Scan 41
Musical Courier 1892-12-21: Vol 25 Iss 668, 1892
56 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 34. See the scan on archive.org.
1ance copied from the London "Times" (one of many in her possession):
3Two piano solos of Thalberg and Liszt were rendered by Mrs. De Greneley's little daughter, who, though scarcely twelve years old, showed a marvelous conception and command of the instrument, but our chief interest lay in her extraordinary vocal abilities. We have never heard in one so young a contralto voice of such mature development, such perfect intonation and such volume. It is clear and resonant throughout, being especially full in the lower register, and we earnestly hope it will receive the care its beauty merits. The child received an ovation. one of two readings
4Two piano solos of Thalberg and Liszt were rendered by Mrs. De Gremley's little daughter, who, though scarcely twelve years old, showed a marvelous conception and command of the instrument, but our chief interest lay in her extraordinary vocal abilities. We have never heard in one so young a contralto voice of such mature development, such perfect intonation and such volume. It is clear and resonant throughout, being especially full in the lower register, and we earnestly hope it will receive the care its beauty merits. The child received an ovation. one of two readings
6Soon afterward she was heard by Ida Guillis, who was bewitched with her voice and succeeded after much effort in securing the child for Corris' English Opera Company, where she appeared all through Great Britain and Ireland. Her mother then took Florenza d'Arona to Italy and placed her with her own old master, Francesco Lamperti, receiving special favors from him for a course of study for her daughter, who, speaking three languages, became his interpreter and accompanist, where she was in hourly communion with some of the greatest celebrities of the day, which in itself was an education. When sufficiently advanced her father sent for her to take the solo contralto position in Henry Ward Beecher's Church, Brooklyn, which she filled at a salary of $600, leaving it for Holy Trinity, N. Y., for a salary of $1,000.
8In the meantime she married and sang under her married name of Davidson at the Philharmonic, and all the prominent concerts given at Booth's Theatre, Steinway Hall and the Academy of Music, and in Grand English opera with the Clara Louise Kellogg Company, making her first appearance as the "Gipsy Queen" in the "Bohemian Girl," at the Globe Theatre, Boston, February 16, 1875. Max Strakosch, hearing her in Chicago, urged her to return to Europe for the Italian stage, offering to advance the necessary funds, which she declined, but being offered the position in the American church in Paris, she accepted it and went to Paris, pursuing her studies with Delle Sedie and Pauline Viardot. After two years Mrs. Florenza d'Arona was on the point of signing a contract for the Théâtre des Italiens, when she suddenly concluded to go back to Italy and Lamperti, and started the next day.
10When ready for her début she still continued her studies, returning to Lamperti after every engagement that she made.
12After great success in the opera of "Faust," in Barletta, Mrs. Florenza d'Arona was immediately engaged for the rôles of "Orsini" in "Lucrezia," and "Azukena" in "Il Travatore," when she created such a furore that on leaving for her next engagement at the Malibran in Venice, Lamperti handed her a diploma with this statement: "It is not likely you will ever teach, but if you do you will be the greatest teacher in your country." After filling engagements for three years in all the principal opera houses of Italy, Mrs. Florenza d'Arona was engaged for Paris, singing the operas of "Mignon" and "Favorita," and at many concerts at the Salle Iraide, Salle Hertz and Trocadero with instantaneous success.
14She was afterward engaged for Covent Garden, London, and sang at the Floral and Albert Hall concerts, and returning to this country was engaged by Leopold Damrosch for the symphony concerts and subsequently for the Fabbr Grand Italian Opera Company. She sang the rôle of "Carmen" in three different languages, and appeared in fifteen operas of her répertoire of thirty-two in all the principal cities of the United States. Florenza d'Arona was then specially engaged to sing "Azukena" in "Il Trovatore," "Chimes of Normandy" and "Il Barbiere" with the tenor Brignoli at Washington, Baltimore, Chicago and Boston, and then signed a ten months' contract with the Havana and Mexican Grand Italian Opera Company under the direct supervision of the Mexican Government.
