the part of "Ortrud" in
Lohengrin so finely that we may safely say that
she would have sung Wagner's music generally as
well as she sang that of Rossini, Donizetti, and
Meyerbeer, of Mozart, Beethoven, and Weber. But
she was never heard in any Wagnerian part except
that of "Ortrud." With the Wagnerian movement,
which lasted in England for some years, she had
little to do. When, indeed, Mdlle. Ilma de Murska
had appeared as Senta," and Madame Albani as
"Elsa" and as "Elizabeth," and Madame Nilsson
and Mdlle. Titiens in the same cast as "Elsa" and
66
60
THE PRIMA DONNA.
ઃઃ
as Ortrud," then the work of propagandism was
taken up by German companies; and it is to them
alone that we are indebted for the representations
given in London of the Meister singer and of the Ring
des Nibelungen.
It did not happen cuivis homini to visit Bayreuth
in the great days when that honoured town was
making holiday, and when at certain solemn hours
of the day trumpeters, as if in imitation of the
warders in the second act of Lohengrin, sounded
the more or less cheerful horn in token of the
memorable fact that the performances were about
to begin.
But of those who claim to be reckoned among
the initiated, few would assert that the cycle of
Bayreuth is to any single work of the same com-
poser, what in Tennyson's phrase, "A cycle of
Cathay," is to the briefest period of European
civilization. "Cyclus," however, was for a time
a name to conjure with; and, should the fashion
last, we may expect operatic managers to extend
the application of the magic word in various
directions. A Mozart cyclus, for instance, made
up of such familiar works as the Marriage of
Figaro, Don Giovanni, and the Magic Flute, would
possess considerable interest for well-meaning
persons whose capacity for appreciating the higher
manifestations of the composer's art has not been
+
TITIENS.
61
sufficiently developed. Cyclus, however, is a de-
signation which at present is exclusively reserved
for Wagnerian use. At Her Majesty's Theatre one
Wagnerian cycle followed another, until at last no
fewer than four complete cycles had been counted.
Nobody was allowed to subscribe for less than one
perfect cycle; and it was rumoured that the title of
"bicyclist" would be conferred on those who went
through two cycles; of "
of "tricyclist on those who
sat out three, and so on. Whatever may be
thought of Herr Wagner as a poet, a composer,
and a critic and he has distinguished himself
equally in these three characters-there can be no
question as to his fertility in ideas, and in ideas
which are themselves reproductive. The father of
some of the most remarkable operatic works ever
produced, he is, so to say, the grandfather of a host
of critical and descriptive books which those works,
and especially the "cycle" of operas on the subject
of the Nibelung's Ring, have inspired. There is a
constantly increasing Wagner literature as there is
a literature of Goethe and of Shakespeare.
""
Indeed, in London, as in other capitals, the
number of publications in one form or another
called forth by Herr Wagner's works is consider-
able. The Nibelungen Ring alone has given birth
to some half dozen, including a translation of the
poem, in imitative alliterative verse, by Mr. For-
62
THE PRIMA DONNA.
man; a more literal translation, on the principle of
"words to music," by Mr. Corder; a somewhat
labyrinthine guide to the music of the Nibelung's
Ring, by Herr von Wolzogen, and a very complete
account of the poem, the music, and the representa-
tion, as it took place at Bayrenth in 1876, by Mr.
Jackson, well known through his excellent trans-
lations of several of Herr Wagner's operas. With-
out the slightest disrespect to Herr von Wolzogen,
who is evidently a man of "light and leading," it
may be hoped, in the interests of amateurs bent on
studying and comprehending the Ring, that a
guide to his guide will some day be brought
out; though, should its publication be too long
delayed, the Ring itself, with its marvellous
incidents and its miraculous intricacies, may
possibly be forgotten. Meanwhile the spirit of the
poem can best be seized through Mr. Forman's
really admirable translation, executed in a metrical
form which corresponds closely to that of the
original; while for the thorough understanding of
the music, Mr. Corder's word and note translations,
and Herr von Wolzogen's well intended but some-
what too mysterious guide, may be found valu-
able. To enjoy the Ring of the Nibelung in the
fullest possible manner it would be desirable to
bring to the representation an intimate knowledge
of the subject, a certain familiarity with the
TITIENS.
63
peculiarities of the Wagnerian metrical system, and
at least a tolerable acquaintance with the "leading
motives," to the number of ninety, which indicate
the personality of the principal characters, or are
associated with the manifestation of a particular
sentiment or passion, or which in some
emphasize the occurrence of essential and carefully
prepared incidents. The task may frighten the
mere lover of music, but to the devoted student it
is not altogether impossible.
cases
?
.
CHAPTER IV.
PATTI.
""
MADAME ADELINA PATTI, being one of the celebrities
of the century, has been made the subject of many
biographies. None is so likely to be correct as the
one given in fragments by her brother-in-law, the
late Maurice Strakosch, in various chapters of his
"Souvenirs d'un Impresario. The illustrious
Adelina was, according to Mr. Strakosch, born on
the operatic stage, or nearly so. Her mother, a
famous prima donna, was playing the part of
“Norma” at Madrid, when suddenly, as the curtain
was about to rise for the last act, she was taken ill.
She was driven home, and soon afterwards Adelina
made positively the first of all her first appearances.
Incredible as it may seem (although those who have
heard little Josef Hofmann will be in a position to
believe it), Adelina Patti was able to sing all kinds
of operatic airs when she was only six
years of
age.
PATTI.
65
She had, it is true, heard them sung by artists who
were likely enough to make a deep impression on a
sensitive musical nature: Jenny Lind, for instance,
Grisi, Bosio, Sontag, Alboni, Frezzolini, Piccolomini,
and Parepa-Rosa.
It has been said that Adelina Patti's mother was
herself a famous singer. It was under the name of
Barilli that she obtained her earliest triumphs.
Then she married Salvatore Patti, an impresario,
whose operatic speculations led him to all parts of
the world. Madame Barilli was a member of his
company. Her first husband was a composer of
distinction.
Adelina Patti, then, sometimes spoken of as an
American, is, in fact, Italian by both parents; nor,
it has been seen, was she even born in America.
Her father, however, took her to the United States
when she was only three years old, so that she was
really brought up under American influences, in-
cluding the influence of the American climate; a
favourable one, without doubt, for the singing voice.
Adelina received her first lessons in reading, writing,
pianoforte playing, and singing from a friend of the
family, Madame Paravelli; and it was to Madame
Paravelli's accompaniment that the little girl sang
her first operatic airs. Maurice Strakosch, good
pianist, excellent singing-master (he had studied
with Madame Pasta) and tenor in his early days at
VOL. II.
F
'
66
THE PRIMA DONNA.
£4 a month, had made the acquaintance of Salvatore
Patti at Vicenza in 1843. In 1848, at the time of
the February Revolution, which replaced the rule
of Louis Philippe by that of the second Republic,
Maurice Strakosch was at Paris. In the midst
of the political excitement he saw no chance of
prosperity for operatic affairs; so, abandoning the
old world for the new, he arrived suddenly at New
York, where he found his old friend Salvatore Patti
endeavouring, but in vain, to inspire the Americans
of that day with a taste for Italian music. Up to
this time Italian Opera had met with but little
success in the United States, which may, in some
degree, have been the fault, not of the Americans,
but of the Italians. No complete company of
Italian singers had as yet come before the American
public. The famous one directed by Garcia must
have possessed many points of attraction, since it
included Malibran and other members of the Garcia
family among its members. America, however, was
not at that time the "promised land" of opera
singers. Nor does it appear that in the year 1848
Salvatore Patti had in his company any vocalists of
European reputation such as alone would have been
likely to draw the American public.
Strakosch had not been long in the United States
when he was engaged to arrange the musical per-
formances for a festival which was to be given at
PATTI.
67
1
New York on the 2nd October, 1848. He began by
securing the services of the Salvatore Patti com-
pany, and after the festival, which was thoroughly
successful, he signed a contract with Mdlle. Amalia
Patti, Adelina's elder sister. Mdlle. Amalia Patti
and Mdlle. Parodi, Pasta's eminent pupil, were
at that time the favourite singers of the American
public; and Strakosch engaged both of them for a
tour through the United States, at the end of which
he made Mdlle. Amalia Patti his wife.
According to the author of the "Souvenirs d'un
Impresario," Adelina Patti was in 1848 six years
of age. The same writer tells us that in 1850 (no
month named) she was eight years of age; whence
it must be concluded that she was born some time in
1842; though according to Grove's "Musical Dic-
tionary," February 19th, 1843, was her birthday.
Adelina Patti, except perhaps in her girlhood, has
never looked her age; but Maurice Strakosch gives
his dates with an air of certainty, however fantastic
they may seem.
Salvatore Patti had been replaced as manager of
the Italian Opera at New York by Max Maretzek,
orchestral conductor and composer of ballet music,
known at one time in London by a pretty and strik-
ing waltz which he had written for a company of
juvenile dancers from Vienna who appeared with
success some forty years ago at Her Majesty's
68
THE PRIMA DONNA.
Theatre. In 1850 Mr. Maretzek engaged little
Adelina Patti, then eight years of age, and intro-
duced her to the public at a charity concert. On
this interesting occasion the little girl, who eleven
years afterwards was to be recognized as the most
brilliant vocalist in Europe, sang the final rondo of
La Sonnambula and the "Echo Song," first made
popular by Jenny Lind. The sensation she produced
was immense; and the morning after the concert
she was already celebrated.
From the age of eight to that of eleven Adelina
Patti travelled with Strakosch, who began at
Baltimore a series of concerts in which she
was to take part. In spite of the fame she
enjoyed at New York, her reputation had not
reached Baltimore; for at the opening of the concert
-though the price of admission was but a half-
dollar to all parts of the hall-only 100 persons took
tickets. At the second 300 persons were present;
while at the third the hall was quite full, 2,000
tickets having been sold.
At Baltimore Strakosch fell in with Ole Bull,
the famous Norwegian violinist, who on his first
appearance in England was hailed as another
Paganini, though on returning to this country
many years later a more reasonable view was taken
of his talent-more showy than solid. Ole Bull,
however, performed wonderful feats on his instru-
PATTI.
69
ment, and his name was a great attraction in a con-
cert programme. Accordingly, Strakosch enlisted
his services, and the leading, if not the sole members
of the Strakosch Concert Company were now Adelina
Patti and Ole Bull.
In her childhood Adelina Patti was capricious; a
peculiarity which, in maturer years, operatic vocalists
are said never to exhibit. She liked singing; but
she also took pleasure in the society of other
children, and she was fond of dolls. It can be
readily believed that the little vocalist of eight years
did not care much for exercises and scales, and it
was sometimes difficult to make her give up the
games of her age when the time had come for her to
go through her daily studies. These, thanks to
Strakosch, were never altogether neglected, though
ingenuity was sometimes shown in evading them.
One day, at Cincinnati, the child of genius had
asked Strakosch for a doll. The impresario, his
mind intent on higher things, had forgotten the
request. He had, however, promised a doll, and
promises of this kind are not forgotten by the
children to whom they have been made. Accord-
ingly, when the time came for Adelina to sing at the
concert she reminded her brother-in-law that she
had not yet received her doll. The hall was already
full, and Strakosch did his best to make the young
artist sing first, and talk about the doll afterwards.
70
THE PRIMA DONNA.
But she was inflexible; and it was not until after
Strakosch had gone out and bought her the re-
quired doll that she consented to ascend the plat-
form. Then, full of joy as a minute before of grief,
she sang delightfully, and the audience applauded
with enthusiasm.
With a passion for dolls Adelina Patti combined
a taste for champagne. Sitting next her at dinner,
Ole Bull neglected or refused to give her a glass of
her favourite wine; "on which," says Maurice
Strakosch, "the little girl in her indignation ad-
ministered to the famous violinist a vigorous slap."
With commendable prudence Strakosch had re-
commended that from the age of twelve to that of
fifteen Mdlle. Patti should not sing in public, a
period of repose seeming necessary in order to
allow her beautiful voice to develop itself without
any risk of being strained.
While, however, Strakosch was engaged in
composing an opera called John of Naples, which
was produced at New York in 1857, with Mdlle.
Parodi in the principal part, the celebrated Gotts-
chalk prevailed upon Adelina's parents to allow him.
to take her on a tour through India.
In 1859 Strakosch became director of the Italian
Opera at New York, and here, "at the age of
sixteen," he says, "Adelina Patti made her first
appearance on any stage.
,,
Quy
PATTI.
71
"She was already at that time the charming
woman and the adorable artist that she is now.'
""
·
It was on the 24th of November that this interest-
ing début took place, and if, as Maurice Strakosch tells
us, the youthful Adelina was at that time only six-
teen, it follows that, contrary to his previous state-
ment, she must have been born in 1843.
With a
neglect which it is difficult to forgive, Strakosch, so
prodigal of less important details, fails to mention
the opera in which Adelina Patti sang "for the first
time on any stage." Muzio, now chiefly known as
one of Verdi's most intimate friends, conducted the
orchestra on the evening of the famous first appear-
ance; and in the course of the season the new prima
donna sang with immense success in The Barber of
Seville, La Sonnambula, Don Pasquale, I Puritani,
Martha, Don Giovanni, La Traviata, Il Trovatore, Rigo-
letto, Ernani, Mosè in Egitto, and Linda di Chamouni.
In all of these, with the exception of Mosè in Egitto,
Madame Patti has sung with the most brilliant suc-
cess in London, where to her juvenile repertory, in
itself sufficiently extensive, she has added some
twenty or thirty other works.
After his sister-in-law's immense success Strakosch
tore up the contract by which she was bound to
sing for him during five years, on comparatively
moderate terms. By the terms of this agreement
Adelina Patti was to receive for the first year 2,000,
72
THE PRIMA DONNA.
""
for the second 3,000, for the third 4,000, for the
fourth and fifth 5,000 francs a month. "Contrast
this," says Strakosch, "with what Madame Patti re-
ceived a few years ago at San Francisco, where Mr.
Mapleson paid her £1,000 for each performance.
Strakosch now signed a new contract, which, he
tells us, was acted upon as long as his business
relations with Madame Patti were continued, and by
the terms of which singer and impresario were, after
payment of general expenses, to share profits.
""
Offers of an engagement were now received from
every side. "North America, South America, Mexico,
were all," says Strakosch, "disputing for Adelina
Patti, whose renown in the new world was now
greater than ever. She was on her way to Mexico,
where the public awaited her with the greatest im-
patience, when an unexpected incident occurred.
In the St. Louis Hotel, at New Orleans, two young
ladies told her that they had just arrived from
Mexico, where they had been attacked, robbed, and
frightfully maltreated by brigands. This was
enough to determine the young prima donna not to
continue her journey. Nothing could induce her to
change her decision, and after a visit to Havana she
embarked for England, where an engagement had
been offered to her at Her Majesty's Theatre. The
manager of that historical Opera-house was just
then Mr. E. T. Smith, a gentleman who afterwards
1
PATTI.
73
.66 ran' an "Italian Opera for the People" at
Drury Lane; it having occurred to him, as he in-
formed the public at the end of one of his operatic
representations, that this class of entertainment had
too long been given exclusively for the benefit of
"My Lord Tomnoddy." Mr. E. T. Smith was an
impresario of quite a new kind. Ignorant not only
of music (in which there would be nothing novel),
but of the authorship of the most popular operas,
he once in a public programme attributed Don
Giovanni to Verdi; and he is said to have found
it difficult to distinguish "La Traviatore" from " Il
Troviata." Mr. Smith knew, however, that Adelina
Patti had made a great success in America, and he
offered her £400 per month to sing in London.
Just at that time Mr. Frederick Gye, annoyed at the
existence of two Italian operas when one would have
been quite enough, offered Mr. Smith £4,000 not to
open. Mr. E. T. Smith, preferring certain gain to
probable loss, accepted the offer; and when Maurice
Strakosch arrived in London with Salvatore Patti
and his charming daughter he found Her Majesty's
Theatre closed.
Maurice Strakosch had now the proverbial two
courses open to him-either to bring an action
against Mr. E. T. Smith, which would in no way
benefit his sister-in-law as an artist; or apply for
an engagement to Mr. Gye. He, of course, applied
74
THE PRIMA DONNA.
to Mr. Gye, who, however, already had so many
distinguished singers in his company that he did not
wish to increase the number. Several new vocalists
had, moreover, during the last few years appeared
at the Royal Italian Opera without success; and the
manager was not inclined to make any fresh ex-
periments with débutantes. Maurice Strakosch, how-
ever, was not the man to be put off with refusals,
which in this case were without basis; for, whatever
number of great vocalists might be already included
in Mr. Gye's company, and however many new-
comers might, of late years, have failed, he knew
well that Adelina Patti would not fail, and that no
company, however rich in talent, could afford to
dispense with her services.
If Mr. Gye would agree to nothing else, he might,
at least, said Strakosch, give the young girl a trial.
To this Mr. Gye, knowing Strakosch to be a man
of the soundest judgment in musical matters, could
not but consent. Strakosch stipulated, prudently
enough, that Adelina should have three trial per-
formances; since it was always possible that at the
first, perhaps even the second, she would not be
fully mistress of her resources. These trial perform-
ances were to be given gratuitously; but it was
arranged that in case of success Adelina Patti should
be engaged at the rate of £150 a month for the first
year, £200 for the second, £250 for the third, £300
PATTI.
75
for the fourth, and £400 for the fifth.
The engage-
ment was to be signed before the first trial perform-
ance, and it was only to be valid in the event of Mr.
Gye feeling satisfied. It was further agreed that
Mdlle. Patti should sing twice a week.
.
I had been accustomed for several years previously,
except for a few long intervals spent in France,
Germany, or Russia, to attend all important
operatic performances, especially on the occasion
of a first appearance, or the production of a new
work. But the first appearances during the two
or three previous seasons had not been encourag-
ing; and when that appearance of Adelina Patti
was announced, I remember saying to myself
that this début would probably be like several
others that of late years I had witnessed. I in-
tended to start the same evening for Warsaw, where
troubles had begun, which, two years later, were to
culminate in an insurrection; and though my in-
structions were to get to the scene of action as
rapidly as possible, I might have deferred my de-
parture until the next morning and still have
reached my destination without any appreciable loss
of time.
In those days the Dover Express left Charing
Cross at 8.30, and I afterwards calculated that when
Adelina Patti first appeared on the stage of the
Royal Italian Opera, and began to sing the recita-
76
THE PRIMA DONNA.
tive of Amina's "cavatina" in La Sonnambula, I
must have been somewhere near Croydon. I cer-
tainly, however, was not thinking at the time of
Adelina Patti, whose name I had probably already
forgotten, but rather of Polish affairs, and how I
should be received when I made my own
"first
appearance" at Warsaw, now in a state of siege.
Some six or seven months later, after spending
some time in the "Kingdom" and other parts of
Poland, I was on my way to St. Petersburg, when at
Kovno, in Lithuania, where at that time travellers
coming from Prussia had to get their passports
viséd and their luggage examined before proceeding
by diligence to St. Petersburg, I heard a voice,
which I fancied I recognized, lifted up as if in a
spirit of contention-
"Does it hurt your hand much, scribbling away
incessantly in that style ?" asked in the French lan-
guage the proprietor, or rather proprietress, of the
voice.
So, so. Not particularly," replied, in an imita-
tion of French, the person who had been addressed.
"I am sorry for it," said the lady, half to her-
self.
66
I entered the half diligence, half passport-office,
where this conversation was going on, and found
that the more fluent of the two speakers was the
charming mezzo-soprano, Madame Nantier Didiée.
PATTI.
77
!
She was on her way to St. Petersburg with a
number of other singers, all engaged at the
Imperial Opera-house; and after her long journey
from London was much irritated, she said (though
she seemed, above all, amused), at the petty worries
inflicted upon her by the passport official, who
wanted to know everything, and seemed himself to
know nothing.
She had never before in her life seen such a
horrible place as Kovno. And then it was so cold.
The winter had now begun, and the ground was
covered with snow. I prevailed upon her to take a
short walk round the town, of which I remember
very little, except that on a commemorative pillar
this laconic inscription was to be read:
"In 1812 an army of all nations passed through
this town 700,000 strong. In 1813 it returned
70,000 strong: "
An inscription as good, in its way, as the one cut
on the Borodino monument, which runs thus :
Napoleon, Moscow, 1812; Alexander, Paris,
66
1814."
Madame Nantier Didiée hated politics; but she
wanted to know when we got back to the diligence-
office, which was at the same time a Government
bureau and an inn, what one of the functionaries
meant by telling us that as it was now dark we
must not go out again without a lantern.
78
THE PRIMA DONNA.
"What do they mean? Are there mad dogs in
the place?" she inquired of the functionary; the
same who had viséd her passport, and who now
began again to make entries in some book.
"There are no mad dogs," said a Polish gentle-
man, who now came up; "they are afraid of ghosts.
This is a corner of ancient Poland."
"With these men perpetually scribbling, and such
a number of fleas," replied Madame Nantier Didiée,
"it is not astonishing that the Poles rise in insurrec-
tion."
I secured a place in the same diligence-they
used to run in caravans of two or three, according
to the number of passengers-and Madame Nantier
Didiée enlivened the long journey to St. Petersburg
by telling me what had taken place in London during
the season that I had missed.
"No one," she said, "paid the least attention to
any of us.
We are all crushed by that little Patti."
Who," I asked, "is that little Patti ?'” For
I thought I had never heard of her, though, on re-
flection, I remembered that this was the name of the
vocalist whose first appearance I had missed.
M
"You must have been living in the desert," ex-
claimed the vivacious mezzo-soprano.
"But you
said
you had been in Poland; it's the same thing.
Adelina Patti is a young artist with a light soprano
voice, brilliant execution, and engaging manners,
CC
PATTI.
79
1
grace.
66
who has driven the London public absolutely wild.
Nothing but Patti goes down with them now."
She added that she had sung with the new prima
donna in Martha, and that in spite of the over-
powering success gained by the frolicsome "Lady
Henrietta," the audience had still some plaudits to
bestow on her not very staid friend "Lady Nancy":
the part, it need scarcely be added, which Madame
Nantier Didiée used to fill with so much talent and
What," I asked, "did Davison think of her?"
Davison, I was told, admired her more than any-
one else, and was most enthusiastic in her praise.
He had appreciated her, indeed, from the first;
witness his article on the young débutante in the
Times of May 15th, 1861.
It was not until 1862 that I heard Madame Patti.
I at once found what I knew would prove to be the
case, that Madame Nantier Didiée had given me a
perfectly just account of the wonderful vocalist.
She was, indeed, charming; alike admirable in ex-
pressive music and in the music of display; full of
brilliancy, full of feeling; singing on all occasions
and in every style so spontaneously that her natural
language seemed to be not speech, but song.
To have the services of such a singer as Madame
Adelina Patti for five years, at a rising salary of
from £150 to £400 a month, was indeed a piece of
!
·
80
4
THE PRIMA DONNA.
--
good fortune for the manager. It will be remem-
bered that Madame Patti was only bound by her
engagement to sing twice a week for Mr. Gye. If she
sang a third night he agreed to pay her on each
occasion £100; and Maurice Strakosch assures us
that until her marriage with the Marquis de Caux
she never received more than £120 a night. Of late
years Madame Patti is known to have received from
Mr. Mapleson £500, £600, and in America as much
as £1,000 a night. At the earlier figures she was as
sure to enrich her manager as at the later ones to
ruin him.
After her first season in London Mdlle. Patti
went to Brussels, where she met with as much
success from the public as in London, though with
less from the critics. One Belgian newspaper,
while admitting her talent, is said to have recom-
mended the young artist to continue her studies
for a time at the Brussels Conservatoire.
From Brussels the new singer, who was gradually
making for herself a European reputation, went on
to Berlin, where Pauline Lucca was the favourite
of the day. Mdlle. Lucca was about the same age
as her rival, who had come to challenge her on her
own ground; and, says Maurice Strakosch,
was equally pretty." The director of the Royal
Theatre found himself, after engaging Mdlle. Patti,
in this strange position. He possessed in his com-
"she
.
I
PATTI.
81
pany two admirable singers; but while he paid
Mdlle. Lucca 1,000 francs a month, Mdlle. Patti
was to receive 1,000 francs a night. Accordingly
for the simplest commercial reasons he must have
been more anxious that Mdlle. Lucca should eclipse
Mdlle. Patti than that Mdlle. Patti should eclipse
Mdlle. Lucca.
VOL. II.
On arriving at Berlin Mdlle. Patti, as a stranger
and as the last comer, hastened to pay Mdlle. Lucca
a visit. Mdlle. Lucca lived at this time on a
fourth floor (though the loftiness of one's abode has
not so much significance in Continental capitals as
in London), and she received her visitors-Maurice
Strakosch and his sister-in-law-not only in her
bedroom, but in bed. "Between the sheets,"
writes Strakosch, "she looked like a child; and
with her first words she expressed her astonishment
at seeing Adelina Patti, who, like herself, was a
delicate and adorable little creature. 'What!'
repeated Lucca, as if in spite of herself, are you
the great Patti?' No rivalry existed between the
two singers except on the stage. Away from the
theatre they remained on the most friendly terms.
In spite of the Press, which showed itself hostile,
Adelina Patti triumphed with the public; and King
William, who was not yet Emperor, attended all her
performances, and went to congratulate her in her
box."
،
G
82
THE PRIMA DONNA.
;
At Amsterdam and at The Hague, Mdlle. Patti met
with the same success. The King of Holland, as
much subjugated by her beautiful voice as any of
his people, invited her to sing at the Palace. Merelli,
director of the Italian Company at The Hague,
replied to the Chamberlain charged with the nego-
tiations that Patti could not sing for less than
3,000 francs a night. The price seemed enormous,
and the Chamberlain asked for time to consider.
""
"On assure, says Strakosch, without saying to
whom the assurance was given, "that the Dutch
Cabinet assembled on this occasion, and that it was
not until after a Ministerial decision had been pro-
nounced that the King consented to Merelli's
terms."
It now seemed to be the turn of Paris to receive
a visit from Mdlle. Patti. M. Calzado objected to
pay £50 a night-the sum asked by Strakosch.
These terms, however, were accepted by him the
year afterwards, with an increase of £10 a night
for the next season but one. Under the manage-
ment of M. Bagier, by whom M. Calzado was
succeeded, Patti received 2,000 francs a perform-
ance for the first year, 2,500 for the second, and
3,000 for the third; and Strakosch declares that in
his time this last figure was never exceeded. On
such terms as these Italian Opera may be carried
on with some prospect of success; and 3,000 francs
PATTI.
83
a night is, after all, good pay. But enough of
pounds, shillings, and pence, except to point out
once more what Maurice Strakosch emphasizes
again and again in his interesting book-that the
ridiculous payments now made to operatic stars
are the ruin alike of operatic management and
operatic art. The prima donna herself suffers
when she is feebly supported by worn-out tenors,
baritones who have never learned to sing, and
incapable vocalists of all kinds. But what
others can a manager engage when nearly the
whole of his estimated profits are swallowed up by
one voracious artist, whose thoughts are not of art,
but of gold? A great prima donna has, of
course, as much right as a great painter or a great
poet to fix her own terms. But the painter and
the poet are self-dependent, whereas the singer
depends for success in a great measure on the
singing of associates; and no person of ordinary
musical taste can care for an operatic representation
in which one singer is as admirable as, under the
circumstances, she can be, while the others are
quite incompetent.
In all probability it will prove useless now, as
heretofore, to lecture on this subject. Rachel,
Ristori, Sarah Bernhardt have all been guilty of
the fault charged against Madame Patti, and which
in the early part of the century used to be charged
84
THE PRIMA DONNA.
against Madame Catalani. But an artist, however
great, who consents to perform in the midst of
inadequate supporters ceases to be anything more
than a highly interesting curiosity, or, let us say,
phenomenon.
Already in London, as in other great capitals,
the public refuses to be attracted by such exhibi-
tions; and it is only in outlandish countries that
the "
star," operatic or dramatic, can hope for the
golden harvest reaped at the cost of much that
does not deserve to be cut down.
Madame Patti has been so much flattered, and
has obtained such brilliant triumphs, that she may,
perhaps, be excused for believing that every operatic
representation in which she takes part derives
interest from her singing alone. Three times,
however, she has tested this principle in operas of
her own choice, by Signor Campana, Prince Ponia-
towski, and M. Lenepveu; and though in each
work the whole interest was concentrated in the part
assigned to Madame Patti, neither "Esmeralda,” nor
Gelmina," nor "Velléda" obtained the slightest
(6
success.
Adelina Patti was as yet far from having reached
the thousand-pound-a-night period of her career.
When she sang in Vienna, at the beginning of 1863,
she was receiving one thousand pounds a month :
so Mr. Strakosch told me at the time. Towards the
PATTI.
85
-
end of February, 1863, I was again on my way to
Poland, which from a state of agitation had passed
to one of open insurrection; and having a few
hours to spare at Vienna I turned them to profit-
able account by going to see Adelina Patti in
the part of "Norina." I had been told on her
own authority that she played it, not as in Lon-
don, where Costa would allow no upsetting
of furniture, no vigorous slaps in the face, ad-
ministered to "Don Pasquale" by his insubordinate
ward, his rebellious bride; but with an impulsiveness
and a self-abandonment which she herself thought
natural in the character, and which she, in any case,
practised—to the entire satisfaction, it must be
added, of the Viennese public. Never, indeed, did
I see the charming vocalist and actress play with so
much gaiety, so much vivacity, so thoroughly in the
spirit of Italian comedy, as on this one occasion at
Vienna.
I was afterwards told by a Hungarian friend
who greatly admired Mdlle. Patti, and had vainly
endeavoured to get introduced to her at Vienna-
though, with that view, he had attended many even-
ing parties to which she had been invited—that the
Viennese found her by no means sociable. How,
indeed, was the young artist to accept the hospitality
offered to her in every direction and yet preserve
enough health and spirits to support the excitement
W
86
THE PRIMA DONNA.
of three performances a week, which she was now
giving; performances, moreover, into which she
threw herself heart and soul, with all the energy of
her impetuous nature?
Strakosch was accused, much to his credit, of
saving her from all such trouble and fatigue as
could well be avoided; and the Viennese attributed
to the influence of her brother-in-law the persistence
of Adelina Patti in refusing their invitations. With
a view of sparing Adelina all unnecessary efforts,
Strakosch not only attended to all her business
affairs, but replaced her now and then at rehearsals.
Thanks to a prodigious memory, Madame Patti is
able in a great measure to dispense with rehearsals,
and according to M. Guy de Charnacé (see Adelina
Patti in "Les Etoiles du Chant ") Mr. Strakosch has
often on these occasions taken her place. "M. Stra-
kosch," he writes, "has gone so far as to sing her part
at rehearsals; the initiated have often seen him trans-
formed into Rosina,' 'Lucia,' or 'Amina,' reply-
ing in character and taking part in a love duet.”
Mr. Strakosch, in his "Souvenir d'un Impresario,"
cites M. de Charnacé's biography of Adelina Patti
without saying that in its pages he is misrepre-
sented. The Viennese had, in any case, persuaded
themselves that Mr. Strakosch, besides transacting
all Adelina Patti's business, sang her parts at
rehearsal, and would be prepared even, in case of
C
PATTI.
87
need, to render her the same service at the public
performance. A piece was brought out at one of
the minor theatres called Adelina and her Brother-in-
Law, in which Strakosch was represented as imper-
sonating her on all possible and impossible occasions.
A visitor called to see Adelina, and was told that
she was not at home, but that Mr. Strakosch would
receive him. A photographer wished to take
Adelina's portrait: "She cannot sit," replies Stra-
kosch, "but I shall be happy to replace her." At
last an infatuated admirer presented himself bent on
making to Adelina a declaration of love: "She is
too much engaged to listen to you," replied the
Strakosch of the farce; "but anything you may
have to say can be addressed to me.
دو
On July 29th, 1868, Mdlle. Adelina Patti was
married at the Catholic Church of Clapham to the
Marquis de Caux. Among the not very numerous
guests was Signor Mario, who at the breakfast
whispered to me that the Marquis, much as he
might be attached to his fascinating bride, had
never made love to her so much as he, her con-
stant tenor, had done.
The love-making of the tenor from fictitious
becomes at times real, and from the stage passes
into private life. This, some years later, was veri-
fied in the case of Signor Nicolini, Signor Mario's
successor at the Royal Italian Opera, who, apart
88
THE PRIMA DONNA.
from the operatic stage, had become the successor
of the Marquis de Caux. Madame Patti's second
husband was, let it be observed, after the retire-
ment of Mario, the best tenor of his day. His
voice left something to be desired-it was wanting
in firmness; but he sang with fine dramatic expres-
sion, while his acting and general demeanour
recalled at times those of Mario himself. No
one in London has ever sung the tenor part in
Aida as it was sung for some years by Signor
Nicolini. Disapproving of his conduct, however,
the British public also disapproved of his singing;
and at a time when he was still an excellent artist
he disappeared from the stage.
Without malice, and merely as a matter of
operatic history, Maurice Strakosch gives a list of
eminent prime donne whose marriage has been
followed by separation, which in some cases (as in
that of Madame Patti) has again been followed by
a happy union. Among the names he cites are
those of Malibran, Bosio, Frezzolini, Grisi, Lucca,
Trebelli, Marie Sasse and Marie Heilbron. It is the
ambition of every prima donna to get married; but,
once a wife, she attaches too little importance to
the wedding ring.
It was not until 1878 that Madame Patti visited
Italy. In that year Strakosch engaged her,
together with Signor Nicolini, for a tour which
PATTI.
89
included the cities of Milan, Genoa, Florence, Rome,
and Naples. At Milan the famous prima donna and
tenor of the Royal Italian Opera appeared ten times
successively in Aida. Nowhere had their success
been greater than at this celebrated musical city, the
capital of Italian Opera; and the triumphs of Milan
were repeated in the other Italian cities.
The American tours undertaken by Madame
Patti under the auspices and management of Mr.
Mapleson carried her to the extremities of civiliza-
tion and sometimes beyond them.
Madame Patti's life and adventures in the United
States as leading lady of Mr. Mapleson's Opera
Company have been described in graphic language
by scores of American journalists, from whose vivid
narratives some extracts may here be given.
"The Mapleson Opera Company," wrote a con-
tributor to the San Francisco Morning Call, "did
not arrive in a body yesterday. They came one
after another, like John Brown's cows,' as a dis-
appointed ovation-seeker at the Palace grumblingly
said. Patti came about 10 a.m., and went imme-
diately to her rooms, where she requested she might
not be disturbed by callers. Other members of the
company came before and after. The weather and
the uncertainty of arrival prevented the grand re-
ception intended by the Italian colony. However,
Patti was met at the Oakland Ferry on her arrival
90
THE PRIMA DONNA.
yesterday morning by a committee of Italian citizens
under the chairmanship of Mr. Raffe, and accom-
panied by a band and Prof. D. Speranza's singing
school. In the evening she was serenaded at the
Palace by the committee of Italian citizens and
band and the singing school, which she acknow-
ledged by appearing on the balcony and waving her
handkerchief.
6
W
-
"Colonel Mapleson arrived about twelve o'clock.
A typical John Bull' of the better class is the
gallant Colonel. A tall, broad-shouldered man,
whose face shows the blood-lines of health and
good living, its roseate hue being heightened by
contrast with its frame of richly-silvered hair.
