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CHAPTERS OF OPERA


Being
Historical and Critical Observations
And Records Concerning the Lyric
Drama in New York from Its
Earliest Days Down to
The Present Time

by

HENRY EDWARD KREHBIEL

Musical Editor of "The New York Tribune";
Author of "How To Listen To Music,"
"Studies In The Wagnerian Drama,"
"Music And Manners In The Classical Period,"
"The Philharmonic Society Of New York," etc., etc.



To MARIE--WIFE

and

DAUGHTER HELEN

Who have shared with the Author many of the
Experiences described in this book.

"Joy shared is Joy doubled."
                --GOETHE.



PREFACE

The making of this book was prompted by the fact that with the season
1907-08 the Metropolitan Opera House in New York completed an existence
of twenty-five years. Through all this period at public representations
I have occupied stall D-15 on the ground floor as reviewer of musical
affairs for The New York Tribune newspaper. I have, therefore, been a
witness of the vicissitudes through which the institution has passed
in a quarter-century, and a chronicler of all significant musical
things which were done within its walls. I have seen the failure of
the artistic policy to promote which the magnificent theater was built;
the revolution accomplished by the stockholders under the leadership
of Leopold Damrosch; the progress of a German régime, which did much
to develop tastes and create ideals which, till its coming, were
little-known quantities in American art and life; the overthrow of that
régime in obedience to the command of fashion; the subsequent dawn and
development of the liberal and comprehensive policy which marked the
climax of the career of Maurice Grau as an operatic director, I have
witnessed since then, many of the fruits of wise endeavor and astute
management frittered away by managerial incapacity and greed, and fad
and fashion come to rule again, where for a brief, but eventful period,
serious artistic interest and endeavor had been dominant.

The institution will enter upon a new régime with the season 1908-09.
The time, therefore, seemed fitting for a review of the twenty-five
years that are past. The incidents of this period are fixed; they
may be variously viewed, but they cannot be changed. They belong to
history, and to a presentation of that history I have devoted most
of the pages which follow. I have been actuated in my work by deep
seriousness of purpose, and have tried to avoid everything which
could not make for intellectual profit, or, at least, amiable and
illuminative entertainment.

The chapters which precede the more or less detailed history of the
Metropolitan Opera House (I-VII) were written for the sake of the
light which they shed on existing institutions and conditions, and to
illustrate the development of existing taste, appreciation, and interest
touching the lyrical drama. To the same end much consideration has been
paid to significant doings outside the Metropolitan Opera House since
it has been the chief domicile of grand opera in New York. Especial
attention has been given for obvious reasons to the two seasons of
opera at Mr. Hammerstein's Manhattan Opera House.

H. E. KREHBIEL.

Blue Hill, Maine, the Summer of 1908.



AUTHOR'S NOTE TO THIRD EDITION

For the purposes of a new and popular edition of this book, the
publishers asked the author to continue his historical narrative, his
record of performances, and his critical survey of the operas produced
at the two chief operatic institutions of New York, from the beginning
of the season 1908-1909 down to the close of the season 1910-1911. This
invitation the author felt compelled to decline for several reasons,
one of which (quite sufficient in itself), was that he had already
undertaken a work of great magnitude which would occupy all his working
hours during the period between the close of the last season and the
publication of this edition.

Thereupon the publishers, who seemed to place a high valuation on
the historical element in the book, suggested that the record of
performances at least be brought up to date even if the criticism of new
operas and the discussion of the other incidents of the season--such as
the dissensions between the directors of the Metropolitan Opera House,
the rivalry between them and the director of the Manhattan, the quarrels
with artists, the successes achieved by some operas and the failure
suffered by others--be postponed for the present at least for want of
time on the part of the author to carry on the work on the scale of the
original edition.

It was finally agreed that the author should supply the record for
the period intervening between the appearance of the first edition of
"Chapters of Opera" and the present publication by revised excerpts
from the annual summaries of the activities of the seasons in question
published by him in the New York Tribune, of which newspaper he has had
the honor of being the musical critic for thirty years past. For the
privilege of using this material the author is deeply beholden to the
Tribune Association and the editor, Hart Lyman, Esq. The record may be
found in the Appendices after the last chapter.

