Scan 27
Musical Courier 1896-12-16: Vol 33 Iss 876, 1896
122 lines. Read by computer on 26 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1FAUST was sung last Wednesday night, with Melba, Mantelli, the de Reszkés and Campanari. At the matinée Wednesday Tannhäuser was given, with Gogny, Eames, Engle, Plançon, d'Aubigné and Lassalle.
3Friday night Carmen was sung for the first time this season, with the following cast:
5Carmen………………………………………………………..Calvé
6Frasquita………………………………………………………Bauermeister
7Mercedes…………………………………………………….Van Cauteren
8Micaela………………………………………………………..Eames
9Don José………………………………………………………Salignac
10Zuniga………………………………………………………..de Vries
11Morales………………………………………………………Jacques Bars
12Dancairo…………………………………………………….Castelmary
13Remendado…………………………………………………Corsi
14Escamillo……………………………………………………Lassalle
15Première danseuse………………………………………Trimmer
16Conductor………………………………………………….Bevignani
18Calvé was like some playful puma; she was devilish, seductive and naughty. During the first two acts she was extravagantly exuberant, arch and humorous. She teased Don José, she hit Zuniga below the belt and the house chuckled hugely. She introduced new "business" before the card scene, she danced with more than Oriental abandon, and her plastic poses and marvelous by-play were an object lesson.
20Calvé always means something. She has mastered her Carmen so that every step, every glance, helps build up the character. Where she was once reckless she now cunningly steps, stipples her way, yet freedom, elasticity, buoyancy and breadth are never missed. Calvé's Carmen is a masterpiece.
22The great singing actress was most enthusiastically welcomed as she came on the stage in old Seville. She is slimmer, and her eyes burn like coals on that extraordinary pallid face of hers. She seemed Moorish last Friday night, and as she told her lover of "là bas, là bas," she looked so lawless, so languorous, that one wondered that Bevignani did not throw scruples, salary and baton to the woodwind and fly across the footlights to gypsyland and love.
24Bevignani has become cynical, we fear.
26Calvé sang the Habanera and Seguidille with her old-time witchery and eloquence. She is such an imaginative actress that the most hackneyed situations are invested by her with upspringing vitality.
28The card episode was tragic in its repressed power, suggestion of impending evil and passion. She was like a tiger cat in her scenes with her lovers. Mr. Moody would hardly have approved of her behavior in the second act. It was lustrous in its intensity, but it was hardly exemplary from the viewpoint of the Salvation Army girl.
30Fascinating Calvé, adorable Calvé, you would have maddened multitudes in the bad old times when men went down in the bloody sands and fought until they fell for a woman's favor. You, too, fell from tonal grace several times, and little wonder, for the chorus, Lassalle, De Vries, Salignac and everyone but little Bauermeister played fast and loose with the pitch in the second act.
32Lassalle was particularly evil as the Toreador. He is said to hate the rôle, and the rôle certainly retaliates in kind. That cheap bit of fustian, the Toreador's song, was not well delivered by the French baritone, who has become too old and indifferent in his work. Such, however, is its melodious potency with the public that it had to be repeated, and then you could have noticed Carmen impatiently plucking at her combs. Lassalle should be made to relinquish the rôle to a younger man—Campanari, for example!
34The new Don José was M. Salignac, a young tenor, with a fresh, very French voice and a singer of some taste. Despite his nervousness he sang the early scenes with intelligence, excellent enunciation, and the romance with genuine feeling. He should abandon his Continental habit of singing at the audience. He seemed very indifferent and even impolite to Micaela in the duo because of his anxiety to sing across the mystic orchestral abyss. At the close of the third act his vocal limitations were apparent. He had not the power for the tremendous climax and so forced his voice and exaggerated his action. Salignac made a favorable impression and is an improvement on Lubert of last season.
36Eames sang beautifully her "Protège-moi." The exquisite crescendo at the close called forth a fusillade of bravas, and she had to repeat a part of the aria.
38There was some pretty acting at the close of the first act when Calvé and Eames came out hand in hand. Roars of applause, lots of flowers, and Calvé insisted on Eames taking a bunch of violets. Both women looked lovely in their strongly contrasting types of beauty. The old feud, very much exaggerated by the way, is dead and Mr. Grau can sleep of nights this season.
40Jacques Bars made something artistic of the small part of Morales, and De Vries was as usual guttural. The quintet went heavily and one really missed Carbone and Rinaldini. The chorus was unusually oblivious to time and rhythm, and the house was one of the largest of the season.
42At the Saturday matinée Romeo and Juliet was repeated with Melba, de Reszké, Plançon, and the rest. In the evening Martha, Flotow's pretty opera, was given as a popular performance. We had Van Zandt, Scalch, Edouard de Reszké, Valero and Carbone in this opera in 1892. On this occasion the cast was as follows:
44Lady Enrichetta………………………………………Marie Engle
45Nancy…………………………………………………….Mme. Mantelli
46Plunketto…………………………………………………Ed. de Reszké
47Tristano………………………………………………….Castelmary
48Sceriffo…………………………………………………..Vaschetti
49Un Servo…………………………………………………Cernusco
50Lionello…………………………………………………..Cremolini
51Conductor……………………………………………….Sig. Bevignani
53The performance was an excellent one. Cremonini got a recall on his singing of M'Appari. Edouard de Reszké was surprisingly light in touch, and his humor was irrepressible. Mantelli, always a satisfactory actress, was a capital Nancy, and the evening was altogether an enjoyable one. Martha, with this cast, is worthy of regular subscription performance. The mounting of the work was good.