Altogether a strong presence has the Colonel, as
though the cares of management weigh lightly on
him and count as trifles that merely fleck without
marring the pleasures of life. A strong voice has
he, also—not rough, but mellow as his favourite
wine, and suggesting in its deeper notes the possi-
bilities of early training. In response to a Call-
reporter's query Colonel Mapleson said yesterday:
I have seen the despatch announcing a probability
that Gye will take the Metropolitan Opera-house for
next season, but whether true or false the statement
does not bother me a whit. It will only be a
renewal of our old struggle in London, and this
time I have absolutely the whip-hand of him. Of
PATTI.
91
course if the directors of that institution choose to
put their money on him he will make lively running
for a while, but it will remain to be seen whether he
will ever get as far as the home stretch, to say
nothing of the winning post. I have the great
operatic attractions already secured; the lesser ones
anyone may have who wants them.
"Do I mind being interviewed? By no means,
if the man who interviews me can write something
that people will read. There is no better form of
advertising, and it generally costs no more than a
little courtesy. Sometimes, of course, one is so
pushed for time that an interview is inconvenient,
but, as a rule, a manager can well afford to talk
with you gentlemen of the fourth estate.'
"With your improved mode of travelling,' the
interviewer remarked, 'you must have had a pleasant
trip, Colonel?'
"Oh, delightful and very interesting. Plenty
of room for everybody. The prima donnas had
their different cars. We had three cooks constantly
employed working for ourselves and Patti, and it
was great fun stopping at places and foraging,
capturing chickens and other game. You see we ran
short of provisions, as we were twenty-four hours
overdue. Patti and Gerster are both in excellent
health and fine voice. Patti especially is as lively as a
kitten. Yesterday she seated herself at her piano
92
THE PRIMA DONNA.
1
in the car, and while breakfast was being prepared
sang the celebrated song of the "Queen of Night"
from The Magic Flute, in the original key, repeatedly
striking the highest notes with a bird-like brilliancy,
until Nicolini rushed in and, tearing his hair,
implored the Diva, if she loved him, not to thus
tax her wonderful organ, especially in a railway
car.'
"It was stated here that you broke up your
company in Chicago and sent a great many available
people back to New York. Is that so?'
“I have to meet misstatements on every hand.
I have to-night here one hundred and eleven people,
and that story of my sending fifty-five of my prin-
cipal chorus singers back is totally untrue. Madame
Nordica I had to leave for a certain reason. There
were also five of the more aged chorus singers
returned, and two had to go home because they
shortly expected to become mothers.
6
"Our success along the road,' said the Colonel
with a still brighter manner, has been wonderful.
It surpassed everything I expected, Denver in par-
ticular. Why, at Cheyenne the Legislature and
Assembly adjourned, and they chartered a special
car to meet us sixty miles out. It was a fine com-
pliment. The car was piled full of champagne and
cigars, some of the finest I ever smoked. This is a
great country, surely! On arriving at Cheyenne
PATTI.
93
the band of the Ninth Regiment, in full dress parade
uniform, was in attendance, and the whole popula-
tion turned out, barring a few sick children and old
people, who were obliged to be left at home. The
total population of Cheyenne by the last census is
only 4,000 people, and there were 3,000 at the
opera that night at 10 dols. a ticket. What do
you
think of that? We were afterwards entertained by
the Mayor at the Club, which is one of the best-
appointed I have seen in the United States, and we
left amid cheering and music by the band.'
"How many performances do you propose to give
in this city, Colonel ?'
"The number depends on circumstances and the
support extended by the public. So long as you
people want us we will try to do our best. I am at
present negotiating to get rid of singing in Cincin-
nati, and, if successful, shall be enabled to give three
more nights here.'
"There was a great feeling of disappointment
among us at first when it was given out that Madame
Patti did not intend to come.'
"I can well understand that. Patti at first
resolved not to visit California professionally, only
to get a glimpse of the country and the natural
curiosities about which we had all heard so much.
People told her about San Francisco until she
longed to see the city, and finding her in a fitting
94
THE PRIMA DONNA.
mood I persuaded her to sing, and have made
arrangements to that effect. While she was cross-
ing the bay this morning she seemed to drink in its
grandeur and that of the surrounding scenery with
delight, and when we landed the broad, clean streets
and fresh look of the buildings filled her with
enthusiasm. "What a heavenly place," she cried;
"I would like to sing here to-night." I told her I
would take prompt steps to meet her wishes, but
she must restrain herself for the present.'
“And she will sing?'
"Certainly; but not before Thursday evening,
and it will tax all my energies to carry out her
wishes even then. She will appear in her great
character of "Violetta" in La Traviata. I propose
to give also one Patti concert, the date of which will
be hereafter announced.
"One difficulty, as at first supposed,' continued
the Colonel, in regard to Patti's appearance, was
that she had not got her new dresses here yet. She
left most of her trunks at Chicago. They had just
arrived there, and as she was told the railroad
people charge heavily for extra baggage she did not
bring them. But they have been telegraphed for,
and they will be here in time. Those dresses are of
the most costly description. They were made by
Madame Morin, of Paris, the rival of Worth. Patti
had to get permission of the syndicate of dress-
PATTI.
95
makers, formed in Paris to establish the season's
fashions, to wear these dresses in advance of their
fiat, and the ladies of San Francisco will thus have
the privilege of studying what the fair dames of
London, Paris, and New York are doing, and be
enabled to lead the fashions."
"What will be the extra charge to hear Madame
Patti ?'
I
"The prices will be announced to-morrow.
am anxious to please the public, who have placed
such confidence in me and who have subscribed so
liberally. As Patti's engagement was only made
after the official programme was issued I have
arranged that season ticket-holders will have priority
of selection for the Patti performance at a reduction
of twenty per cent. from the ordinary ticket-buyer.'
"Opera is a great luxury, Colonel, if the prices
paid the singer are as high as stated.'
"I believe you, my boy. Cast your eyes over
these vouchers, and you'll be satisfied.' Here he
showed some formidable figures, cheques, and re-
ceipts. Patti gets 5,000 dols. a night; she
only gets half that in London. Gerster and all
the rest in the same proportion. Yet we charge
more for admission in London than in the United
States. The London prices are from 10 dols. to
100 dols. for private boxes on Patti nights. The
price of the stalls is one guinea (5 dols. 25 c.);
96
THE PRIMA DONNA.
i
666
pit, 10s. 6d. (2 dols. 62 c.); gallery, 5s. (1 dol.
25 c.). These are theatre prices. It is quite
common for the principal and best seats to be bought
up by leading music-dealers, who advance the price
in accordance with the occasion-sometimes from
three to ten guineas. Excepting Patti all my people
get salary while crossing the Continent-a nice little
bill, to say nothing of 20,000 dols. I have to pay
for the special train there and back.
By the way,' continued the Colonel, 'you
ought to go and see those cars-Patti's car especially.
It is one of the most elegant affairs imaginable; the
best, I think, that was ever contrived by the inge-
nuity of man. The walls are covered with embossed
leather, the painting by Parisian artists; it is in
cloth of gold, and cost 65,000 dols. There are also
three other boudoir cars, including "La Traviata,”
occupied by Galassi, Arditi, Carraccioli, and Lom-
bardelli; and "La Sonnambula," occupied by other
principal artists. I occupied the "Lycoming," where
I entertained Madame Gerster, Madame Dotti, and
Count Zacharoff. Have you met Zacharoff, let me
ask?'
"Not yet."
"Ah! He's a rather remarkable man. Fought
all through the Russian war, and is rich now, I
believe. Owns black diamonds, and all that sort of
thing.'
PATTI.
97
"It is generally hoped, Colonel,' the interviewer
remarked, 'that this visit to our city will not be
your last; that Francisco will be included in your
operatic circuit for the future.'
"Ah! my dear fellow, my heart says "Yes" to
that hope; but I do not know what my pocket is
going to say on the subject, although from appear-
ances I think my purse will say "Yes" to it. I never,
at a first glance, was so struck with a place as I am
with this city. In the early part of May I return to
London. The new Opera-house which is being built
for me there will not be ready till May, 1885, when
it will be opened by Madame Adelina Patti. It is
being built on the Thames Embankment, next to the
House of Parliament, larger than La Scala, and it will
be called the National Opera-house. Between my
arrival and the opening of the National I shall get
my first rest in twenty-four years, and I intend tour-
ing Europe to recruit my company for next season.
I have heard of some wonderful voices in different
parts of the world.'
"""Where?'
"Where? Well, my dear boy' (with a droop of
the eyelid and a slightly cunning expression of face),
'I do not think I will mention that even to you just
yet. Patti, when she concludes her American season,
will go to her castle in Wales, where she will stay
till the latter part of June, entertaining in her usual
VOL. II.
H
98
THE PRIMA DONNA.
lavish manner. I believe the Prince and Princess
of Wales are likely to pay her the oft-promised visit
this year. [This visit has not yet come off.] When
she returns to London she will sing five or six times
at Covent Garden.'
"I presume, Colonel, that you are always on the
look-out for exceptional voices.'
"Good singers are as scarce as satisfied prima
donnas. I am constantly on the alert for lyric talent,
such as the public will accept, but it is quite a lottery.
For each singer who has made any mark on the
stage there are ninety-nine failures.
You'll get
many a blank, I can tell you, before you draw a
prize. It is an expensive operation. At the present
time there are nearly 2,000 Americans studying in
Italy and various parts of Germany, all more or less
showing great aptitude, and I always give preference
to Americans. Why, look at the list of Americans I
have been the means of placing on the operatic stage
in England. Patti is an American to all intents and
purposes, as she was reared in the United States. In
1860 I took her to England and brought her out; in
1862 I presented Clara Louise Kellog to the London
public; in 1868 Minnie Hauk; in 1869 Annie Louise
Carey; in 1870 Miss Valleria, of Baltimore; in 1871
Florence Rix, Knox, and Jules Perkins, the basso;
in 1874, Cardidus the tenor, and also Henry Stan-
field; in 1875 Maria Litta; in 1876 Emma Abbott;
PATTI.
99
666
in 1877 Marie Van Zandt, whom I had placed
under tuition for five years previously; in 1879
Emma Nevada; in 1880 Dotti, now in my company,
and in 1883 Nordica. I am now negotiating with
Jennie Sergeant, Louise Lester, who is known here,
and others of whom great things are expected.'
Colonel, your attitude towards Mr. Abbey has
been a subject of much newspaper comment. What
is your opinion of Henry?'
"I look upon Abbey as a very able theatrical
speculator a speculator in the fullest sense of the
term, as he will take up anything from which money
can be extracted. Why he entered the Italian Opera
field to ruin himself I cannot for a moment imagine.
I predicted his downfall at the very outset, which
you might have seen by some early interviews I had
in New York with the Herald and Evening Post a
year ago, when I named within 1,000 dols. the very
sum he would lose. His losses, as set forth in the
schedule which has been prepared, are over 260,000
dols., and that in a space of two months and a half.
He simply entered the operatic field to wipe me out,
as it were. He and his seven brother shareholders
have a little pool of their own, and are interested in
bringing out anything they imagine there is money
in and will send them off well. There is the case of
Sarah Bernhardt, who is thought nothing of on the
other side, then Langtry, and now Irving. They
100
THE PRIMA DONNA.
estimated it would cost 100,000 dols. to remove me,
and they raised it, but it was no go. I am still to
the front, ready to meet the next comer. Abbey
knows nothing, and when he finishes his ten nights.
in New York commencing to-morrow he quits the
operatic arena for good.'
"(And here the Colonel rose and bunched some
telegrams as a hint that other matters were pressing.)
'I have got a lease of the Academy of Music in New
York for seven years, which I can get extended, and
I may say again that I am so pleased with my first
impressions of California that if I can only meet my
expenses I shall be more than repaid for my visit.'
"Entrez,' responded a pleasant voice to his tap
on the door, as the Call reporter stepped from a dark
corridor of the Palace Hotel into one of the most
charming apartments in that gigantic caravansary.
The air that greeted his incoming was so warm and
so laden with the perfume of flowers that for an
instant he thought himself in a conservatory rather
than a drawing-room, and glanced around for the
exotics that must be harboured in this cosy nook.
At first his eye lighted on a pyramid of bouquets,
built up on the table, then upon more bouquets on
chairs, sofas, and even strewn over the floor for lack
of other resting place.
Then his attention was
caught by a beautiful parrot fluttering against the
bars of its cage; next by a silver-haired gentleman
Mou
PATTI.
101
rising slowly from his seat; and finally by a charm-
ing little lady, who said in a tone of assumed pique:
"Will you deign to turn your eyes in this direction,
monsieur? I'm a little body, to be sure, but then I
am really seeable if one only tries to see me out.'
The one rare exotic of this hothouse had been found,
and the wandering eyes of the reporter from that
moment ceased their wandering. A winsome lady
is Madame Patti, in face, in figure, in speech, and in
ways of gesture; in fact, she is precisely described
by that intranslatable French expression, très chic.
The passing years have tripped so lightly by this
favourite of fortune that she seems to mock the
record of her birth, and to be almost as young as
when she sang with Mario, twenty years ago. Spark-
ling eyes, piquante and mobile features, nervous, bird-
like gestures, clear but rapid utterance, a small, com-
pactly built figure, a profusion of dark, wavy hair,
a costume becoming in the extreme and behold
Madame Adelina Patti, as she appeared yesterday
afternoon. After a few complimentary nothings
had been said the Diva laughingly remarked: 'Ac-
cording to every physical rule I should be a very
tired little woman to-day, but au contraire I am so
filled with the electricity of novelty and excitement
that I really haven't time to grow weary. Every-
thing possible has been arranged for my comfort in
travelling, but the weather has been so very naughty
-
102
THE PRIMA DONNA.
1
that it gave me no rest at all last night. Then these
wash-ups-wash-ins-wash-outs-how is it
you call
them?-have made such long delays that it really
seemed as though we should never reach this Mecca
of our hopes. Just think of it, we were stopped ten,
seven, some tremendous number of hours at one of
these washing places alone. Now that we have got
here it is raining-but that won't last long-do say
it won't! If you only knew how much I have wanted
to see the bright sunny California that travellers tell
about, you would say a prayer on my behalf to the
Clerk of the Weather. California has been so long
the dream of my anticipation, and yet, do you know,
I came very near not getting here at all. I don't
think I could have resisted the temptation to come,
however, even if the present engagement had not
been made, for I had several spare weeks on my
hands and could not have employed them better
than to make the trip for pleasure simply. I shall
probably never visit America again—as a singer, that
is-and it would have been shameful to have missed
the hospitable reception that artists are accorded on
this coast. At least, so they all tell me, those who
have been here. Ah! if you but knew how much
has been done to prevent my coming; but I have
come, and am consequently in humour to smile on
everybody and everything.'
you absolutely mean, madame,' inquired the
""" Do
ઃઃ
PATTI.
103
reporter, that you shall never return to America
in a professional capacity — that the present season
will be your last one in this country?'
-
"Mais nou; I will not say it absolument, for I
may possibly return once more for a farewell en-
gagement. That is in the dim distance, however;
and, understand, that a farewell engagement with
me means exactly what it says. I have no wish to
continue on the stage after my voice has gone, as so
many, many other artists have done, but want to
close my operatic career before my friends will need
to apologize for my vocal failings. That is why I
was so glad to come to America this year—for really
without an extra amount of vanity, I can say that I
never sang better than at present; and it is so de-
lightful to feel that you will not disappoint the good,
kind, lovely public by giving them a faded imitation
of your former self.'
At this point several other visitors entered the
room and the interview merged into general chat.
Among the new-comers was a Russian gentleman, at
present residing in this city, and when the ex-inter-
viewer called Madame Patti's attention to this fact
she beamed upon that Russian, and took him, meta-
phorically speaking, to her heart. 'Ah,' said she,
'how I dote on Russia! So many of my happiest
hours have been passed there. Such audiences were
never seen as those of St. Petersburg. Do not
104
THE PRIMA DONNA.
understand me to be ungrateful for the kindness.
shown me in so many other countries'-this aside
to her American guests-'but those brave Russians
are so enthusiastic over what they like. It is worth
ten years of one's life to be a favourite for one night
in St. Petersburg. They avalanche their applause
upon you after a successful effort until you feel as
happy as an angel. I have been called out again
and again until I had no strength to stand any
longer, and then was obliged to sit on a chair
upon the stage and wait until the audience would
let me go.
"You saw me there? Then I must shake hands.
with you again, for your heart must have shared in
my triumph. Do you remember how the dear old
Empress used to make tea for me between the acts?
God bless her! and that grand old gentleman, the
Czar, who used to let me call him "papa!" Ah,
me! How I shall miss them both. They were so
dignified, and yet so gentle with little me. I shall
always love Russia and the Russians for their sakes.
I am to be in St. Petersburg next season-St.
Petersburg! why, my blood already starts at the
thought of the welcome old friends will give me.'
"The door again opened, this time without a
warning tap, and a pleasant looking gentleman
entered, and after standing a moment said, in quite
passable English and with a smile, 'Is it necessary
that I introduce myself?'
PATTI.
105
"Messieurs,' replied Madame Patti, also smiling
brightly, 'allow me to present to your kindly
acquaintance Signor Nicolini. Ah, mon ami!' to
him, 'you see here the Press and Russia; to both I
owe so many favours that you will be glad to meet
their representatives.'
"The interview was now further off than ever, for
the conversation turned to all sorts of uninterview-
able, but, for all that, pleasant subjects, the main
point being a discussion of Colonel Mapleson's busi-
ness chances in San Francisco. As a last effort to
catch the lost thread of his intended interview,
the reporter finally asked Madame Patti to name
some of the operas in which she prefers to appear.
"I could name many that I like, but if you
mean the few I most love-Lucia, Sonnambula,
Traviata, Il Barbiere, and Romeo and Juliet-the
last especially, for it requires two first-class artists
to sing it, and those two carry the entire opera. It
is difficult, and so generally a failure, that one must
feel proud to make a success of it.'
"As the interviewer rose to take his leave his
charming hostess said
"If you write anything about me, be sure you
say something nice, for if you do not, I'll-I'll not
spend five cents to buy your paper.
"Then she laughed merrily and continued
-
"Do one thing for me, please; say that my heart
feels very warmly towards the new friends who have
106
THE PRIMA DONNA.
!
welcomed me so kindly to your city by the sea.
Look round you at all these flowers, and tell me if
I have not reason to be grateful. That pyramid of
bouquets came from a party of young girls, whose
faces were brighter than the flowers they brought,
and I shall treasure them as memories of a pleasant
meeting. Please say so for me, for I mean it.'"
To attempt any complete appreciation of Madame
Patti in the various parts she has undertaken would
be out of the question, so numerous have they been.
Her admirers, however, have missed something if
by chance any of them have not seen her in perhaps
the most characteristic of all her impersonations:
that of "Rosina," in which (to borrow a happy
expression from the Russian critic, the late Lenz)
she shows herself, at each fresh appearance, "plus
Patti que jamais." "Rosina" is a part which
the composer may be said to have treated on
what, in the language of commerce, is called the
"double entry system." It secures two first appear-
ances for the prima donna; and though this very
arrangement is said to have been one of the
causes of the disfavour with which the masterpiece
was received on its first production (when it was
hissed by many and applauded by no one except
the half-ironical, half-indignant composer, who
stood up manfully for what he knew to be an
-
PATTI.
107
achievement of some merit), it renders Il Barbiere a
very suitable opera in which to reintroduce a
thoroughly popular artist. "Rosina"
appears first
of all in the balcony, where she is received with the
applause of recognition. This is renewed when she
comes on in the second scene, which might well be
considered a second act, to sing the long-delayed
air out of which the Roman audience of the year
1815 fancied the original "Rosina " meant to
defraud them. There is yet another opportunity
for touching the heart of the public-ready, in the
case of Madame Patti, to respond with the greatest
warmth to the very slightest advances-when "Dr.
Bartolo's" interesting ward takes her music-lesson;
and the culminating point is reached when the fall
of the curtain cannot but be accepted as a sign for
recalling the heroine of the evening, and offering
her the homage which she has earned anew by one
more fascinating performance.
The comic and the serious author in Le Diable
Boiteux, after exchanging fulsome compliments,
disputed as to which of their respective styles was
most difficult, and thereupon came to blows.
Madame Adelina Patti, if any such question as
this were to arise in connection with operatic per-
formances, might take either side at will. Those
who may have seen her only in great dramatic parts
will not be likely to admit that comedy is her forte.
108
THE PRIMA DONNA.
Those who are, above all, familiar with her
"Rosina ""
in Il Barbiere, or her "Norina " in
Don Pasquale, may well believe that she was
born to represent the heroines of lyrical comedy.
But the fact is her dramatic genius has as extended
a range as her own beautiful voice, every accent of
humour, of sentiment, and of passion being equally
at her command. Without, however, attempting to
decide which of the two styles is the most difficult,
it may safely be said that the comic style—or, to be
precise, the style of comedy-is the most rare.
We have several "Aminas," many "Marthas,"
a remarkably large number of "Margheritas; " but
we have only one "Rosina," and Madame Patti,
rising constantly to new heights, and embellishing
the music year after year with ornamentation of a
more dazzling description, would seem to take a
malicious pleasure in placing the part farther and
farther beyond the reach of all other vocalists.
If any other artist were able to sing Rossini's
brilliant music more or less as Madame Patti sings
it, the difficulty of impersonating the character as
we are accustomed to see it impersonated by the
perfect "Rosina
"Rosina" of the Royal Italian Opera would
still remain. Qui dit Rosina, pense Patti has been
well said by the author of "Beethoven et ses trois
styles," who, after a long course of symphonies and
sonatas, seems to have found true musical happiness
PATTI.
109
in listening to Italian music as sung by the greatest
operatic artist of our time; and the manner in
which Madame Patti identifies herself with the
character he names is indeed perfect.
When such singing as comes from the mouth
of "Rosina" is heard, the most convinced Wag-
nerian must be led to reflect that if the Wag-
nerian system were established on the operatic
stage to the exclusion of all others there would be
no place for such vocalization as may be heard
from the lips of Madame Patti. If Wagner had
not aimed at universal dominion he might not have
gained even so much space as has been accorded
to him at the great Opera-houses of Europe. But it
is well to remember that the adoption of the Wag-
nerian system, to the neglect of every other, in-
volves the absolute-too absolute-subjection of the
vocalist. The prima donna, flightiest of the whole
flock of human singing-birds, would be caught,
clipped, and imprisoned within the iron cage of
dramatic necessity.
Without denying the poetic beauty of Tannhäuser
and Lohengrin, it is impossible not to see that the
abandonment of the lyrical stage to such works
would involve the sacrifice of singing as an art;
of singing for the sake of singing such as the public
applauds with enthusiasm whenever it has an oppor-
tunity of hearing Madame Patti in a thoroughly
1
110
THE PRIMA DONNA.
vocal part. Madame Patti can equally awaken the
admiration of her audience when she undertakes
characters in which a strict adherence to the
musical text is required. But of the various kinds
of excellence which together make up her incompar-
able talent, one is perfection as a vocalist; and it is
only in genuine Italian Opera, and chiefly in the
works of Rossini, that this excellence can be dis-
played.
Another favourite part of Madame Patti's, one of
those in which she loved to appear at the beginning of
each new season, was that of "Catarina" in Meyer-
beer's Etoile du Nord. In the original Etoile
du Nord we find the so-called "opéra comique
in its fullest possible development. It would be
grand opera, if it could. It presents the most
astounding and literally stunning combinations of
vocal and instrumental masses that were ever heard
on the stage. Indeed, L'Etoile du Nord would
scarcely be intelligible as an "opéra comique" but
for the known fact that before being presented in
that conventional shape it had a prior existence as
a grand opera" of the German pattern. Its prin-
cipal pieces were composed for the Camp of Silesia,
from which they were detached to serve, amid
entirely new surroundings, in the opera to which
they at present belong. The principal part in the
Camp of Silesia was written for Jenny Lind, who is
66
•
PATTI.
111
known to have sung with great success the air with
double flute accompaniment, now forming the chief
musical feature of the third act of L'Etoile du Nord.
Frederick the Great, flute-player and warrior, was
the leading character in the Camp of Silesia; and
one can see the traces of his warlike and flute-play-
ing tendencies even in the imitation work, of which
not "Frederick II.," but "Peter I.," is the hero.
The real value in music of what is called "local
colour" is sufficiently shown by the fact that what
was considered appropriate colour for a Prussian sub-
ject is considered equally appropriate for a Russian.
The march which now does duty in L'Etoile du
Nord as a Russian march is, as a matter of fact,
one of the historical marches of the Prussian Army.
The choruses of Finnish peasants in the dockyard
scene of the first act are quaint; and being out-
landish in character pass for Finnish, as they might
equally, according to circumstances, pass for Persian
or Babylonian. The so-called “ gipsy-rondo," sung
by "Catarina," is original and melodious; but it
would be difficult to say what gipsy feature it
possesses. Nor is it at all clear why "Catherine,"
the future wife of "Peter," should be presented as
a gipsy.
Apart from history, "Catarina" is one of the great
comic opera family to which the "Catarina" of Les
Diamants de la Couronne, Angèle" of Le Domino
66
112
THE PRIMA DONNA.
Noir, and so many more of Scribe's heroines belong.
In each successive act she appears not only in a new
costume, but also in a new character. Indeed, the
third act exhibits her in two characters, and the first
in two, if not threo. In Act I. we see "Catarina,"
first, as the daughter of a Finnish innkeeper;
secondly, as a gipsy; thirdly, as an enterprising
young girl starting on her travels in man's clothes.
In Act II. she is a soldier, in a tunic and cocked
hat. In Act III. she is, in the first scene, the con-
ventional operatic lunatic, arrayed in pure white, with
her hair hanging loose on her shoulders; and in the
last the Empress of all the Russias, clad in Imporial
purple, and crowned with the Imperial diadom.
L'Etoile du Nord is the most varied, and by far the
most incoherent, of all Meyerbeer's works. Made
up out of the remains of an earlier opera, it doubtloss
owes its patchiness to that fact. Scribo, most
accommodating, as he was also the most ingenious,
of librottists, must have been asked to furnish a
"book" which would enable the composer to bring
in some of the characters, some of the situations,
and all the principal musical piocos of the Camp of
Silesia. Throwing history, othnology, probability,
naturo, and art to the winds, Scribo produced L'Etoile
du Nord; than which a stranger, more inconsistent,
more indigestible mixture of fact and fiction was
never presented on any stage.
PATTI.
113
Add to this that the principal man's part is
gloomy and for the bass voice, that the hero distin-
guishes himself in one long scene which occupies
nearly the whole of the second act by getting
heroically and tragically drunk, and that the finale
to this same act introduces a chorus and two military
bands on the stage which, playing different themes,
are heard in combination with the full orchestra
playing yet another theme, and no further inquiry
need be made as to why L'Etoile du Nord is, of all
Meyerbeer's operas, the heaviest.
So strikingly dull was the third act after Meyer-
beer had, with a view to the Royal Italian Opera,
put M. Scribe's dialogue into recitative, that it
was found absolutely necessary to relieve it by
moans of a new and, in a dramatic point of view,
most unnecessary air for the tenor, the result being
that "Peter," "Danilowitz," and "Catarina "
have now, ono after the other, to sing a solo in
two verses. Thus the oponing scones of the third
act form a sort of "ballad concert," which
"Catarina's" solo (No. 3 of the series) at last
brings to an end.
The Prussian Camp of Silesia was a much simpler
work than the quasi-Russian Etoile du Nord; for
which Scribe substituted a new libretto to do
duty in connection with old music-a new canvas
beneath old colours. In Rellstab's not very dramatic
VOL. II.
I
114
THE PRIMA DONNA.
piece, Frederick runs the risk of being captured
by "Pandours" during the Silesian campaign; and
it was to match this incident that Scribe made "Cal-
mucks" threaten the safety of Peter in Finland!
The attention of the Hungarians is occupied and
their rage calmed by the gipsy, "Vielka," who sings.
to them the spirited and charming rondo which
"Catarina" (a gipsy for ten minutes) was after-
wards to sing to the Tartars who had so strangely
found their way to Finland. All the military music
which plays so important a part in the second act of
L'Etoile du Nord belonged originally to the Camp
of Silesia. So, among other pieces, did the air,
with accompaniment of two flutes, which Madame
Patti sings so perfectly in the third act of L'Etoile
du Nord and in which Jenny Lind used to achieve
a brilliant success.
Madame Adelina Patti has generally made her
first reappearance for the season either as "Violetta"
or as "Rosina;
Rosina;" and every opera-goer knows that
as the heroine of Beaumarchais and Rossini's ad-
mirable musical comedy she is incomparable. There
are other parts, however, in which sho is almost
equally admirable, and in which she is equally con-
tent to make, as the French say, her rentrée. One
of these is the part of "Catarina" in Meyerbeer's
Etoile du Nord. There is certainly none which
offers more variety at once of costume and of style;
PATTI.
115
and the question of costume is taken into considera-
tion even by so great an artist as Madame Patti.
"Rosina" is always the same; and so charming is
she as impersonated by Madame Patti that no one
can reasonably complain of her never for one
moment losing her identity. Change, however, is
often agreeable in itself; and those who wish to see
and hear Madame Patti in as many costumes and as
many characters as possible cannot do better than
witness the performance of L'Etoile du Nord, with
Madame Patti assuming turn by turn in that work
the part of a waiting-maid at an inn, of a fortune-tell-
ing gipsy, a young recruit, a sentinel, a young lady
clothed in melancholy and white muslin, and finally
a princess sound in body as in mind and decked in
robes of splendour. In L'Etoile du Nord we see on
the stage not one Patti, but six Pattis.
The French Etoile du Nord, in spite of its vast
proportions, was not composed or rearranged for the
stage of a large theatre. It reappeared in its second
incarnation at the Opéra Comique of Paris, where
the part of "Catarina" was charmingly sung by
Malle. Caroline Duprez. But the theatre was
not large enough for the work. The combined
finale of Act II. had an absolutely stunning effect;
and the most successful piece in the opera was the
duel and duet in the tent scene for the two lively
and pugnacious vivandières. At the Opéra Comique
116
THE PRIMA DONNA.
the three masses of voices and instruments which
are introduced in the finale to the second act, first
in succession, then in combination, were of necessity
brought too closely together. At the Royal Italian
Opera the different bodies of troops with their dif-
ferent orchestras and different melodies have space
to move in; and the themes played by the three
orchestras can be made out with something like
distinctness.
But, in spite of its ingenuity, the concerted finale
to the second act of L'Etoile du Nord is more aston-
ishing than agreeable.
It may seem ungrateful to examine too closely a
work which, with all its inconsistencies and defects,
contains a great deal of beautiful music and a part
which is charming even among the many charming
parts included in Madame Patti's rich and varied
repertory. More brilliant singing than that of
Madame Patti in the scene of the last act has never
been heard. Nor could anything, in its way, be
more admirable than her delivery of the couplets in
narrative of the first act. The prayer, too, at the
end of this act-the most beautiful melody in the
opera-is always sung by her with the deepest and
purest expression, as the sparkling barcarolle which
follows it is thrown off with the most exquisite
lightness.
When L'Etoile du Nord was first presented at the
PATTI.
117
Royal Italian Opera, the recitatives furnished by
Meyerbeer in lieu of the spoken dialogue of the French
original made the work tedious. The first act went
brilliantly enough, but the second, in which a great
dramatic situation had to be written up to, was full
of preparatory and explanatory talk, such as in
opera should as much as possible be dispensed with.
And in the third act so much recitative is pre-
sented that Meyerbeer himself seems to have taken
fright and in his alarm to have felt the neces-
sity of introducing a suitable air for the tenor;
an air in which the accompaniment of ascending
scales for two flutes is more remarkable than the
rather common-place theme. But even in the days
of its first production on the stage of the Royal
Italian Opera, those who remained to
see the
end of this very tiring third act were well re-
warded by the beautiful scena for the prima donna.
They are doubly rewarded when the prima donna is
Adelina Patti.
No one can have an idea of the full range of
Madame Patti's histrionic genius who, in addition to
the parts of "Rosina" and "Catarina," has not also
seen her in that of "Dinorah." There are plenty of
fantastic characters in opera; but of characters at
once fantastic, graceful, and consistent there is not
one that can be placed on a level with that of the
heroine in Le Pardon de Ploermel. "Dinorah” re-
118
THE PRIMA DONNA.
calls in some measure La Petite Fadette of George
Sand. But she has, thanks to Meyerbeer, her own
musical physiognomy, and, thanks to Madame Patti,
her own musical expression. Written for one of the
most brilliant vocalists of the period, the part
abounds in difficulties which, as treated by Madame
Patti, are only so many opportunities for the display
of consummate facility.
"Dinorah," as a singer, is
passing over the loftiest and slenderest bridges, and
by the side of the most dangerous precipices, not in
the scene of the cataract alone, but throughout the
opera. Apart from dazzling flights in the highest
region of the vocal register, "Dinorah" has passages
of simple expression which are not, perhaps, more
truly melodious than those with which they form so
striking a contrast, but which are melodious in another
manner. What, for instance, can be more beautiful
than the lullaby of the first act-as full of tenderness
as a song of Schubert's? "Lullaby to an intract-
able goat," it might be called; for the ungrateful
creature refuses only too often to be caressed by the
voice of the charmer, even if it does not (as some-
times happens) turn the solo into a duet by intro-
ducing unmusical notes of its own. Meyerbeer was
fond of animals; and had he carried out the intention
he seems at one time to have entertained of setting
Faust to music, he would doubtless have added to
the horse of Les Huguenots and the goat of
PATTI.
119
"Dinorah" the dog which so naturally becomes
transformed into cynical Mephistopheles.
Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, in which the composer
is always pleasing, though seldom impressive, might
be described as the powerful drama of Romeo and
Juliet reduced to the proportions of an eclogue for
"Juliet" and "Romeo.' One remembers the work
""
as a series of very pretty duets, varied by a spark-
ling waltz air for "Juliet," and one really dramatic
scene, also for "Juliet," in which Madame Patti
displays that tragic genius which belongs to her
equally with the highest capacity for comedy.
Romeo e Giulietta is an admirable opera for "Giu-
lietta;" in which "Romeo" is not forgotten.
Madame Patti's first appearance for the season
in La Traviata never fails to fill the house; and by
the time “Violetta" has primed herself with cham-
pagne and advanced to the footlights, glass in hand,
to sing "Libiamo" there is never a vacant place
in the theatre. The story of La Dame aux Camélias
has been so purified in its conversion from its
original dramatic form into the libretto of an opera
that "Violetta's " stage business with the cham-
pagne in the opening scene is really all that remains
to stamp her as a "transgressor" of a particular
kind; and, without fastidiousness, it might be
wished that "Violetta" would not throw her cham-
pagne about the stage, which, besides being a little
120
THE PRIMA DONNA,
unbecoming, would in actual life be imprudent, as
some of it might fall on her dress. It belongs to
the part, however, and has to be done; and such
being the case who could do it more gracefully than
Madame Patti? After that only too characteristic
drinking song, "Violetta," as everyone knows, bids
farewell to her life of reckless gaiety, and only re-
sumes it in a moment of despair, when she feels that
she must shortly bid farewell to life altogether.
The part is full of the most dramatic contrasts;
and in that, as in the real merit of the alternately
brilliant and pathetic music, is to be found the simple
explanation of the favour with which it is regarded
by prime donne and by the public. In Madame
Patti's "Violetta" there is always something new
to be observed; new ornamentation in the cadences
of the principal airs, new points of inspiration in the
acting, and new dresses of the most tasteful kind in
every scene.
"Semiramide" is one of Madame Patti's latest
impersonations; and the announcement that she
would appear in a part usually undertaken by
vocalists of a different type caused in the first in-
stance some surprise. Mr. Gye had been looking
abroad year after year for a tolerable "Semira-
mide," when he had an incomparable one in his
own company. This was to be explained by the
widespread, though not very ancient, delusion as to
PATTI.