H. E. KREHBIEL.

Blue Hill, Maine, Summer of 1911.



CONTENTS


CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION OF OPERA IN NEW YORK

  The Introduction of Italian Opera in New York
  English Ballad Operas and Adaptations from French and Italian Works
  Hallam's Comedians and "The Beggar's Opera"
  The John Street Theater and Its Early Successors
  Italian Opera's First Home
  Manuel Garcia
  The New Park Theater and Some of Its Rivals
  Malibran and English Opera
  The Bowery Theater, Richmond Hill, Niblo's and Castle Gardens


CHAPTER II

EARLY THEATERS, MANAGERS, AND SINGERS

  Of the Building of Opera Houses
  A Study of Influences
  The First Italian Opera House in New York
  Early Impresarios and Singers
  Da Ponte, Montressor, Rivafinoli
  Signorina Pedrotti and Fornasari
  Why Do Men Become Opera-Managers?
  Addison and Italian Opera
  The Vernacular Triumphant


CHAPTER III

THE FIRST ITALIAN COMPANY

  Manuel del Popolo Vicente Garcia
  "Il Barbiere di Siviglia"
  Signorina Maria Garcia's Unfortunate Marriage
  Lorenzo da Ponte
  His Hebraic Origin and Checkered Career
  "Don Giovanni"
  An Appeal in Behalf of Italian Opera


CHAPTER IV

HOUSES BUILT FOR OPERA

  More Opera Houses
  Palmo's and the Astor Place
  Signora Borghese and the Distressful Vocal Wabble
  Antognini and Cinti-Damoreau
  An Orchestral Strike
  Advent of the Patti Family
  Don Francesco Marty y Torrens and His Havanese Company
  Opera Gowns Fifty Years Ago
  Edward and William Henry Fry
  Horace Greeley and His Musical Critic
  James H. Hackett and William Niblo
  Tragic Consequences of Canine Interference
  Goethe and a Poodle
  A Dog-Show and the Astor Place Opera House


CHAPTER V

MARETZEK, HIS RIVALS AND SINGERS

  Max Maretzek
  His Managerial Career
  Some Anecdotes
  "Crotchets and Quavers"
  His Rivals and Some of His Singers
  Bernard Ullmann
  Marty Again
  Bottesini and Arditi
  Steffanone
  Bosio
  Tedesco
  Salvi
  Bettini
  Badiali
  Marini


CHAPTER VI

THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF MUSIC

  Operatic Warfare Half a Century Ago
  The Academy of Music and Its Misfortunes
  A Critic's Opera and His Ideals
  A Roster of American Singers
  Grisi and Mario
  Annie Louise Cary
  Ole Bull as Manager
  Piccolomini and Réclame
  Adelina Patti's Début and an Anniversary Dinner Twenty-five
Years Later
  A Kiss for Maretzek


CHAPTER VII

MAPLESON AND OTHER IMPRESARIOS

  Colonel James H. Mapleson
  A Diplomatic Manager
  His Persuasiveness
  How He Borrowed Money from an Irate Creditor
  Maurice Strakosch
  Musical Managers
  Pollini
  Sofia Scalchi and Annie Louise Cary Again
  Campanini and His Beautiful Attack
  Brignoli
  His Appetite and Superstition


CHAPTER VIII

THE METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE

  The Academy's Successful Rival
  Why It Was Built
  The Demands of Fashion
  Description of the Theater
  War between the Metropolitan and the Academy of Music
  Mapleson and Abbey
  The Rival Forces
  Patti and Nilsson
  Gerster and Sembrich
  A Costly Victory


CHAPTER IX

FIRST SEASON AT THE METROPOLITAN

  The First Season at the Metropolitan Opera House
  Mr. Abbey's Singers
  Gounod's "Faust" and Christine Nilsson
  Marcella Sembrich and Her Versatility
  Sofia Scalchi
  Signor Kaschmann
  Signor Stagno
  Ambroise Thomas's "Mignon"
  Madame Fursch-Madi
  Ponchielli's "La Gioconda"