16Florenza d'Arona's success and the enthusiasm of the Cuban and Mexican public were equal to any Italian audience. The conventional bouquet gave place to gifts of costly elegance. Living doves were thrown at her feet upon the stage, and her efforts were greeted with showers of tiny flowers. Mrs. Florenza d'Arona was next engaged for the season of 1886 in London, after which engagement, for family reasons, she retired from the stage, accepting the position left vacant by Miss Fenne in Dr. Parkhurst's church, at a salary of $1,000, and now devotes herself entirely to teaching. Her success as a teacher even excels her success as an artist her pupils occupying prominent positions on the operatic and concert stage both in Europe and America.
18Mr. and Mrs. Carl Alves.
20Teacher and pupil, husband and wife—an unusual chronicle this of Mr. and Mrs. Alves. Mrs. Alves is Carl Alves' best known pupil; Mr. Alves is his wife's first, last and only instructor. They have a cosey, happy home on upper Park avenue, and two bright little children to bless their lives and keep the house filled with merriment and sunshine. Their careers are so well known among musicians that it would seem superfluous to enter into details in this brief sketch. Mr. Alves has been a conscientious, faithful teacher of the voice for many years, and is still engaged in that occupation. Possessed of a finely cultivated tenor voice, he is also a talented composer and a skillful pianist and accompanist. Many of his pupils have held and still occupy positions of prominence on the operatic and concert stage and in church choirs, doing him credit wherever they are heard.
22Mrs. Alves is probably the best known and most liked contralto in this country to-day. Not only has she a voice of sympathetic richness and remarkable power, thoroughly trained for all manner of singing, but she possesses what so seldom accompanies a good voice—musical instinct, artistic temperament. In other words, her rare vocal acquirements are seconded and upheld by genuine musically qualities and a high degree of education. Mrs. Alves would do well in grand opera, having strong dramatic power and a fine carriage; but she has always preferred a quiet, domestic life, and is content with first-class oratorio, concert and church choir work, in which she is second to none in this country. Her first choir position as soloist was at the Church of the Incarnation, on Madison avenue. She has since been solo contralto at Calvary (P. E.) Church, Church of the Divine Paternity, South (Reformed) Church, and is now at the West Presbyterian Church (Dr. Paxton's), where she sings with Mrs. De Vere-Sapio, Charles Herbert Clarke and Ericsson F. Bushnell.
24Dr. Carl E. Martin.
26We add to to-day's portrait gallery of THE MUSICAL COURIER the picture of Dr. Carl E. Martin, the well-known oratorio and concert singer and teacher. Dr. Martin is by birth a Virginian, and received his literary education in his native State. Although having developed early a natural inclination toward the musical, he, however, adopted the medical profession and was graduated with high honors from the Miami Medical College, of Cincinnati. He practiced his profession with success in Wheeling, W. Va.; Cleveland, Ohio, and Chicago, Ill., for several years, and it was in the latter city that his unusually fine voice attracted the attention of the prominent musicians and teachers, who, by their urgent advice, succeeded in persuading him to exchange a medical for a musical career. The following years he devoted to an earnest and exhaustive study of singing in all of its branches, the result being a thorough knowledge of voice production, style and finished interpretation. About ten years ago Dr. Martin came to the metropolis, accepting the position of solo bass in Grace Episcopal Church choir, which he still retains. His concert and oratorio engagements have been very numerous and he has invariably given the utmost satisfaction to the high-class musical organizations for which he has sung.
28While residing in Chicago he sang Verdi's "Requiem" and Beethoven's "Fidelio" with the Beethoven Society under the baton of Carl Wolfsohn. He also appeared in "Fidelio" in Boston under the direction of B. J. Lang, singing the part of "Rocco," Mr. Georg Henschel singing the part of "Pizarro." Mr. Henschel took a warm interest in Dr. Martin and generously showed him many favors during his stay in Boston. Among the many successes achieved by Dr. Martin, besides the four music festivals in Petersburg, Va., under the direction of Mr. Carl Zerrahn, the most notable have been with the Brooklyn Philharmonic in Schumann's "Faust," with the New York Oratorio Society in Bach's "Passion" and "Israel in Egypt," in "Judas Maccabeus" at the Worcester festival, "St. Paul" at the Taunton festival, in "Samson" and "Elijah" at the Ogdensburg festivals. In fine Dr. Martin has appeared in nearly all the large cities of the United States and Canada in "The Messiah," "Creation," "Elijah," "Judas Maccabeus," "Samson" and other standard works.