121
66
""
the existence of two distinct classes of soprano
singers the light and the heavy-otherwise the
"dramatic." The late Madame Grisi and the late
Mademoiselle Titiens distinguished themselves in
"dramatic" parts, among which " Norma," "Lucre-
zia Borgia," and "Semiramide were all included.
As 66
Semiramide," both Madame Grisi and
Mademoiselle Titiens obtained great success, and
both were "robust," not only of voice, but also of
person.
Hence the notion that "Semiramide
must necessarily be represented by a singer possess-
ing a voice of large calibre, with figure to match.
"9
..
Yet Mademoiselle Titiens was slim enough when
she first undertook in this country the part of
"Semiramide;" and it was not because she was
tall, but because she was a great artist, that
she made so much impression in that character.
It was considered, all the same, a matter of course
that though Madame Patti might represent to per-
fection such personages as
"Amina," "Lucia,"
Linda," "Gilda," "Rosina," "Dinorah," and some
dozen others, more or less of the same type,
yet the repertory of the so-called dramatic soprano
must remain closed to her. Accordingly, since the
retirement of Madame Grisi, Mr. Gye had sent to
the uttermost ends of the operatic earth in search
of "dramatic soprani." Some of the would-be
"Semiramides" possessed the supposed physical
"
122
THE PRIMA DONNA.
requirements of the part almost in excess; but not
one of them could get herself accepted by the public
as a fair representative of the Assyrian queen. As
a matter of fact, there is no reason for supposing
that "Semiramide " was more "robust" than
"Cleopatra ;" and no one can suppose the fascinat-
ing "serpent of the Nile" to have been otherwise
than lithe and supple in figure. It was not, how-
ever, until after several "Semiramides" of a larger
growth had proved themselves incapable of grap-
pling with the music and with the meaning of the
part that the manager of the Royal Italian Opera
thought of the artist who had shown herself, in
Ernani, Aida, &c., a great tragic actress, and who
had been known long before-ever since her first
season in England-to be an accomplished mistress
of such vocalization as the florid music of Rossini
demands. It might, moreover, have been remem-
bered that the part of "Semiramide" had been
sung with brilliant success by Madame Sontag and
by Madame Bosio, who thirty years ago appeared
as "Semiramide" at Paris and at St. Petersburg.
Indeed, the very music would seem to show that,
far from being unsuited to the light soprano voice,
the part could only receive justice at the hands of a
singer possessing the peculiar gifts and acquirements
by which the light soprano is distinguished. Rossini,
who probably knew how his own music should be
PATTI.
123
sung, was delighted when he heard that Adelina
Patti wished some day to appear as "Semiramide;"
and to give additional brilliancy to her performance
he wrote for her the ornaments which she now
introduces in "Semiramide's" great aria, "Bel
raggio." He at the same time wrote, in view of
their being sung by Madame Patti, new passages for
"Desdemona's " willow song.
That Madame Patti would find all the music of
Semiramide well within her resources must have
been known beforehand to all who had ever
heard her in a Rossinian opera. Others who had
heard her repeatedly in every part she had under-
taken were, moreover, aware that her impersonation
would, in a dramatic point of view, be all that could
be desired. Madame Patti does not walk the stage
like a conventional stage queen, with measured step,
lofty bearing, and head slightly thrown back in
token of general disdain. Always natural, always
entering into the spirit of the character she imper-
sonates, she is queenly, not through any deliberate
assumption of royal airs (which are as easily put on
as scarlet robes), but because in the exercise of her
high dramatic faculty she becomes "Semiramide"
herself. She is as queenly as it is possible to be
without ceasing to be womanly.
Madame Patti may now be said, so far as Europe
is concerned, to have quitted the operatic stage.
124
THE PRIMA DONNA.
So extravagant are her terms that no manager can
engage her for performances in which it is neces-
sary that she should be supported by singers of
something like her own artistic value. She has
taken farewell of art as she practised it in her early
days; and she has for some time past been engaged
in making, by means of her immense reputation and
her undiminished talent, a colossal fortune. Such,
however, has been the history of most previous
"stars," dramatic as well as operatic; and if
Madame Patti is now profiting by her fame, it must
be remembered that this fame was originally due to
genuine artistic success gained successively in every
European capital.
Madame Patti has never sung in one of Wagner's
operas; differing in this respect from Madame
Lucca, Madame Nilsson, Mademoiselle de Murska,
and Madame Albani,
CHAPTER V.
PAULINE LUCCA.
MADAME PAULINE LUCCA belongs to the same period
as Madame Adelina Patti and Madame Christine
Nilsson, and was born in the same year. She first
attracted attention in 1856, when, as a young girl,
she was singing in the choir of the Karlskirche at
Vienna. Here her beautiful voice was much re-
marked; and the Karlskirche was attended by many
persons who might have reproached themselves, like
St. Augustine, with paying more attention to the
singing than to what was being sung. About a
century before Sophie Arnould had in like manner
drawn numbers of persons to the convent chapel,
where on Sundays and holidays she habitually
sang.
Soon afterwards Pauline Lucca joined the Vienna
Opera-house, accepting in the first instance an
126
THE PRIMA DONNA.
engagement in the chorus; but chorus-master,
musical director, and manager soon saw that in the
sweet-voiced, bright-mannered Pauline they had no
ordinary chorus-girl to deal with. She was en-
trusted with the solo verses of the "Bridesmaids'
chorus" in Der Freishütz, and sang them so charm-
ingly that people crowded to the Opera-house for
the express purpose of hearing them.
The young
vocalist had already accepted an engagement for
Olmütz, where she was to sing principal parts, or
she would at once have begun at Vienna her career
as prima donna.
66
At Olmütz in 1859, two years before Adelina
Patti came out in London, Pauline Lucca appeared
as Elvira" in Ernani. From Olmütz she went to
Prague, where, in 1860, she caused the greatest
enthusiasm by her impersonation of "Valentine "
in Les Huguenots. Meyerbeer had now heard of her,
and when, in 1861, she came to Berlin, he recog-
nized in her his ideal "Selika." He had long been
seeking a fit representative for the heroine in what
was to prove his last opera; and probably had
Pauline Lucca been able to sing in French he would
have recommended her for the part to the manage-
ment of the French Opera-house. Here the
character a few years afterwards was to be created
by a more experienced, but less youthful, vocalist,
Madame Sax-or Sasse, as she was ordered to call
PAULINE LUCCA.
127
herself in the bills, when it was proved before a
tribunal that she had abandoned her rightful name
to usurp the one borne by the estimable inventor
of a whole family of keyed wind-instruments.
In 1863 Madame Pauline Lucca made her first
appearance at the Royal Italian Opera, where Patti,
since 1861, had been the reigning star. Here her
most successful impersonations were " Margherita "
in Faust (which for many seasons she played alter-
nately with Madame Patti); "Valentine" in Les
Huguenots, a part for which she was scarcely fitted
by her not very imposing figure, but which she sang
with fine dramatic feeling; "Zerlina" in Fra
Diavolo; and, above all, perhaps, "Cherubino" in
the Marriage of Figaro. In the part of "Cheru-
bino," Lucca was so charming and so much like
the Chérubin of Beaumarchais himself (a little
toned down in Mozart's thoroughly beautiful setting)
that a very illustrious singer is said to have
objected to take the part of "Susanna
Susanna" in a
singularly perfect cast, arranged by the manager,
Mr. Frederick Gye, from a suspicion lest the gay
artlessness of the page should in some of the
scenes absorb the attention of the public to the dis-
advantage of the Countess's maid. Sontag as
"Susanna" was once in like manner threatened by
the rivalry of an almost too attractive " Cherubino;
but she conjured the danger by entering heart and
""
128
THE PRIMA DONNA.
.
soul into the impish pleasantries of the playful,
amorous youth.
Madame Lucca was very admirable in the great
dramatic parts of "Valentine" and of "Selika.'
But her grace, her coquettishness, her espièglerie
(to borrow from the French language a word which
has scarcely an equivalent in our own) gave to the
part of "Cherubino," and in a less degree to that of
"Zerlina," a charm which would be vainly looked
for in the impersonations of any other artist.
Madame Lucca terminated her first London en-
gagement, contracted for several years, by an abrupt
departure. Her sudden flight was never explained;
not, at least, to the public.
It exposed the fugitive to the payment of a heavy
indemnity, as stipulated in the agreement. But
when, some years afterwards, the opportunity of
re-engaging Madame Lucca presented itself, the
manager, putting aside all question of damages and
fines, was only too glad to profit by it.
In the year 1870 Madame Lucca appeared as
"Leonora " in La Favorita, a simple dramatic part
presenting none of the variety of light and shade
which gives such interest to the personage of
"Margherita." The "Leonora" of La Favorita,
like her namesake of the Trovatore, is serious
from beginning to end. She is not much better,
not much worse, morally speaking, than "Vio-
•
19
PAULINE LUCCA.
129
:
letta" of La Traviata; while there is this to be
said against her, that she is never lively. To be
sure, the dramatist has given her neither the excite-
ment of diamonds, as in the case of "Margherita,"
nor of champagne, as in that of "Violetta;
and poor gloomy "Leonora❞ only once becomes
thoroughly animated when the prospect of death
and the influence of love, stronger than death,
combine to produce in her that "exaltation" which
gives such beauty and such dignity to her final
scene. In this scene, of which it would not be
enough to say that it is worth all the rest of the
opera, Madame Lucca shows herself thoroughly
penetrated with the spirit of the situation, and in
the closing duet attains the highest point of tragic
and pathetic expression. Of course she is very
charming in the duet of the first act; of course she
sings the grand air of the third, "O mio Fernando,"
with all necessary feeling; but it is not until the
highly dramatic scene which terminates the opera
that, like the composer of the work, she reveals
herself in all her power.
Madame Lucca, by the nature of her dramatic
talent, is, perhaps, more fitted for the representa-
tion of light than of serious parts. With a vivid
impression of her "Margherita " still upon us,
we must nevertheless say that she is seen to
more advantage as "Zerlina" in Fra Diavolo, and
VOL. II.
K
""
130
THE PRIMA DONNA.
above all as "Cherubino" in the Marriage of Figaro.
Yet of characters in which lightness, prettiness, and
grace are the chief dramatic essentials these are the
only two which have yet been undertaken by
Madame Lucca. Many indeed are the qualities
which Madame Lucca possesses. But her chief
quality of all is "verve;" a combination of nerve
and spirit, which she possesses to a greater degree
than almost any other vocalist.
When the war of 1870 broke out more than one
prima donna was affected by it. The Marquis de
Caux, at that time husband of Madame Adelina
Patti, was not in the military service-he had
begun life as a diplomatist, and afterwards held an
appointment in the household of the Empress
Eugénie. Neither was M. Auguste Rouzaud, hus-
band elect of Madame Christine Nilsson. He was a
stockbroker, but he was also a mighty hunter; and
when the war broke out he joined the army of
Paris as a volunteer and took part in several sorties.
Both Madame Lucca's husbands were warriors.
Both served in the Prussian cavalry, and both took
part in the famous charge of Mars la Tour, delivered
August 16, 1870, with the object (duly attained) of
arresting the march of Bazaine's army towards
Paris until German troops should have assembled
in sufficient force to drive back the French up to,
and within the walls of Metz. Moreover, in this
famous charge both Madame Lucca's husbands
-

PAULINE LUCCA.
131
were severely wounded; and both were lying in this
condition at one of the numerous hospitals es-
tablished near Metz, when the intrepid prima donna
resolved to visit Baron von Rhaden. She is said
to have also visited his intimate friend and destined
successor, when from her first husband she had
been liberated, not by French bullets, but by
American lawyers.
The German newspapers published long and en-
thusiastic accounts of Madame Lucca's expedition
to the neighbourhood of Metz; and one enterprising
writer issued in pamphlet form what was repre-
sented as a complete narrative of the adventurous
journey. The presence of a prima donna in an
occupied district was certainly an incident of no
ordinary kind. The favourite Court singer of the
Emperor William, the fascinating artist who had en-
joyed the honour of being photographed together with
the illustrious Bismarck (the outcome of a jocular
proposition on the part of the vocalist, jocularly
accepted by the Minister), had, of course, no trouble
in obtaining the necessary passes; and equally as a
matter of course she was received wherever she
appeared with the utmost attention on the part of
the military authorities.
The circumstances under which Madame Lucca
obtained her divorce are sufficiently curious to be
mentioned. They are known to the present writer
from full reports of the proceedings published at
132
THE PRIMA DONNA.
the time in the New York papers, and they were
briefly as follows:-
Madame Lucca, or rather the Baroness von
Rhaden, applied for the dissolution of her marriage
with the Baron von Rhaden, on the ground of
his infidelity; and on evidence sworn by Madame
Lucca, without any opportunity of reply being given
to the defendant in the case, the plaintiff's demand
was granted. Then Madame Lucca married her
second husband, Baron von Wallhofen. A few weeks
afterwards, as soon as there was time, a declaration
arrived from Baron von Rhaden denying absolutely
Madame Lucca's statements as to his infidelity. But
the Court, after receiving the evidence proffered by
Baron von Rhaden, rejected it, or rather took no
action upon it, for the sufficient reason that since
the first hearing of the case Madame Lucca, profiting
by the decree of divorce, had married a second
time.
General considerations apart, it is gratifying to
know that the decision of the American tribunal
did no harm to any of the parties concerned; not
even to Baron von Rhaden, for though, according to
his affidavit, he had had no too friendly relations
with the young lady against whom his wife's jealousy
seem to have been excited, he, nevertheless, as soon
as he was at liberty to do so, married her.
It has been said that Madame Lucca was born in
PAULINE LUCCA.
133
the same year as Adelina Patti and Christine Nilsson;
and there seems but little reason for expecting a
successor to either of the three.
""
Madame Lucca began her career as prima donna
at Olmütz in 1859 as "Valentine" in Les Hugue-
nots; Madame Adelina Patti came out at the Royal
Italian Opera of London in 1861 as "Amina in
La Sonnambula; and Madame Christine Nilsson
made her début at the Théâtre Lyrique of Paris in
1864 as "Violetta" in La Traviata.
As operatic composers have disappeared it seems
in accordance with the fitness of things that
singers equal to the interpretation of their works
should also disappear. Rossini had scarcely re-
tired when he was replaced by Donizetti and
Bellini, and when Donizetti composed his last
operas, in
in 1843, Verdi had already brought
out, in 1842, Nabucco and I Lombardi. For many
years past, however, the operatic theatres of Europe
have not depended for new works upon Italian
composers alone. Verdi's period of activity came
to an end in 1859 with Un ballo en Maschera; though
this did not prevent him from producing twelve
years afterwards one of his finest works, Aida, and,
eighteen years afterwards, Otello.
In 1859, just as Verdi virtually retired, Gounod
produced an opera which was destined, like so many
of those produced by the four leading Italian com-
134
THE PRIMA DONNA.
posers of the last seventy-five years, to acquire a sort
of international character; to be played, that is to
say, in every country, and to be translated into every
language. When it became evident that the com-
poser of Faust had finished his operatic career, the
operas of Wagner all at once became popular: Lohen-
grin, Tannhauser, and the Flying Dutchman passing
into the Italian language, which for musical purposes
is an international tongue; passing also into the
languages of England and of France, though, owing
to the prejudices and, it may be added, the wounded
feelings of the French, Wagner is still excluded
from the French stage, and in the French language
is to be heard only in Belgium. The lamented
Bizet with his one delightful work; Gounod with
Faust; Wagner with Lohengrin; Meyerbeer with Les
Huguenots, Le Prophète, L'Africaine, and Dinorah;
the four Italian composers who kept the opera of
their country alive from the time of Rossini to that
of Verdi; and finally Mozart with the immortal
Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Magic Flute;
these are the masters of all nations, and of many
periods, these are the works that are now com-
prised in the repertory of a so-called Italian Opera,
when organized on the completest scale. It can be
seen at a glance that of the composers named two
only are living, each of whom has written his last
opera.
CHAPTER VI.
CHRISTINE
NILSSON.
MADAME CHRISTINE, or rather Christina, Nilsson, the
second of the "nightingales " given to us by Sweden,
with Jenny Lind as first, and Miss Sigrid Arnold-
son, it may be, as third, was born a child of wonder.
Seventh child of a seventh child, she was, according
to Swedish belief, which in the case of Christine
Nilsson can scarcely be treated as a superstition,
predestined for great things. That she was the
seventh born of a seventh born I have heard from
her own lips, though M. Guy de Charnacé, in his
"Etoiles du Chant," places her eighth and last in the
long list of her brothers and sisters. He also con-
nects her with an interesting national tradition, and
assures us that her father in his dreams used to
see her surrounded by all kinds of earthly and
heavenly glories. In her own native village a story
was current of a peasant girl who had become a
136
+
THE PRIMA DONNA.
1
queen; and her own native province, that of
Wärend, was the legendary scene of an exploit by
which the fair-haired Blaenda raised herself from
the humblest to the loftiest position.
It may be that the story of Jael and Sisera, compli-
cated with that of Judith and Holofernes, got some-
how multiplied and transformed into a Scandinavian
saga. This, in any case, is what the sagas tell of
the heroic Blaenda, who, by means which the sweet-
voiced and doubtless tender-hearted Christina would
have shrunk from practising, raised herself to the
rank of "first lady" among the ladies of her country
and of her time.
Sweden had been invaded by the Danes. Then
Blaenda invited the chiefs of the Danish army to a
banquet, where she assembled the most beautiful and
most courageous young women of the neighbour-
hood. Unable to refuse the insidious drinks pre-
sented to them with soft words by smiling maidens,
the reckless warriors found themselves after a time
in a helpless condition; and it may be that mean-
while the wine poured into these maidens' cups
became, by such a miracle as is performed in the
Isaias of Signor Marcinelli, changed into water. In
any case Blaenda and her brave companions remained
self-possessed when the Danish chiefs had already
lost their senses. Then Blaenda drew from beneath
her garments a sickle and cut off the head of the
CHRISTINE NILSSON.
137
principal leader, while the other young girls followed
her example, each operating on the neck of her
particular admirer.
The analogy between the story of Blaenda and
that of Christina is not a very striking one. But
for lovers of analogies it exists; and, like Blaenda,
Christina from a peasant girl became a queen—a
Queen of Song.
But it has been said that Christina, besides being a
seventh child, was the seventh of a seventh; which
makes her miraculous career no longer a marvel.
Patti's parents were both connected with the opera,
one of them being a famous singer; and in many
cases the natural gifts of a great vocalist have been
an hereditary possession. Such, however, was not
the case with Christine Nilsson-to give her the fore-
name which, during her residence in France, she
was finally to adopt; nor, indeed, with her illus-
trious predecessor, Jenny Lind. The latter had
the good fortune at a very early age to attract the
notice of an operatic artist who chanced to hear
her sing; and the same thing happened about the
same age to Christine Nilsson.
Christine Nilsson was born Aug. 3, 1843, the
same year (it has already been said) as Patti and
Lucca. One of her brothers, Carl by name, had
become a violinist; in which character he used
to visit the fairs of the neighbourhood, even at
138
THE PRIMA DONNA.
some considerable distance from the parental
home. One day, when little Christine was still a
child, the brother found that she was in the habit,
during his absence, of making experiments with his
violin; and that she had already learnt to play upon
the instrument with considerable skill. Gradu-
ally it struck the brother that with the aid of his
sister he might turn his solos into duets; and
soon the little girl made her first appearance at any
fair.
A magistrate, in whom the habit of trying
petty offences had not obliterated all sense of art,
was present at one of Christine Nilsson's perform-
ances; and so struck was he by her brilliant talent
that he offered to secure for her a thorough musical
education. Then it seems to have been that the
father was visited by the dream already mentioned.
But somehow it did not convince him that he would
do well to accept the propositions made to him by the
worthy justice. The propositions were, however,
repeated in a pressing manner; and in the end
father Nilsson, fortunately for all lovers of music,
gave way, and little Christine became a member of
the magistrate's family. One day a singer of dis-
tinction, Mdlle. Valerius, afterwards Baroness of
Leuhusen, visited the house, and in the midst of
an improvised concert expressed her desire to hear
the little peasant girl of whose charming voice some-
CHRISTINE NILSSON.
139
one had spoken to her. Christine sang; and then
nothing would satisfy Mdlle. Valerius but to take
her away to her own house and there give her
regular music lessons. The little girl made much
progress under the instruction of Mdlle. Valerius.
But it was necessary to teach her other things
besides music and singing; and she was now old
enough to be sent to school. The next two years
she spent at Gottenberg, where she received the
rudiments of a good general education. Then the
worthy magistrate again took charge of her; and she
went with him to Stockholm, where he placed her
under the care of an eminent professor and com-
poser, Mr. Franz Berwald. She soon regained all
she had lost during her two years of general study;
and she now made great progress, not only as a
singer, but also as a pianist. The reputation left at
Stockholm by Jenny Lind is said to have stimulated
her to great exertions. She, in any case, studied
with surprising success; and already projects of a
"first appearance in public" were entertained.
Just then a sister of Mdlle. Valerius, who possessed
much talent as a portrait painter, was about to visit
Paris. She suggested that Christine should accom-
pany her; and it was soon arranged that the young
painter and the still younger singer should go to
Paris together. Christine took with her a letter of
introduction to an English lady, Madame Collinet,
140
THE PRIMA DONNA.
and in Madame Collinet's family she remained
some time.
Christine's chief object in going to Paris was to
place herself under a good professor; and at
Madame Collinet's she made the acquaintance of
one of the most successful singing masters of his
time, M. Wartel, teacher of Madame Trebelli.
M. Wartel saw at once that Christine's talent
fitted her above all for the operatic stage; but his
young pupil was timid and had no particular inclina-
tion for a theatrical life. One evening, however,
she heard Madame Miolan-Carvalho at the Théâtre
Lyrique in La Reine Topaze; and there was some-
thing in the performance of that charming vocalist
which told Malle. Nilsson that she also was a
singer. She informed M. Wartel of the change her
ideas had undergone; and now, far from hesitating,
she was only anxious that the director of the Théâtre
Lyrique, M. Carvalho, should give her a hearing.
This was soon arranged by M. Wartel; and a three
years' engagement was offered to the young artist,
by which she was to receive 2,000 francs a month for
the first year, 2,500 for the second, and 3,000 for the
third. On the 27th October, 1864, Mdlle. Nilsson,
then 21 years of age, made her first appearance.
Historians differ-even operatic historians; and
though M. Guy de Charnacé leads us to believe that
M. Carvalho was the first director with whom Mdlle.
CHRISTINE NILSSON.
141
Nilsson ever treated, Mr. Maurice Strakosch, in his
"Mémoires d'un Impresario," assures us that before
singing at M. Carvalho's theatre Mdlle. Nilsson
accepted an engagement from Eugenio Merelli, son
of the manager who was at that time directing the
Scala of Milan and the Imperial Theatre of Vienna.
Merelli, according to Strakosch, engaged Nilsson
for five years; but though he had the greatest
confidence in her talent, could find nothing for
her to do. Merelli, moreover (always according
to Strakosch), considered that in spite of Mdlle.
Nilsson's talent and charm as a vocalist, he had
committed rather an imprudent action in engaging
her for opera, seeing that she had never appeared
on the stage.
Some days afterwards Merelli met Strakosch
again and told him that his engagement with
Mdlle. Nilsson was at an end. He was glad, he
said, to be obliged no longer to pay her 1,000
francs a month for doing nothing; and Mdlle.
Nilsson must also have been glad, since by her
engagement with M. Carvalho she was to receive
2,000 francs a month.
Mdlle. Nilsson came out at the Théâtre Lyrique
as "Violetta" in a French translation of Verdi's
Traviata; and she did so without much success.
This opera had in like manner failed on its first pro-
duction at Naples.
:
142
THE PRIMA DONNA.
At Naples the fiasco was caused by a striking
want of harmony between the representative of
"Violetta" and the "Violetta" who should have been
represented. The latter is dying of consumption.
The former was excessively robust, so that when
the doctor of the piece said, in sorrowful tones,
"She is fading away!" the audience, seeing that
their "Violetta" was still enormous, could not
restrain their laughter.
At the Théâtre Lyrique La Traviata, or Violetta, as
the work was now called, did not meet with the success
that might have been expected from the rapturous
manner in which the vivacious and charming Pic-
colomini had been received in the part of the unfor-
tunate heroine at the Théâtre des Italiens. For
the French version recalled too strongly to the
public the novel and the play from which the sub-
ject is taken. For analogous reasons a Shake-
spearian opera has but little chance of succeeding
with the English public. La Dame aux Camélias, in its
dramatic shape, is called by its author a "comedy;"
and the novel from which the comedy is derived is
like the comedy, a picture of contemporary manners.
The novel and the play contain, all the same, some
highly dramatic scenes, ending with a really pathetic
catastrophe.
The dramatic scenes and the catastrophe were
alone required by Verdi and his librettist.
The
CHRISTINE NILSSON.
143
character-painting, the satire of Dumas' novel and
of Dumas' comedy were naturally absent from the
opera, constructed on the same dramatic theme;
and this was not what the public had expected. The
work produced no favourable impression; and it was
not until Mdlle. Nilsson appeared in her second part,
that of "Astrafiammante," the Queen of Night,
in Mozart's Magic Flute that she made a really bril-
liant success. Mdlle. Nilsson's impersonation of
"Astrafiammante" took the Parisians by storm, or,
to use a more appropriate word, enchanted them.
"Like a true daughter of the North; like a sister of
Jenny Lind," wrote M. Blaze de Bury, "Christine
Nilsson has entered into the master's idea. If her
clear and resonant voice scales the heavens it is to
curse from on high like a daughter of the Titans.
The notes spring from her mouth like fiery serpents.
She has the laugh-rattle of a Hecate."
The Magic Flute, which one would scarcely have
looked upon beforehand as a work likely to please
the French, delighted them. It obtained such a
run" as scarcely any opera in France had met with
before. Mdlle. Nilsson's next impersonation was to
be even more successful; and here those who believe
that the French can appreciate and enjoy nothing
but what is light and superficial will say that her
success was quite natural. The part she now under-
took was that of "Martha " in Flotow's ever popular
.66
144
THE PRIMA DONNA.
work. Flotow-" Flotow Magico," as some unscru-
pulous friend is said to have called him-had already
put his favourite subject through no less than three
transformations, when in 1865 he presented Martha
to the manager of the Théâtre Lyrique in yet a
fourth.
Count Frederick von Flotow, to judge by the
various forms and the different languages in which
he caused Martha to be produced, must have pos-
sessed a truly international mind. It was, perhaps,
for that reason that his Mecklenburghian father
wished him to enter the Austrian diplomatic service.
Called upon, at last, to choose between diplomacy
and arms," he returned," says one of his biographers,
"an evasive answer, and became a composer." He
studied at Paris under Reicha, and, born in 1812,
was scarcely of age when he brought out his first
opera, Peter and Catherine, which was performed by
a company of amateurs at the Hotel Castellan.
"After trying his hand once or twice more upon
amateurs," says the biographer already cited, "he
felt almost ready to meet the public at an open
theatre. By way of transition he had recourse to
the Poles, whose misfortunes have been made the
pretext of so many performances; and in 1840 he
produced an opera called La Duchesse de Guise,
which was played at the Salle Ventadour for the
benefit of the Polish exiles." After three or four
CHRISTINE NILSSON.
145
not very successful works performed at the Renais-
sance and at the Opéra Comique, he made his first
great hit at Hamburg with Stradella, a very
melodious work, based upon the famous though
mythical scene between Stradella and the assassins
who, paid to put him to death, chanced to hear him
sing and were unable to slay him by reason of his
beautiful voice. Stradella was succeeded by L'Ame
en Peine, composed for the Grand Opera of Paris,
and there performed with moderate success. Flo-
tow's German opera, Stradella, and his French opera,
L'Ame en Peine, have both been translated into Eng-
lish; and Stradella has also passed into Italian.
But Flotow's fate in life was apparently to pro-
duce one thoroughly successful international work;
and this with Martha he really accomplished.
Already, in 1843, Flotow had joined two French
composers, MM. Burgmüller and Delvedez, in writing
the music of a ballet called Lady Henriette ou le
Marché de Richmond, which, after being successfully
produced at the Grand Opera of Paris, was played in
London under the title of Lady Henrietta; or, the
Statute Fair. On the subject of the ballet, Flotow
caused a German libretto to be written; and this, after
setting it to music, he called Martha. He had adorned
his work by introducing in the principal situation
the beautiful "Last Rose of Summer;" and with this
VOL. II.
L
146
THE PRIMA DONNA.
rose in his button-hole Flotow will doubtless go-at
least a little way-down to posterity.
In arranging Martha for the Italian stage, the
composer added two new airs, one for the contralto,
the other for the baritone; and he made some further
changes in arranging it for the Théâtre Lyrique,
where, thanks in a great measure to Mdlle. Nilsson's
charming impersonation of the heroine, it was repre-
sented for upwards of 300 nights. In the German
piece the action takes place in the reign of Queen
Anne. The author of the Italian version has, for
some inscrutable reason, gone back to the fifteenth
century. The characters, therefore, in the Italian
Martha ought, one and all, to wear medieval cos-
tumes; though the heroine invariably attires herself
according to the latest fashion. In the French version
the librettist has made the incidents of the drama
occur almost in the present day.
The ever-to-be-lamented Bosio had already sung
the part of "Martha" in the most charming manner
at the Royal Italian Opera; and Adelina Patti had
achieved as "Martha," at the same theatre, one of
her most brilliant successes when Mdlle. Nilsson
undertook the character in the new French version at
the Théâtre Lyrique.
At the end of her three years' engagement with M.
Carvalho, Mdlle. Nilsson went to the Grand Opera;
where, besides appearing as "Marguerite in
""
:
CHRISTINE NILSSON.
147
૮૬
Gounod's Faust, she "created" the part of “ Ophe-
lia" in M. Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet.
Hamlet, except in the pretty ballet music and the
really poetical scene of Ophelia's death, is the work
of a man who is perpetually urging himself to be
solemn and sad when nature created him light and
cheerful. Our opera-going public, for the most part,
knows nothing of Shakespeare, and consequently is
not shocked by the terrible absurdities of which the
operatic Hamlet is full. But in itself, apart from
what it suggests, M. Thomas's music is very depress-
ing. The Romeo and Juliet of M. Gounod, who first
taught M. Thomas the art of marrying feeble music
to immortal verse, is far preferable to Hamlet, in-
asmuch as M. Gounod does not think it necessary to
make unnatural exertions with the view of raising
himself to the level of his poet. All he feels called
upon to do is to write as his nature prompts him; and
the result is that, though M. Gounod's music is no
more Shakespearian than that of M. Thomas, it is at
least spontaneous, and possesses some naïveté-a
quality in which M. Thomas's high pressure strains
are wholly wanting.
The time had now come for Mdlle. Nilsson to sing
in London; and in 1867, being on a visit at the
house of Mr. Vivian, she appeared under Mr. Maple-
son's management at Her Majesty's Theatre, where
she played successively all the parts in which she
148
THE PRIMA DONNA.
(C
had distinguished herself at the Théâtre Lyrique
and the Grand Opera, with the exception only of
Ophelia;" for the opera of Hamlet had been
secured by Mr. Gye for Covent Garden Theatre,
where the principal part was played with but mod-
erate success by the fair-haired Malle. Sessi. The
comparative failure of the work was owing to no
fault of Mdlle. Sessi's, but to the pretentiousness and
dulness of the opera.
It is now more than twenty years since Mdlle.
Nilsson sang for the first time on the Anglo-Italian
boards. On the 8th of June, 1867, before a public
which had not yet forgotten the "Violetta" of
Mdlle. Piccolomini, a new "Violetta
came for-
ward and at once took the hearts of all who heard
her. Indeed, the very appearance of Mdlle. Nilsson
when she advanced to sing her "brindisi," with
its accompaniment of champagne, caused a murmur
of applause which must have at once set the fair
débutante at rest as to the impression she had
already made on the English public.
It soon
became manifest that the charm of her voice and
singing was as great as that of her person and
demeanour. Before she had finished the first verse
of “Libiamo” she was already accepted as a public
favourite; and at the conclusion of the opera she
was applauded, called and recalled with a fervour
such as is never awakened but by a really great
singer.
""
CHRISTINE NILSSON.
149
Mdlle. Piccolomini, it is true, had been applauded
with rapture at the same theatre; but the very
charm of Mdlle. Nilsson's performance lay in the
contrast it presented to the passionate realism
of her impulsive predecessor. She refined to the
utmost a character sadly in want of refinement, and
sang in absolute perfection the expressive music of
the part. Her "Violetta" never went into hysterics;
and she seemed to die, not of phthisis aided and
developed by dissipation, but of a broken heart,
like Clarissa Harlowe or like that Shakespearian
maiden who "never told her love." Mdlle. Piccolo-
mini's "Violetta " was a foolish virgin; Mdlle.
Nilsson's a fallen angel.
So profound was the first impression made by
Mdlle. Nilsson in La Traviata that when some years
later, after her return from America, she essayed a
more dramatic, more realistic rendering of the part,
everyone objected to the new "Violetta" that this
was not the "Violetta" to which Mdlle. Nilsson had
originally introduced us.
Mdlle. Nilsson's next impersonation at Her
Majesty's Theatre was "Margherita" in Faust, a
character thoroughly in harmony with her poetic
temperament. It was observed that in the first scenes
the new "Margherita's" costume was closely copied
from the well-known figure of "Gretchen" by Ary
Scheffer; and if Scheffer had been alive and had
wished to illustrate the drama throughout, he might
›
!
1
••
150
THE PRIMA DONNA.
in every scene have taken Mdlle. Nilsson for the
model of his heroine. Of all the Margheritas-lively
and coquettish Margheritas, sombre and impassioned
Margheritas, Margheritas of every description-
none more naïve, more innocent could be seen than
the "Margherita " presented by Mdlle. Nilsson.
In some respects Mdlle. Nilsson's "Margherita
resembled the "Margherita " of Madame Miolan-
Carvalho, for whom the part was written. But
Mdlle. Nilsson's "Margherita " was the more natural.
of the two. Madame Miolan-Carvalho's "Mar-
gherita" moved about the stage with fixed attitudes
and looks, as though in a prolonged fit of somnam-
bulism.
99
As to the singing, Mdlle. Nilsson's voice seemed
now, more than ever, remarkable for its purity of
tone; while such was the perfection of her execu-
tion that the sentimental spinning song, the brilliant
air of the jewels, and the melody in which "Mar-
gherita" gives so touching an account of her little
sister's illness and death, were all sung with equal,
and that the very greatest, effect.
The third character assumed by Mdlle. Nilsson in
England was that of "Martha," in which she had
appeared some three hundred times at the Théâtre
Lyrique. It was easy to understand why Mdlle.
Nilsson had played the part so often in Paris. Her
"Martha" was indeed a charming impersonation;
CHRISTINE NILSSON.
151
while the "Last Rose of Summer," as given by her,
was a happy example of a thoroughly beautiful
melody sung with perfect expression by a thoroughly
beautiful voice. About this time Mdlle. Nilsson
made her first appearance at the Philharmonic Con-
certs, when she sang the second of "Astrafiammante's"
solos in the Zauberflöte. Never before (except,
perhaps, by the original representative of the Queen
of Night) had "Gli angui d'inferno" been sung
with such genuine expression, such brilliant effect.
The concert audience found, as was afterwards
discovered by oratorio audiences, that the opera
public had, as usual, been right in its judgment.