CHAPTER X

OPERATIC REVOLUTIONS

  The Season 1883-1884 at the Academy of Music
  Lillian Nordica's American Début
  German Opera Introduced at the Metropolitan Opera House
  Parlous State of Italian Opera in London and on the Continent
  Dr. Leopold Damrosch and His Enterprise
  The German Singers
  Amalia Materna
  Marianne Brandt
  Marie Schroeder-Hanfstängl
  Anton Schott, the Military Tenor
  Von Bülow's Characterization: "A Tenor is a Disease"


CHAPTER XI

GERMAN OPERA AT THE METROPOLITAN

  First German Season
  Death Struggles of Italian Opera at the Academy
  Adelina Patti and Her Art
  Features of the German Performances
  "Tannhäuser"
  Marianne Brandt in Beethoven's Opera
  "Der Freischütz"
  "Masaniello"
  Materna in "Die Walküre"
  Death of Dr. Damrosch


CHAPTER XII

END OF ITALIAN OPERA AT THE ACADEMY

  The Season 1885-1886
  End of the Mapleson Régime at the Academy of Music
  Alma Fohström
  The American Opera Company
  German Opera in the Bowery
  A Tenor Who Wanted to be Manager of the Metropolitan Opera House
  The Coming of Anton Seidl
  His Early Career
  Lilli Lehmann
  A Broken Contract
  Unselfish Devotion to Artistic Ideals
  Max Alvary
  Emil Fischer


CHAPTER XIII

WAGNER HOLDS THE METROPOLITAN

  Second and Third German Seasons
  The Period 1885-1888
  More about Lilli Lehmann
  Goldmark's "Queen of Sheba"
  First Performance of Wagner's "Meistersinger"
  Patti in Concert and Opera
  A Flash in the Pan at the Academy of Music
  The Transformed American Opera Company
  Production of Rubinstein's "Nero"
  An Imperial Operatic Figure
  First American Performance of "Tristan und Isolde"
  Albert Niemann and His Characteristics
  His Impersonation of Siegmund
  Anecdotes
  A Triumph for "Fidelio"


CHAPTER XIV

WAGNERIAN HIGH TIDE

  Wagnerian High Tide at the Metropolitan Opera House
  1887-1890
  Italian Low Water Elsewhere
  Rising of the Opposition
  Wagner's "Siegfried"
  Its Unconventionality
  "Götterdämmerung"
  "Der Trompeter von Säkkingen"
  "Euryanthe"
  "Ferdinand Cortez"
  "Der Barbier von Bagdad"
  Italo Campanini and Verdi's "Otello"
  Patti and Italian Opera at the Metropolitan Opera House


CHAPTER XV

END OF THE GERMAN PERIOD

  End of the German Period
  1890-1891
  Some Extraordinary Novelties
  Franchetti's "Asrael"
  "Der Vasall von Szigeth"
  A Royal Composer, His Opera and His Distribution of Decorations
  "Diana von Solange"
  Financial Salvation through Wagner
  Italian Opera Redivivus
  Ill-mannered Box-holders
  Wagnerian Statistics


CHAPTER XVI

ITALIAN OPERA AGAIN AT THE METROPOLITAN

  The Season 1891-1892
  Losses of the Stockholders of the Metropolitan Opera House Company
  Return to Italian Opera
  Mr. Abbey's Expectations
  Sickness of Lilli Lehmann
  The De Reszke Brothers and Lassalle
  Emma Eames
  Début of Marie Van Zandt
  "Cavalleria Rusticana"
  Fire Damages the Opera House
  Reorganization of the Owning Company


CHAPTER XVII

THE ADVENT OF MELBA AND CALVÉ

  An Interregnum
  Changes in the Management
  Rise and Fall of Abbey, Schoeffel, and Grau
  Death of Henry E. Abbey
  His Career
  Season 1893-1894
  Nellie Melba
  Emma Calvé
  Bourbonism of the Parisians
  Massenet's "Werther"
  1894-1895
  A Breakdown on the Stage
  "Elaine"
  Sybil Sanderson and "Manon"
  Shakespearian Operas
  Verdi's "Falstaff"