55Lohengrin in German was sung last Monday night under Anton Seidl's direction. Mmes. Eames, Olitzka and MM. Jean and Edouard de Reszké, Bispham and de Vries interpreted the opera. The first joint appearance of Calvé and Melba will take place this (Wednesday) evening, when part of Lucia di Lammermoor, with Mme. Melba, will be sung, and Cavalleria Rusticana, with Mlle. Calvé as Santuzza, follows. Other singers to appear this evening are Mmes. Belina and Bauermeister and MM. Campanari, Ceppi, Cremonini and Ancona. On Friday night Les Huguenots, with Mmes. Melba, Litvinne, Mantelli and Bauermeister, and MM. Jean and Edouard de Reszké, Lassalle, Ancona and Bars, will be sung, and at the Saturday matinée Mlle. Calvé and Mme. Eames will appear in Carmen, with MM. Salignac, Lassalle, Bars, de Vries and Castelmary. At the Wednesday matinée Don Giovanni will be repeated, with Mmes. Litvinne, Traubmann and Engle, and MM. Lassalle, Cremonini, Bispham and Edouard de Reszké. On Saturday night Faust will be sung by Mmes. Litvinne, Mantelli and Bauermeister, and MM. Gogny, Plançon and Ancona. The performances at the Wednesday matinée and on Saturday night are at popular prices.
57Roselle.—Fielding C. Roselle, the popular contralto, is having quite a busy season; she sang at a musicale at the Buckingham Hotel the 5th; with the Damrosch Orchestra Sunday morning the 6th; at a reception in the state apartments of the Waldorf the 9th. She has a large number of social engagements during the holidays and is engaged by the Troy Choral Club to sing Erl King's Daughter January 18.
59Seidl for London.
61ANTON SEIDL has been definitely engaged by Maurice Grau to conduct all the Wagner operas at Covent Garden, London, next season.
63Carreno Management.
65MR. RUD. ARONSON, under whose direction Teresa Carreño is to concertize here, has placed the management in the hands of R. E. Johnston & Co., office, Belvedere House.
67Nordica's Plans Changed.
69MR. WILSON, who has been working like a beaver for weeks past arranging for Nordica's concert at the tabernacle on Christmas, sends in the following: To the Editor of The Herald:
70Will you kindly permit me to state through the columns of your paper that Madame Nordica has cancelled her engagement with me and that she cannot appear here on Christmas night as advertised? I regret exceedingly that I am compelled to disappoint your public, but it is no fault of mine. I made a contract about three months ago with Madame Nordica's agents, Messrs. Ruben & Andrews, of New York, for a Western concert tour, and have succeeded in booking her in most of the principal cities West of the Missouri River.
72Mme. Nordica wires she has closed a deal for this section with Klaw & Erlanger. LEE WILSON.
73SALT LAKE CITY, December 9, 1896.
75Nordica's managers have made a mistake, not only in cancelling the Christmas engagement, but in taking the management of the concert—if it is ever given here at all—out of Mr. Wilson's hands, as will be demonstrated later on.
77The proceedings so far show the worst kind of bad faith on the part of the Eastern management, and does not augur well for the success of the Western tour.—Salt Lake City Herald, December 10.
79A Von Klenner Musical.
81THE following charming program was given on Saturday last in the studio of Mme. Katharine Evans von Klenner, 40 Stuyvesant street, by her class of accomplished pupils, aided by Mme. von Klenner herself:
83Piano solo……………………………………………..Miss Augusta Michel
84If the Apple Grows………………………………….Clayton Johns
85Good Bye, Sweet Day……………………………….Kate Vannah
86Miss Beatrice Meyer, alto.
87Alpine Rose…………………………………………….Sieber
88Heart's Delight………………………………………Tosti
89Miss Dambmann.
90O Fatima……………………………………………….von Weber
91Miss Gell.
92Sans Toi………………………………………………….d'Hardelet one of two readings
93Sans Toi……………………………………………….d'Hardelet one of two readings
94Heart's Delight………………………………………Gilchrist one of two readings
95Miss Annie Michel.
96Heart's Delight………………………………………Gilchrist one of two readings
97Miss Weston. one of two readings
98(no line here) one of two readings
99Violin Solo…………………………………………….Raff
100Sognai…………………………………………………..Schira one of two readings
101Miss Damtmoun. one of two readings
102Sognai………………………………………………….Schira one of two readings
103Mrs. Arrighi. one of two readings
104Ginsue ai fin…………………………………………..Mozart
105(no line here) one of two readings
106Miss Potter. one of two readings
107Because I Love You, Dear…………………………..Hawley
108Miss Lippitt, alto.
109La Mort de Jeanne d'Arc……………………………Bemberg
110Duet, Les Bohemians……………………………….Viardot-Brahms
111Misses A. and G. Michel.
112Caro Nome……………………………………………Rigoletto one of two readings
113Caro Nome…………………………………………..Rigoletto one of two readings
114J'en mourrai…………………………………………Pauline Viardot
115Havanaise…………………………………………….Mme. von Klenner.
117A large audience was present by invitation and enjoyed thoroughly the excellent and artistic work of these pupils. Interest was heightened by the singing of Mme. von Klenner herself, which exemplified in admirable manner the merits of the Viardot-Garcia method in its completeness. Some of the pupils proved themselves already judicious copies of their teacher, who has the rare gift of being herself as accomplished a singer as she is a thoroughly qualified professor.
119It was a delightful and artistic morning.
121Camille Seygard with Damrosch Opera.—Camille Seygard is engaged to sing a number of opera performances with the Damrosch Opera Company. She will make her first appearance as Marguerite in Gounod's Faust.
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