In fact, so varied are the demands made upon a
singer in opera, that a thoroughly successful opera
singer is sure to succeed in every style.
cess as
After appearing with the most distinguished suc-
"Violetta," 66
Margherita," and "Martha,'
Mdlle. Nilsson now undertook the usually neglected
part of "Donna Elvira" in Don Giovanni; which,
as previously at the Théâtre Lyrique, she at once
brought into prominence. The lamentations of this
ill-used lady are not, as a rule, thought to form the
most interesting part of Mozart's opera. But with
Malle. Nilsson in the character, "Elvira," instead of
being wearisome with her perpetual plaints, became
highly interesting. The audience heard with sym-
pathy her tales of woe, and felt that to deceive,
""
""
152
THE PRIMA DONNA.
and worse still, abandon so charming a woman was
to combine crime with folly. Never did the public
entertain so bad an opinion of "Don Juan" as when
the part of "Elvira," to whose engaging appeals he
listens unmoved, was played by Mdlle. Nilsson.
Mdlle. Nilsson's success in the four parts just
named was so great that if success in the plainest
sense of the word had been her only object, she
might well have abstained from assuming any others.
But not to confine herself to repetitions, and as if
to show the wideness of her dramatic range, she
appeared in successive seasons as the sad, senti-
mental "Lucia," and as the arch and amorous
"Cherubino." Mdlle. Nilsson is one of the two or
three living artists who enjoy not only a European
but a world-wide reputation; and by London audi-
ences she has always been held in the very highest
esteem. Moscow and St. Petersburg know her as
well as New York; London knows her better even
than Paris, where she made her first studies and her
first appearance on the stage, but where she has
never to this moment been heard in Italian Opera.
Now not to have heard Mdlle. Nilsson in Italian
Opera is to have missed one important side of her
very complete talent. In London she has appeared
in all the characters which she had made her own
years before at the Théâtre Lyrique; and she has
also sung a remarkably large number of Italian parts.
CHRISTINE NILSSON.
153
She made her début, as already mentioned, in the
character of "Violetta," and had a prominent place
at once assigned to her in that interesting class of
vocalists known as "light soprani." There are some
singers, no doubt, to whom this designation may be
fitly applied-singers with high, thin, flexible voices
capable of executing florid music in brilliant style,
but not equally capable of giving due expression to
music of a grave and emotional character. Formerly
no such distinction as that now recognized between
the light soprano" and the "dramatic soprano
was known.
66
66
,,
Meyerbeer, as previously pointed out, was the first
composer who wrote systematically for the two kinds
of soprano voice; as, for example, in Les Huguenots,
which contains one soprano part of a highly dramatic
cast and one of a purely ornamental kind. In the
days of Pasta, Malibran, and Sontag every soprano
sang every kind of music written for the soprano
voice. But the airs and passages given to "Valen-
tine" are so different from those assigned to
Marguerite de Valois " that one can scarcely
think of any singer who could render full justice
to both characters. Neither, however, is beyond
the means of Mdlle. Nilsson, who is equally per-
fect as "Astrafiammante" in the Magic Flute, and
as "Leonora" in Il Trovatore, and who certainly
could sing the music of both the soprano parts in
154
THE PRIMA DONNA.
Les Huguenots. It is only in one of them, however,
that she has been heard-and in the very one which
some years since would have been considered quite
unsuited to her talent. Yet her "Valentine" is
as admirable an impersonation as her "Desdemona,"
her "
Violetta," or her "Mignon."
*
In 1869, when Mr. Mapleson and Mr. Gye com-
bined their forces at the Royal Italian Opera, Mdlle.
Nilsson appeared in her famous part of "Ophelia."
She acted and sang it with infinite grace; but
the work was so dull, so dead, that not even
Mdlle. Nilsson, with all her inspiration, could
breathe into it the breath of life.
The only part which Mdlle. Nilsson has had the
opportunity of "creating"-though to many she has
given a new character-is that of "Edith" in Balfe's
Talisman, or Talismano; for, composed to an English
libretto by the late Arthur Matheson, it was pro-
duced in an Italian, or rather an Italianized, version
with the spoken dialogue of the original put into re-
citative. Balfe, thanks to himself and to his own
tuneful, singable music, has more than once been
fortunate in his singers. In one of his earliest
operas, the Maid of Artois, the principal part was
undertaken by Malibran. In his latest work, pro-
duced after his death, the heroine was impersonated
by Nilsson. The final rondo of the Maid of Artois
has been sung by many a famous prima donna. It
CHRISTINE NILSSON.
155
became known as "Balfe's air," or "L'air de Balfe"
-as though he had not written a hundred others,
many of them more melodious and more original
than this "L'air de Balfe." When Balfe went for
the first time to St. Petersburg, the Empress Marie
Feodorovna, wife of the Emperor Nicholas, thought
all at once, on his being presented to her, of "L'air
de Balfe," and said to him, "Vous êtes Monsieur
Balfe de l'air ?"
The tenor part in the Italian version of the
Bohemian Girl has been sung at Her Majesty's
Theatre by Giuglini, and the principal air in
that part (much more worthy of being known as
"L'air de Balfe" than the final rondo of the Maid
of Artois) by Mario. Balfe's Falstaff, moreover, had,
some fifty years ago, the supreme advantage of being
sung by all the best singers then engaged at Her
Majesty's Theatre, with Grisi and Lablache among
them.
In undertaking the part of the heroine in Il
Talismano Mdlle. Nilsson fulfilled a promise she had
made to the composer some years before his death.
Presented in its original English form the work
would probably have met with more success than
it obtained in the Italianized version. Balfe's grand
operas, or operas with full recitative, have never
made much impression on the English public. This
was shown in the case of one of his most carefully
156
THE PRIMA DONNA.
written works, The Bondman, which is said to have
been received with favour in Germany, but which
in England, owing in a great measure to its being
composed throughout in music, fell flat.
When Mdlle. Nilsson appeared as "Edith Plan-
tagenet" in Balfe's posthumous opera of Il Talis-
mano, never did a public favourite, coming back to
the scene of many triumphs, meet with a warmer
reception. More significant, however, than either
the applause at the beginning of the performance,
or the applause strengthened and adorned by bou-
quets at the end, was the fact that the newly-arrived
artist had returned in admirable voice. In the
melodious andante of "Edith's" opening air, “Plo-
cida notte," Mdlle. Nilsson was heard at her best.
She sang
the tormented allegro which concludes the
air, and which forms so striking a contrast to the
preceding movement, as it was doubtless intended to
be sung; and the spirit with which she declaimed the
final passages of the second movement called forth
more applause than even her expressive singing in
the first. At the end of the opening air, and sub-
sequently on every possible occasion, Mdlle. Nils-
son was applauded, recalled, and, on coming back,
received with salvoes of bouquets. In the grand
duet with the tenor she sang with much dramatic
feeling; and nothing could have been neater or
more brilliant than her perfect execution of the joy-
CHRISTINE NILSSON.
157
ous solo in galop time, which, with its elaborate
variations, adorns the last act. How, on the ter-
mination of the opera, Mdlle. Nilsson was once
more called before the curtain to receive the plaudits
of an enthusiastic audience need scarcely be told.
The part of the tenor fell to the lot of Signor
Campanini, who is, at least, the possessor of a fine
voice. It would be difficult just now to name
another tenor who can sing passages of sustained
notes as firmly and as expressively as Signor Cam-
panini. His only fault is that he is a little too much.
like the "ignoble fisherman," whose son he imagines
himself to be, when he assumes the part of "Gen-
naro" in Lucrezia Borgia. His singing of the pretty
air "Candido fiore" left nothing to be desired; and
if in "Sir Kenneth's more pretentious, and more
lugubrious solo (second act) he produced a less
favourable impression, that was the fault, not of the
singer, but of the song. In the duet with " Edith,'
and generally throughout the opera, Signor Cam-
panini was excellent.
""
A new baritone, Signor Galassi, but for the Eng-
lish malady of hoarseness from which so many of our
foreign visitors suffer, would have been as success-
ful in the part of "Richard" as he had previously
been in those of "Rigoletto" and "Figaro" (Le
Nozze). He at least sang with those "good inten-
tions" which, however little they may be worth in
دو
158
THE PRIMA DONNA.
morals, are of indisputable value in art; and but for
a voice made rebellious by the London weather,
would have obtained excellent results. As it was, he
delivered "Richard's
"Richard's" prayer very finely; and in
the martial and more or less Verdi-like allegro,
which follows the prayer as action should follow
meditation, he roused the audience to the warmest
expressions of admiration. This sonorous air and
chorus ought to have brought the second act to a
conclusion. After such an outburst of bravery and
brass instruments no further effect can be produced,
and the curtain should come down.
As "
Queen Berengaria" Madame Marie Roze
sang in perfection the slightly quaint, very pretty,
and, above all, very original romance assigned to
that lady.
No work of Balfe's had ever before enjoyed such
advantages as were given to Il Talismano at Her
Majesty's Opera. The same composer's Maid of
Artois did, it is true, contain a part written expressly
for Malibran, as that of "Edith Plantagenet" was
written expressly for Mdlle. Nilsson. It has been
said, too, that Balfe's Falstaff was composed for
the Italian company of Her Majesty's Theatre, or
King's Theatre, as it was at that time called.
Falstaff did not, in any case, meet with so much
success as Il Talismano, which seemed to appeal
equally to the lovers of Italian and of English
CHRISTINE NILSSON.
159
Opera. The work was well executed by sub-
ordinates as well as by principals, though an ex-
ception might be made here and there as regards the
chorus, which was at times uncertain. The orchestra
was perfect, and this is an important point in con-
nection with Il Talismano, which has been more
carefully instrumented than most of Balfe's operas.
In one place the mass of strings is heard in unison,
as in L'Africaine. In another the tenor sings to
the accompaniment of a single viola (which, sing-
ing at the very back of the stage, he must find
it difficult to hear) as in Les Huguenots. But every
composer borrows from every other composer; and if
in Balfe's last opera there is here something of
Meyerbeer, there something of Verdi, there is also a
great deal every where of Balfe himself.
No account of Mdlle. Nilsson's performances
would be complete without some mention of her very
poetical, very dramatic impersonation of "Elsa" in
Lohengrin. Mdlle. Nilsson, however, has taken no
part in popularizing the music of Wagner beyond
her admirable performance in his best known work.
This sketch of Mdlle. Nilsson's distinguished career
having been begun with a brief account of her family
in Sweden, must not be ended without a record of
the fact that the first money she saved was expended
in purchasing farms for her parents and for one of
her brothers. When in due time she paid a visit to her
160
THE PRIMA DONNA.
+
native land, it may be imagined with what enthusiasm
she was received. Nothing like it had been seen
since the time of Jenny Lind.
Her first appearance among the friends of her
youth was marked by an interesting incident. A
village ball was going on, and all the young men were
eager to dance with the visitor from another and
greater world, who yet, by former associations, as by
still existing sympathies, belonged to them.
'I cannot dance with you all, but I can play to
you all," said the prima donna, who, in early days,
had been a violinist; and, taking up the violin, she
played Swedish national dances with all the expres-
sion and all the fire with which she sings Swedish
national songs.
A visit to America is now an event in the life of
every famous prima donna; and Mdlle. Nilsson has
made more than one American tour, and always with
the greatest possible success. Once, moreover, in her
life the prima donna, as a rule, gets married; and
Mdlle. Nilsson, like Madame Patti and Madame
Lucca (but in a more regular manner), has been
married twice. Her first husband was M. Auguste
Rouzaud (nephew of Admiral Rouzaud), a capital
shot and an amiable, gentlemanly man. Stock-
broker by occupation, and sportsman by taste, he
succeeded more in the latter than in the former
character. He killed large game in America, and
❖
CHRISTINE NILSSON.
161
served with distinction in the army of Paris during
the siege; but he came to grief on the Paris Bourse.
It must be mentioned in connection with Mdlle.
Nilsson's first marriage that it was celebrated at
Westminster Abbey (1872); Dean Stanley, who was
a friend of the bride, performing the service.
Some years after the death of M. Rouzaud, whose
end was hastened by mental distress consequent on
his heavy losses, Madame Nilsson married early in
1887 a Spanish nobleman, Count de Miranda; and
she has not since her second marriage appeared
either in the concert room or on the stage.
VOL. II.
M
"
CHAPTER VII.
T
ALBANI.
THE family name of Madame Albani is, or rather
was, Lajeunesse; which would seem
would seem to denote
that she is not of Italian but of French origin.
Italian by voice, style, and musical education, this
charming singer is by birth a French Canadian.
She is sometimes claimed as belonging to the United
States. But while she is partly Italian, partly
French, and on the ground of a few years' residence
in the United States may be looked upon as in some
degree American, there can be no mistake as to her
being, in at least one important respect, English.
As a Canadian she was born an English subject.
As the wife of Mr. Ernest Gye, she is an English
subject by marriage. Her first, greatest, and most
permanent success, moreover, was gained in England.
The Royal Italian Opera-house was the first impor-
tant theatre at which Mdlle. Albani sang; and it
(
I
ALBANI.
163
66
is the only one at which she has sung continuously
year after year. Mdlle. Albani made her first ap-
pearance at Covent Garden in 1871, and since then
she has undertaken a remarkably large number of
Italian parts, belonging, for the most part, to the
light soprano" class; besides such characters, in
French Opera, as the "Marguerite" of Gounod
and the "Mignon" and "Ophelia" of Ambroise
Thomas, together with several Wagnerian imper-
sonations, which, previously, no Italian singer had
undertaken. Indeed, to this moment Mdlle. Albani
is the only Italian artist who has appeared as "Elsa
in Lohengrin, as "Elizabeth" in Tannhauser, and as
"Senta" in the Flying Dutchman. Apart from her
own characteristic personal qualities, the fact of
Mdlle. Albani having identified herself with these
creations of the great German composer would alone
suffice to give her a particular distinction among
Italian artists.
19
Nothing, indeed, can be more graceful or more
poetical than Mdlle. Albani's "Elsa." Her per-
formance of this part is marked by so much sponta-
neity, so much naturalness, that seeing it one forgets
that "Elsa" is, unhappily, not the sort of maiden
to be met with in this world. She belongs to
the world of legends and ballads to which one may
be transported in a dream, or, with more certainty,
by a fine representation of Lohengrin, with Mdlle.
164
THE PRIMA DONNA.
Albani in the character of the heroine. With-
out "creating" the part in the ordinary sense
of the word, Mdlle. Albani did not, as "Elsa,"
follow in the track of any other artist; which she
could scarcely avoid doing when she appeared as
66 Amina," as "Elvira," as "Lucia," and as "Gilda."
Nor as "Margherita" did she by any means shine
alone, though she at once gained for herself a place
among two or three "Margheritas" of the first rank.
Mdlle. Albani's "Margherita
Margherita" is a very poetical
conception, with a poetry of the elegiac rather than
of the dramatic kind. Her impersonation, indeed, is
marked by a distinctness and individuality which
serves for the time being to make us forget all other
"Margheritas" for the one before us.
It was not, however, as Margherita," nor, as a
matter of course, was it in any of the Wagnerian
parts that Mdlle. Albani achieved her first success
at the Royal Italian Opera. Her first success
coincided with her first appearance; and, like
Madame Patti and Mdlle. Gerster, Mdlle. Albani
made her début as "Amina" in La Sonnambula;
an opera of some years standing, which may yet, in
spite of solemn sneers at its composer's alleged
want of dramatic power, outlive a good many
works of infinitely greater pretensions. Nor was it
in London that Mdlle. Albani first took the
character of "Amina."
"Amina."
66
The scene
The scene of her first
ALBANI.
165
appearance in this part, as of her first appearance
on any stage, was Messina, in the very country
where the action of La Sonnambula is supposed to
take place, and where the happily inspired composer
of that melodious work was born. From Messina
Mdlle. Albani reached London by way of Malta, where,
arrived in an English possession, she must have
already felt herself at home. From Malta to Eng-
land was, in fact, a far less arduous journey than
from the little village of Chamblay, in French
Canada, to Messina; for it was at Chamblay, her
birthplace, that Mdlle. Albani commenced those
studies which ended in making her one of the
ablest dramatic artists, and one of the most finished
vocalists of our time. Like most singers of real
talent, Emma Lajeunesse sang as a child; and she
had the advantage of receiving, at a very early age,
from her father, a professor of music, lessons on
the piano and on the harp. In the midst of her
vocal studies she has never neglected the piano;
and one of the first of our modern pianists has
been heard to speak with unqualified approbation
of her performance on the instrument of his choice.
Musical talent is apparently an inheritance in the
Lajeunesse family, for Mdlle. Albani has a sister
who has studied the piano with great success at
one of the great German academies.
From the village of Chamblay Mdlle. Lajeunesse
166
THE PRIMA DONNA.
went at the age of five to Montreal, in the im-
mediate neighbourhood, and there entered the
school of the Sacré Cœur. When on the point of
leaving the convent, she is said to have manifested
a strong desire to adopt a religious life, a wish
which fortunately was not destined to be gratified.
The Superior of the convent, with a discernment
which does her honour, perceived that her promis-
ing pupil was fitted for a more extended sphere
than that within which she proposed to enclose her-
self; and, at this lady's earnest recommendation, the
future prima donna abandoned all thought of taking
the veil except as "Lucia," "Elvira," and other
operatic brides. About the year 1864 the Lajeunesse
family left Montreal and went to Albany, the capital of
the State of New York. Here the youthful vocalist,
while pursuing her studies, sang on Sundays in the
choir of the cathedral; and the Metropolitan church
used, it is said, to be attended by crowds of pious
amateurs eager to hear the voice of a singer whose
name was unknown to them, but whose tones, once
heard, could not be forgotten. The fame of the
young Canadian soprano went on increasing; the
crowd of religious connoisseurs became every Sunday
greater and greater; until at last the Bishop of
Albany, with a public spirit equal to that which
had previously been shown by the Superior of the
convent at Montreal, declared that this lofty
ALBANI.
167
talent, this angelic voice, were not for his church
alone, but for the whole civilized world. The ex-
cellent prelate advised M. Lajeunesse to take his
daughter to Europe, and place her under masters
capable of developing her voice and of doing
justice to her musical aptitude generally. That the
good Bishop's counsel might be at once acted upon,
a concert was given for the purpose of defraying a
portion of the necessary expenditure; and at the
earliest opportunity father and daughter left New
York for Europe, and, going straight to Paris,
called upon Duprez, who had given up singing, and
had now become a professor of the art in which he
had shown himself practically so great a master.
Mdlle. Lajeunesse studied under Duprez for two
years, when, by his advice, she went to the Con-
servatorio of Milan, bearing a letter of introduction
from Duprez to Lamperti, the celebrated professor
of singing at that institution. Signor Lamperti
received the young aspirant in the most en-
couraging manner, and at once predicted for her
a brilliant future. Mdlle. Lajeunesse studied for
some considerable time under Lamperti, to whose
instruction the perfection of her style may, in a
great degree, be attributed. But if Mdlle. Albani
owes much to Signor Lamperti, he on his side is
greatly indebted to her. For in this artist's perfect
execution the public has an example of what can
168
THE PRIMA DONNA.
"
be produced (given, of course, a voice of remarkable
beauty) by a method the merit of which is some-
times discussed. Signor Lamperti is known in any
case to regard Mdlle. Albani as an artist of, in some
measure, his own creation; and his recently pub-
lished work on "the shake" is dedicated to this
accomplished vocalist, whose shake is, indeed, mar-
vellous-clear, firm, and evenly balanced.
It was not until after the completion of her
period of study at Milan that Mdlle. Lajeunesse
resolved to appear on the stage. In arriving at
this decision she was assisted neither by a nun nor
by a Bishop, but by her very judicious professors.
Signor Lamperti knew, of course, that there could
be nothing dangerous or disagreeable in the life of
an operatic artist who, from the very beginning of
her career, would take the highest position. When,
in 1870, Mdlle. Lajeunesse made her début at Messina
in the opera of La Sonnambula, she assumed, in
memory of the cathedral where she had sung, and
of the kind-hearted Bishop who had given her such
good advice, the name of "Albani;" and it has
already been told how, from Messina, she passed
to Malta, whence, through the English garrison,
some account of her brilliant talent could not but
find its way to England. After her first season at
the Royal Italian Opera, not quite satisfied with
herself-though she had been enthusiastically re-
ALBANI
169
ceived, and had already taken her place among the
first singers of the day-Mdlle. Albani went back
to Milan and studied once more very assiduously
for several months under her old master. Late in
the winter of 1871 she appeared with remarkable
success at the Pergola Theatre of Florence. Re-
turning to London in 1872, she was in the autumn
of that year engaged for Paris. In 1873, after the
conclusion of the London season, she sang at St.
Petersburg, and before coming to London for the
season of 1874 found time to make a voyage to
New York, where one of the first places she visited
was the Cathedral of Albany, and one of the first
persons the benevolent prelate, to whom all lovers
of music should feel grateful for having persuaded
his charming chorister to adopt the profession which
she had evidently been born to follow, and of which
she now forms one of the brightest ornaments.
Mdlle. Lajeunesse of Chamblay, Mdlle. Albani of
Albany, has at present an English name, and
belongs, not as a Canadian subject alone, to Eng-
land. But England was not the only country, nor
London the only capital, from which, on the
occasion of her marriage, she received numerous
messages of congratulation.
In England Madame Albani is particularly asso-
ciated with the heroines of Wagner's operas; or at
least with two of them, "Elsa" and "Elizabeth;" and
170
THE PRIMA DONNA.
1
though other "Elsas" have appeared among us, she
was the first vocalist to undertake the part at an
English or Anglo-Italian theatre. She has kept to
the part, moreover, and has sung it every year-in
Italian generally, but now and then in German-
since a dozen years ago she first undertook it.
It is already interesting to speculate as to the
effect which Wagner's death will have in increasing
or diminishing his fame as a composer. That he
has made for himself throughout all ages a great
name, both as a musician and as a writer on music,
will scarcely be disputed. But for the very reason
that he was a powerful writer on all that concerned
his art, that he exercised great personal influence,
and that he was a man of action as much as a man
of thought and of imagination, his disappearance
from the scene on which for some thirty or forty
years he fought so many battles, sustained so
many defeats, and gained so many triumphs, will
possibly have the effect, if not of lessening his repu-
tation, at least of leaving it where it stood. The
composer, as a rule, is not a man of action; and
Richard Wagner was probably only one-cer-
tainly the only one of eminence-who ever made
speeches to revolutionary mobs and declared war
against the legitimate Government of his country.
At that time Wagner held that the only hope for art
lay in its appreciation by the masses; though he
P
ALBANI.
171
rested his expectations in after-days, when fresh
opportunities had presented themselves, on the
patronage of Kings.
In his youth he worshipped at many shrines; and
when, as sometimes happened, the idol did not
respond to his adoration, he took up his pen, as the
savage takes up a stick, and attacked the unrespon-
sive god. He has himself told the world (for a letter
from Wagner was sure at once to be translated into
every European language) how as a young man he
composed a symphony which he laid before Men-
delssohn, and which Mendelssohn seems (scarcely to
his credit) to have omitted even to look at; and every-
one interested in the facts of Wagner's life knew that
in Paris he waited upon Meyerbeer, who treated
him with much consideration, but failed at the same
time to render him any important service. In after
years Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer were the select
objects of Wagner's satire and invective.
Meyerbeer-the anticipator of Wagner in some at
least of his reforms-was treated by the arch-
innovator as a sort of charlatan who, borrowing
from every side every species of musical, dramatic,
scenic, and spectacular effect, combined the whole
in one heterogeneous mass, which, owing its exist-
ence to no primal spontaneous idea on the part of
the composer, possessed no genuine poetic life; and
the story will never, perhaps, be forgotten in Eng-
;
172
THE PRIMA DONNA.
land of Wagner's preparing himself to conduct one
of Mendelssohn's symphonies at the Philharmonic
Concert by carefully putting on his gloves, as though
to place himself as little as possible in contact with
so debasing a composer. This anecdote is not re-
peated with any view of perpetuating the memory of
a very fantastic piece of wit, which might as well be
allowed to fall into oblivion; but in order to give
an example of the means adopted by Wagner, when
no others were at hand, for making war upon his
enemies.
In England Wagner was known as a writer on the
theory of opera, and as a fierce assailant of all other
operatic composers, long before any one of his works,
in this country at least, had been performed; and
he went so far as to maintain that his operas were
excluded systematically from our theatres by reason
of the prejudice which the English must naturally,
as readers of the Old Testament and strict
Sabbatarians, entertain against one who was at
open war with Judaism. Very few lovers of music
in England can be supposed to have troubled them-
selves about the race or religion of Mendelssohn
and Meyerbeer-both of whom, by the way, were
Protestant Christians; and scarcely any could have
read Wagner's tract on "Judaism in Music" at
the time when he was gravely asserting that the
apparent opposition to his music in England arose
ALBANI.
173
from the Judaic sympathies and tendencies of the
Scripture-reading, Sabbath-keeping English people.
When, at last, a crusade was undertaken in Eng-
land on behalf of Wagnerian music, the movement
was organized under the authority, if not at the
direct suggestion, of Wagner himself. Wagner
Societies were founded, of which one had its head-
quarters in London; and the object of these asso-
ciations was to give an idea of Wagner's music, so
far as that could be done through the presentation of
excerpts in concert-rooms; and to make contributions
out of the proceeds from the concerts towards the
performance of the great Wagnerian trilogy or tetra-
logy (for the Ring des Nibelungen, with its prologue
and three parts, goes by both names) which was
given for the first time at Bayrenth in 1876. The
construction of the Bayrenth Theatre, with a special
view to the representations of the Ring des Nibelun-
gen, must have cost no small sum; and if the general
execution of the enterprise demanded the talent
of an organizer, the collection of the Wagnerian
revenue called for abilities of the administrative
kind, while the preparation of the Wagnerian
budget was simply a work of financial genius.
Wagner was now at the zenith of his power. The
Emperor of Germany was his friend, and the King
of Bavaria his slave; intermediate positions being
held by the other German Sovereigns, all of whom
174
THE PRIMA DONNA.
were allowed to contribute to the immense capital
necessary for the production of the great work of
the "Master's" life.
Up to the year 1869 not one of the German master's
operas had been heard in this country; and such a
reputation for being tuneless and tiresome had been
made for him that there seemed but little chance of
any work of his having so much as a trial given to it
at any of our great Opera-houses. Lohengrin used,
from time to time, to be announced in those fantastic
documents known as operatic prospectuses. But no
one paid serious attention to the promise of its per-
formance, which by many was regarded as a specios
of threat; and the announcement at last excited
such general derision that the rival directors, as if
by common consent, abstained from repeating it.
There were many reasons to render it probable that
the Flying Dutchman, written in the composer's
earliest manner, would be received without any very
violent protestations of dislike. Tannhauser, played
not many years before at the Grand Opera of Paris,
at tho express recommendation of the Emperor and
under his direct patronage, had been hissed and hooted
from the stage. But the Flying Dutchman was, even
to the most dotermined opponents of Wagnerism, a
comparatively inoffensive work. Much of it is com-
posed in the ancient manner, before the Master
had finally convinced himself that the opera of
ALBANI.
175
""
the past was false in principle and foolish in effect,
and that the "art work of the future" must be framed
on altogther new lines. The Flying Dutchman con-
tains what are vulgarly called "tunes; compara-
tively melodious airs built more or less in accord-
ance with the ancient methods; duets with passages
in which the voices are heard together; and con-
certed pieces. The "leading motive" system, to
receive such prodigious extension in after years, is
in this opera scarcely more than indicated by one
oft-recurring example. The Flying Dutchman, in
short, belongs to a period in Wagner's development
when, from his own point of view, he was still
among the unregenerate; from the point of view of
his antagonists, still one of the unperverted.
For English play-goers, moreover, the work had the
advantage of being based on a legend, which, what-
ever its origin, first took literary form in an Eng-
lish tale. The story of the audacious mariner, con-
demned for his rebellious disposition, and his
impious defiance of the laws of nature, to sail
eternally and hopelessly from sea to sea, may be
known in various countries. But in its first known
presentation it is English; and it was in Eng-
land, and apparently at the Adelphi Theatre, that
Heine witnessed the performance of that molo-
dramatic Flying Dutchman to which, in his narrative
of the representation as preserved in the Reisebilder,
-
176
THE PRIMA DONNA.
he gave the poetic meaning adopted by Wagner in
the libretto for which Heine's fancied and fanciful
recollection of Fitzball's rather commonplace piece
is known to have served as basis. The idea, then, of
producing in the year 1869 one of the least Wag-
nerian of Wagner's operas was not so wild as,
at the time, it may have seemed. The experiment
was, in any case, justified by the result; and it
might have been thought that, the ice having once
been broken, and Wagner's opera having been found
much more tolerable than had been expected, other
works more decidedly Wagnerian in character would
be produced. But 1870, and again 1871, passed
without any fresh Wagnerian performance; and it
was not until after the close of the Franco-German
war, and as a direct consequence of that struggle,
that Wagnerism, in the form of Lohengrin, from
Germany reached Italy, whence, by Campanini,
representing the Knight of the Swan, it was carried
across the Atlantic to New York, to reach England
some months later. The Italians in 1871 felt grate-
ful to the Germans for having enabled them to
establish their government in Rome; and by way of
testifying their gratitude they could think of nothing
better than to produce the most generally admired
work of Germany's great musical composer.
When it was seen in England and in America
that Lohengrin could be appreciated by Italian audi-
ALBANI.
177
ences, the belief up to that time cherished that
Wagner's operas could not be represented with
success outside Germany fell to the ground; and
even if Signor Campanini had not borne with him
to New York, the armour, the helmet, and better
still, the part itself, of the Keeper of the Holy Grail,
the favour with which the work had been received in
Italy must have sufficed to recommend it for per-
formance in other countries. As in London we
seldom do things by halves, Lohengrin, when at last
our audiences were permitted to hear it, was pro-
duced almost simultaneously at both our Opera-
houses. Then, although in former years it had been
said that, amongst our Italian and Italianized
vocalists, we had not one who could undertake
with advantage the character of "Elsa," it suddenly
appeared that we possessed at least two: at Covent
Garden Madame Albani, whose impersonation of
"Elsa" was afterwards to gain for her in the Prussian
capital the warmest commendations and the highest
honours; and at Her Majesty's Theatre Madame
Nilsson, whose "Elsa" is only not admired in
countries where she has never been seen in that
part, so perfectly suited to her voice and style.
Since the great Lohengrin year, Wagnerism has
spread through the country in all directions; and
our audiences have been familiarized by Mr. Gye with
VOL. II.
N
178
THE PRIMA DONNA.
Tannhäuser and by Mr. Carl Rosa with Rienzi: that
earliest and least Wagnerian of all Wagner's works.
When 1876 arrived, with its Wagner Festival, a
taste for Wagnerian music had already affected so
many of our amateurs that numbers of musical
pilgrims left London to attend the representations
of the great Wagnerian cyclus at Bayrenth. Nor
must the series of Wagner Concerts given at the
Albert Hall under the direction of Wagner himself,
and of his faithful lieutenant, Herr Richter, be for-
gotten.
Herr Richter afterwards parted company with his
chief; but only to proclaim his merits, and to con-
duct his works in other quarters. He it was, more-
over, who, some years later, presented to us at
Drury Lane, under the management of Mr. Franke,
the Meistersinger and Tristan und Isolde. Then
came the production at Her Majesty's Theatre of
Wagner's elaborate work, more epic than dramatic,
on subjects from the Nibelungen Lied, performed
twice over in its completeness, but destined to be
made thoroughly known to us in its most essential
parts and through its greatest beauties, by the
orchestral arrangements, and the arrangements for
orchestra and voices presented some years later
by Herr Richter at his admirable concerts.
The English public, then, has enjoyed the
opportunity of hearing everything in the way of
ALBANI.
179
dramatic music that Wagner has written. Even Par-
sifal, the master's last work, has been performed in
London; though, as presented at the Albert Hall
by Mr. Barnby, it was, of course, given without
dramatic action—in other words, incompletely.
Madame Albani has played the part of "Elsa"
before English audiences both in Italian and in
German; and she is the only prima donna who in
England has undertaken three different Wagnerian
impersonations: those of "Senta," Elizabeth,'
and "Elsa."
66
""
""
The part of" Senta" was in England first under-
taken by Mdlle. Ilma de Murska, when, in 1869,
the Flying Dutchman was produced at Drury Lane,
under the management of Mr. George Wood; the
year in which Mr. Mapleson and Mr. Gye combined
their forces at Covent Garden with Titiens, Patti,
Lucca, and Albani in the same company.
Madame Albani and Madame Nilsson have both
appeared repeatedly as "Elsa."
Mdlle. Titiens has appeared as "Ortrud; and
Mr. Santley was the first representative in England
(at Drury Lane in 1869) of the "Flying Dutch-
man.'
""
At the present time, in the year 1888, the only
one of Wagner's operas which can be said to have
taken a firm hold on English taste is Lohengrin ;
and the representations of this work, under Mr.
;
180
THE PRIMA DONNA.
Carl Rosa, during the season of 1887, with Madame
Marie Roze in the part of "Elsa," were always
received by crowded audiences with the warmest
applause. No more romantic, more poetic work
exists in music.
Lohengrin continues to be played in Germany
much oftener than any other of Wagner's works.
Next in general appreciation to Lohengrin stands
among the Germans the singularly beautiful Walkyrie;
the second of the four pieces which together con-
stitute the Ring des Nibelungen. In England this
work is only known from the two performances of
the Ring already referred to as having taken place
with a German company at Her Majesty's Theatre.
}
•-***
CHAPTER VIII.
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
BYRON is of modern poets the best known in the
whole world, not by reason of his poetry alone, but
also by reason of his adventures. So with prime
donne; those being the most famous who have not
only sung admirably, but have also played a dramatic
part in life. Many a prima donna, then, to whom I
should have been delighted to assign a place in this
book, must be kept out or mentioned in only the most
casual way, not from any fault of hers, but often
from her very merits.
Anastasia Robinson is remembered as one of our
leading English vocalists by many who do not know
in what operas she sang or what was the character
of her voice, but who have heard of her secret
marriage to Lord Peterborough, and of the dramatic
circumstances under which Lord Peterborough at
last acknowledged her as his wife.
182
THE PRIMA DONNA.
Again, there have been English singers who pro-
bably sang better than Lavinia Fenton-the original
Polly" of the Beggars' Opera. But she is one of
the few vocalists who have had an English Duke for
husband, besides which his Grace ran away with
her; and, most important point of all, the elope-
ment was chronicled and commented on by Swift.
The life of a young lady who, born with great
musical gifts, cultivates them in the most appro-
priate manner, and after gaining the favour of the
public enjoys it tranquilly until, getting married to
a gentleman in her own station, she retires and lives
irreproachably to a good old age; such a life recom-
mends itself to the moralist but not to the bio-
grapher.
Of the great vocalists whose lives I have
endeavoured to trace some from the humblest rank
have become Queens of Song; and one, at least,
from a high social position returned to the stage in
order to retrieve the fortunes of the Ambassador who
had made her his wife. Another, when her husband
had been struck down in battle, hurried to the field
ambulance where he lay wounded in order to nurse
him. A good many of my heroines, too, have got
into trouble more or less dramatic in connection
with marriage and even with divorce.
No prima donna has, except in the usual feminine
committed a murder; and only one, the unfor-
way,
..
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
183
tunate Madame Huberti, or de Saint Huberti, was
ever murdered. Several, however, have caused
duels; and Mdlle. de Maupin, to whom I have
accorded a brief notice, without making her the
subject of a separate chapter, was herself a
duellist.