CHAPTER XVIII

UPRISING IN FAVOR OF GERMAN OPERA

  The Public Clamor for German Opera
  Oscar Hammerstein and His First Manhattan Opera House
  Rivalry between Anton Seidl and Walter Damrosch
  The Latter's Career as Manager
  Wagner Triumphant
  German Opera Restored at the Metropolitan
  "The Scarlet Letter"
  "Mataswintha"
  "Hänsel und Gretel" in English
  Jean de Reszke and His Influence
  Mapleson for the Last Time
  "Andrea Chenier"
  Madame Melba's Disastrous Essay with Wagner
  "Le Cid"
  Metropolitan Performances 1893-1897


CHAPTER XIX

BEGINNING OF THE GRAU PERIOD

  Beginning of the Grau Period
  Death of Maurice Grau
  His Managerial Career
  An Interregnum at the Metropolitan Opera House Filled by
Damrosch and Ellis
  Death of Anton Seidl
  His Funeral
  Characteristic Traits
  "La Bohème"
  1898-1899
  "Ero e Leandro" and Its Composer


CHAPTER XX

NEW SINGERS AND OPERAS

  Closing Years of Mr. Grau's Régime
  Traits in the Manager's Character
  Débuts of Alvarez, Scotti, Louise Homer, Lucienne Bréval and
Other Singers
  Ternina and "Tosca"
  Reyer's "Salammbô"
  Gala Performance for a Prussian Prince
  "Messaline"
  Paderewski's "Manru"
  "Der Wald"
  Performances in the Grau Period


CHAPTER XXI

HEINRICH CONRIED AND "PARSIFAL"

  Beginning of the Administration of Heinrich Conried
  Season 1903-1904
  Mascagni's American Fiasco
  "Iris" and "Zanetto"
  Woful Consequences of Depreciating American Conditions
  Mr. Conried's Theatrical Career
  His Inheritance from Mr. Grau
  Signor Caruso
  The Company Recruited
  The "Parsifal" Craze


CHAPTER XXII

END OF CONRIED'S ADMINISTRATION

  Conried's Administration Concluded
  1905-1908
  Visits from Humperdinck and Puccini
  The California Earthquake
  Madame Sembrich's Generosity to the Suffering Musicians
  "Madama Butterfly"
  "Manon Lescaut"
  "Fedora"
  Production and Prohibition of "Salome"
  A Criticism of the Work
  "Adriana Lecouvreur"
  A Table of Performances


CHAPTER XXIII

HAMMERSTEIN AND HIS OPERA HOUSE

  Oscar Hammerstein Builds a Second Manhattan Opera House
  How the Manager Put His Doubters to Shame
  His Earlier Experiences as Impresario
  Cleofonte Campanini
  A Zealous Artistic Director and Ambitious Singers
  A Surprising Record but No Novelties in the First Season
  Melba and Calvé as Stars
  The Desertion of Bonci
  Quarrels about Puccini's "Bohéme"
  List of Performances


CHAPTER XXIV

A BRILLIANT SEASON AT THE MANHATTAN

  Hammerstein's Second Season
  Amazing Promises but More Amazing Achievements
  Mary Garden and Maurice Renaud
  Massenet's "Thaïs," Charpentier's "Louise"
  Giordano's "Siberia" and Debussy's "Pelléas et Mélisande" Performed for
the First Time in America
  Revival of Offenbach's "Les Contes d'Hoffmann," "Crispino e la Comare"
of the Ricci Brothers, and Giordano's "Andrea Chenier"
  The Tetrazzini Craze
  Repertory of the Season




CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION OF OPERA IN NEW YORK


Considering the present state of Italian opera in New York City (I am
writing in the year of our Lord 1908), it seems more than a little
strange that its entire history should come within the memories of
persons still living. It was only two years ago that an ancient factotum
at the Metropolitan Opera House died who, for a score of years before he
began service at that establishment, had been in various posts at the
Academy of Music. Of Mr. Arment a kindly necrologist said that he had
seen the Crowd gather in front of the Park Theater in 1825, when the new
form of entertainment effected an entrance in the New World. I knew the
little old gentleman for a quarter of a century or more, but though he
was familiar with my interest in matters historical touching the opera
in New York, he never volunteered information of things further back
than the consulship of Mapleson at the Academy. Moreover, I was unable
to reconcile the story of his recollection of the episode of 1825 with
the circumstances of his early life. Yet the tale may have been true, or
the opera company that had attracted his boyish attention been one that
came within the first decade after Italian opera had its introduction.