30His services are now in constant demand in festivals and oratorio concerts throughout the country. These engagements, combined with his church work, leave him but a limited time for his teaching, a fact to be regretted, as his broad course of study and large experience as a singer peculiarly fit him for and render him especially successful in this work, in which he is most ably assisted by Mrs. Martin. Personally, Dr. Martin is a man of commanding presence and possesses that magnetism requisite to a popular as well as an artistic success. His method and splendid voice have justly placed him in the foremost rank of the profession.
32Miss Cecil.
34Miss Cecil is a young Kentucky woman, who, while still retaining that loyalty to her native State peculiar to the people of the Blue Grass region from which she comes, has since her graduation from Vassar College in 1884 lived chiefly in New York, though most of the interim has been passed by her in travel and the study of languages abroad. In 1886 she gave a series of concerts on her own responsibility in New York, Brooklyn and Harlem for the purpose of securing a critical and unprejudiced estimate of her vocal abilities and acquirements. Her object in giving them was flatteringly attained, and at such good box office returns as compared with the usual essays of the kind by débutantes, that she was strongly urged by her friends and advisors to undertake a concert tour through her own country. But preferring to gain the artistic approval of the old world before undertaking to command the fullest respect and admiration of her compatriots for her artistic powers, she, after filling a number of engagements through the State and at Steinway Hall in this city, even while holding the option of five engagements here for the spring season, in February, 1887, sailed for Europe. Since then she has not been heard in public before an American audience, save during several short visits to this country, in church, where her singularly soulful and religious voice is much sought after.
36It may be unreservedly said with no fear from contradiction from any source that till now Miss Cecil's chief claim to distinction with the world at large has been as a writer on stage subjects, both musical and dramatic. Aside from her telling contributions to the monthly and daily press that have from time to time during the last few years made their appearance, a small volume from her pen is now ready for publication.
38Though she appeared in concert in a small way in Europe and sang several times with Mr. Augustus Manns' orchestra at the Crystal Palace, London, during the summer of 1888, her artistic aspirations abroad were seriously hampered by family interference and bereavement, together with the circumstances connected with a serious plagiarism of one of her literary articles. But as the facts regarding this last mentioned matter are already so well known to a large circle of people in this and other cities any recitation of them here becomes unnecessary. Suffice it to say that legal measures consequent thereon, coupled with the death of Mr. Carl Rosa, have thus far cut short the brilliant operatic and concert career planned for her by that distinguished impresario under his own management.
40However, these years are by no means to be considered lost, for in the absence of public duties in her chosen profession, she has filled in many hours as an instructor to pupils unable to pay for lessons, and her teaching has been so productive of happy results that she frankly says of herself, "The one thing I can do to my entire satisfaction is teaching singing."
42The least expected, but not the least happy outcome of Miss Cecil's unselfish efforts to benefit others less fortunately circumstanced than herself has been the building up of a method so wholly at variance with that imparted to her by her own instructors, that it may be said with absolute truthfulness and fairness that Miss Cecil has worked out her own salvation as to voice culture. During the past six years she has studied entirely alone and unaided, even without save for a few weeks of that time, the aid of an accompanist.
44Since leaving the earnest, sincere guidance of the late Dr. F. L. Ritter, who first discovered her unusual vocal possibilities, she studied something of the Delsarte method of physical and vocal training with a Western teacher, and the French method of vocalization with a pupil of Wartel's in this country prior to her début as a regular professional, September 20, 1876, at Chickering Hall, New York city. Barring a short coaching of a portion of the opera of "La Favorita" with Mrs. De la Grange ten years ago, Miss Cecil has had no instruction in Europe, but the result of her severe individual study is such as to command the unstinted praise of a well-known conductor with whom she is about to undertake a cursory review of traditional readings of standard oratorios and operas.
