Scan 54
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians;, 1904
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1MANON LESCAUT
3as conductor, both of the daily music and of the Saturday concerts, as well as of the numerous fêtes and extra performances, where music had to be arranged for large combined masses of wind and string, were naturally very arduous. Mendelssohn (in a letter from Leipzig dated Feb. 27, 1841) says, 'I have conducted fifteen public performances since Jan. 1; enough to knock up any man.' What would he have said if he had had to do this with all the added difficulties caused by the calls of the London season on his musicians, and with two band-performances to arrange and conduct every day as well! Manns has therefore only rarely taken engagements outside the Crystal Palace. In 1859 he conducted the Promenade Concerts at Drury Lane, and the Winter Series at Glasgow in 1879 and following years. In 1883 he replaced Sir Michael Costa as conductor of the Handel Festival, and conducted the subsequent festivals until 1900. He conducted the Sheffield Festivals of 1896 and 1899. [He was knighted in 1903.]
5In a remarkable article in the Times of April 28, 1847, it is said that 'the German conductor makes the orchestra express all the modifications of feeling that an imaginative soloist would give voice to on a single instrument.' It is to this power of wielding his band that Manns accustomed his audience during the years of his conductorship. In addition to the many qualities necessary to produce this result he is gifted with an industry which finds no pains too great, and with a devotion which not only makes him strictly loyal to the indications of the composer, but has enabled him to transcend the limits of a mere conductor, and to urge on his audience music which, though at first received with enthusiasm only by a few, has in time amply justified his foresight by becoming a public necessity. It is not too much to say that his persistent performance of the works of Schumann—to name but one composer out of several—in the early part of his career at Sydenham, has made the London public acquainted with them years before they would otherwise have become so. [The younger English composers, from Sullivan downwards, had good reason to be grateful to Manns, who brought forward English works at a time when the regular English conductors were too timid to venture on them.]
7MANON LESCAUT. The Abbé Prévost's famous romance has attracted many opera-composers.
81. Ballet in three acts, by Halévy. Produced at the Opéra, Paris, May 3, 1830.
92. Opera, by Balfe. Produced in Paris, 1836.
103. Opéra-comique, in three acts, by Aubert, libretto by Scribe. Produced at the Opéra Comique, Paris, Feb. 23, 1856.
114. Manon. Opera in three acts, libretto by Meilhac & Gille, music by Massenet. Produced at the Opéra-Comique, Paris, Jan. 19, 1884, and in English by the Carl Rosa Company, at Liverpool, Jan. 17, 1885, and at Drury Lane Theatre, May 7, 1885. In French at Covent Garden, May 19, 1891.
125. Manon Lescaut. Opera in four acts, libretto anonymous, music by Giacomo Puccini. Produced at Turin, Feb. 1, 1893, and at Covent Garden, May 14, 1894.
14MANTIUS, EDUARD, a tenor singer of great reputation in Northern Germany, was born at Schwerin, Jan. 18, 1806. He studied law, first in 1825, at the university of Rostock, and afterwards at Leipzig. It was at the latter place that his fine voice attracted general attention and that he began to study singing under Pohlenz. After having sung with great success at a festival at Halle, conducted by Spontini, he went to Berlin, and by his interpretation of the tenor parts in Handel's oratorios (Samson, Judas, etc.), soon became the declared favourite of the Berlin public. How much his talent was appreciated in the house of the Mendelssohn family may be gathered from many passages in the published letters and other books relating to Mendelssohn. It was Mantius who sang the principal tenor part in the Liederspiel, 'Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde' ('Son and Stranger'), at the celebration of the silver wedding of the elder Mendelssohns (Devrient, p. 89). In 1830 he made his first appearance on the stage at Berlin as Tamino in the 'Zauberflöte.' In 1857 he gave his farewell performance as Florestan in 'Fidelio.' During twenty-seven years he had appeared in no less than 152 characters. After quitting the stage he devoted himself with much success to teaching, and he died at Ilmenau, in Thuringia, July 4, 1874. Mantius not only had an exceptionally fine voice, which he knew how to use in a truly artistic and musical manner, but was also a remarkably good actor. His representations of the tenor parts in Mozart's and Gluck's operas were justly regarded as models of their kind. P. D.
16MANTUA. The earliest Academy in Mantua for poetry and music was that of the 'Invaghiti,' founded in 1568 by Cesare Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, and Signor di Guastalla. It always remained under royal patronage, and was one of the largest and most flourishing in Italy. In 1494, previous to the founding of this Academy, there was a magnificent theatre in Mantua, in which was represented one of the earliest Italian dramas—the 'Orfeo' of Angelo Poliziano. This pastorale was composed in two days at the instance of Francesco Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. In the 17th century, says Muratori, music, and more especially theatrical music, was held in high esteem; the attention of every one was directed to gorgeous musical entertainments, and more especially the courts of Modena and Mantua tried to outshine each other in magnificence. Their respective Dukes,
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