Concerning another's recollections, I have not the slightest doubt.
Within the last year Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, entertaining some of her
relatives and friends with an account of social doings in New York in
her childhood, recalled the fact that she had been taken as a tiny miss
to hear some of the performances of the Garcia Troupe, and, if I mistake
not, had had Lorenzo da Ponte, the librettist of Mozart's "Nozze di
Figaro" and "Don Giovanni" pointed out to her by her brother. This
brother was Samuel Ward, who enjoyed the friendship of the old poet,
and published recollections of him not long after his death, in The
New York Mirror. For a score of years I have enjoyed the gentle
companionship at the opera of two sisters whose mother was an Italian
pupil of Da Ponte's, and when, a few years ago, Professor Marchesan, of
the University of Treviso, Italy, appealed to me for material to be used
in the biography of Da Ponte, which he was writing, I was able, through
my gracious and gentle operatic neighbors, to provide him with a number
of occasional poems written, in the manner of a century ago, to their
mother, in whom Da Ponte had awakened a love for the Italian language
and literature. This, together with some of my own labors in uncovering
the American history of Mozart's collaborator, has made me feel
sometimes as if I, too, had dwelt for a brief space in that Arcadia of
which I purpose to gossip in this chapter, and a few others which are
to follow it.

There may be other memories going back as far as Mrs. Howe's, but I
very much doubt if there is another as lively as hers on any question
connected with social life in New York fourscore years ago. Italian
opera was quite as aristocratic when it made its American bow as it
is now, and decidedly more exclusive. It is natural that memories of
it should linger in Mrs. Howe's mind for the reason that the family
to which she belonged moved in the circles to which the new form of
entertainment made appeal. A memory of the incident which must have been
even livelier than that of Mrs. Howe's, however, perished in 1906, when
Manuel Garcia died in London, in his one hundred and first year, for he
could say of the first American season of Italian opera what Æneas said
of the siege of Troy, "All of which I saw, and some of which I was."
Manuel Garcia was a son of the Manuel del Popolo Vicente Garcia, who
brought the institution to our shores; he was a brother of our first
prima donna, she who then was only the Signorina Garcia, but within
a lustrum afterward was the great Malibran; and he sang in the first
performance, on November 29, 1825, and probably in all the performances
given between that date and August of the next year, when the elder
Garcia departed, leaving the Signorina, as Mme. Malibran, aged but
eighteen, to develop her powers in local theaters and as a chorister
in Grace Church. Of this and other related things presently.

In the sometimes faulty and incomplete records of the American stage to
which writers on musical history have hitherto been forced to repair,
1750 is set down as the natal year for English ballad opera in America.
It is thought that it was in that year that "The Beggar's Opera" found
its way to New York, after having, in all probability, been given by
the same company of comedians in Philadelphia in the middle of the
year preceding. But it is as little likely that these were the first
performances of ballad operas on this side of the Atlantic as that the
people of New York were oblivious of the nature of operatic music of
the Italian type until Garcia's troupe came with Rossini's "Barber of
Seville," in 1825. There are traces of ballad operas in America in the
early decades of the eighteenth century, and there can exist no doubt at
all that French and Italian operas were given in some form, perhaps, as
a rule, in the adapted form which prevailed in the London theaters until
far into the nineteenth century, before the year 1800, in the towns and
cities of the Eastern seaboard, which were in most active communication
with Great Britain, I quote from an article on the history of opera in
the United States, written by me for the second edition of "Grove's
Dictionary of Music and Musicians":


Among French works Rousseau's "Pygmalion" and "Devin du Village,"
Dalayrac's "Nina" and "L'Amant Statue," Monsigny's "Déserteur," Grétry's
"Zémire et Azor," "Fausse Magie" and "Richard Coeur de Lion" and others,
were known in Charleston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York in
the last decade of the eighteenth century. There were traces, too, of
Pergolese's "Serva padrona," and it seems more than likely that an
"opera in three acts," the text adapted by Colman, entitled "The Spanish
Barber; or, The Futile Precaution," played in Baltimore, Philadelphia,
and New York, in 1794, was Paisiello's "Barbiere di Siviglia." From
1820 to about 1845 more than a score of the Italian, French, and German
operas, which made up the staple of foreign repertories, were frequently
performed by English singers. The earliest of these singers were members
of the dramatic companies who introduced theatrical plays in the
colonies. They went from London to Philadelphia, New York, Williamsburg
(Va.), and Charleston (S. C.), but eventually established their
strongest and most enduring foothold in New York.