46Emma Heckle.
48Miss Emma Heckle, the dramatic soprano, is now too well known a singer in the metropolis and throughout the country to need any special introduction. She has been singing during last summer and the fall with great success, and here is what some critics in different cities think of her work:
50Die Sopranistin, Fr. Emma Heckle, hat gestern Abend in Steinway Hall unter Mitwirkung mehrerer Kunstkräfte ein erfolgreiches Konzert gegeben und bei dieser Gelegenheit dem New Yorker Publikum aufs neue volliglute Proben ihres künstlerischen Könnens abgelegt. Fr. Heckle zählt unzweifelhaft zu den hervorragendsten deutsch-amerikanischen Sängerinnen. Ihr Organ ist von nicht gewöhnlichem Umfange, Stimmgebung und Phrasierung sind durchaus vornehm, die ganze Art ihres Vortrages meist auf die Stockhessische Gesangsmethode hin. Eine gewisse innere Belebtheit, ein unverkennbar dramatischer Zug durchdringt ihren Gesang, welche aber trotzdem an den rein lyrischen Stellen über die erforderliche weichkeit und biegsamkeit verfügt. Fr. Heckle erntete nach jedem ihrer Vorträge reichen befall und musste sich zu mehrfachen encores bequemen. Es wäre sehr wünschenswerth, das die Dame sich in unseren Konzertsalen häufiger hören lässt, als es bisher der Fall war.—"New Yorker Staatszeitung," February 3, 1882. one of two readings
51Die Sopranistin, Fr. Emma Heckle, hat gestern Abend in Steinway Hall unter Mitwirkung mehrerer Kunstkräfte ein erfolgreiches Konzert gegeben und bei dieser Gelegenheit dem New Yorker Publikum aufs neue volligthe Probe ihres künstlerischen Könnens abgelegt. Fr. Heckle zählt unzweifelhaft zu den hervorragendsten deutsch-amerikanischen Sängerinnen. Ihr Organ ist von nicht gewöhnlichem Umfange, Stimmgebung und Phrasierung sind durchaus vornehm, die ganze Art ihres Vortrages meist auf die Stockhessische Gesangsmethode hin. Eine gewisse innere Belebtheit, ein unverkennbar dramatischer Zug durchdringt ihren Gesang, welche aber trotzdem an den rein lyrischen Stellen über die erforderliche weichkeit und biegsamkeit verfügt. Fr. Heckle erntete nach jedem ihrer Vorträge reichen befall und musste sich zu mehrfachen encores bequemen. Es wäre sehr wünschenswerth, das die Dame sich in unseren Konzertsalen häufiger hören lässt, als es bisher der Fall war.—"New Yorker Staatszeitung," February 3, 1882. one of two readings
53Emma Heckle who has lately returned from two years of study with Prof. Julius Hey in Berlin, and has taken up her residence in New York, gave her first concert here last night at Steinway Hall. Miss Heckle made a peculiarly strong artistic impression. Her voice is a dramatic soprano, the lower notes possessing the rich smooth color almost of a contralto. Miss Heckle comes here fully equipped in vocal material, and the ease and simplicity and beauty of her style, and her lovely tone and tonal production make it a pleasure to listen to her. She sang the recitative and aria from the "Marriage of Figaro," songs by Brahms, Hey and Moszkowski, concluding with Gounod's "Ave Maria," with violin obligato by Max Bendix. It may be hoped that Miss Heckle may soon be heard in a larger hall.—New York "World," February 26.
55The concert of the United Singers at Music Hall last night drew a magnificent audience, numbering over 4,300 of Cincinnati's music loving citizens. The program was a mixed one, composed of eleven numbers, including chorus by the United Singers, Louis Ehrgott director; orchestral selections by the Cincinnati Orchestra, under the baton of Henry Froehlich, and two numbers, "Elsa's Dream," the aria from Wagner's "Lohengrin," and "Ave Maria," Bach-Gounod, by Emma Heckle, Cincinnati's own prima donna soprano. Miss Heckle was in splendid voice, and this, coupled with her true dram-
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