Madame Huberti, moreover, apart from her tragic
end, was beloved by Napoleon. She, at least,
inspired him with sufficient admiration to make him
address to her some highly complimentary verses;
and the life of this distinguished vocalist was full
of dramatic incidents.
In 1784 Sacchini's Chimène, adapted from Il
Gran Cid, an opera he had written for our King's
Theatre in 1773, was produced at the Académie of
Paris with great success, and with Madame Huberti
in the principal part. This vocalist was much
admired by Piccinni, who wrote some airs in the
cantabile style expressly for her, and said that
without her his opera of Dido, in which she played
the principal part, was "without Dido." M. Castil
Blaze tells us that she was the first true vocalist who
appeared at the Académie. Grimm declares that
she sang like Todi and acted like Clairon. Finally,
when Madame de Saint Huberti was performing at
Strasburg in 1787, a young officer of artillery,
named Napoleon Bonaparte, sent her these ingeni-
ous verses :-
184
THE PRIMA DONNA.
Romains, qui vous vantez d'une illustre origine
Voyez d'où dépendait votre empire naissant ;
Didon n'eut pas de chaîne assez puissant
Pour arrêter la fuite où son amant s'obstine;
Mais si l'autre Didon, ornement de ces lieux,
Eût été reine de Carthage
Il eût, pour la servir, abandonné ces dieux,
Et votre beau pays serait encore sauvage.
After flying from Paris during the Reign of
Terror Madame Huberti married the Count D'En-
traigues, whom at great personal risks she had
succeeded in liberating from prison; and she seemed
now to have terminated her operatic career happily
and honourably.
The Countess always wore the order of St. Michael,
which had been given to her by the then unac-
knowledged Louis XVIII. in token of the services.
she had rendered to the Royalist party by saving from
the revolutionists at once the Count D'Entraigues
and the Count D'Entraigues' portfolio, which con-
tained political papers of great importance. The
Count afterwards entered the service of Russia, and
was entrusted by the Government with several con-
fidential missions. Hitherto he had been working
in the interest of the Bourbons against Napoleon.
But when the French Emperor and the Emperor
Alexander formed an alliance after the battles
of Eylau and Friedland he seems to have thought
that his connection with Russia ought to terminate;
and he was obliged to fly from Dresden in order to
A FLIGHT 185
FLIGHT
OF PRIME DONNE.
escape arrest at the hands of Napoleon's agents.
Then he found means to obtain a copy of the secret
articles in the treaty of Tilsit. So, at least, he
said; and he sold for a large sum of money to the
English Government what he declared to be the
articles in question; though according to M. Thiers
(Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire) the document was
false, and the money he received for it "mal gagné."
For his services to the English Government he
is said to have received a pension; and he now
established himself in England, where he appears to
have had continual relations with the Foreign Office.
,
The French police heard how the Count D'En-
traigues was occupied in England, and Fouché sent
over two agents to watch him and, if possible, in-
tercept his letters. These emissaries employed an
Italian refugee to get acquainted with and bribe
Lorenzo, the Count's servant; who allowed his com-
patriot to read and even take copies of the despatches
frequently entrusted to him by his master for con-
veyance to Mr. Canning. Lorenzo, moreover, gave
the agent a number of the Count's letters to and
from other persons.
One evening a letter was brought to M. D'En-
traigues which obliged him to go early the next
day from his house at Barnes to London. Lorenzo
had observed the seal of the Foreign Office on the
envelope, and saw, or fancied he saw, that his
7
186
THE PRIMA DONNA.
treachery would soon be discovered. In the morning
everything was ready for the journey, when he stabbed
his master, who fell to the ground mortally wounded.
The Countess was getting into the carriage. To
prevent her charging him with her husband's death
the servant stabbed her also, and a few moments
afterwards, in confusion and despair, blew his own
brains out with a pistol which he in the first
instance appears to have intended for M. D'En-
traigues. This horrible affair occurred on the 22nd
of July, 1812.
I have been assured by an impresario who has
always been considered worthy of credit that there
exists and that he possesses a sort of operatic stud-
book compiled for the instruction and protection of
managers; who, trusting implicitly in the represen-
tations made to them by singers in want of an en-
gagement, might at times be deceived. The directory
in question gives the exact age (obtained in many
cases at great labour and expense) of all the artists
before the public; the date on which each of them
appeared for the first time on the stage; the degree
of success obtained, and so on. Among the in-
dications given by this valuable work is the name of
the professor answerable for each singer's style;
though here the author of the operatic stud-book
goes, perhaps, into unnecessary details.
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
187
What chiefly concerns the public, and almost
equally the manager, in regard to a singer is her
talent as a result-not the means by which she
acquired it.
If Mr. Irving were a tenor, half a dozen different
singing-masters, each with his own particular system
for forming, forcing, flattening, sharpening, or other-
wise destroying the natural voice, would have con-
tested in public the honour of having trained him.
But nobody has yet heard who (if anyone) claims to
have given him the power of arresting and holding,
as much by appealing to its imagination as to its
intelligence, the attention of an audience.
Still, though it may be questioned whether the
art of acting can be taught, no such doubt can be
entertained on the subject of singing - given a
beautiful voice and some natural faculty for using it.
The art of singing is said by some professors to be
dying out, and it is probably just now in a decline;
which may in a measure be accounted for by the
declamatory character of a large proportion of
modern operas. If audiences think more at present
of the music of an opera than of the manner in which
the music is sung, that fact is in itself not in the least
to be regretted. But it ought not to be forgotten
that many modern singers can scarcely be con-
sidered vocalists. Declamation, more or less
dramatic, is to singing what mimetic action in a
188
THE PRIMA DONNA.
ballet is to dancing. The two things are of the same
nature, but they are different in kind; and as a mime
may be unable to dance, so it often happens as a
matter of fact that a declamatory artist is unable to
sing. In the training of a dramatic vocalist singing
and declamation should each have their part; and
as those walk best who have learned to dance, so to
excel in declamation it is necessary in the first place
to have studied singing. Naturally, too, the singing
of exercises should precede the singing of airs; and
here one is reminded that the falling-off in the art of
vocalization may partly be accounted for by the
practice which certain teachers, or rather trainers,
pursue of giving their pupils operatic parts to learn
before instructing them in the most ordinary rudi-
ments, the most essential principles.
The story of the old Italian singing-master who
kept a favourite pupil for years at scale passages,
intervals, and shakes, until at last, on the young
man's asking whether the day would ever come when
he might be allowed to attempt an air, he was told
that he might attempt anything with the fullest con-
fidence, for that he was now the first singer in the
world—this story is either untrue, or, if true, mis-
leading; since, by the study of exercises alone, me-
chanical perfection is all that can be acquired. In-
telligence, poetical feeling, dramatic expression, are
also necessary if the singer is not only to astonish the
1
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
189
66
ears, but also, and above all, to touch the hearts of
his hearers. Still, the diminution in the number of
good singers is due, in the first place, to abandon-
ment or neglect of preliminary and fundamental
studies; and it is startling to be told, on such un-
impeachable authority as that of Signor Delle Sedie,
in his "Estetica del Canto," that it is quite rare,
particularly with operatic artists," to find a voice
wisely conducted, using all sounds homogene-
ously, expressively, feelingly, and capable of modu-
lating them according to the meaning of the words."
The origin of these faults is often to be found in
an imperfect artistic education, or in an absolutely
bad direction of the vocalist's studies. But causes
of a more general kind must have been at work,
when, as is too often the case, one hears love, hatred,
jealousy, wrath, joy, and sorrow expressed with in-
flexions of voice almost uniform.
66
In most cases the eulogizer of bygone times is
merely repeating a kind of blame and a form of
praise which, from generation to generation, has
been heard for centuries. But the singing-masters
of the eighteenth century do not seem to have com-
plained that the art of singing was dying out; and
as a matter of fact there are, in the present day,
fewer great singers, fewer singers capable of rousing
an audience to enthusiasm than there were fifty
or sixty years ago, when Pasta, Malibran, and Sontag
190
THE PRIMA DONNA.
were all before the public. In the year 1869, however,
at a time when the art of singing was already said to
have expired, Adelina Patti, Pauline Lucca, and
Christino Nilsson were all singing together at the
Royal Italian Opera-which did not look like
decadence; and if since 1843, the fortunate
period which saw the birth of this incomparable
trio, nature has been somewhat niggardly in the
matter of prime donne (as is sufficiently proved by
the three ladies just named being still, after a
quarter of a century's pre-eminence, the first voca-
lists of their time), that must be accounted for, not
by any neglect of necessary studies on the part of
operatic aspirants, but simply by a dearth of beautiful
voices. The singing-master has his uses, no doubt,
and everyono knows that, although singing comes
by nature rather more than do reading and writing,
yet study is indispensable for vocalists as for artists
of every other description. The one great exception
to this rule seems to have been Mario, who never
took a lesson in singing except when Meyerbeer
taught him the part of " Raymond" in Robert
le Diable. Meyerbeer, it need scarcely be said, was
not a singing-master; he had no infallible" method,"
like the singing-masters who begin by telling their
pupils that all they have learnt before coming to
them is absolutely useless, that their manner of pro-
ducing the voice is altogether wrong, and so on.
..
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE
191
The singers of the present day know more of
music if less of singing than those singers of the
past, who spent so much time in merely practising
exercises. The faults which Delle Sedie points out
in the stage singing of the present day are due to
defective intelligence, want of education, and absence
of artistic feeling; to shortcomings, that is to say,
on those very points where Mario excelled.
The fact that Patti, Lucca, Nilsson, and Albani
have, one after the other, been engaged year after
year at the Royal Italian Opera or at Her Majesty's
Theatre for leading soprano parts constitutes an ex-
cellent reason for devoting more space to them than
to other vocalists also of the highest merit who have
not been so often, or for so long a time, before the
London public. But why, it may be asked, should
Persiani not have a chapter to herself? Persiani who
shared (not quite equally) the honours of Her
Majesty's Theatre with Grisi, under the management
of Mr. Lumley, and of his predecessor, Mr. Laporte ?
It was for her that Donizetti wrote the part of
"Lucia," which alone would stamp her as one of the
first-and not in time alone-of light sopranos.
Fifty or sixty years ago, before Lucia was written,
and before Meyerbeer had begun systematically to
compose in his grand operas one part for a light
soprano and one part for a strong" soprano,
CC
192
THE PRIMA DONNA.
singers seem to have been classed by their dramatic
rather than by their vocal qualities; and even now
""
the " strong soprano figures almost exclusively in
serious opera, though the domain of the light
soprano extends far beyond the regions of the comic,
and includes a majority of the chief sentimental
parts. Nevertheless, the distinction is now above
all dependent on the voice. There are parts for
singers with thin, flexible voices, and parts for singers.
with full, sonorous voices; and thus two distinct
sets of qualities are cultivated which no one expects
to find united in the same artist. In the present day
we should no more expect to see a Persiani appear
as "Semiramide" than we should have expected a
Titiens to appear as "Amina;" while a Patti would
seem to be as much out of place in the character of
"Norma" as a Titiens would really have been out
of place in that of "Rosina." Meyerbeer is known
to have done more than any other composer to
establish the now very appreciable difference between
the light and heavy soprano, which in several of his
operas, and notably in Les Huguenots, are in striking
contrast. It would be difficult to say which of the
two voices Meyerbeer himself preferred; for though
in L'Africane, Le Prophète, and Les Huguenots the
light soprano comes off second best, he has presented
in Dinorah one of the most charming light soprano
parts ever written.
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
193
Persiani, however, sang before the days of Meyer-
beer, or rather before the days when Meyerbeer was
fairly naturalized in England; though it was to
Madame Persiani, and, above all, Signor Persiani,
her husband, that we owe the establishment of the
Royal Italian Opera, where Meyerbeer's works were,
for the first time in England, played in something
like their integrity. Or, it is they, as the case may
otherwise be put, who are responsible for having
destroyed the monopoly virtually enjoyed until the
year 1846 by Her Majesty's Theatre; a monopoly
such as may be beneficial to art, however injurious to
commerce.
For about a dozen years Persiani was engaged at
Her Majesty's Theatre simultaneously with Grisi,
and, like her, shared the successes of Rubini, Tam-
burini, and Lablache. Born in 1812, at Rome, she
was the daughter of Tacchinardi, a famous tenor;
and she made her début a few years later than
Giulia Grisi. After several not very successful
appearances in operas of doubtful value, some of
them the composition of Signor Persiani, whom she
married at an early age, she made a most favourable
impression in the Gazza Ladra, of Rossini; the
Pirata, of Bellini; and the Elisir d'Amore, of Doni-
zetti. After fulfilling an engagement at La Scala
she was invited to Naples, and there, at the San
Carlo Theatre, created the part of "Lucia" in
VOL. II.
O
194
THE PRIMA DONNA.
what is generally looked upon as Donizetti's master-
piece. So it was considered by Rossini at the time
of its production, 1835; and the composer can
scarcely be said to have surpassed it in any of his
later works. In the first performances of Lucia di
Lammermoor Persiani as "Lucia"
was associated
with Duprez as "Edgardo."
It was as "Lucia" that she made her first
appearance at the Théâtre des Italiens of Paris; and
from Paris she soon passed to London. Here, at
the King's Theatre, she distinguished herself in a
number of parts of the light soprano type, with
Lucia," and afterwards "Linda," prominent
among them. As “
As "Adina" in L'Elisir d'Amore
was also one of her happiest impersonations, she
may be said to have been intimately connected with
some of the greatest successes of Donizetti; though
neither her talent nor the character of her voice ren-
dered her suitable for so emphatically dramatic a
part as that of "Lucrezia Borgia.
Madame Persiani's genius was especially for vocali-
zation, and though there was pathos in her acting it
was pathos of the elegiac, not of the tragic kind.
It was as "Amina" in La Sonnambula that Persiani
made her first appearance in London; the part in
which Pasta, for whom it was written, and Mali-
bran, who in London made it her most successful
impersonation, so often sang; the part in which
""
""
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
195
years afterwards so many débutantes were still to
appear, with Patti, Albani, and Gerster among
them. Persiani was a singer who pleased, charmed,
and even delighted her hearers without greatly im-
pressing them-certainly without electrifying them
by any of those bursts of passion for which Grisi
was famous. Mr. Chorley, never willing to accord
full praise, says in regard to Persiani's singing that
every conceivable passage was finished by her to
perfection, the shake, perhaps, excepted, which
might be thought indistinct and thin." On the
other hand, her execution, according to the same
authority, was "remarkable for velocity, poignant,
clear, audacious.'
66
دو
Madame Persiani died near Paris in 1867, when
she had already for something like twenty years
been lost sight of by the public. Her career was,
indeed, a very short one for so well-trained, so
accomplished a vocalist. So far as England is con-
cerned she passed out of sight after the opening
season (1847) of the Royal Italian Opera, where she
was replaced by Madame Castellan; a very charm-
ing singer, though less perfect by a good deal than
Madame Persiani. Her marriage with Signor Per-
siani, musical conductor and composer, cannot be
said to have proved beneficial to her interests, since
it was owing to the cabal which he started in 1846
against Mr. Lumley that she soon afterwards found
196
THE PRIMA DONNA.
herself excluded even from the theatre where he had
apparently hoped that she would reign supreme.
A word here as to Signor Persiani himself, who
began life as an orchestral conductor, and who
was known, moreover, as a composer of several
operas.
Next to the principal singers the most important
personage at an opera-house is, undoubtedly, the
conductor. Indeed, the " conductor of the orches-
tra," as he is sometimes called, is often, in an
artistic point of view, conductor of the entire estab-
lishment. To hold such a position he should be an
administrator as well as an artist, nor will it lessen
his utility if he is at the same time an excellent
stage-manager. He need not be a composer in the
creative sense of the word. But in a country where
operas in five acts are simply not tolerated he must
know how to shorten a work without spoiling it.
He must be able to "cut" it without wasting too
much of the master's blood, to join together pieces
on which he has operated in such a manner that no
scar shall be visible. Thirty or forty years ago,
when England was just emerging from musical
barbarism, an operatic conductor was called
"conductor and composer of the music;" a title
which he retained long after his functions as
composer had happily come to an end. Nothing
at that time was sacred to this musical sapper, who
!
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
197
introduced himself where one would have least
expected to find him; digging holes and inserting
his own diabolical contrivances into every work he
touched. Rossini's Cenerentola, Auber's Muette
de Portici, the same composer's Diamants de la
Couronne, may be mentioned among the operas
which chiefly suffered at the hands of these ruthless
"conductors and composers of the music," who,
reversing the crime of the plagiarist, attributed
their own weak inventions to men incapable of
such things.
The operatic conductor is no longer expected to
write new overtures to the works brought out under
his superintendence, nor to supply them with
"taking" tunes, nor to meddle with them in any
way except now and then when the limits of
English endurance require that they should be
shortened. No conductor has yet discovered the
art of curtailing a five-act masterpiece so as to
satisfy at once the critical and uncritical portions of
the public. "Leave out whole musical pieces if you
must do so, but don't mutilate the pieces you
retain," is the advice that would be given on this
head by musicians and true amateurs. But the
uncritical portion of the public, who read the libretto
instead of listening to the music, want to follow the
story; and in their interest the conductor, instigated
or at least not discouraged by the manager, makes
198
THE PRIMA DONNA.
havoc with the music in order that the too fortunate
"words" may in some measure be spared.
The operatic conductor is consulted as to what
new singers shall be engaged, what new operas
produced; while the composition of the orchestra is
left absolutely to him. His interests, identical in
the long run with those of the manager, seem often
opposed to them, and managers have been heard to
say that their conductors "wished to ruin them."
This must have been a mistake. The conductor
never wishes to ruin the manager, which in many
cases would mean the ruin of the conductor himself.
But one can understand his subordinating economic
to purely artistic considerations; for which reasou,
as before remarked, the conductor should be some-
thing of an administrator, and should have clear
notions as to what is possible and what impossible
in the way of expenditure.
A really able conductor is the manager's friend,
though the manager may be excused for not thinking
so when the conductor, in his passion for a perfect.
orchestra, proposes an outlay which the theatre
cannot afford. A really able conductor is also
the singer's best friend. But the singer is not
always aware of it, and will complain bitterly if
(for example) the conductor will not allow the time
in this passage to be unduly dragged, or in that one
unduly hastened. The singer and the orchestra
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
199
should work harmoniously together, neither endea-
vouring to shine at the other's expense. But it
does certainly seem at times as though a fight were
going on between the two, the orchestra exclaiming
with its powerful voice: "You shall not be heard,”
the singer replying with a shriek: "I will be heard,
whatever you may do to the contrary.'
The public seems always well disposed towards
the conductor. The nature, and above all, the
extent of his functions are not, perhaps, generally
understood. But it is clear from the elevated
position assigned to him, and from the control he
visibly exercises over the musicians, that he is a
personage of no small importance; and a brilliant
orchestral performance always secures for him (as in
justice it should) a large amount of applause. Next
to a beautiful voice nothing is so effective as a fine
band. The sweetness of the one, the sonority of the
other, can be appreciated by everyone, and are alike
irresistible.
?
Up to the year 1846 Her Majesty's Theatre had
been so long recognized as the home of Italian
Opera that Mr. Lumley, the impresario of the
period, was supposed to possess a monopoly of
the article, and an exclusive right to engage
Italian artists in this country. His exceptional
position, filled for many years with considerable
ability, made him, unfortunately for himself, heed-
1
200
THE PRIMA DONNA.
less of opposition. In or about the year given
above he quarrelled with Signor Persiani, husband
of the famous prima donna, through refusing to
produce an opera of his composition. To that
quarrel, and a reserved, autocratic bearing towards
his artists, may be traced all the rivalry against
which Mr. Lumley had subsequently to contend.
Persiani, if not a wealthy man, contrived to
make his friends believe that he had unlimited
capital at his command. He was on intimate terms
with all the singers under engagement to Mr.
Lumley, and succeeded in inducing the most attrac-
tive among them, with one exception, to leave the
manager on the termination of their contracts. The
exception was Lablache, who refused to forsake Her
Majesty's Theatre; the great basso being probably
less exacting than his more sensitive colleagues, and
indifferent to the "autocratic" bearing of the im-
presario.
The disaffection of the rest is really not a matter
for surprise, considering the sort of antagonism
which almost invariably exists between a successful
manager and those under his control. It seems to
be inseparable from the relations between them. "I
have heard," writes Mr. Willert Beale on this
subject, "the most popular impresario reviled at
times as a brigand en gants blancs, and otherwise
abused behind his back, for the simplest act of
}
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
201
.
policy in the management of his theatre. Mr.
Lumley did not care to soothe this feeling; he
paid court to his subscribers but socially neglected
his artists, and the moment came when the latter
rebelled and renounced allegiance to him.
"Having gradually formed a powerful operatic
company in Paris, Persiani arrived in London with
a partner named Galletti, and with a still more
important travelling companion in the shape of a
letter of credit upon Rothschild for the sum of
£35,000. In the course of time the partner proved
to be a man of straw, while the letter of credit and
guarantee was not available, having been retired
when most urgently required.
"Persiani and Galletti took Covent Garden Theatre
on lease, and having done so found that they were
unequal to the task of managing the undertaking
they intended to establish. They looked about for
a representative, and found one in my father, the
founder of the firm of Cramer and Co., and I may
say, with all truth, that they were lucky in doing
so, although to the object of their choice the result
was most unexpected. My father was an en-
thusiastic pioneer in the cause of music. He was
immensely popular with all branches of the musical
profession in London and the provinces, and
especially well-known for being concerned in the
principal musical undertakings throughout the
202
THE PRIMA DONNA.
kingdom. He was, moreover, a practical musician,
and acknowledged to be a first-rate violoncellist,
with a pure, sympathetic tone and great command
of the bow. As a publisher he fostered and en-
couraged talent wherever he could meet with it.
In the early days of their career he substantially
assisted Balfe, Benedict, Loder, Wallace, Macfarren,
Thalberg, and others innumerable, by publishing
and aiding with his money and influence the public
performance of their compositions. He was the
first to issue an edition of Beethoven's works in
England.
"The subscriptions for the first season from the
librarians and the public amounted to little short of
£25,000. The rehearsals of Semiramide took place
before the scaffolding was removed and while the
workmen were still employed in completing the
decorations of the house. I was on the stage when
Alboni came to rehearsal for the first time. She
had not been heard by anyone in the theatre, and
did not display the full power of her voice. But
her singing sotto voce produced a sensation; the
band and chorus applauded her involuntarily. The
recitative Eccomi alfin in Babylonia' made a
deep impression upon Grisi, who listened to the
new contralto with evident astonishment. After
going through the duet 'Giorno d'Orrore,'
Donna Guilia resumed her seat, near which I
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
203
was standing.
'What a glorious voice, and what
singing!' she exclaimed, in excitement.
The en-
thusiasm became general, and the unexpected
revelation of a star of the first magnitude raised
the hopes of all concerned in the prospects of the
Royal Italian Opera. And hope required some
such stimulant, for ominous clouds were already
gathering in the horizon.
"The performance of Semiramide on the 6th
April, 1847, was a brilliant commencement of the
Royal Italian Opera from an artistic point of view.
The éclat of the enterprise then started was further
enhanced by the frustration of three different
attempts to set fire to the theatre during the pro-
gress of the alterations. The origin of the three
conflagrations, which were luckily extinguished,
was never discovered, but strong evidence re-
mained of their being the work of an incendiary.
The reconstruction and decoration of the house
created a favourable impression; the salle was
thought to present a nobler appearance than that
of Her Majesty's Theatre; the foyers and corridors
were luxurious and spacious, and were generally
approved by the subscribers. The ensemble of such
a band and chorus as had been brought together
was a novelty upon the lyric stage in the early days
of the Royal Italian Opera; and this, together with
the début of Alboni, of whose surprising vocal
-
204
THE PRIMA DONNA.
1
powers not a word in anticipation had been said,
the genius of Grisi, then in its zenith, the splendour
of the mise en scène, and the completeness of the
representation as a whole, excited the enthusiasm
of partisans to the highest pitch, and gave an effect
to the performance of Semiramide on the date
referred to which, according to outward appear-
ances, guaranteed the success of the new under-
taking beyond all doubt. But there was trouble
behind the scenes. Persiani had taken fright. He
renewed a stipulated sum of £5,000 twice, and
then made excuses to delay further payment, being
alarmed at the cost of rebuilding, the terrific
salaries he had undertaken to pay when forming
his operatic company, and the current expenses.
"The letter of credit upon Rothschild for
£35,000, which had not been discounted, vanished;
Galletti, the so-called partner, had no means."
It is not every great singer who, like Madame
Grisi, Madame Patti, and a few others, enjoys a
long career; and Madame Alboni, one of the greatest
singers who ever lived, was before the public for only
a few years. In England she was first heard in
1847, when, unheralded by praise or by mention of
any kind, she came out at the Royal Italian Opera;
her perfect vocalization, both as regards expression
and execution, forming one of the principal attrac-
tions in the opening performance when Semiramide
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
205
66
was played with Grisi in the part of the wicked
heroine, with Tamburini as " Assur," and Alboni
as Arsace." It would be difficult to name any
first appearance on the operatic stage—except only
that of Madame Patti, made under like circumstances
-which so completely took the audience by sur-
prise and, surprising them, filled them at the same
time with delight. Like Adelina Patti, Marietta
Alboni was, at least to the audience, absolutely
unknown; and no one among the public knew
whether she was a singer of the first or of the fourth
class until by her delivery of the first few words of
"Arsace's" opening recitative she at once awakened
the enthusiasm of the whole house. In the course
of that first memorable season, Alboni, with her
rich, full voice, her absolutely just intonation, her
versatility and her verve, made a striking success in
every part she undertook; especially in those of
Arsace," of "Maffeo Orsini" in Lucrezia Borgia,
and of "Betly" in Donizetti's pretty rustic opera,
based on the same subject as the Châlet of Adolphe
Adam.
It has already been mentioned, on the authority
of Mr. Willert Beale, that at one of the last rehearsals
of Semiramide, with which the newly-organized Royal
Italian Opera was to begin its career, Grisi on hear-
ing the new "Arsace" uttered a cry of admiration.
The beauty of the singer's voice filled her with
206
THE PRIMA DONNA.
}
!
astonishment. She must have wondered also whence
could have come the possessor of such a voice which
she now heard for the first time. The establishment
of the Royal Italian Opera was followed by an
immediate collapse; but it did not fall until the
first season had been duly brought to its appointed
end; and before the time for the following season
had arrived it was set up again. Meanwhile, how-
ever, Alboni had gone; and she was now to visit
Paris, and next to reappear in London, not, how-
ever, at the Royal Italian Opera, but at Her
Majesty's Theatre. Then, after a public life of not
more than eight or nine years, the Countess Pepoli,
as she had now become, retired, and was never again
heard of by the musical world except when, at long
intervals and generally for some charitable purpose,
she consented to appear at some concert of a
special kind.
During her engagement at the Grand Opera or
Académie Royale of Paris she appeared as the
heroine of La Corbeille d'Oranges, a work written
specially for her by Auber, but not in Auber's best
nor even in his prettiest style. Having heard this
opera on the occasion of its first performance more
than thirty years ago, all I can now remember of it,
and all that impressed me in it at the time, is one
moderately graceful and melodious, but neither very
refined nor very original, air in six-eight time for the
leading vocalist.
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
207
Appearing without any preliminary announcement,
Madame Alboni disappeared without any formal
farewell. In no country where, so far as that country
was concerned, she sang for the last time were her
admirers allowed to realize the fact that they were
never to hear her again. No singer had a finer
sense of art, with which she combined an entire
absence of vanity and of that greediness for money
which in the present day renders a well-organized
operatic enterprise all but impossible. On her
retirement she married Count Pepoli.
Of the generosity of Madame Alboni's disposition
striking evidence was given when, soon after Ros-
sini's death, it was, under peculiar circumstances,
suggested to her by Maurice Strakosch that she
should sing the important contralto part in the
lamented composer's Petite Messe Solennelle, written
for piano, harmonium, four soloists, and a chorus of
sixteen voices. Vexed at the coldness with which
Guillaume Tell had been received, not by the public
but by the manager to whom the fortunes of the Paris
Opera-house were at that time entrusted, Rossini
(according to Strakosch) resolved that "no new
work from his pen should be brought out during his
life-time." Yet the Stabat Mator was produced, and
after a private performance of the Mass, at which
Alboni was present, the great Italian composer
said, that if after his death the work was executed
in public he hoped she would undertake the con-
208
THE PRIMA DONNA.
tralto part which he had in a certain sense written.
for her. When, not long after Rossini's death,.
Maurice Strakosch arranged with Madame Rossini
to give public performances of the Mass, he was very
anxious that the contralto part should be sung by
Alboni, to whose voice it was particularly suited.
But the Countess Pepoli assured him that she had
resolved to sing no more in public. In the course
of conversation, however, she mentioned to Strakosch
that a favourite niece who had for some time been
engaged could not marry for want of a dowry.
"How much do you wish to give her ?" asked the
impresario; and finding that the sum thought neces-
sary was one hundred thousand francs, and that
Alboni wished to have it in three months, he pro-
mised to guarantee her that sum within the time
specified if she would only sing the contralto part
in Rossini's Mass. The Mass was performed four
times at the Italian Theatre of Paris during the first
month, and sixty times during the two following
months in various parts of France, Belgium, and
Holland; and the hundred thousand francs were
paid by Strakosch to Madame Alboni and by Madame
Alboni settled as dowry on her niece.
Madamo Alboni's associates on the tour were
Mdlle. Marie Battu (who created the second soprano
part in Meyerbeer's Africaine); Mr. Tom Hohler, one
of our most successful tenors, who, after retiring from
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
209
the stage, married the Duchess of Newcastle; and
Signor Agnesian excellent cast.
Alboni was born in 1824, at Cesena, in the
Romagna, and she made her first appearance at the
Scala of Milan in 1843, as "Maffeo Orsini: " a part
which she afterwards sung with the greatest success
at the Royal Italian Opera, and subsequently at Her
Majesty's Theatre.
Sophie Cruvelli (Cruwel by her real name) will be
remembered as one of the three or four singers of
German origin who, like Schroeder-Devrient and
Sontag the first so to distinguish herself-obtained
a European reputation. Born in Westphalia in 1826,
she began her career boldly, as befitted a vocalist of
high ambition, by singing for the first time in Italy.
Here she obtained her earliest successes in the operas
of Verdi, with whom one associates her much as
Madame Persiani is associated with Donizetti, though
in a less degree than that in which Madame Colbran
is associated with the great Italian successes, from
Otello to Semiramide, of Rossini. For many years
Sophie Cruvelli's greatest part was that of "Elvira "
in Ernani; but the only part in an opera by Verdi
which she "created" was that of "Hélène" in Les
Vépres Siciliennes, when she was on the point of
leaving the stage. One of her grandest imperso-
nations was that of "Valentine" in Les Huguenots;
VOL. II.
P
210
THE PRIMA DONNA.
though grander still was her "Fidelio," which she
played in London with the greatest possible success.
Meyerbeer, so long in search for a suitable represen-
tative of "Selika" in L'Africaine, found at last in
Mdlle. Cruvelli all that he required. But it was too
late. She was about to retire, and L'Africaine
was not brought out until after his death; when
the part, which, at a later period, was to be under-
taken with so much success by Madame Pauline
Lucca, was assigned to Madame Saxe-or Madame
Sasse, as she was compelled to describe herself
when, on the complaint of M. Adolphe Sax, in-
ventor of the saxhorn, she was ordered to resume
her true name.
Mdlle. Maria Piccolomini was one of the singers
on whom Mr. Lumley relied to retrieve himself after
the departure of Jenny Lind, and when the success
of the Royal Italian Opera had deprived him of
much patronage. Inheritress of an historic name,
which in England was little known except to readers
of Schiller, and which was generally mispronounced,
she came from Siena, where she was born in 1834.
With a charming face and rather a plump figure,
more remarkable for winning ways than for com-
manding talent, Piccolomini made her first appear-
ance at the Pergola of Florence in the somewhat
inappropriate part of "Lucrezia Borgia." It has
A FLIGLT OF PRIME donne.
211
been pointed out, however, again and again in these
volumes that the distinction now so marked between
light soprano and dramatic soprano is modern, not
to say recent. "Norma was one of Jenny Lind's
favourite parts. The graceful Bosio appeared at
St. Petersburg as "Semiramide;" and probably at
Florence in 1852 no one saw anything strange in
the character of "Lucrezia" being assigned to a
pretty, piquant little soubrette, with a strong vein
of sentiment in her, and with enough vivacity and
verve for anything.
When Mdlle. Piccolomini made her début at
Florence the opera in which she was to achieve her
greatest success had not been composed, or, at
least, had not yet been produced. In 1852 Verdi
saw the Dame aux Camélias of the younger Dumas
at Paris, and resolved to set it to music. His
librettist, Piave, struck out the comedy scenes
and all that marked too characteristically the
ignoble society in the midst of which Marguerite
Gautier passed her existence; and, retaining all the
dramatic scenes and the pathetic scene with which
the piece terminates, arranged the whole for musical
setting. Early in 1853 the work was ready for
production, and it was brought out at the Fenice of
Venice March the 6th in that year.
The opera failed; partly because the public could
not take kindly to a work based on a modern novel,
22
212
THE PRIMA DONNA.
chiefly of manners, and presenting scenes of a kind
never treated in music before. The piece was
played at the first representation in the dress
of the present day; which has been proved in
several instances, when the costumes are those of
the drawing-room and of town life generally, to be
impossible on the operatic stage. Don Pasquale
for many years after its first production, in 1843,
was played with the three male characters in the ordi-
frock-coats and dress-coats of modern European
life. But the realism of every-day existence is not
adapted for musical setting, and after a few years it
was found absolutely necessary to place the action
of Don Pasquale in a past age. La Traviata had to
be treated in similar fashion; and Auber's Domino
Noir is now the only opera in which the male
characters appear in the dull, prosaic attire of our
own time.
nary
But the main reason, according to Verdi himself,
why La Traviata failed at Venice was the imperfect
manner in which it was executed. The night after
the first performance he wrote to a friend saying
that his opera had met with no success.
"Whose fault was it," he went on to ask, "mine
or the singers ? Time will show."
Time has indeed shown that La Traviata is one of
the brightest, and, in a dramatic point of view, one
of the best of Verdi's operas. The subject is not a
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
213
pleasant one, and there is still an impression among
many persons that the frivolity of which the story
is largely made up is reproduced in the music.
This, however, is not the case. Piave, in his well-
constructed libretto, confines himself to the really
striking situations; and Verdi's treatment of the
finale to the third act (which contains one of the
most eloquent phrases he ever wrote), and of the
last act, from beginning to end, is quite masterly.
One quite sufficient reason why La Traviata did
not succeed on the occasion of its first representa-
tion was that the part of the unhappy heroine was
taken by a "light soprano," whose lightness lay
wholly in her voice, and whose figure was of massive
proportions. Accordingly, when she exclaimed that
she was wasting away, that she had not many hours
to live, and so on, the audience, unable to restrain
their mirth, burst into roars of laughter.
When, however, the work was sung with a vocalist
refined in appearance as well as in style for the
representative of "Violetta" it obtained, as Verdi
had foreseen, the greatest success; and the first
prima donna who triumphed in the part was Piccolo-
mini. It was in the Carignan Theatre of Turin, in
1855, that she appeared as "Violetta" for the first
time; and the year afterwards she undertook the
part in London with the effect of filling Her
Majesty's Theatre to overflowing at each successive
214
THE PRIMA DONNA.
performance. Apart from its musical success, the
opera had a succès de scandale; for the Times
published day after day long letters, in which the
work was now attacked, now defended. It was
generally admitted that the opera was not one of
those to which a girl could take her mother.