Accepting the 1750 date as the earliest of unmistakable records for a
performance of "The Beggar's Opera" in New York, the original home of
opera here was the Nassau Street Theater--the first of two known by that
name. It was a two-storied house, with high gables. Six wax lights were
in front of the stage, and from the ceiling dangled a "barrel hoop,"
pierced by half a dozen nails on which were spiked as many candles. It
is not necessary to take the descriptions of these early playhouses
as baldly literal, nor as indicative of something like barbarism.
The "barrel hoop" chandelier of the old theater in Nassau street was
doubtless only a primitive form of the chandeliers which kept their
vogue for nearly a century after the first comedians sang and acted at
the Nassau Street Theater. Illuminating gas did not reach New York till
1823, and "a thousand candles" was put forth as an attractive feature
at a concert in the American metropolis as late as 1845. "The Beggar's
Opera" was only twenty years old when the comedians sent to the colonies
by William Hallam, under the management of his brother, Lewis, produced
it, yet the historic Covent Garden Theater, in which it first saw the
stage lights (candles they were, too), would scarcely stand comparison
with the most modest of the metropolitan theaters nowadays. Its
audience-room was only fifty-four or fifty-five feet deep; there were
no footlights, the stage being illuminated by four hoops of candles,
over which a crown hung from the borders. The orchestra held only
fifteen or twenty musicians, though it was in this house that Handel
produced his operas and oratorios; the boxes "were flat in front and
had twisted double branches for candles fastened to the plaster. There
were pedestals on each side of the boards, with elaborately-painted
figures of Tragedy and Comedy thereon." Hallam's actors went first to
Williamsburg, Va., but were persuaded to change their home to New York
in the summer of 1753, among other things by the promise that they would
find a "very fine 'Playhouse Building'" here. Nevertheless, when Lewis
Hallam came he found the fine playhouse unsatisfactory, and may be said
to have inaugurated the habit or custom, or whatever it may be called,
followed by so many managers since, of beginning his enterprise by
erecting a new theater. The old one in Nassau Street was torn down,
and a new one built on its site. It was promised that it should be
"very fine, large, and commodious," and it was built between June and
September, 1753; how fine, large, and commodious it was may, therefore,
be imagined. A year later, the German Calvinists, wanting a place of
worship, bought the theater, and New York was without a playhouse until
a new one on Cruger's Wharf was built by David Douglass, who had married
Lewis Hallam's widow, Hallam having died in Jamaica, in 1755. This was
abandoned in turn, and Mr. Douglass built a second theater, this time
in Chapel Street. It cost $1,625, and can scarcely have been either very
roomy or very ornate. Such as it was, however, it was the home of the
drama in all its forms, save possibly the ballad opera, until about
1765, and was the center around which a storm raged which culminated
in a riot that wrecked it.

The successor of this unhappy institution was the John Street Theater,
which was opened toward the close of the year 1767. There seems to have
been a period of about fifteen years during which the musical drama
was absent from the amusement lists, but this house echoed, like its
earliest predecessors, to the strains of the ballad opera which "made
Gay rich and Rich gay." "The Beggar's Opera" was preceded, however, by
"Love in a Village," for which Dr. Arne wrote and compiled the music;
and Bickerstaff's "Maid of the Mill" was also in the repertory. In 1774
it was officially recommended that all places of amusement be closed.
Then followed the troublous times of the Revolution, and it was not
until twelve years afterward--that is, till 1786--that English Opera
resumed its sway. "Love in a Village" was revived, and it was followed
by "Inkle and Yarico," an arrangement of Shakespeare