Scan 45
Musical Courier 1895-12-25: Vol 31 Iss 825, 1895
112 lines. Read by computer on 26 September 2026. Printed page 46. See the scan on archive.org.
1over his brow. Her face flushed, but she gave no indication of her thoughts about the stranger's proposal.
3"Agree, agree," he said, "and your fortune is made! Think how differently you can bring up your boy if you only avail yourself of your gifts!"
5"Well, wife, what do you think?" said the father.
7"I think the gentleman means well, and that he is right in what he says. If God has given me a voice that raise us from our present state of need and make little Otto's path easier it is only right that I should use his gift."
9"So you consent?" said the sick husband.
11"I think we owe it to our child," she replied.
13"And think," added the stranger, "how much sooner you will be restored to health if you secure the best doctors and good nursing!"
15"Well, then, I accept. Do what is necessary," he said as he shook hands with the conductor, who hurried away exclaiming, "How pleased the prince will be!"
17The prince was so delighted at finding such a voice among his subjects that he displayed more than his customary generosity. He allowed the family 200 marks a month and paid for all lessons besides. The sick man recovered and was able to resume his work and pay his debts, while an unmarried sister came to look after little Otto while the mother was studying. The husband was quite content with the change made in his household by the brilliant prospects of his wife, and would not listen to the conductor when he advised him to sell his business.
19"I live on my wife!" he cried. "Never!"
21"You will soon enough, and gladly, too," thought the court conductor, as he looked at the husband of his prima donna. He was a common workingman, with big hands and ordinary face, honest looking enough, but with a rough outside. He was attentive enough to his wife in his way, but his way was intolerable to the court musician. "A rude, vulgar fellow, without education, without charm, without savoir vivre. Poor Johanna tied to such a churl! Well, all the more chance for me! She must see the difference between him and me!" and then he looked at himself in the glass and brushed his dyed locks over his bald pate, "Well, she is a jewel! Patience, patience!"
23In fact the court conductor was dreadfully smitten; he called himself a woman hater, yet now he had felt a thousand times inclined to throw himself at the feet of his pupil and confess his passion. Then her innocence appalled him, and he was afraid of ridicule if she refused him, and ridicule he dreaded above all things. So he kept putting off his amorous declaration from day to day.
25Two years had passed, and Johanna had made such progress that the conductor resolved to bring her out at a concert at the palace. The prince gave her money for a beautiful dress, in which she looked lovely; even her husband confessed that he had never seen her look so pretty as she danced about in the little room, displaying, with childish glee, all her finery to little Otto and her sister. With no little pride, yet with some misgiving, the honest workman entered the concert hall, filled with an expectant crowd.
27At length she entered on the arm of the conductor. Loud applause greeted her appearance. Fame had not exaggerated her wonderful beauty, but the husband could not refrain from clenching his fists when he overheard his neighbors criticising his wife's figure and face in the same tone that they would have used when discussing the points of a horse. With a profound courtesy the singer acknowledged the greeting, her cheeks flushed, and the blush added to her beauty. The conductor accompanied her on the piano with such discretion and modesty as if to assist her in her triumph rather than to display himself. The pure, bell-like tones of the new prima donna floated over the waves of sound that came from the costly instrument, and at each number the applause increased and continued as if it would never end. Loudest of all in applause was the prince himself, who sent a courier to invite her to come to his box and to receive his congratulations.
29A feeling of jealousy seized the husband as he witnessed the triumph of his wife. Flattering as the prince's behavior was, he did not like the idea of her being presented to him as if she was some natural curiosity; and for the conductor, who also hovered about her with such care and tenderness, he felt absolute hate. How would he have hated him if he had seen into his wife's dressing room after the concert. There was the court conductor in all his embroidered vestments, with all his orders, prostrate at the feet of the heroine of the evening, and exclaiming in trembling tones:
31"Do not drive me from you, Johanna; have pity on me! I love you madly, love you more than ever man loved woman; love you with my first and only love. Let me lay my love, my life, my soul at your feet! You do not love your husband, you cannot love him. Obtain a divorce from him and be my wife!"
33In burning indignation came the reply: "How dare you ascribe to me feelings of which my heart knows nothing? I do not love you, I despise you for taking such advantage of the unprotected condition of an innocent woman. Oh, if my husband were here! My whole real love belongs to him; he is far above a coward like you. If such infamies are to beset my entrance on my new career I wish to heaven I had never listened to your offers."
35As she stood there, glowing in anger, while the court conductor looked like a naughty schoolboy, the door opened, and the husband and sister entered to escort her home after her triumph. No one had a better right. She flung her arms round his neck.
37"My husband, my dear husband, how good of you to come! And you, too, Mary! Did it not go off well?" And then placing one hand on her husband's arm, and taking her sister by the other, she hurried down the stairs. During the return home no words were uttered except by the sister, who chattered over everything she had seen during the evening. But when the couple were alone he drew her toward him, and she leaned her fair head on his breast and burst into tears. He let her weep and stroked her soft brown hair with his rough hand till she regained her composure.
39"He insulted you, I saw that," he said at length.
41"Not me, but you, too!"
43"What did take place, my dear?"
45"He wanted me to divorce you and marry him."
47"The villain!" he cried; and now it was the wife who had to soothe the husband. "He's not worth thinking about. I gave it to him pretty hot. But the idea of meeting him again is horrible!"
49"Is that necessary, Johanna?" he asked quietly.
51"How can it be avoided if I am to be trained for the stage?"
53"Is that necessary, Johanna?" he repeated.
55"What do you mean?"
57"Would your heart break if you were to leave this life, with its applause and brilliant glitter?"