At the same time a great deal of nonsense was
written about a work which was not likely to affect
anyone, in a moral point of view, either favourably
or unfavourably. If La Traviata exercises no
corrupting influence, neither can it be said to teach
a salutary lesson. Highwaymen, said Dr. Johnson,
would not believe that they could rob with im-
punity, because in the Beggar's Opera they saw
"Macheath" forgiven; and we may be sure that
no "Traviata" in real life will forsake the errors of
her ways from seeing "Violetta " perish of con-
sumption.
Mdlle. Piccolomini used to remind the audience
that "Violetta" was wasting away from phthisis
by coughing at intervals throughout the piece; an
objectionable touch of realism which Bosio, when
soon afterwards she undertook the part, first at St.
Petersburg and afterwards at the Royal Italian
Opera, had the good taste not to reproduce.
Malle. Piccolomini appeared as the heroine of
Verdi's "Luisa Miller," and in several other parts,
including that of "Adina" in the Elixir of Love.
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
215
As "Adina" she was altogether charming; simple,
without the least affectation, and engaging, as such
a heroine should be.
Mr. Henry Morley, who gives a very interesting
account of Mdlle. Piccolomini in his "Recollections
of an old Play-goer," speaks of "Adina" as one of
her best parts.
This it certainly was, though it is
by her "Violetta" (which, with all its faults, was
a very touching and dramatic impersonation) that
she will be chiefly remembered.
Mdlle. Piccolomini, when she had been only a few
years on the stage, married the Marquis Gaetani
and retired. She did not suffer from that passion
for money by which so many prime donne of the
present day are devoured; and when, in 1863,
she heard that a series of performances were to
be given at Her Majesty's Theatre for the benefit
of her old manager she came to England expressly
to give her services.
Ilma de Murska, unrivalled in certain romantic
and fantastic characters, such as "Astrafiam-
menta" in the Magic Flute, and "Dinorah" in the
opera of that name, and who was characteristically
successful in the mad scene of "Lucia," and
as "Senta " in the Flying Dutchman, is a
native of Croatia, and she was born in the great
vocalists' year of 1843; a year which must surely
216
THE PRIMA DONNA.
be memorable in astronomical records from the
visit of some comet, or by some conjunction of
planets specially favourable to the production of
musical stars. Adelina Patti, Christine Nilsson, and
Pauline Lucca were all born in this annus mirabilis.
So, too, according to all available documentary
evidence on the subject, was Ilma de Murska;
though by some accounts, including her own, she is
several years younger, while her enemies (and who
in the world of music, or in any world, is without
them?) say she is some years older. Ilma de Murska
is in any case an admirable singer, singing quite well
enough to have been born in the year 1843.
It is absolutely certain that this gifted and
accomplished vocalist, with a powerful individuality
of her own, after studying at Vienna and at Paris,
under Signor Marchesi, sang for the first time at
the Pergola of Florence in 1862, when, according
to the 1843 theory, she would have been 19: a fair
age for a débutante. She afterwards sang at Pesth,
Vienna, Berlin, and Hamburg, until in 1865 she
accepted an engagement at Her Majesty's Theatre
where she made her first appearance as "Lucia."
Plenty of admirable "Lucias" had already been
heard in London. But Ilma de Murska surprised
everyone by the originality of her performance in
the scene of "Lucia's" madness; and as she also
sang the brilliant music of the part in all possible
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
217
perfection her success was naturally very great.
Her impersonation of "Lucia" was one of the sen-
sations of the 1865 opera season; and she renewed
the marked impression which she had made in the
character of “Lucia" by her singing in the part of
"Astrafiammenta," and by her singing and acting
conjointly in that of "Dinorah." Nothing more
quaint, more fantastic, and at the same time more
charming than Ilma de Murska's "Dinorah" has
ever been seen on the operatic stage. In "Linda"
and all the light soprano parts of the operatic re-
pertory she was admirable. But a just idea of the
special character of her talent can be formed from
what has just been said as to her peculiar success
in dealing with the fantastic.
Ilma de Murska sang the most difficult passages
of ornamentation with unerring certainty; and she
possessed such a memory, combined with such a
dislike for the worry of rehearsals, that she would
frequently learn her part by simply reading it over
while she was lying in bed.
There is much to console those who have bad
memories in a paper recently communicated by M.
Dulauney to the Société de Biologie of Paris. M.
Dulauney has made a study of memory and its
phenomena as observed among superior and in-
ferior races, the educated and the uneducated, the
old and the young. The force of memory, if
218
THE PRIMA DONNA.
1
M. Dulauney's conclusions on the subject can be
accepted, is differently exhibited among women and
among men; and there is a summer memory as
well as a winter memory, a memory of the morning
and a memory of the evening. M. Dulauney's
essay would have possessed more value if he had
begun by telling us what he means by Memory;
for, as a matter of fact, men and women in civilized
society have often a good memory in connection
with subjects which interest them, and a bad
memory, or no memory at all, in connection with
others. Rubinstein and Bülow, for instance, will play
a dozen pianoforte pieces in succession without
notes, and Mr. Brandram will recite an entire play
of Shakespeare's without book. But Mr. Brandram
may possibly lack musical memory altogether, and
there is no reason for believing that either Bülow
or Rubinstein possesses any special faculty in the
way of remembering words:
However Mdlle. de Murska's exceptional memory
may be accounted for, it in any case belonged to
her; and she remembered her parts, not, like many
untaught singers, from the sound of the tones, but
from the aspect of the notes.
When Mdlle. de Murska visited Paris she made
a decided impression, and on the whole a favourable
one, though her striking merits did not pass
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
219
<<
absolutely unquestioned. "Lucia," own sister to
Linda," was her great part in Paris, and it was no
slight proof of talent to be able to succeed in a rôle
which the Parisians had taught themselves to believe
could only be adequately filled by Mdme. Adelina
Patti. Mdlle. de Murska never ceases to hold the
attention of her audience. She is full of life,
and every one of her gestures, and even glances, is
significant. Sometimes, no doubt, she exaggerates,
now in one direction, now in another; but she is
never cold and never leaves the public unmoved.
She even gives animation to " Marguerite de Valois,'
who, in the hands of most sopranos, is a mere
singing automaton; while in the character of
"Linda" she is full of vivacity in the brilliant
scena of the first act and full of feeling in the touch-
ing and tragic scenes of Acts II. and III. Her
delivery of the cavatina known (from the title of
the quick movement) as "O luce di questa anima”
is sparkling even to the point of effervescence.
66
The originality which distinguished Ilma de
Murska on the stage was occasionally shown by
her in private life. She turned up in the most
unexpected places, and when she first visited
London she gave a ball, which, beginning after the
same night's performance, was (according to the
invitations, one of which I had the honour of
receiving) to be carried on until an advanced hour
220
THE PRIMA DONNA.
next morning, and then followed by a picnic in Kew
Gardens. An early visitor to Kew Gardens on the
morning in question is prepared to certify that at
the appointed hour no signs of the promised picnic
were to be seen.
Mdlle. de Murska has probably been married more
than once. During a visit to Australia she became
the wife of a violinist who soon after the marriage
died. Unhappily for her no settlements had been
made, and half her property passed away to her
husband's relations.
One of the most Italian, by voice and style, of
all the singers that of late years have appeared at
our Italian Opera-houses is Madame Trebelli, who,
nevertheless, is French by birth. She began her
musical studies as a pianist under a German pro-
fessor, then joined the singing classes of M. Wartel,
and in 1859 made her first appearance on the operatic
stage at Madrid.
After fulfilling a two years'
engagement in the Spanish capital, where, by her
singing, her acting, and her beauty, she achieved
the most brilliant success, Mdlle. Gillebert, or
"Trebelli," as she now called herself, returned to
Paris, where, in April, 1861, she appeared at the
Théâtre des Italiens as "Rosina" in Il Barbiere,
one of her finest impersonations. It seems strange
in the present day that the part of "Rosina "
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
221
should be assigned to a contralto, though, as a
matter of fact, it was written for the contralto
voice.
""
Engaged on the conclusion of her season at the
Théâtre des Italiens by Signor Merelli, the well-
known impresario, Mdlle. Trebelli made under his
direction an artistic tour which carried her through
the principal musical cities of North Germany, in-
cluding Cologne, Berlin (where her singing pro-
voked rapturous enthusiasm) and Hamburg. She
again visited Paris and accepted an engagement
at the Italian Theatre; the parts now assigned to
her being those of the "Countess (Marriage of
Figaro); "Azucena" (Il Trovatore); "Amalia" (Un
Ballo in Maschera); and "Maffeo Orsini" (Lucrezia
Borgia). Brussels, Copenhagen, Leipsic, and Baden
were in turn visited by the popular artist, whose
reputation had now become European. Mdlle.
Trebelli was also to renew her triumphs in Spain,
and so successful was she in London that when
once our public had heard her it refused to accept.
any other contralto as "Urbano," as "Nancy," or,
above all, as "Maffeo Orsini." Adopted by English
audiences as a vocalist with whose talent and charm
they could not dispense, Mdlle. Trebelli on her side
adopted England as her place of abode; and for
years past she has lived among us.
Married more than twenty years ago to Signor
C
222
THE PRIMA DONNA.
Bettini, Madame Trebelli sang for some years under
the name of Trebelli-Bettini. In due time, however,
the usual separation took place, the custody of the
only child being adjudged to the mother. The
child in question is already known as one of the
most brilliant light sopranos of the day. Mdlle.
Antoinette Trebelli, endowed by nature with a
fresh flexible voice of much brightness and of con-
stantly increasing power, has had the advantage
of being directed in her studies by one of the
most perfect vocalists of our time; and those
who have heard mother and daughter singing
together, as happened on the occasion of Mdlle.
Antoinette Trebelli's début at St. James's Hall, may
well hesitate as to which is most to be admired.
Whence, it is often asked, comes the name of
Trebelli, so musical, so sonorous, and so significant?
for "Trebelli" means very beautiful," if we
derive the word from the French;
"thrice
beautiful" if we trace it to the Italian.
ઃઃ
There was once a learned jurisconsult named
Trebellius. But he had nothing whatever to do
with music, and why should Madame Trebelli have
gone to him for a name?
Look, however, at the word Gillebert; consider
it well, and it will be seen that "Gillebert" spelt
backwards makes "Trebellig." Strike out the "g"
and you have the charming contralto's operatic
name.
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
223
Minnie Hauck, seemingly of German parentage,
though she herself is American-English-cosmo-
politan, in fact—sings with equal ease and success
in English, Italian, French, German, and Hungarian.
She was born at New York, November 16th, 1852,
and came out in operatic parts when she was but
thirteen. Then she retired for a time, but mean while
studied assiduously under Signor Errani. After
further successes in her native land she crossed the
Atlantic, and before many years had made the tour
of Europe. Beginning her European career at
Vienna, she next came to London, and in October,
1868, made her first appearance at the Royal Italian
Opera in the character of "Amina." The youthful
Minnie was, at this time, singularly artless; and in
the chamber scene where "Amina " lies down in bed
she so gave herself up to the situation that she fell
fast asleep. Fortunately the chorus of villagers was
given in sufficiently loud tones to awaken in due
time this by no means genuine somnambulist.
On another occasion, when she was rehearsing
the part of "Violetta," she picked up and pocketed
the bank-notes which the indignant "Alfredo " had
cast at her feet. "What else," she thought, "would
a woman of 'Violetta's' character be likely to do ?"
Minnie Hauck is one of the few eminent vocalists
who have made a first appearance in London during
an autumn or winter season. Early in the century
the fashionable season-the season of Court recep-
224
THE PRIMA DONNA.
tions, balls, operas, concerts, and entertainments of
all kinds-took place during what may well be
considered the winter months, or at least the
months of winter and spring-from the beginning
of January to the beginning of May. It began
and ended just three months sooner than the
season of our own time, which lasts, as a rule, from
the beginning of April to the middle of July. Why
the London season has gradually, like the London
dinner-hour, got later and later, until what a
century ago was a winter season has become a
summer one, even as the dinner of a hundred years
ago has become very like a supper, it would be hard
to say. In both cases some natural law is no doubt at
work; but it is as inscrutable as the law which
in all the great European capitals determines a
constant movement among the richer and more
luxurious of the inhabitants towards the west.
This westward tendency on the part of the fashion-
able classes of Europe has been accounted for
in connection with the east wind, which, blow-
ing from the Central Asian steppes, vexes the
people of Moscow, as, blowing from Bethnal Green,
and bringing with it clouds of dust, it irritates the
denizens of London.
•
It is certain, in any case, that London lies more
to the west, dines later by two or three hours, and
keeps its season later by three or four months than
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
225
it did at the beginning of the century. But as late
dinners render lunches indispensable, so summer
seasons seem at last to have forced people to get up
a sort of imitation season in the winter; and a
very good season in its way a winter season may
be. Our winter evenings are long enough, our
winter afternoons dark enough, to make it very
desirable that something, and even a good deal,
should be done in the way of public and private
entertainments to dispel the prevailing gloom-that
gloom which, as Bossuet declared in his famous de-
nunciation of theatres, "forms the very substance
of human life," and which, according to his view,
cannot be chased away by stage representations,
but only by meditation and prayer. A little harm-
less gaiety may also at times be efficacious.
Entertainment givers of all kinds seem, in any
case, to be coming to the conclusion that the gloomy
winter is a favourable period for their operations,
and directors have discovered that people will
listen to music in winter quite as readily as in
summer.
But the question of the time of year at which
opera singers should be heard must not take away
our attention from the singers themselves. Of
Minnie Hauck, however, there is little more to say,
beyond the fact that she has sung in many
countries, in many languages, and in many parts.
VOL. II.
Q
226
THE PRIMA DONNA.
with one and the same success. Dutch is, at
present, beyond her; but she gained much applause
by introducing, when she was last in Holland,
a few Dutch phrases into her part. Given the con-
ditions of the performance in which Dutch and
Italian were alternately employed, Mdlle. Hauck's
harmless pleasantry was justifiable.
Malle. Hauck started in the autumn of last year
to fulfil an engagement at St. Petersburg; and
there is now no important country and no great
capital in which she has not sung.
At Berlin some ten years ago she created the
part of "Katherine" in the opera founded on the
Taming of the Shrew by Goetz, whose fame as a
writer of dramatic music rests on this work as that
of Bizet rests on Carmen. Both these composers,
each of whom might have been expected in his own
country to found a new school of opera, neither so
heavy as that of our laborious composers nor so
light as that of our frivolous ones, died at an
early age. Each of them left a masterpiece, and
each of these masterpieces was introduced to the
London public by Minnie Hauck.
It cannot, however, be said that Goetz's Taming
of the Shrew has left in England or elsewhere any
such impression as has been made by Carmen.
Goetz's too elaborate recitatives, and the dispro-
portionate space occupied by them, may have had
A FLIGHT OF PRIME donne.
227
something to do with its failure to obtain popularity
in any wide sense of the word. Carmen, on the
other hand, is so full of movement, of melody,
of delicate harmonies and ingenious points of
orchestration, it is so dramatic, moreover, and
so picturesque that from the very first a long
life and a happy one might safely have been pre-
dicted for it. The score contains but little music
of the cantabile kind; though it included in its
original form two complete airs for "Carmen"
which, on reflection, the composer and his librettists
agreed to cut out. The wayward, impetuous heroine
is not, indeed, the sort of young lady whom one can
fancy singing scenas in set form with introductory
recitative, andante and cabaletta. Minnie Hauck
enters into the spirit of the character, lives it, and
never is anything else but "Carmen" from "Car-
men's" entry until her tragic end; and it was
in a great measure to her performance that the
success of this very Spanish, very Bohemian work
was in the first instance due.
Minnie Hauck is the wife of the Chevalier Hesse
von Wartegg, known by some very interesting
works on Tunis and Algeria and other countries.
That versatile artist, Madame Marie Roze, has
also distinguished herself during the last few years
in the part of "Carmen." Of course she brings for-
228
THE PRIMA DONNA.
ward the gentle side of the character. "Carmen"
has something of the playfulness of the cat, some-
thing also of the ferocity of the tigress; and the
ferocious side of "Carmen's" disposition could not
find a sympathetic exponent in Madame Marie Roze.
Carmen is known to be the latest operatic work
of George Bizet, who died at Paris in 1875, at the
age of thirty-seven-that fatal limit which neither
Mozart nor Mendelssohn nor Herold was destined
to pass, and which neither Schubert nor Bellini
reached by several years; a limit, too, which marked
the close of Rossini's career as an operatic com-
poser, for Rossini was just thirty-seven when
Guillaume Tell, his latest dramatic work, was
brought out-now nearly sixty years ago. Bizet was
not only the favourite pupil, but also the son-in-law
of Halévy, by whom he was regarded as a composer
of great promise. He was certainly a musician of
marked originality and brilliant fancy. Bizet
had just undertaken the composition of Carmen
when Mdme. Marie Roze, at the Opéra Comique,
obtained her first success in the Premier jour de
Bonheur, the last work contributed by Auber to the
stage which he had enriched with so many master-
pieces. Bizet, attracted by Mdme. (then Mdlle.)
Roze's great talents, both as a singer and as an
actress, wrote the principal part in his opera specially
for her. In 1874, when the work was nearly com-
Q
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
229
""
pleted, Bizet, accompanied by Meilhac and Halévy,
the authors of the libretto, called upon Mdlle. Marie
Roze to hear any suggestions she might have to
make before the work went to press. The only
objection she raised was based on the character of
the heroine as depicted in Prosper Mérimée's tale.
The authors, however, represented to her that it
would depend upon the artist representing "Car-
men to make that personage very much what
she chose. On consideration Mdlle. Roze con-
sented to create the part, and her engagement in
England alone prevented her from carrying out her
promise.
Then Bizet, in order to secure the production
of his opera without delay, rewrote the part of
"Carmen" for Mdme. Galli-Marié, whose voice
with its limited range has neither the low notes
of the contralto nor the high notes of the soprano.
Such notes, however, as she has at her command are
of telling quality; and both as a singer of expres
sive music and as an actress she is quite admirable.
Yet, when Carmen was produced at the Opéra
Comique, with Mdme. Galli-Marié in the part of the
heroine, and with M. Lhérie as "Don José," the
work did not please-a result which was explained
at the time by two causes: first, that Mdme. Galli-
Marié made "Carmen" too repulsive (an absurd
statement, since Madame Galli-Marié even now
230
THE PRIMA DONNA.
is the most fascinating "Carmen" imaginable);
secondly, that the music given to "Carmen"
afforded no opportunity for brilliant vocalization,
which, for the rest, would have been beyond Mdme.
Galli-Marie's means. According to the original
plan, as worked out for Mdlle. Marie Roze, "Car-
men was to be represented as capable of remorse;
and after the scene in which she foretells her death
by the cards, was to be left alone, to give vent to
her feelings in a pathetic air. Two fully developed
airs were, in fact, written for "Carmen," which have
never been heard: one in the mountain scene with
the situation just referred to, and one in the last act,
in the place now filled by the ballet music borrowed
chiefly from the composer's Jolie Fille de Perth.
The part of "Carmen," as it now stands, has been
objected to by two very distinguished prime donne
who had been asked to appear in it: Mdme. Adelina
Patti, who was present on the occasion of Bizet's
opera being played for the first time at Her
Majesty's Theatre, and Mdme. Nilsson, who had
entertained the idea of impersonating "Carmen"
some time beforehand, but could not reconcile her-
self to the character of the heroine. Mdme. Patti,
however, declined to undertake the part, not
from any uncalled for fastidiousness in regard to
character, but because "Carmen" had a succes-
sion of little songs to sing, without one regular
د,
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
23L
scena.
Had she been acquainted with the work in
its original form, with the two scenas written for
Mdlle. Roze, she would possibly have accepted the
part, in which she could not have failed to achieve
brilliant success.
(6
Carmen," in which so many vocalists have been
strikingly successful, is, strangely enough, the only
part in which Madame Patti, when she at last
undertook it, made no very favourable impression:
apparently from too great a desire on her part to
be original.
66
The first plan of Carmen has indeed been de-
parted from in many respects, apart from the char-
acter of the leading personage. The bull-fight,
according to the original design of the authors, was to
be shown in the form of a tableau, occupying all the
back of the stage; with live chorus-singers and
supers" in the front of the picture, and painted
figures behind them. "Escamillo" was to have
been seen triumphing over the figure of the fallen
bull, while the crowd of spectators overlooking the
arena shouted vociferously the air of the Toreador.
In a dark foreground (the back of the stage being
alone illuminated) the figures of "Carmen" and
"Don José" were to be seen. As the work is now
represented the bull-fight is abundantly suggested
by the procession which precedes it and by the
singing, the shouting, and the clanging of brass
232
THE PRIMA DONNA.
instruments which accompany it during its sup-
posed progress. But the drama takes place only in
the front of the stage between "Carmen" and her
justly indignant lover; and this termination is more
dramatic than the one first decided on. In the
United States, however, the stage arrangement
which exhibits the bull-fight in full activity is pre-
ferred, the passionate dialogue between
"Don
José" and his "Carmen adorata "-whom he adores
so much that he will not suffer her to live for any
one but himself—being still, we must imagine, pre-
served in its integrity.
Madame Marie Roze is the wife of the able and
energetic impresario, Colonel Henry Mapleson, son
of Colonel J. H. Mapleson, for so many years lessee
and manager of Her Majesty's Theatre.
Mdlle. Alwina Valleria, the last-comer among
those prime donne who have made a considerable
mark in England, appeared for the first time at a
London Theatre in 1877, when she fulfilled an
engagement at Drury Lane, where Italian Opera
was then being carried on under the direction of Mr.
Mapleson. From 1877 until now Mdlle. Valleria
has (with the exception of a visit to the United
States in 1880) remained constantly in England;
and as for several years past she has sung in
English opera and oratorio, one feels an irresistible
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
233
inclination to claim her, in spite of her American
origin, as an English vocalist. Another ground on
which such a claim might be based is the fact that
she received her musical education at our Royal
Academy. Of her own free will, moreover, she
constituted herself an English subject when, not
many years ago, she became the wife of Mr. Percy
Hutchinson, of Husband's Bosworth, Leicester-
shire.
Alwina Valleria was born at Baltimore, in the
United States. Coming at an early age to England,
she entered the Royal Academy of Music, and there
studied the pianoforte, taking up singing only as her
"second study." After a time it was pointed out
to her by Sir Julius Benedict that the order of her
studies ought to be reversed; and now, without
neglecting the pianoforte, she devoted herself more
particularly to singing. There is no comparison,
indeed, between the success to be obtained by a
pianist and by a vocalist of equal merit. For one
person who can appreciate good pianoforte playing
there are a hundred whom good singing will affect.
Alwina Valleria's first success as a vocalist was
gained at the Academy; where, after she had re-
modelled her course of study, she carried off the
Westmoreland prize for singing. After leaving the
Academy she placed herself under Signor Arditi,
with a view to the operatic stage; and she sang for
234
THE PRIMA DONNA.
the first time in public at a concert given by her
eminent professor. Her success as a concert singer
was immediate and complete, though it was not
until later that, on the lyrical stage, her greatest
triumphs were to be gained. Her first operatic
engagement was at St. Petersburg, where Signor
Arditi had accepted the musical direction of the
Italian Theatre, and her first part that of "Linda"
in Donizetti's well-known work. From Russia
Mdlle. Valleria travelled south to Italy; and at the
most famous of Italian Opera-houses, the Scala of
Milan, sang leading parts for three seasons in
succession.
In 1877, as already mentioned, Mdlle. Valleria
joined Mr. Mapleson's company, of which Drury
Lane was at that time the head-quarters; and in
1879 she appeared at the Royal Italian Opera,
Covent Garden. Then she visited her native
country, where she produced a deep impression as
Marguerite" in Gounod's Faust; so much so that
she was obliged to postpone her return to London,
undertaking meanwhile, with many other parts,
those of "Margherita" and of "Helena" in Boito's
Mefistofele, and of " Marguerite" in Berlioz's Damna-
tion de Faust. Remarkably enough, Mdlle. Valleria
sang the three parts of "Margaret," according to
Gounod, according to Boito, and according to
Berlioz, in the same week; and each different
66
A FLIGHT OF PRIME DONNE.
235
impersonation gained for her the most enthusiastic
applause.
Returning to England in 1882, Mdlle. Valleria was
engaged by Mr. Sims Reeves for the first of his fare-
well tours; and in the year following she became a
member of the excellent English company organized
and directed by Mr. Carl Rosa. "It was a lucky
day," says an esteemed writer in the Musical World,
"for Madame Valleria, and a luckier still for Mr.
Carl Rosa, when she left the foreign for the national
institution and devoted herself to English opera.
Here the resources of her nature found their full
scope, and it was here also that she was enabled to
develop that 'special feature' to which allusion has
been made at the beginning of this notice."
When Mr. Carl Rosa abandons the provinces and
settles down in London with a theatre of his own,
as before long he must do, the "leading lady" in
his permanent opera company will, beyond doubt,
be Madame Valleria.
One of the first prime donne of our time,
Gabrielle Krauss, has, strangely enough, never
sung in England. Until recently she was the
principal dramatic soprano at the Paris Opera-
house; and those who have never seen her will
be glad to make her acquaintance through her
portrait.
1
CHAPTER IX.
MDLLE. SCHNEIDER, THE PRIMA DONNA OF OPERA BOUFFE.
THE comic style in music has for many years past
been out of fashion. With the brilliant exception of
Adelina Patti, not one prima donna of the present
day has ever been seen in a comic part. It may be
said that The Marriage of Figaro is a comic opera,
and that in this admirable work Nilsson, Albani,
Lucca, and Titiens have all sung. The Marriage of
Figaro is, however, in its operatic form, a musical
comedy of rather a serious kind; infinitely more
serious, for instance, than Rossini's Barber of Seville,
though Beaumarchais' Barbier de Séville and his Folle
Journée, otherwise Mariage de Figaro, are written
in precisely the same lively and satirical style.
Adelina Patti is, in any case, the only great prima
donna of our time who has appeared in works of a
truly comic type; as "Rosina" in the Barber of
MDLLE. SCHNEIDER.
237
Seville, as "Norina" in Don Pasquale, and as the
cobbler's wife in Crispino e la Comare.
In former days the Italians, inventors of opera,
and also inventors of pantomime, used sometimes to
confound the two styles; and Pergolesi and Paisiello,
like Rossini in his early days-the days of L'lta-
liano in Algieri, of Il Turco in Italia, of Il Barbiere,
and of La Cenerentola-wished not only to charm
but also to amuse. Donizetti, more serious than
Rossini (though in his serious operas he sometimes
shows himself rather light minded), has composed
one graceful work in the light comic style, L'Elisir
d'Amore; and (to speak only of those that have
remained popular) one very diverting work in the
semi-buffo style, Don Pasquale. Even Don Pasquale
is relieved from the monotony of perpetual drollery
by a few semi-sentimental airs, and by the delightful
scene of the serenade. But it is all the same a near
approach to the buffo style of former days.
Bellini wrote no comic opera; neither did Verdi,
with the significant exception of one which he at-
tempted in his youth and which failed.
To show how completely the comic style in music
has passed not only out of fashion, but out of credit,
it may be mentioned that M. Ambroise Thomas, who
began his career as a composer of light operas and
of ballet music, brought an action after the produc-
tion of his ponderous Hamlet in order to restrain a
238
THE PRIMA DONNA.
manager from reviving one of his light operas-
"youthful sins," as he now considered them.
The comic spirit expelled from opera took refuge
in operetta. Seeing how dull opera had become,
Offenbach, whose first ambition it was to compose
serious music, and who, at the Théâtre Français,
where he was musical conductor, wrote interludes
and choruses for M. Ponsard's Ulysse, rushed in
where wise or at least serious men feared to tread.
Finding the field of musical comedy without an
occupant, he took possession of it, and therein dis-
ported himself in such a manner as to bring the
style into disrepute.
•
To trace the history of the comic style in dramatic
music we must go back to the early buffo operas of
Italy and to its pantomimes, which, as before sug-
gested, were sometimes set to music.
Two noble Italian families, the Colonnas and Pan-
taleones, were made to furnish types of the wily and
of the witless buffoon, and both clown and pantaloon
may still be recognized in Donizetti's Dr. Malatesta
and Don Pasquale. If these analogies be accepted so
also must those which undoubtedly exist between
the "Ernesto" of the opera in question and harle-
quin, between the "Norina" and columbine.
The Italian opera-buffa found its way into France
towards the end of the eighteenth century, but did
not take root there. In Italy, as already shown, it
MDLLE, SCHNEIDER.
239
gradually gave place everywhere to serious opera;
Rossini producing but few comic operas, Donizetti
fewer still, Bellini and Verdi none.
The old Italian buffo style was marked by gaiety,
without any suggestion of impropriety; and if the
subject was sometimes frivolous the treatment was
artistic. Opéra bouffe, however, as introduced by
Offenbach, is generally objectionable, both on artistic
and on moral grounds; and in the hands of some of
Offenbach's imitators it has become notorious alike
for frivolity and indecency.
It was not, indeed, until Offenbach died that his
merit, as compared with the demerits of his suc-
cessors, became apparent; and in Offenbach France,
and indeed all Europe, lost not indeed one of its
greatest but certainly one of its liveliest composers.
Having once convinced himself that he had
no vocation for serious music, Offenbach affected
anxiety not to be confounded with the graver
masters of his art. On one occasion he is reported
to have stopped the leader of the orchestra who, at
an interval during a rehearsal, was playing passages
from Mendelssohn's famous violin concerto, on the
ground that the artist might, in a moment of forget-
fulness, bring forward his reminiscences at the public
performance; in which case, said Offenbach, "the
public would think the music was mine."
To an expectant biographer (who is perhaps even
240
THE PRIMA DONNA.
now at work on a "life"), he replied, in answer to
an inquiry as to whether Bonn was not his birth-
place, that it was not he but Beethoven who had first
seen the light at Bonn. These characteristic sallies,
however, were not outbursts of cynicism, far less of
vanity; they wore simply ebullitions of fun. Offen-
bach knew the great composers well enough to be
aware that he was not one of them. He had studied
them, and in the early part of his career had himself
written serious music for a play whose claims to be
regarded as "serious" are not at all likely to be dis-
puted. In those days Jacques Offenbach was con-
ductor of the orchestra and director of the music
at the Théâtre Français, and when M. Ponsard was
preparing to bring out his Ulysse it fell to the lot of
Offenbach to compose for the new work some inci-
dental pieces and a series of choruses. The illus-
trious Meyerbeer had, in the first instance, been
asked to supply M. Ponsard's drama with the requi-
site musical pieces, and it had even been announced
in the journals, if not in the programmes of the
theatre, that the music would be from his pen.
Perhaps this aroused Offenbach, who possessed
remarkable sense of humour, to imitate Meyer-
beer's melodic phrases, his harmonies, and, above all,
the peculiarities of his orchestration; or it may have
been that, without any idea whatever of fun, he
deliberately composed the music for Ulysse after
the manner of Meyerbeer.
GOOG
W
Méto
MDLLE. SCHNEIDER.
241
The composer of Le Postillion de Lonjumeau, Le
Chalet, and other entertaining little works, without
having failed as a musician, had become a musical
critic; and in the feuilleton of L'Assemblée Nationale
he wrote a long and interesting article on the music
furnished by Offenbach for M. Ponsard's Hellenic
drama: only he complimented warmly not Offenbach,
but Meyerbeer on the work.
This mistake, made not by a mere critic, but by a
composer of recognized ability, was undoubtedly an
honour for Offenbach; and it may possibly have
been this confounding of Meyerbeer with himself
which made Offenbach at a later period take such
pains to dissociate himself from two other Ger-
man masters who had little indeed in common with
him.
In the days of Ulysse and the Théâtre Français,
Offenbach, besides being a composer and a conductor,
was a violoncellist; and he cultivated his by no means
trivial instrument with remarkable success. His
portraits of this time represent him with a look
of spirituality in his Paganini-like face; with a look
also of grotesqueness, but with a distinct air of
gravity such as in a violoncellist could not be
thought otherwise than becoming. At the period of
his collaboration with M. Ponsard he had evidently
no idea of becoming the musical partner of Meilhac
and Halévy, the future authors of La Grande Du-
VOL. II.
R
242
THE PRIMA DONNA.
chesse, La Belle Hélène, and of a long series of
so-called opéras bouffes, some of which, notwith-
standing the frivolity of the style, have ac-
quired a truly historical reputation. The Grand
Duchess of Gerolstein, for instance, belongs so
thoroughly to the period of the Paris International
Exhibition of 1867 that no adequate account of the
latter could be written without some mention of the
former.
The Czar of Russia and the King of Prussia (as
the now German Emperor was then called) went
both of them to see The Grand Duchess; and while
the Prussian Sovereign may well have asked himself
from what petty German State Gerolstein, with its
narrow frontiers and its diminutive army, was copied,
the Emperor Alexander had probably an uneasy idea
that the very despotic, but in her private relations
only too amiable Princess might be intended, so far
at least as her temperament was concerned, as an
imitation of his great-grandmother, the Empress
Catherine.
Bismarck, then but a Count, and Moltke, only
a Freiherr and a Lieutenant-General, went, like
their royal master, to see the great piece of the
day; and Baron Stoepel, the military attaché to the
French Embassy at Berlin, has told us in his cele-
brated reports how pleased Moltke was with every-
thing he saw in Paris, including, it may be, the
Mnou
-
MDLLE. SCHNEIDER.
243
performance of The Grand Duchess, with Mdlle.
Schneider in the part of the heroine.
When Prince Gortschakoff, on his way to Paris,
telegraphed from Tauroggen, on the Prussian fron-
tier, to secure a box at the Variétés for the repre-
sentation of La Grande Duchesse, political gossips.
declared that, beneath a pretended desire to witness
the performance of a somewhat free musical farce,
His Excellency concealed deep political designs.
Europe afterwards learned that the venerable but
light-hearted Chancellor of the Russian Empire was
just as likely to make politics a cloak for amuse-
ments as to make amusements a cover for diplo-
matic intrigues; and there can be no doubt but that
Prince Gortschakoff was as anxious as everyone
else to see the great piece of the moment at the
earliest possible opportunity. Even those who, in
that annus mirabilis, did not reach Paris in time for
La Grande Duchesse were not left altogether in the
cold; for they, at least, got there early enough to
see La Belle Hélène, by which it was followed, with
Mdlle. Schneider once more as the heroine and M.
Dupuis once more as the hero.
A good many critics have asked whether such a
thing as comic music can really exist; and whether
the mood of Jessica, who was never merry when
she heard sweet music," is not a general one.
question is easier to put than to answer.
The
It is
66
244
THE PRIMA DONNA.
certain, meanwhile, that with Don Pasquale, pro-
duced just forty-five years ago, comic opera came to
an end, to be replaced, rather more than thirty years
ago, by Offenbach with opéra bouffe. The difficulty
of arriving at any absolute decision as to whether
or not there is a recognizable comic principle in
music arises from the closeness and complete-
ness with which, in all effective comic operas,
words and music are mixed together. A good
many competent critics would, undoubtedly, say
that in its grotesqueness Offenbach's music, without
avoiding the incorrect, borders at times on the
vulgar. One may, in any case, affirm that it
was always spirited, often ingenious, and at times
really subtle. In his earlier works he dealt in all
sorts of extravagant effects, and it was sometimes
impossible not to be amused by his burlesque orches-
tration, in which instruments were joined together
which most composers in their sober senses would
have preferred to keep asunder, and in which pas-
sages suitable for one kind of instrument were for
that very reason assigned to some instrument of quite
another character. Offenbach's love of parody made
him introduce, with a few necessary exaggerations,
whole phrases borrowed from the composer whom
he had undertaken to travesty. After a time, how-
ever, he abandoned imitations and burlesque effects
and kept to the style which he had himself invented,
MDLLE. SCHNEIDER.
245
and in which it cannot be said that he has any true
successor. This alone would establish the fact that
Offenbach in his way—a small way no doubt was a
genius. He possessed originality, and he could do
something which no one else could do like him, or
as well as he. "Mon verre n'est pas grand,” he
might have said with Alfred de Musset, "mais je
bois dans mon verre." His glasses, too, were
sufficiently numerous, and there was evidence of
power in his very productiveness.
Finally, like other composers, he owed much to
his singers, and, to compare with genuine musical art
the art of being grotesque in music, Schneider was
to Offenbach what Colbran was to Rossini.
CHAPTER X.
THE PRIMA DONNA AND SOME OPERATIO CONVENTIONS.
UNLESS she happens to be playing in one of Wagner's
operas (though why they alone should be treated
seriously it would be hard to say) a prima donna on
our Italian stage, in imitation of the French actresses
who originated the custom, reappears at the end of
every scene which happens to have procured for her
marked approbation. In the German Court Theatres
this practice is absolutely forbidden, as is also the
repetition of any particular piece in response to an
encore.
Hisses a prima donna has rarely if ever to
encounter; though hissed without just cause she
would perhaps have a right to imitate the conduct
of Mrs. Farrel, an English actress of the last
century, who, dying in the character of "Zaria "
in the Mourning Bride, and finding that the audience
did not like her manner of expiring, rose from the
OPERATIC CONVENTIONS.
247
dead, and advancing towards the foot-lights ex-
pressed her regret at not having merited the
applause of the spectators. She explained, more-
over, that she had only accepted the part to oblige
a friend, and hoped she might be excused for not
playing it better. This behaviour was absurd; but
scarely more so than that of a prima donna who
at one moment leaves the stage in a heart-broken
condition, and the moment afterwards returns full
of smiles to thank the audience for having applauded
her.
Playing in an opera, the action of which belongs
to a past century, the prima donna ought scarcely
to wear a dress of the latest fashion. This she
always does in La Traviata; the period of which
was put back by the composer precisely that the
personages of the drama might not be seen in the
garb of the present day. It need scarcely be said
that each character should appear in the costume
of the country and period to which the piece
belongs; yet, whatever the male performers may be
wearing, the prima donna, superior to all considera-
tions of time and place, shows herself in the dress-
probably in several dresses-of the present time and
of Worth's make. She does so not only in La
Traviata, but also in Il Trovatore, in Les Huguenots,
and many other works. Indeed, I can scarcely think
of one opera in which the prima donna does not
248
THE PRIMA DONNA.
attire herself like a lady of the very year, and, by
preference, the very month in which the representa-
tion takes place.
The conventions admitted in operas are much
more remarkable even than those which are
recognized as indispensable in the spoken drama.
In the ancient theatre, as in the French theatre
of comparatively modern times, the scene of
every piece was laid in a public place. The per-
sonages came and went freely and naturally enough,
and it was not necessary to account for their
presence by the supposition of visits paid or
received. The strange spectacle, on the other
hand, was witnessed of people discussing private
and important affairs in an open thoroughfare, and
it so happened that no one ever crossed the public
place who was not somehow mixed up with the
intrigue of the play. The most natural of all
dramas, so far, at least, as regards stage presenta-
tion, was, until quite recently, that of England; for
our dramatists changed the scene as often as the
action seemed to demand, so that everything might
be said or done in its most appropriate place.
It was worrying, however, and sometimes confus-
ing to be shifted every five minutes or so to some
new locality; and of late years, under the in-
fluence of the French stage, it has become the
custom (except in melodramas recognized as such)
OPERATIC CONVENTIONS.
249
to confine every act to a single scene.
A set scene
may be thus secured as perfect as scenic art and
stage upholstery can make it; such a scene as can
be prepared during the interval of an entr'acte, but
which could not well be built up at the back of
another scene while the performance was going
oni. There are dramatists, moreover, who, apart
from the question of scenery and decorations,
think it more artistic to tell the story of each act
in a single scene; and, rightly or wrongly, it
is the fashion just now to construct dramas
and comedies on this principle. The principle in
question may be regarded as a return to one of the
famous "three unities," which can be all observed
with advantage in cases where the subject lends
itself to such treatment. But "unity of place," in
connection with each particular act, though it may,
and generally does, make the action of the piece
much clearer, involves at the same time a con-
siderable number of inconsistencies and even absur-
dities which actors and spectators seem by a tacit
understanding to have agreed to overlook.
A German writer, who has recently published
an interesting work on "The Conventional False-
hoods of our Civilization," has not condescended
to deal with our dramatic conventions, many of
which are as false as well can be. Under the
one-scene-to-one-act arrangement, for instance, the
J
I
1
1
1
ì
250
THE PRIMA DONNA,
stage represents, we will suppose, a room in
someone's house. The house may be the mansion
of a very rich man. The room will be used all the
same by a great variety of persons for a great
variety of purposes; and it will have certainly three,
probably five, and, it may be, as many as seven
doors. A room with five doors (two on each side
and one at the back) is the commonest thing on the
stage, and in a room with less than three doors it
would really be very difficult to carry out any sort
of dramatic intrigue. In real life a room has rarely
more than one door through which visitors and
servants, master and mistress enter alike-no
matter whether they are coming from the street or
from some other part of the house. A stage room has
generally a door at back (or, in theatrical parlance,
centre") leading to the street, and a certain
number of side doors leading to different sets of
apartments. Occasionally, too, this remarkable
room has a door leading to the street by a passage not
generally used. "Is there no other way out?"
asks some personage who had been on the point of
leaving the house by the very door through which
some other personage, whom he must not meet,
was about to come in; and a suitable exit-" exit
in case of emergency "—is at once pointed out to
him.
Again, in the modern "interior" corresponding to
66
OPERATIC CONVENTIONS.
251
the ancient public place, the inmates of the house,
the visitors (whether staying in the house or not),
the tradespeople, and any mysterious stranger whom
it
may be necessary to introduce, are all shown into
the same room. Or, rather, they enter the room of
their own accord, for it is not customary on the
stage, as in real life, to have visitors and strangers
shown in by servants; and very tedious it would be
if these and other particulars of the realities of life
were too closely followed. Stage servants, unless
mixed up with the intrigue of the piece, have indeed
very little to do. They are not, in a general way,
expected to announce visitors; and a visitor will
sometimes volunteer to do their work for them.
"Here is a letter for you," says a character in more
than one of M. Sardou's plays to another character;
"I took it from the servant who was bringing it up
to you;” or, “a messenger delivered it just as I was
coming in."
The dramatist's justification in regard
to these little improbabilities is that by omitting
details wherever they are not absolutely indis-
pensable he makes the action of the piece swifter
and stronger. Allow him a little license and he
will produce a greater effect. Sometimes when the
large common room is full of people two of them
find it necessary to exchange confidential communi-
cations. In such a case do they go into another
room as they infallibly would in ordinary life?
252
THE PRIMA DONNA.
Not at all, for this would involve a change of scene.
They simply say that they wish to be alone when
the other personages leave them; but only to return
as soon as the confidential communications have
been made.
/
Trial scenes, so effective when properly handled,
present difficulties not of place but of time. In
domestic scenes the audience cannot be taken all
over the house; first to the drawing-room, then to
the dining-room, now to the mistress's boudoir, and
now, again, to the master's study. Whatever busi-
ness may be going on, whether connected with love,
money, or murder, it must all be transacted in the
same room, the proprietor of the place having
apparently no other; and, in like manner, however
long a trial would last in reality it must be repre-
sented on the stage as occupying not more than
some fraction of an hour. Even if only a small
portion of the proceedings be represented they
must be strangely abridged; and in introducing in
a murder case a speech for the defence one well-
known dramatist, as if to avoid the inconvenience
of bringing in towards the close of the piece a new
character in the shape of a barrister, has made the
prisoner defend himself. He knew, of course, as
well as any of his critics that this was not in
accordance with the practice of our criminal courts.
He was working, however, not as a lawyer, but as a
OPERATIC CONVENTIONS.
253
dramatist. It was above all things necessary for
him to keep his leading character in a prominent
position, and he must have felt certain that if the
scene really interested the public no complaint
would be made as to its being unreal. Everything
in a drama is sufficiently probable if it can be made
to appear so.
Operatic conventions include the conventions of
the spoken drama as well as those peculiar to the
drama not spoken but sung. An operatic "in-
terior," for example, has just as many doors as any
other stage "interior; " and people come in and go
out as freely in a musical as in a purely dramatic
piece. But Opera is reproached as unnatural even
by those who accept the ordinary conventions of the
stage. Not only, it is said, do personages in Opera
sing when in real life they would speak, but they
sometimes sing when in real life they would go away.
Now, as my danger's imminent, I'll sing," says
a character in a burlesque; and at first sight
there is doubtless something strange in such a
proceeding. But in the spoken drama a character,
before taking flight or rushing off to attack an
enemy, will frequently deliver himself of a rapid
soliloquy; and here we have the exact analogy of
the song indulged in by the man who ought,
realistically speaking, to be in such a hurry to
depart that instead of singing about his going he
66
254
THE PRIMA DONNA.
would go at once. That the personages of a drama
should make their utterances in the singing voice is
only a degree more unnatural than that they should
do so in rhyme or in rhythmical blank verse. One
mode of delivery is just as much opposed to
custom, if not nature, as the other. The declama-
tion of trivial phrases in portentous music has, of
course, a ridiculous effect; but this also has its
counterpart in the rhymed comedies and dramas
of France, which often contain commonplace
thoughts expressed in the most sonorous language.
Not that in representation this causes such a shock
as might be expected. The audience soon get ac-
customed to the verse, as in Opera to the music,
and accept it without criticism or inquiry.
St. Evrémond in France, and Addison in England,
said, soon after the introduction of Opera from Italy,
all that could be fairly said against it; and Addi-
son's attacks were directed not against Opera in
general, but against Opera played in the Italian
language before English audiences. First he
satirised the absurd practice that for a time pre-
vailed of playing operas half in English, half in
Italian. When it was afterwards arranged to
give the whole representation in Italian he observed
that the people had evidently got tired of under-
standing only half of what was said, and preferred
that it should all be unintelligible. Then, specu-
OPERATIC CONVENTIONS.
255
lating as to what future ages would think of so
strange a fashion, he imagined posterity lost in
wonderment at the notion of Italian having been
so perfectly and so generally understood in England
during the eighteenth century that our dramatic
performances were habitually given in that tongue.
On another occasion he suggested that the audience
must sometimes be troubled with suspicions as to
whether the Italians in their unknown language
were not abusing them and calling them names.
But against Opera as a dramatic form he had nothing
to say.
He indeed so fully accepted it that he
wrote an opera himself; and Addison's Rosamond
libretto is as full of operatic conventions as any
other work of the same kind.
Many of the supposed defects of Opera are really
the source of its greatest beauties. In the spoken
drama verisimilitude is so far studied that the
personages are only made to speak one at a time;
but in an opera two, three, four, and sometimes as
many as six and seven raise their voices all together.
It is not in every opera that sestets and septets
occur. But in all operas we meet with choruses in
which crowds of people are heard shouting as one
man. This is unnatural and contrary to everyone's
experience. In real life several people do not speak
at the same time unless they happen to be quarrel-
ling; and, in any case, speaking at the same time
256
THE PRIMA DONNA.
they would not be understood. Fortunately, how-
ever, combinations of voices are tolerated in Opera by
a very ancient convention; and without it composers.
would be deprived of one of their most powerful
means of dramatic effect. Many persons believe.
that Wagner, from love of realism, set his face
against concerted music. This, in a systematic way,
he never did, for concerted music is to be found in
all his operas. He did not, after the manner of
most other composers, prepare situations with the
deliberate view of introducing concerted pieces.
Nor did he write concerted pieces simply in order
to show how ingeniously he could treat the voices.
He allowed himself to be guided only by the
dramatic requirements of his subject; and thus
it happened that in some of his operas no con-
certed piece seemed to be wanted. If, however, he
was inclined to dispense with some operatic con-
ventions which by previous composers had been
generally received and acted upon (often, it must
be admitted, with admirable results), he introduced
conventions of his own, or, at least, pushed accepted
conventions to novel lengths. When, for instance,
in Tristan und Isolde, the king, suddenly entering at
the back of the stage, finds that he has been
betrayed, he takes no immediate action, but walks
to the front and there delivers himself of an agitated.
soliloquy, leaving the lovers meanwhile to them-
OPERATIC CONVENTIONS.
257
1
selves. This is another case of (C Now, as my
danger's imminent, I'll sing;" and the strangeness
of the proceeding is scarcely lessened by the singing's
taking a declamatory form. Again, the intermin-
able address of the dying "Tristan " to his servant
is a flagrant abuse of a convention which Donizetti
has been ridiculed for turning to account in connec-
tion with the mortally wounded " Edgardo.”
ઃઃ
The operatic convention by which an expiring
personage may sing and continue singing for some
considerable time is no more remarkable, singing
being once admitted as a medium of expression, than
the analogous one, which, in the spoken drama,
permits all the heroes and heroines of tragedy to
declaim before they die. To those who refuse to
accept the essential conditions of operatic art,
almost everything that takes place in a musical
drama must seem ridiculous. In all forms of art
there are certain inevitable postulates; and for lyrico-
dramatic purposes it must be taken for granted that
singing is as natural to man as speaking. Wagner,
in one of the most striking passages of his "Opera
and Drama," seriously maintains that men sang
before they spoke; or, at least, uttered cries of
emotion before they learned to express their
wants in detail and with precision. As a matter
of fact, the children of the present day begin their
utterances not by singing, but by shrieking. It is
VOL. II.
S
:4
258
THE PRIMA DONNA.
7
difficult, however, to say where one kind of cry ends
and another begins; and if the original language
of man is not song, neither is it verse, nor the
epigrammatic prose of well-written comedy. Once,
on the other hand, allow song as a stage language,
and the tones of passion may be reproduced with
all the intensity and force that music can give, and
we acquire a form of drama through which much
larger audiences
can be effectively addressed
than through the spoken drama-in which an
assembly, a body of troops, or any crowd can join
with voices and not with gesture only in the action
of the piece, and in which various persons can, with-
out perplexing the audience, utter either similar or
diverse sentiments at the same time.
A
Unfortunately there are only too many conven-
tions in Opera which arise not out of the very nature
of the dramatic form, but only from the folly of
librettists and composers. All the most hackneyed
situations from the ordinary Drama have been im-
ported into Opera; which must have been strongly
felt by the critic who, asked why he disliked Opera,
contented himself with defining it as "an entertain-
ment in which a tenor, betrayed by a baritone, calls
out, I love you' to a soprano, who exclaims to the
baritone, Do not kill him, I love him in return!'"
.
6
Mr. Carlyle, when he once made a visit to
the Opera, disposed of operatic conventions in very
L
OPERATIC CONVENTIONS.
259
summary style. "Music," he wrote, "has, for a
long time past, been avowedly mad, divorced from
sense and fact; and runs about now as an open
Bedlamite, for a good many generations back, brag-
ging that she has nothing to do with sense and
fact, but with fiction and delirium only; and stares,
with unaffected amazement, not able to suppress an
elegant blast of witty laughter, at my suggesting
the odd fact to her. Of the Haymarket Opera my
account in fine is this: Lustres, candelabra, paint-
ing, gilding at discretion; a hall as of the Caliph
Alraschid, or him that commanded the slaves of the
lamp-a hall as if fitted up by the genii regardless
of expense. Upholstery and the outlay of human
capital could do no more. Artists, too, as they are
called, have been got together from the ends of the
world, regardless likewise of expense, to do dancing
and singing, some of them even genuine in their
craft. One singer in particular, called Colletti, or
some such name, seemed to me by the cast of his
face, by the tones of his voice, by his general bear-
ing, as far as I could read it, to be a man of deep
and ardent sensibilities, of delicate intention, great
sympathies, originally an almost poetic soul, or a
man of genius, as we call it, stamped by nature as
capable of far other work than squalling here like a
blind Samson to make the Philistines sport. Nay,
all of them had aptitudes, perhaps of a distinguished
260
THE PRIMA DONNA.
kind, and must, by their own and other people's
labour, have got a training equal or superior in toil-
someness, earnest assiduity and patient travail, to
what breeds men to the most arduous trades. I
speak not of kings, grandees, or the like show
figures; but few soldiers, judges, men-of-letters
can have had such pains taken with them. The
very ballet girls, with their muslin saucers round
them, were perhaps little short of miraculous,
whirling and spinning there in strange mad vortexes,
and then suddenly fixing themselves motionless,
each upon her left or right great toe, with the other
leg stretched out at an angle of ninety degrees, as
if there had been suddenly pricked into the floor by
one of their points, a pair, or rather a multitudinous
cohort of mad, restlessly jumping, and clipping
scissors, and so bidden there rest, with opened
blades, and stand still, in the devil's name! A
truly notable motion-marvellous, almost miracu-
lous, were not the people there so used to it;
motion peculiar to the opera; perhaps the ugliest,
and surely one of the most difficult ever taught a
female in this world. Nature abhors it; but art
does at least admit it to border on the impossible.
One little Cerito, or Taglioni the Second, that night
when I was there, went bounding from the floor as
if she had been made of indiarubber, or filled with
hydrogen gas, and contrived by positive levity to bolt
•
OPERATIC CONVENTIONS.
261
through the ceiling; perhaps neither Semiramis nor
Catherine had bred herself so carefully. Such
talent, and such martyrdom of training, gathered
from the four winds, was now here to do its feat
and be paid for it-regardless of expense indeed.
The purse of Fortunatus seemed to have opened
itself, and the divers cost of musical sound and
rhythmic motion was welcomed with an explosion
of all the magnificences which the other arts, fine
and coarse, could achieve. For you are to think of
some Rossini or Bellini in the rear of it, too, to say
nothing of the Stanfields, and hosts of scene-
painters, machinists, engineers, and enterprisers;
fit to have taken Gibraltar, written the history of
England, or reduced Ireland into industrial regi-
ments, had they so set their minds to it. Alas!
and of all these notable or noticeable human talents,
and excellent perseverances, and energies, backed
by mountains of wealth, and led by the divine art
of music and rhythm, vouchsafed by Heaven to
them and us, what was to be the issue here this
evening? An hour's amusement, not amusing
either, but wearisome and dreary, to a high-dizened
select populace of male and female persons, who
seemed to me not worth much amusing. Could
any one have pealed into their hearts one true
thought, and glimpse of self-vision! High-dizened,
most expensive persons, aristocracy so called, or
262
THE PRIMA DONNA.
best of the world, beware, beware what proofs you
are giving here of betterness and bestness. And
then the salutary pang of conscience in reply. A
select populace with money in its purse, and drilled
a little by the posture-maker: Good Heavens! if
that were what, here and everywhere in "God's
creation," I am. And a world all dying, because I
am, and show myself to be, and to have long been,
even that. John, the carriage-the carriage, swift!
Let me go home in silence, to reflection, perhaps to
sackcloth and ashes!' This, and not amusement,
would have profited these persons. Amusement, at
any rate, they did not get from Euterpe and Mel-
pomene. These two Muses, sent for regardless of
expense, I could see were but the vehicle of a kind
of service, which I judged to be Paphian rather.
Young beauties of both sexes used their opera-
glasses, you could notice, not entirely for looking at
the stage. And, it must be owned, the light in this
explosion of all the upholsteries, and the human
fine arts and coarse, was magical, and made your
fair one an Armida, if you liked her better so. Nay,
certain old improper females (of quality) in their
rouge and jewels, even these looked some reminis-
cence of enchantment, and I saw this and the other
lean domestic dandy, with icy smile on his old worn
face, this and the other Marquis Singedelomme,
Prince Mahogany, or the like foreign dignitary,
OPERATIC CONVENTIONS.
263
tripping into the boxes of said females, grinning
there awhile, with dyed moustachios, and Macassar
oil graciosity, and then tripping out again; and, in
fact, I perceived that Colletti and Cerito, and the
rhythmic arts were a mere accompaniment here.
Wonderful to see, and sad if you had eyes. Do
but think of it. Cleopatra threw pearls into her
drink, in mere waste, which was reckoned foolish of
her. But here had the modern aristocracy of men
brought the divinest of its arts, heavenly music
itself, and piling all the upholsteries and ingenuities
that other human art could do, had lighted them
into a bonfire to illuminate an hour's flirtation of
Singedelomme, Mahogany, and these improper
persons. Never in nature had I seen such waste
before. Oh! Colletti, you whose inborn melody,
once of kindred, as I judged, to the melodies
eternal,' might have valiantly weeded out this and
the other false thing from the ways of men, and
made a bit of God's creation more melodious—they
have purchased you away from that, chained you to
the wheel of Prince Mahogany's chariot, and here
you make sport for a Macassar Singedelomme and
his improper females past the prime of life.
Wretched, spiritual nigger, oh! if you had some
genius, and were not a mere born nigger, with
appetite for pumpkin, should you have entered such
a lot? I lament for you beyond all other expenses.
6
264
THE PRIMA DONNA.
:
Other expenses are light; you are the Cleopatra's
pearl that should not have been flung into
Mahogany's claret cup. And Rossini, too, and
Mozart, and Bellini, oh Heavens! when I think
that music, too, is condemned to be mad, and to
burn herself to this end on such a funeral pile, your
celestial Opera-house grows dark and infernal to
me.'
""
•
CHAPTER XI.
THE PRIMA DONNA AS A TYPE.
OPERA is objected to by two great classes of persons,
those who think it unnatural that men and women
should throughout a drama be made to sing-as if
it were not equally unnatural that in tragedies they
should be made to talk in blank verse, or even in
rhyme-and those who do not care for music at all.
Both these classes, however, entertain a sort of ad-
miration for the operatic prima donna, who, unlike
the work she adorns, seems to appeal to all sections
of the community. Musicians and the sterner class
of musical critics have never ceased to utter lamen-
tations and protests in connection with the undue
regard shown for the prima donna-often to the
neglect, it must be admitted, of the opera in which
she appears. To many the story will be familiar of
the gentleman who, after taking stalls at the Covent
Garden for the next Patti night, went back to the
266
THE PRIMA DONNA.
office to ask what opera would be played! From
the time of Adriana Baroni, whose charms were
celebrated by Milton in no less than three Latin
poems, to the present day, when the star of the
moment prefers to be praised in intelligible English,
the prima donna has often been the cause of operatic
success. For that excellent reason the position of
the prima donna is one that excites much admira-
tion, and some envy.
To be thoroughly successful a prima donna should
possess a variety of gifts and acquirements in addi-
tion to perfect vocalization. She ought to be per-
sonally interesting, and the enthusiasm of an
audience will be more easily aroused if to her
artistic accomplishments she unites great personal
beauty. Of course she must be an excellent actress,
and it is absolutely necessary that she should exhibit
the most refined taste in the matter of dress. To
enjoy European favour she must have several lan-
guages at her command. Italian, if not the first, is
the second language of every prima donna; and the
most successful of contemporary prime donne have,
like Malibran, the most striking type of the class,
possessed a complete mastery of several tongues.
Perhaps the gift of language and the gift of song
go to a certain extent together. At any rate,
examples, including some brilliant ones, could be
cited at the present time, and close at hand, in
••
1
THE PRIMA DONNA AS A TYPE.
267
which the highest faculty for musical language
and a very high faculty for speech are combined.
When the time comes for examining the prima
donna scientifically, after the manner of Mr. Galton,
it will be interesting and important to note the
origin of the great prime donne (or prima donnas,
since the name has been received into the English
language) who, during the past and present century,
have from time to time enchanted Europe. They
have for the most part displayed aristocratic quali-
ties, they have often been received into the aristo-
cratic class, and in many cases have ended by form-
ing part of it. But none of them have been of
aristocratic birth, and what is far more remarkable
is the fact that to very few of them does musical
talent seem to have come by inheritance. Scarcely
one has inherited her high artistic qualities from
her immediate progenitors.
The public have but little idea of the indomitable
energy that a great prima donna should possess
called upon, as she is during the season (and with
a great prima donna changing perpetually from
capital to capital it is always and everywhere
the season), to take part in morning rehearsals,
afternoon concerts, evening representations, and
often private concerts when the operatic repre-
sentations are at an end; or of the knowledge of
society of various kinds and countries which a
268
THE PRIMA DONNA.
prima donna of the highest class cannot, with such
a varied life, fail to acquire. She ends by knowing
something of the artistic, literary, and fashionable
society of every capital in Europe, and has been on
speaking as well as singing terms with the members
of all the principal Courts. The cosmopolitanism
of the really absolute prima donna assoluta is one of
the most remarkable things about her. Of the
thousands of singers who dream of competing, of
the hundreds who actually compete for the highest
honours in the profession, of the dozens who are
very near attaining these honours, there are scarcely
more than three or four at any time by whom they
are really gained; and from these fortunate few a
certificate of nationality is the last thing that would
be demanded. They may come from Italy, Canada,
the United States or Sweden, from Hamburg,
Paris, or Pesth. The one thing necessary is
that, possessing the rare qualifications I have
spoken of, they shall sing habitually in the Italian
language. They are more than cosmopolitan, for
instead of being citizens of the world-that is to
say of no city in particular-they are citizens of
each and every city at which they happen to be
engaged.
Madame Patti independently of her operatic
performances sings Home, Sweet Home" in
London, "Solovei" in St. Potersburg, "Si vouz
(C
THE PRIMA DONNA AS A TYPE.
269
n'avez rien à me dire" in Paris. Madame Nilsson,
without counting her Swedish melodies, has sung
operatic music in Italian at Her Majesty's Theatre,
operatic music in French at the Académie of Paris,
oratorio music in English at our provincial Festivals.
Prime donne do certainly receive immense
salaries. Still it must not be forgotten that their
expenses-above all, travelling expenses and outlay
for dress-are very great. They are for the most
part charitable even to excess. They are sur-
rounded at the theatre by attendants of all kinds,
some of whom expect money for the most trifling
services. Their addresses are known to all begging-
letter writers, and when one of the principal men-
dicants of the metropolis fell some years ago into
the hands of the police it is a fact that the name
of a celebrated German prima donna, the late
Mdlle. Titiens, was found at the head of the list
of his probable benefactors. Then think of the
number of occasions on which they are asked to
sing gratuitously, and in many cases consent to do
so! "It is so little trouble for her to sing," is the
argument. But it is still less trouble for a mil-
lionaire to write a cheque; in spite of which the
rich financier is but rarely so ready with a draft
for a large amount as the prima donna of high
repute is with her easily convertible notes.
Nevertheless, after making due allowance for the
·
270
THE PRIMA DONNA.
prima donna's inevitable expenditure, the fact re-
mains that she is exceedingly well paid. Indeed,
no women receive larger incomes except Empresses
and Queens. There is this difference, however:
that the income of the Sovereign, apart from re-
volutions, is for life, while that of the prima donna
is only for the life of her voice, which in the case of
a happily constituted and exceptionally successful
prima donna may be reckoned at twenty-five years—
say from twenty to forty-five. A duration of twenty
years for voice and of twelve for popularity would,
however, be nearer the average. Among men no
Minister of State is nearly so well paid as a prima
donna. The salary of a first-rate prima donna may
amount to double that of the best-paid Ambassador
(say £24,000 a year), and she retains the right,
denied to the Ambassador, of receiving presents.
Those who judge of the worth of others by what
they conceive to be their own personal value are of
course shocked to find that our most popular prime
donne are so munificently rewarded. It is clear,
moreover, that a priest, a professor, or a judge exer-
cises much more important functions than the
greatest of prime donne; only, being less rare, and
their services less eagerly sought after by the rich
multitude, they receive more slender remuneration.
It is not, however, the rarity alone; it is the
rarity combined with the absolute excellence of the
THE PRIMA DONNA AS A TYPE.
271
prima donna in which her attractiveness lies. Any
lusus naturæ is rare. But Nature is not in a
freakish, she is in a smiling mood when she creates
the perfect prima donna, who may be called, not
lusus, but risus naturæ.
When it was stated many
years ago at the Court of Bankruptcy what amount
of salary was paid to a celebrated first soprano at
the Royal Italian Opera, the learned Commissioner
exclaimed that that was "twice the salary of a
puisne Judge ;" and nearly a century before that
the Empress Catherine, when she heard what terms
Gabrielli demanded, replied that not one of her
Field Marshals received
received as much.
as
Thereupon
Gabrielli recommended the Empress to get her
Marshals to sing for her. It would be difficult to
say which would cut the queerest figure on the
operatic stage—a Russian Field Marshal or an Eng-
lish Judge.
į
The truth is that the prima donna, though largely
and often profoundly adored, has not yet been
sufficiently studied, certainly not in that calm
spirit of investigation which it is necessary but
very difficult to bring to the contemplation of so
charming a subject. From star worship to astro-
nomy would be a great step, but if the nature of
the operatic star were thoroughly understood its
distinctive attributes would doubtless prove to be
of a higher kind than passing devotees usually
1
272
THE PRIMA DONNA.
imagine. The prima donna was never more highly
appreciated than in the present day. Like all
persons who hold exalted positions, she is exposed
to reverses, and a fall in her case amounts often to
a catastrophe. Many prime donne have had tragic
ends; and this may in some measure console
envious persons who cannot forgive them their
dazzling successes. Voltaire, or rather a character
in one of Voltaire's tales, said of theatrical queens
and of the style in which they were treated towards
the end of the eighteenth century, "On les adore
quand elles sont belles, et on les jette à la voirie
quand elles sont mortes." We treat them with
more respect in these days, and justly so; for of
many of them it may be fairly said that they are
ornaments of society as well as of the stage.
As a rule they do not marry well. What agree-
able woman ever did in the opinion of her male
friends? But the prima donna's husband deserves.
a separate study.
It is perhaps at her benefit that the prima
donna is seen in her greatest glory. It is a
horticultural as well as a musical fête, and syste-
matic efforts are made to render each prima
donna's benefit the greatest possible success from
a floral as well as a lyrical point of view. If
opera-goers generally would adopt such a mode of
voting, the number of bouquets thrown to a prima
THE PRIMA DONNA AS A TYPE.
donna would be a fair test not, perhaps, of her
merit, but certainly of her popularity. It would
say to the eye what applause now says to the ear;
and the precise number of admirers belonging to
one artist could be computed arithmetically. It
would be desirable, however, that this form of
suffrage should be universal. No one should be
allowed to enter the opera-house without a bouquet,
which, by an extension of edicts actually in force,
might be proclaimed as an essential part of evening
dress. Scrutiny, too, should be permitted, and care
should be taken to prevent the unprincipled from
throwing several bouquets in succession after the
manner of those American electors who, in com-
pliance with requests from their favourite candi-
dates, "vote early and vote often." Other pre-
cautionary measures of more practical importance
ought to be taken, or we may have our prime donne
blinded and stunned by their rough supporters in
front of the curtain; who at present hurl their
bouquets with a force and precision of aim such as
might be envied at Lord's, but is singularly out of
place at the opera. Nerve is one of the essential
requisites in a great prima donna, but it ought not
to be tested by her ability to remain composed
under a heavy fire of compactly made bouquets, not
without stalks.
VOL. II.
273
T
274
THE PRIMA DONNA.
On these interesting occasions it will soon be
necessary to regulate the enthusiasm of the public,
and, perhaps, to introduce some such rules with
respect to the throwing of bouquets as were pro-
posed at the Brussels Conference in regard to war-
like operations. Floral devices weighing more than
half-a-hundredweight should be excluded from the
list of projectiles that may be legitimately used, and
orders might be issued enjoining subscribers and the
public in general to hurl their missiles not at the
head of the lady whom it is desired to honour, but
at some point distant not less than six inches from
the spot on which she may be standing. Should it be
intended to drop heavy crowns on to the stage from
a considerable height, warning should be given to
the prima donna some seconds beforehand, so that
she may have the opportunity of placing herself in
some position of safety. Peaceable occupants of
stalls taking no active part in the operations
might be employed to pass bouquets from the boxes
on the pit tier to the conductor of the orchestra, who
would then hand them to the prima donna without
injury to the lady or the flowers.
If some change is not shortly made in the custom
of pelting the one or two leading prime donne of
the day with bouquets and all kinds of floral devices,
we shall hear at last of some popular vocalist
meeting with the fate of the lady celebrated in
THE PRIMA DONNA AS A TYPE.
275
Roman history, on whom so many bracelets and
other ornaments were thrown that she perished
beneath their weight. Gold is heavier, no doubt,
than flowers. But the bouquets hurled at a prima
donna on the evening appointed for doing her homage
frequently enclose jewellery, and instances have be-
fore now occurred of a fair benefit-taker being more
than touched by the too solid compliment addressed
to her.
The last appearance of the prima donna for the
season is usually made either on the stage at her
own benefit or in a box at the benefit of a rival,
when she goes through a certain amount of dumb
applause, or at the benefit of her rival's rival, when
she applauds with genuine enthusiasm.
I like her best at her own benefit. There she is
lyrical, expansive, sincere. The public is delighted
with her, and she is delighted both with herself and
with the public. It is interesting, however, to see
her at the benefit of a rival, and to note how her
seemingly energetic clapping of hands is attended by
no sound. Even this visible but by no means audible
demonstration of approval is not always indulged
in when the object of so much carefully-guarded
admiration happens not to be in a position to ob-
serve it.
CC
Giulietta, my love," I once heard a prima
donna's mamma say to her somewhat thoughtless
276
THE PRIMA DONNA.
but perfectly natural daughter at the benefit of
one of her rivals-a certain Mdlle. Chanterelle :
"Giulietta, my love, Mdlle. Chanterelle is on the
stage" (she had just been called before the curtain)
"and you are not applauding!"
"What is the use of applauding, mamma?
replied the artless young thing, "she is not looking
this way."
CC
""
No, my love," returned the mamma, "but her
friends are."
Thus admonished, Giulietta began to applaud with
much apparent violence. I warned her that if she
did not control the expression of her ardour her
gloves would suffer for it, but somehow they did
not split.
At the benefit of the rival of a rival the prima
donna renews, without, perhaps, being aware of it,
the policy which in modern times has been especially
associated with the Austrian Empire, but which is
as old as the art of government itself. Giulietta
dislikes Chanterelle heartily, because Chanterelle,
who is engaged at an opposition theatre, is a light
soprano, and is always trying to eclipse her in her
best parts. Paulina, however, who appears at the
samo theatre as Chanterelle, and divides with her
the admiration of the public, is a dramatic soprano,
so that her success, however much it may vex
Chanterelle, will not in the least degree disturb
THE PRIMA DONNA AS A TYPE.
277
Giulietta's peace of mind. On the contrary, every
triumph gained by Paulina at Chanterelle's expense
will fill Giulietta's heart with joy. Hence at Pau-
lina's benefit she applauds without reserve, and
without caring what happens to her gloves. But
that it would spoil the effect of her toilet she would
be ready to take them off and applaud with her
naked hands. She at the same time urges her friends
to throw bouquets to Paulina, and herself presents
her with a wreath-does, in fact, all she can to
strengthen Paulina, whom she does not fear, so as
to weaken Chanterelle, whose increasing reputation
sometimes alarms her.