59"Break my heart? Not a bit!" she answered smiling; "when a woman is exposed to such humiliations. I would wish that I had never set foot in it!"
61"Nothing easier than to draw your foot back."
63"But the prince!" she cried. "Think of all the money he has spent to train his prima donna! He spoke so kindly to-day about my voice and execution. He will never let me go."
65The husband then revealed his plan of campaign. "Almost the whole sum that the prince gave us remains untouched. I have kept the house out of my earnings since my health was restored, paid my debts and laid a little sum aside—quite enough to take us to America and begin life there. Send word to the court conductor that you are indisposed; we will clear out to-morrow. Mary will remain and sell the business for cash to neighbor Gebhardt, who is hankering after it, and then follow us. Do you agree?"
67"I'm in it, hubby, I'm in it!" she cried. "Here's to America and peace!"
69Next day no prima donna could be found in Leberwurst city, and the prince dismissed his princely Leberwurstisch court conductor. The ex-prima donna now uses her expensively trained voice only to amuse her husband and children.
71This is a moral tale, with a warning to all trainers of pretty young ladies, single or married.—Abridged from Clara Düsterhoff.
73Manuscript Club Reception.
75A RECEPTION was given by the Manuscript Society on Wednesday evening last, December 18, to Mme. Antoinette Sterling in Mendelssohn Glee Club Hall. The process of introduction to the beaming, wholesouled artist was preceded by a concert, composed of the works of women composers performed by women. There was not a man in the proceeding.
77Clara K. Rogers, Boston; Mrs. H. H. A. Beach, Boston, and of New York, J. T. Draper, Laura Sedgwick Collins, Clara A. Korn, Kate S. Chittenden and Mary Knight Wood were the composers represented. Among the performers were Miss Julia Levy, piano; Mme. Flavie Van den Hende, 'cello; Miss Margaret Elliott, soprano; Mrs. J. Williams Macy, contralto; Mrs. Julia Wyman, mezzo-soprano; Miss Guild, soprano, and the Lenox Choral Society, under the direction of Miss Maud Morgan. It was not a very vital or robust program. Mary Knight Wood's songs had merit, and were soulfully and warmly sung by Mrs. Wyman. Mrs. Beach, in an ambitious cantata for soprano solo and female chorus, fell a little short of her mark. The audience was large, and one and all eager to sun themselves in the ample smile of Mme. Sterling, who was as cordial and sympathetic as ever.
79Rouen.—An unpublished opera, Mary Stuart, music by R. Lavello, was given lately at Rouen and received with favor.
81Hassreiter.—Josef Hassreiter, the celebrated ballet master of Vienna, celebrated his twenty-fifth artistic jubilee on December 1.
83Gratz.—A new opera, The Queen of Love, by Hans Koppel and H. Reinhardt, will be produced at Gratz, in Austria.
85Copenhagen.—At the first concert of the Musical Society of Copenhagen a new symphonic work of E. Grieg was executed. It is a suite of variations on a popular Norwegian theme.
87Hamburg.—Krzyzanowski, at present second Capellmeister at Weimar, has been appointed first Capellmeister at the Hamburg City Theatre.
89Trieste.—An operetta, La Trecciaiula di Firenze, by a young lady, Gisella della Grazie, has been produced at the Philharmonic Theatre, Trieste.
91St. Petersburg.—Annette Essipoff and Leopold Auer are giving a series of chamber music concerts at St. Petersburg; they are exclusively for violin and piano.
93Jensen.—Gustav Jensen, for many years teacher in the Conservatory, Cologne, died November 26, aged fifty-two. He was a brother of Adolf Jensen, and had published several pieces of chamber and orchestral music.
95Stockholm.—A new opera by the Swedish composer, Siegfried Salomon, entitled Brittany, will be soon produced at the Royal Opera. The libretto is based on an unnamed French work, and deals with the war in La Vendée in 1795.
97How to Spend the Day.—Mascagni was lately asked in what European city he would like to live, and replied: "From 9 to 11, London; from 11 to 5, Paris; from 5 to 7, Vienna; from 7 to 10, Budapest, and after 10, Berlin."
99Geneva.—The committee of the exposition to be held next year at Geneva has commissioned Jacques Dalcroze to write a work that will demand the services of 600 singers and dancers. The same composer will also supply to the Geneva Theatre an opera, Sancho Panza.
101NICKERSON'S Illustrated Church and Musical Directory OF NEW YORK AND BROOKLYN.
103NICKERSON'S ILLUSTRATED CHURCH AND MUSICAL DIRECTORY OF NEW YORK AND BROOKLYN is a book of two parts, Church and Musical, so arranged to be of great convenience to the MUSICAL profession seeking POSITIONS or PUPILS. It is in fact a BUSINESS DIRECTORY for MUSICIANS, simple in its arrangement. First, ORGANISTS and DIRECTORS, SOPRANOS, ALTOS, TENORS and BASSES, giving names, addresses and churches placed with; then follows a list of several thousand Vocal and Instrumental Instructors compiled alphabetically, so that your name can be readily found. Printed on fine paper and bound in cloth. Subscription price, $2.00. Nickerson & Young, 156 Fifth Ave., New York.
105The New York School of Opera and Oratorio, 110 LEXINGTON AVENUE. EMILIO AGRAMONTE, Director. The only Special School devoted to the study of Opera and Oratorio in this country. SEND FOR NEW CATALOGUE 1895-96.
107PADEREWSKI TO WILLIAM MASON.
109(TRANSLATION.)
111It is with the liveliest attention and an ever-increasing interest that I have examined your admirable work "Touch and Technic." Without going into details—for I should have to make a eulogy of each page—I simply tell you that it is the best Piano Method which I know, and congratulate you heartily on being the author of so masterly a work.
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