All this is very sad. But the most adorable per-
sons are sometimes slightly treacherous, and the
prima donna in her dislike to rivalry resembles
other artists. The great instrumental virtuoso can
no more brook successful competition than can the
eminent vocalist. I remember one distinguished
specimen of the class-a pianist--telling me how he
once went to the concert of a rival, and taking his
seat in front of the audience applauded with
enthusiasm all the most surprising passages in his
rival's most astounding pieces. He did not, however,
applaud the best executed passages, but only those
in which he detected false notes. The pianist who
applauded was the late Leopold de Meyer; the
pianist who, according to Leopold de Meyer, played
278
THE PRIMA DONNA.
false notes was Anton Rubinstein; and that
Rubinstein in his most frenzied moments does now
and then make slips is well known.
What becomes of the prima donna's bouquets
when they have once been thrown; when they have
served their purpose, that is to say? Do they share
the fate of Les neiges d'antan-" The snow of
yester year?" "By no means; they can be thrown
again," some cynic will perhaps reply. Indeed, at
café concerts, music halls, and minor theatres of a
low grade that may well happen. The prima donna,
however, distributes hers among private friends.
who go to offer her their congratulations at the end
of the performance; or, selecting two or three of
the finest for herself, she leaves the remainder
to her maid, who may possibly dispose of these
perquisites to some enterprising florist.
At a
café concert to offer a singer a bouquet is only
another way of presenting her with a few francs.
The bouquet is handed to her, not thrown, and at
the end of the concert is taken back at a reduction
by the accommodating dealer from whom it has
been purchased. But small things must not be
compared with great, nor the doings of a singer at
a café concert with those of an operatic prima
donna.
When the last bouquet has been thrown, when
the last rival has been feebly, and the last rival's
THE PRIMA DONNA AS A TYPE.
279
rival forcibly applauded, the prima donna prepares
to start on her travels. A prima donna who is
"not accustomed to travel" must be either very
young or can have met with no great success. The
truly successful prima donna, whose name a hundred
years hence will occupy a place in the history of her
art, knows the whole civilized world; London, Paris,
St. Petersburg, Vienna, Berlin, and Brussels, as
a matter of course; New York beyond a doubt;
and possibly she will have gone from New York
westward to San Francisco, or southward to New
Orleans. If diplomatists lived several centuries,
and could go on for two or three hundred years
without being placed in " disponsibility," a diplo-
matist would now and then see as much of the world
and of those Courts which, after all, form a very
important part of it, as a few celebrated prime
donne see now. Ambassadors, sooner or later,
publish their memoirs, but no prima donna has yet
published hers. Perhaps prime donne are less
observant than Ambassadors. It is their part, more-
over, to give impressions rather than to receive
them. Otherwise a prima donna, in the course of
her career, is sure to come into contact not only
with the directors of all the great Opera-houses, but
also with the chiefs of all the great Governments of
the world. Indeed, more than one prima donna
might be mentioned who has conversed more
280
THE PRIMA DONNA.
or less intimately with at least three or four
Emperors.
"Which of them," I asked one day of a very
distinguished prima donna, who enjoyed a large
acquaintance among crowned heads, "which of them
do you like best ?"
'
Well," she replied, with some hesitation, "the
Emperor Alexander gives the best jewellery."
Another of more refinement selected Napoleon
III., saying, "he is the most gentlemanly Emperor
I know." C'est l'Empereur le plus comme il
faut que je connais.")
The position of the prima donna, brilliant as it is,
has for some time past been a source of great anxiety
to some of her best friends. For her everything else
is neglected, and managers are, with reason, warned
not to place their trust too exclusively in the prima
donna, lest some day they should find that by sacri-
ficing the whole to a part-the prima donna's part—
they have destroyed all interest in the opera as a
consistent artistic work.
Without an agent or a husband a prima donna
would never get on, and happy is the prima donna
who can combine the two in one. As a rule, how-
ever, sho requires the aid of two separate func-
tionaries, one to attend to her business matters, the
other to accompany her on her visits and excursions,
and to direct her household. The husband will
THE PRIMA DONNA AS A TYPE.
281
sometimes at the beginning of his career attempt to
do the work of agent. But he has probably been
accepted for ornament rather than for use, and his
endeavours to save his wife the percentage levied by
the musical middleman on her salary are not neces-
sarily attended by advantageous results.
The ordinary agent is a man of business, which
the prima donna's husband perhaps is not; and by
his superior acquaintance with the operatic market
he is in a better position than the husband for
knowing where the prima donna's services are likely
to be required, and in what quarter they will, in a
commercial sense, be most highly valued. Some-
times, no doubt, a prima donna's husband is a better
hand at a scrittura than even the most practised
agent. But such exceptions are rare. It is diffi-
cult, on the other hand, for the business agent to
perform those higher agency duties which consist in
judiciously nurturing and developing enthusiasm for
the prima donna. The prima donna's husband, if
worthy of the name, is really nothing more than an
agent of a superior kind. But he is a diplomatic
agent, not a commercial one.
The man destined by Fate or by Fortune to
become the husband of a prima donna may love her
for many reasons-for her beauty, her talent, her
money, or for all these gifts and acquirements
together. Sometimes she has a temper, which must
282
THE PRIMA DONNA.
be taken into account. But there is no reason for
supposing that, due allowance being made for little
caprices which a right-minded prima donna's husband
will be only too pleased to have the opportunity of
gratifying, her disposition is less charming than
that of other charming women whose lot it is to be
fed with perpetual flattery. There are some women
to whom praise administered at fitting moments and
of good quality is positively beneficial. It is like
water to an hydrangea. Besides, the prima donna
may have an artistic ideal, keeping it constantly
before her without ever attaining it; and in that case
the admiration lavished upon her will leave her un-
affected by it. It must be admitted, however, that
as a rule the prima donna is capable of taking in
any amount of adulation, and in the simplest, not
to say grossest, form. A prima donna of the
third rank once asked a journalistic friend to
write something about her. He excused himself on
the ground that he had never studied the vocal art,
and, worse still, had no technical vocabulary at his
command.
J
"Never mind that," she replied, "say that I sing
wonderfully well, and that no one could possibly
sing better. That will be quite enough."
Now, the husband of this unaffected young
woman, who knew so well what she wanted, and
knowing it went straight to the point, would, if he
THE PRIMA DONNA AS A TYPE.
283
set any value on domestic peace and quiet, have
been obliged by some means or other to get some
such statement as the one on which she had set her
heart placed publicly before the world. How would
he set about it? If he understood his duty as a
prima donna's husband he would have plenty of
acquaintances on the Press. But there are some
newspaper offices at which the proprietor is all-
powerful, and others at which the editor will not
allow the proprietor in any way to interfere with
him. Then there are editors who refuse to dictate
to their critics, and there are even critics who refuse
to be dictated to.
The man who wields the pen is obviously, in the
great majority of cases, the one to address; and
the question then arises as to the best manner of
addressing him. If the prima donna's husband is
new to his business he will, perhaps, call himself.
If he possesses a moderate amount of tact he will
call with his wife; and there have been instances in
which he has allowed his wife to call alone, he him-
self remaining outside concealed in the brougham.
Qui trompe-t-on ici? one may ask with Figaro in the
last case. The critic, without doubt.
Almost the first care of a prima donna's husband
on arriving at a new capital should be to find out
who are the most influential critics, which of them
can with advantage be cultivated, and which, by
284
THE PRIMA DONNA.
reason of notorious surliness or some similar defect,
had better be left alone. But the prima donna's
husband who is well up to his work will find means
to approach the critic, who piques himself on being
inaccessible equally with the one who makes no
effort to conceal his natural affability. There is
danger even in a desire to be thought strong.
When the date of the prima donna's first per-
formance has been fixed it will be for the husband
to arrange about the bouquets, the wreaths, the
garlands, and the recalls, the preparation of an
address, the unhorsing of the carriage in which the
prima donna had intended to drive home, and to-
wards the end of the season the presentation of a
set of diamonds on the part of the subscribers.
These manifestations of delight must, of course, be
varied according to the custom of the country in
which the prima donna is singing, for what would
in one land provoke enthusiasm might in another
cause nothing but laughter.
A flight of doves, for instance, each dove bearing
a streamer with a sonnet inscribed on it, might be
very effective in Italy, but would not be appreciated
in England. In Russia a prima donna is seldom
after a great success recalled less than a dozen
times; and the number amounts now and then to
as many as twenty. This in England would be
simply tiresome. Bouquets, however, may be thrown
THE PRIMA DONNA AS A TYPE.
285
at our Opera-houses in great profusion; and it is
for the prima donna's husband to see that the
supply is adequate to the occasion.
<
The custom of presenting a prima donna at the
end of the season with a set of diamonds is by no
means English; and in London, where subscribers
to the Opera content themselves as a rule with al-
miring operatic divinities at a distance, such testi-
monials could not very easily be got up. For farces
of this kind Russia is the classic land; and there
seems once to have been a period-before it had
been found necessary to emancipate the serfs, and,
in view of fresh loans, to publish the Budget-when
prime donne performing at St. Petersburg did
really bring away with them at the end of their
engagements a considerable amount of jewellery,
for which neither the prima donna herself nor the
prima donna's husband had been required to pay
one copeck. Times, however, are changed, and the
patrons of prime donne with them; and the
bouquets offered to the prima donna at the St.
Petersburg Opera-house (they are not thrown, but
are passed from hand to hand until they reach the
conductor, by whom ultimately they are presented
in a direct manner) have now, as in other countries,
to be sprinkled with water and freshened up, so
that the night afterwards they may be offered again.
Nor are the gifts of jewellery made quite so freely
286
THE PRIMA DONNA.
as of old. It may be doubted whether, without the
assistance of the prima donna's husband, they would
be made at all. It is on these occasions that the
personage in question shows himself really invalu-
able. The season is drawing to a close. Again
and again at each succeeding performance has the
prima donna been summoned before the curtain.
The students have called upon her, and begged her
acceptance of an album in which they have in-
scribed their names: a genuine token of admiration
this, though not, perhaps, intrinsically valuable.
But the usual present of precious stones has not
been made; and, if only for the sake of the news-
papers, the prima donna's husband has to see that
it shall somehow or other be forthcoming. He has
kept house well throughout the season. Not once
has his charming wife had to tell him that the
dinner was improperly served, or the drawing-room
insufficiently lighted. He has asked the right people
to her table, and has forgotten no presentable person
who has ever rendered her the slightest service.
But all this will avail him nothing if he allows her
return to Paris or to London without a tiara of
diamonds.
He has suggested a necklace, and he is not quite
sure that he will even be able to manage a brooch
and ear-rings. But she will be content with nothing
less than a tiara; and the worst of it is that it must
THE PRIMA DONNA AS A TYPE.
287
be offered to her spontaneously as an homage to her
talent on the part of numerous admirers.
However, the prima donna's husband knows how
to entertain; and this has gained for him the repu-
tation of being a good fellow. His conversation
turns exclusively on the doings of his wife; but as
the guests are all in love with her, the subject,
however old, is for them always new. Often he
has attached to himself a sort of toady and hanger-
on, who at the same time plays the part of innocent
lover to the wife. This mixture of courier and con-
fidential friend can be counted upon for any sort of
service; and on a particular evening, when the
ladies have retired to the drawing-room and the
prima donna's husband has gone to his own private
apartment to get a brand of cigars which he can
confidently recommend, the trusty dependent, the
friend of the house," rises and says that M. le
Comte having fortunately left the room, the moment
seems opportune for saying what he is sure is
already on everyone's lips. How perfectly the
Countess has been singing this season! What a
charming woman she is! What a good fellow her
husband is! Why not show their appreciation of
his hospitality and her genius by presenting her
with some diamonds? The proposition is received
with acclamation. Prince Falutin puts his name
down at once for a thousand roubles; General Nozoff
66
288
THE PRIMA DONNA.
follows him with a like sum; Count Monkievitch
declares himself good for five hundred; and old
Baron Donki cuts them all out by writing himself
down for two thousand. When the husband at last.
returns-singing as he walks along the passage, so
that he may take no one by surprise-a sufficient
amount has already been subscribed, and it is no
use his protesting; the thing is done.
Next day the jeweller has to be seen; and at an
early hour he receives a visit from the prima donna's
husband, accompanied by the faithful friend, Doura-
koff by name, who, after setting the thing going, is
determined to carry it through. The Count knows
how to order jewellery, and the pattern having been
chosen, he gives explicit instructions as to the
execution of certain details, and arranges with
the jeweller as to what it is all to cost. The
jeweller has had dealings with Chamberlains and
other high officials of the Court, and this has
rendered him suspicious. He first made his money
by buying at half their actual, and a twentieth part
of their nominal, worth the diamond snuff-boxes
pre-
sented by the Czar to persons whom he had deigned
to honour, and afterwards reselling them for
further presentation at twice their real value, and
a fifth part of the value at which they would be
charged to the Imperial Treasury.
"Who will pay for the tiara ?" asks the jeweller.
C
THE PRIMA DONNA AS A TYPE.
289
"The gentlemen whose names you see on this
list," replies the Count.
"Not Prince Falutin," observes the jeweller,
"for his name is already on my books for a large
sum, and I find it impossible to get the money;
nor Baron Donki, for the old gentleman cannot pay
what he has lost at cards; nor Count Monkievitch,
who never comes to St. Petersburg except when
his debts have forced him to quit some more in-
teresting capital." When he sees the name of
young Dourakoff, who has put himself down for a
large amount, the dealer in precious stones tries not
to laugh. Then, after running hastily through the
list of names ending in "off," "ski," "vitch," and
"in," he says to the prima donna's husband: "No,
I am very sorry, but I really can't; unless, that is
to say, you like to give me your acceptance for the
entire amount."
"Of course!" responds the prima donna's husband.
"And you remember that the bill for last year's
present of diamonds was never paid. Why not have
them reset? "
"C
They would be recognized; the St. Petersburg
public is so clever."
At last it is arranged that the gift of the previous
year shall be returned, and its value allowed in the
bill for the new one; and on the occasion of the
prima donna's benefit the diamond tiara is, amid
VOL. II.
W
290
THE PRIMA DONNA.
CC
general enthusiasm, presented to her on the stage in
the name of Prince Falutin, Count Monkievitch,
General Nozoff, Baron Donki, Captain Dourakoff,
and the subscribers in general.
There have been examples of prima donna's hus-
bands who had ended by persuading themselves that
they could replace their wives at rehearsals, and who
have not only paid visits in the prima donna's name,
but have stopped at home to "receive" in lieu of
her. One prima donna's husband is reported to
have carried this species of infatuation so far as to
offer to sit for his wife's portrait. But even the
most modest of prima donna's husbands will, in
speaking of his wife's engagements and perfor-
mances, say we" " when he ought to say "she."
"We have now thirty characters in our répertoire ;
"we are getting up the part of Flora'; we
had a great success last night;" are phrases
which are continually in the mouth of every
prima donna's husband.
""
<
"" 66
There are prima donna's husbands of a very
different type from that which I have hitherto
sought to depict; men who, instead of accepting
their position and doing their best for their wives,
live upon their earnings without making any effort
towards increasing them, and too proud to perform
the honourable duties of shawl-bearer, to which
those who are not married to the prima donna
f
THE PRIMA DONNA AS A TYPE.
291
so eagerly aspire, make a point of never being seen
in public with her. Sometimes a prima donna's
husband of this class loses his wife's money at
the gambling table, or, under pretence of being a
gambler, dissipates it in a manner still more repre-
hensible.
Sometimes the prima donna's singing-master,
recognizing her talent beforehand, snaps her up
before she has had an opportunity of displaying
it in public. Or if she has escaped her singing-
master the manager is probably lying in wait for
her with an engagement not for a stipulated number
of years, but for life.
The social position of a prima donna, as long as
she remains single, extends over so much ground
that it is really undefinable. Afterwards it is regu-
lated to some extent by the status of her husband.
Wherever she is invited he, of course, must be
asked; and unless he be a man of tact he runs the
risk of being looked upon as little better than the
husband of a professional beauty. In view at once
of her art and of her happiness, she cannot perhaps
do better than marry a leading member of her own
profession. No one can wish her to become the
wife of some titled or untitled millionaire, who will
be egotistical enough to withdraw her from the
stage. Such a one is not a prima donna's hus-
band: he is simply a man who has married a
292
THE PRIMA DONNA.
prima donna. But let us not blame him, nor,
above all, envy him. Let us reflect rather that
though it is not given to every man to have a prima
donna for a wife, yet every man may, and ought to,
make his wife his prima donna, and not only prima,
but, moreover, sola ed assoluta.
THE END.
INDEX TO NAMES.
Abbey, Mr., 99, 100.
Abbott, Emma, 98.
Adam, Adolphe, 205.
Addison, 254, 255.
Albani, Madame, 59, 124,
162, 163, 164, 165, 166,
167, 168, 169, 170, 177,
179, 191, 195, 236.
Albany, Bishop of, 166.
Alboni, 65, 202, 203, 204,
205, 206, 207, 208, 209.
A.
Barilli, Madame, 65.
Baroni, Adriana, 266.
Barnby, Mr., 179.
Barnum, 16, 17, 20, 22.
Battu, Malle. Marie, 208.
Bavaria, King of, 173.
Bazaine, 130.
Beale, Willert, 200, 205.
Beaumarchais, 114, 236.
Beethoven, 56, 59, 202, 240.
B.
Alexander II., Emperor, 42,
43.
Alexander III.,Emperor, 43,
44.
Arditi, Signor, 96, 233, 234.
Arnould, Sophie, 124.
Arnoldson, Miss Sigrid,
135.
Auber, 39, 197, 206, 212,
228.
Bach, 33.
Bagier, M., 82.
Balfe, 154, 155, 158, 159, Benedict, Mr., 37.
202.
Bellini, 133, 193, 228, 237,
239, 264.
Benedict, Sir Julius, 26, 29,
30, 54, 202, 233.
Benoit, M., 9.
Berg, 2.
Berlioz, 234.
Bernhardt, Sarah, 83, 99.
Berwald, Franz, 139.
Bettini, 222.
Bettini, Madame Trebelli,
222.
Bismarck, 131, 242.
294
INDEX TO NAMES.
Bizet, George, 134, 226, 228, | Brandram, Mr., 218.
229, 230.
Bremer, Frederika, 3.
Bull, Ole, 68, 69, 70.
Bülow, 218.
Bunn, 12, 13.
Burgmüller, M.
Bury, M. Blaze de, 143.
Byron, 181.
Blaze, Castil, 5, 7, 183.
Boane, Dr. A. S., 17.
Boito, 234.
Bosio, Angiolina, 39, 40, 41,
42, 43, 65, 88, 122, 146.
Bossuet, 225,
Brambilla, Mdlle., 10.
Calzado, M., 82.
Campana, Signor, 84.
Campanini, Signor, 157, 176,
177.
Canning, Mr., 185.
Candidus, 98.
Carey, Annie Louise, 98.
Carlyle, Mr., 258, 259.
Carraccioli, 96.
Chopin, 33.
Chorley, Mr., 25, 31, 195.
Clairon, 183.
Colbran, Madame, 209, 245.
Coletti, 259, 263.
Collinet, Madame, 139, 140.
Corder, Mr., 62.
Castellan, 13, 195.
Catalani, Madame, 84.
Costa, 85.
Cramer, 201.
Caux, Marquis de, 80, 87, Cruvelli, Sophie, 209, 210.
88, 130.
Czar of Russia, 242.
Carvalho, M., 140, 141, 146.
Carvalho, Madame Miolan-,
140, 150.
Davison, 79.
Delauney, M., 217, 218.
Delle Sedie, Signor, 189,
191.
Delvedez, 145.
Devrient-Schroeder, 209.
Didiée, Madame Nantier,
76, 77, 78, 79.
C.
Elizabeth, Queen, 44.
Empress Eugénie, 130.
Empress Marie Feodorovna,
155.
D.
Cerito, 260, 263.
Chanterelle, Mdlle.,276,277.
Chappell, Mr., 32.
Charnacé, M. Guy de, 86,
135, 140.
E.
Donizetti, 6, 59, 133, 191,
193, 194, 205, 209, 234,
237, 238, 239, 257.
Dorus-Gras, Madame, 6.
Dotti, Madame, 96, 99.
Dumas (the younger), 211.
Duprez, 10, 115, 176, 194.
Empress Catherine, 271.
Entraigues, Count D', 184,
185, 186.
Errani, Signor, 223.
INDEX TO NAMES.
295
Falcon, Mdlle., 6.
Farrell, Mrs., 246.
Fenton, Lavinia, 182.
Flotow, Count Frederick
von, 144, 145, 146.
Forman, Mr., 62.
Gabrielli, 271.
Gaetani, Marquis, 215.
Galassi, Signor, 157.
Galitzin, Prince George, 45.
Galetti, 201, 204.
Galli-Marié, Madame, 229,
230.
Galton, Mr., 267.
Garcia, Manuel, 5, 6, 66.
Gardoni, 13.
Genin, 20.
Germany, Emperor of, 173.
Gernsheim, Fritz, 34.
Gerster, Madame, 91, 95, 96,
164, 195.
Haydn, 32.
Halévy, 33, 228, 229, 241.
Handel, 54.
Hauck, Minnie, 98, 223, 225,
226, 227.
Heilbron, 88.
Heine, 4, 175, 176.
Hérold, 228.
Irving, 99, 187.
F.
G.
Gillebert, Mdlle., 220, 222.
Giuglini, 155.
Glinka, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, Gye, Ernest, 162.
48, 50.
H.
I.
Fouché, 185.
Franke, Mr., 178.
Fraschini, 13.
Frederick the Great, 111.
Frezzolini, 65, 88.
Fritt, 16.
Goetz, 226.
Goldschmidt, Lind-,
Madame, 1, 22, 24, 32, 33,
34.
Goldschmidt, Otto, 22, 33,
34, 37.
Gortschakoff, Prince, 243.
Gottschalk, 70.
Gounod, 133, 134, 147, 234.
Greely, Horace, 18, 19.
Grimm, 183.
Grisi, 5, 55, 65, 88, 121, 155,
191, 193, 202, 203, 204,
205.
Gye, Frederick, 59, 73, 74,
75, 80, 90, 120, 121, 127,
148, 154, 177, 179.
Hofmann, Josef, 64.
Hohler, Tom, 208.
Holland, Canon, 37.
Holland, King of, 82.
Huberti, Madame de Saint,
183, 184.
Hutchinson, Mr. Percy, 233.
Ivan the Terrible, 44.
296
INDEX TO NAMES.
Jackson, Mr., 62.
Kellog, Clara Louise, 98.
Knox, 98.
Macfarren, 202.
Malibran, 42, 66, 88, 153,
154, 158, 189, 194, 266.
Mapleson, Colonel Henry,
232.
J.
L.
Lablache, 42, 155, 193, 200.
Lajeunesse, Emma, 162, 164,
166, 167, 168, 169.
Lajeunesse, M., 167.
Lamperti, Signor, 167, 168. Litta, Maria, 98.
Landberg, Frau, 2.
Langtry, Mrs., 99.
Laporte, Mr., 191.
Larousse, 5.
Lenepveu, M., 84.
Lenz, 106.
Lester, Louise, 99.
Leuhusen, Baroness of, 138.
Lhérie, M., 229.
Lindblad, 2.
Mapleson, Colonel J. H., 59,
72, 80, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93,
94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100,
105, 117, 154, 179, 232,
234.
K.
Marchesi, Signor, 216.
Maretzek, Max, 67, 68.
Mario, 87, 88, 101, 190, 191.
Kostomaroff, Professor, 43.
Krauss, Gabrielle, 235.
Loder, 202.
Lombardelli, 96.
Lorenzo, 185, 186.
Louis Philippe, 66.
Louis XVIII., 184.
Lucca, Madame Pauline, 80,
81, 88, 124, 125, 126, 127,
128, 129, 130, 131, 132,
133, 160, 179, 190, 191,
210, 216, 236.
Lumley, Benjamin, 12, 13,
14, 15, 32, 35, 37, 191,
195, 199, 200, 201, 210.
Lind, Jenny, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,
15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21,
22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, | Lyoff, General, 46, 47. ·
M.
29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35,
36, 37, 38, 65, 68, 110,
135, 137, 139, 143, 160,
210, 211.
Matheson, Arthur, 154.
Maupin, Mdlle. de, 183.
Meilhac, 229, 241.
Mendel, 5, 58.
Mendelssohn, 24, 27, 28, 32,
33, 34, 36, 171, 172, 228,
239.
Merelli, 82.
Merelli, Eugenio, 141,
Mérimée, Prosper, 229.
Meyerbeer, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11,
12, 21, 23, 24, 26, 36, 59,
110, 112, 113, 117, 118,
221.
INDEX TO NAMES.
297
!
126, 134, 153, 159, 171,
172, 190, 191, 192, 193,
208, 240, 241.
Meyer, Leopold de, 277.
Michael Fedorovitch, the
Tsar, 43.
Miranda, Count de, 161.
Moltke, 242.
Morin, Madame, 94.
Morley, Mr. Henry, 215.
N.
Napoleon Bonaparte, 183,
184, 185.
Nevada, Emma, 99.
Newcastle, Duchess of, 209.
Nicholas, Emperor, 45, 46,
47, 155.
Nicolini, Signor, 87, 88, 92,
105.
Nilsson, Madame Christine,
59, 124, 125, 130, 133,
Paisiello, 237.
Paravelli, Madame, 65.
Parodi, Mdlle., 67, 70.
Parepa-Rosa, 65.
Pasta, Madame, 65, 67, 153,
189, 194.
Moscheles, 24, 26, 32, 33, 34,
36.
Mozart, 32, 39, 56, 59, 60,
134, 143, 151, 228, 264.
Murska, Mdlle. Ilma de, 59,
124, 179, 215, 216, 217,
218, 219, 220.
Musset, Alfred de, 245.
Muzio, 71.
0.
Offenbach, Jacques, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 244, 245.
P.
134, 135, 136, 137, 138,
139, 140, 141, 142, 143,
146, 147, 148, 149, 150,
151, 152, 153, 154, 155,
156, 157, 158, 159, 160,
161, 177, 179, 190, 191,
216, 230, 236, 269.
Nordica, Madame, 92, 99.
Nourrit, 10.
110, 114, 115, 116, 117,
118, 119, 120, 121, 123,
125, 126, 127, 130, 133,
137, 146, 160, 164, 179,
190, 191, 195, 204, 205,
216, 219, 230, 231, 236,
268.
Patti, Madame Adelina, 22,
26, 55, 64, 65, 67, 68, 69,
70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76,
77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83,
84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90,
91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97,
98, 101, 102, 103, 104,
105, 106, 107, 108, 109, | Pergolesi, 237.
Patti, Mdlle. Amalia, 67.
Patti, Salvatore, 65, 66, 67,
73.
Pepoli, Count, 207.
Pepoli, Countess, 206, 207,
208.
298
INDEX TO NAMES.
Perkins, Jules, 98.
Persiani, Madame, 5, 191,
193, 194, 195, 209.
Piccolomini, Mdlle. Maria,
65, 148, 149, 210, 211,
214, 215.
Persiani, Signor, 193, 195, Pillet, M. Léon, 6, 7, 8, 9.
196, 200, 201, 204.
Poniatowski, Prince, 84.
Ponsard, M., 238, 240, 241.
Pücke, Count, 2.
Peterborough, Lord, 181.
Piave, 211, 213.
Piccinni, 183.
Rachel, 83.
Raffe, 90.
Reeves, Sims, 235.
Reicha, 144.
Rellstab, 113.
.
Rhaden, Baroness von, 132.
Richter, Herr, 178.
Ristori, 83.
Rix, Florence, 98.
Robinson, Anastasia, 181.
Rosa, Carl, 178, 180, 235.
Rosen, Count, 49.
Rossi-Caccia, Madame, 10.
Rhaden, Baron von, 131, Rothschild, 201, 204.
132.
Sacchini, 183.
Sardou, M., 251.
Sasse, Marie, 88.
Sax, Adolphe, 210.
Saxe (or Sasse), Madame,
126, 127, 210.
Scheffer, Ary, 149.
Schiller, 15.
R.
Scribe, 112, 113, 114.
Sergeant, Jennie, 99.
Sessi, Mdlle., 148.
Smith, E. T., 72, 73.
Rossini, Madame, 208.
Rossini, 21, 36, 59, 110, 114,
122, 133, 134, 193, 194,
197, 207, 209, 236, 237,
239, 245, 264.
S.
Rouzaud, M. Auguste, 130,
160.
Rouzaud, Admiral, 160.
Roze, Madame Marie, 158,
180, 227, 228, 229, 230,
231, 232.
Rubini, 193.
Rubinstein, 218, 277, 278.
Sontag, 65, 122, 127, 153,
189, 209.
Speranza, Prof. D., 90.
Spontini, 4.
Stanfield, Henry, 98.
Stanley, Dean, 161.
Staudigl, 13.
St. Evrémond, 254.
Schneider, Malle., 243, 245. Stoepel, Baron, 242.
Schubert, 228.
Stolz, Madame, 6, 7, 10.
Strakosch, Maurice, 64, 65,
66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72,
73, 74, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84,
86, 87, 88, 141, 207, 208.
Swift, 182.
INDEX TO NAMES.
299
Tacchinardi, 193.
Tamburini, 193, 205.
Thiers, 185.
Thomas, Ambroise,
147,
237.
Titiens, Mdlle., 53, 55, 56,
Wagner, Richard, 59,61, 62,
63, 109, 124, 134, 159,
169, 170, 171, 172, 173,
176, 177, 178, 180, 246,
256, 257.
Wales, Prince of, 98.
Wales, Princess of, 98.
Wallace, 202.
V.
Valeria, Mdlle. Alwina, 98,
232, 233, 234, 235.
Valerius, Mdlle., 138, 139.
Vatel, M., 10.
Verdi, 15, 71, 73, 133, 134, Voltaire, 272.
T.
Zacharoff, Count, 96.
Adina, 14.
Africaine, L', 134, 159, 192,
208, 210.
57, 58, 59, 121, 179, 236,
269.
Todi, Madame, 183.
Trebelli, Madame, 88, 140,
220, 221, 222.
Trebelli, Mdlle. Antoinette,
222.
W.
| Wartel, M., 140, 220.
Wartegg, Chevalier Hesse
von, 227.
Weber, 4, 59.
Wallhofen, Baron von, 132. Worth, 94, 247.
Z.
142, 159, 209, 211, 212,
213, 237, 239.
Victoria, Queen, 35, 36.
Vivian, Mr., 147.
Barber of Seville, The, 71,
220, 236, 237.
Beggar's Opera, 182, 214.
Belle Hélène, La, 242, 243.
William, King, 81.
William, Emperor, 131.
Wolzogen, Herr von, 62.
Wood, George, 179.
INDEX TO OPERAS AND ORATORIOS.
Zandt, Marie Van, 99.
A.
Aida, 88, 89, 122, 133.
Ame en Peine, L', 145.
Anna Bolena, 4.
B.
| Betly, 205.
Bohemian Girl, 155.
Bondman, The, 156.
300
INDEX TO OPERAS AND ORATORIOS.
Camp of Silesia, 23, 26, 36,
110, 111, 112, 113.
Carmen, 226, 227, 228, 229,
230, 231, 232.
Cenerentola, 197, 237.
Elijah, 27, 32.
Elisir, 14, 193, 194, 214, 237.
Elvira, 14.
Ernani, 71, 122, 126, 209.
Esmeralda, 84.
Der Freischütz, 3, 126.
Diamants de la Couronne,
Don Giovanni, 60, 71, 73,
134, 151.
197.
Dido, 183.
Don Pasquale, 85, 108, 212,
237, 238, 244.
Dinorah, 117, 118, 121, 134, Dr. Malatesta, 238.
Duchesse de Guise, La, 144.
192, 215, 217.
Domino Noir, 212.
Falstaff, 158.
Faust, 118, 127, 134, 149,
234.
Favorita, La, 4, 6, 128.
Gazza Ladra, 193.
Gelmina, 84.
C.
| Châlet, Le, 241.
Chimène, 183.
Corbeille d'Oranges, La, 206.
Creation, 32.
Hamlet, 147, 148, 237.
Huguenots, Les, 59, 118,
D.
E.
Etoile du Nord, L', 12, 26,
110, 111, 112, 113, 114,
115, 116.
Euryanthe, 4.
F.
Fille du Régiment, La, 14,
25.
Flying Dutchman, 134, 163,
174, 175, 179, 215.
Fra Diavolo, 127, 129.
G.
Grande Duchesse, La, 241,
242, 243.
Guillaume Tell, 207, 228.
H.
126, 127, 133, 134, 153,
154, 159, 192, 209, 247.
I.
I Lombardi, 133.
Il Trovatore, 71, 73, 128,
153, 221, 247.
I Masnadieri, 15.
I Puritani, 14, 71.
Il Turco in Italia, 237.
Il Barbière, 105, 107, 108, Italiano in Algeri, L', 237.
237.
INDEX TO OPERAS AND ORATORIOS.
301
John of Naples, 70.
L.
Linda di Chamouni, 71, 194,
217, 219.
Lohengrin, 59, 109, 134,
159, 163, 174, 176, 177,
179, 180.
Lucia di Lammermoor, 4, 30, Luisa Miller, 214.
Magic Flute, 60, 92, 134,
143, 153, 215, 217.
Maid of Artois, 154, 155,
158.
Marriage of Figaro, 60,
127, 130, 134, 157, 221,
236.
Nabucco, 133.
Nibelungen Lied, 178.
Otello, 133, 209.
Parsifal, 179.
Peter and Catherine, 144.
Pirata, 193.
Postilion de Lonjumeau,
Le, 241.
Reine Topaze, La, 140.
Rigoletto, 39, 41, 71, 157.
Ring des Nibelungen, 60,
61, 62, 173, 180.
Robert le Diable, 3, 4, 6, 11,
13, 25, 190.
J.
·
N.
M.
| Martha, 71, 79, 144, 145,
146, 150, 151.
Meistersinger, 60, 178.
Mosè in Egitto, 71.
Muette de Portici, 197.
0.
P.
105, 191, 194, 215, 216,
217, 219, 234.
Lucrezia Borgia, 4, 41, 56,
121, 157, 194, 205, 210,
221.
R.
Norma, 12, 14, 41, 56, 121,
211.
Nozze di Figaro, Le, 14, 25.
Premier jour de Bonheur,
228.
Prophète, Le, 8, 10, 134,
192.
Romeo and Juliet, 105, 119,
147.
Rosamond, 255.
Ruth, 22.
302
INDEX TO OPERAS AND ORATORIOS.
S.
Semiramide, 41, 120, 121,
122, 123, 202, 203, 204,
205, 209, 211.
T
Talisman or Talismano, 154, Traviata, La, 39, 71, 73,
155, 156, 158, 159.
94, 105, 119, 129, 133,
141, 142, 149, 212, 213,
214, 247.
Tristan and Isolde, 178,
256.
Taming of the Shrew, 226,
227.
Tannhäuser, 109, 134, 163,
174.
Tempest, The, 32.
Sonnambula, La, 14, 15,
25, 35, 68, 71, 76, 105,
133, 164, 165, 168, 194.
Stradella, 145.
U.
Un Ballo in Maschera, 133, | Ulysse, 238, 240, 241.
221.
V.
Velléda, 84.
1
Vêpres Siciliennes, Les, 209.
Z.
Zerlina, 39.
Vestale, 4.
Zisn Za Tsarya, or Life for
the Tsar, 43, 48, 50.
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