Adelina Patti and Clara Louise Kellogg in the Chicago Tribune, 1860-1876
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DOCUMENTING DIVAS: ADELINA PATTI AND CLARA LOUISE KELLOGG IN THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 1860-1876 Kathryn Jancaus A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF MUSIC December 2020 Committee: Eftychia Papanikolaou, Advisor Ryan Ebright © 2020 Kathryn Jancaus All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Eftychia Papanikolaou, Advisor When Swedish soprano Jenny Lind (1820-1887) came to the United States in 1850, the ecstatic craze surrounding her arrival belied a larger trend which was taking root among the American press and public: a fascination with the lives of celebrity opera singers. One of the Lind enthusiasts was a college student named George P. Upton (1834-1919), who later became the music critic for the Chicago Tribune. In his work over the following decades, Upton continued to take a vivid interest in the lives, careers, and personalities of prima donnas, writing about them with an intensely personal style that was common in newspapers of his time. As journalists for the Tribune provided news about opera stars to their readers in Chicago, they not only shaped the public images of these singers but also promoted the appreciation of classical music as a cause for civic pride in their relatively young city. In this study I examine how George P. Upton and other journalists published in the Chicago Tribune wrote about two star sopranos of the mid to late nineteenth century: Adelina Patti (1843-1919) and Clara Louise Kellogg (1842-1916). I bring together newspaper articles from the years 1860 through 1876 and use secondary literature to place the critics’ approach in context. In each case study, I delve into historical perspectives reflected in this music criticism to trace how journalists articulated concepts of celebrity, genius, nationalism, and gender. I especially draw from scholarship on prima donnas by Hilary Poriss, Kristin Turner, and Katherine Preston as I explore how music critics of the time used the lenses of the nineteenth century to observe the light of these bright musical stars and reflect on American society. iv To my dear friends from town and gown in Bowling Green, with hope that we will be together again soon. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the many people who made it possible for me to complete this thesis. First, my deepest thanks to my advisor, Dr. Effie Papanikolaou, for your support throughout the entire writing process. From office chats to Webex meetings, your insightful and unwavering guidance has encouraged me to keep moving forward during a difficult time. Special thanks to Dr. Ryan Ebright for the clarity you brought to my thesis from beginning to end, and for all of your helpful feedback. Thank you to Dr. Mary Natvig and Dr. Arne Spohr for conversations about my research that sparked new ideas. Thank you to Dr. Robert Satterlee for your assistance with the thesis submission process. I would like to thank the librarians who assisted me in finding materials at the Jerome Library, the Newberry Library, and the Ela Area Public Library. I would also like to thank my classmates Kelly, Rachel, Alyssa, Meg, Lindsay, and Monica for your friendship, near or far. Thank you to the many friends who regularly asked about my progress and prayed for me. Finally, thank you to my brother Joe, for furthering our shared interest in American history, and to my parents, for being there for me through everything. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. GEORGE P. UPTON AND MUSIC CRITICISM IN CHICAGO, 1860-1876 1 Introduction: George P. Upton on Opera Stars ............................................................ 1 Methods and Aims ........................................................................................................ 2 The Life and Works of George P. Upton ..................................................................... 6 Classical Music in Nineteenth-Century Chicago ......................................................... 8 Music Criticism in American Newspapers ................................................................... 12 Literature on Topics in Nineteenth-Century Music ...................................................... 15 CHAPTER II. JOURNALISM ABOUT ADELINA PATTI IN THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE 20 Patti’s Voice and Performing Abilities ......................................................................... 22 Her Appearance ............................................................................................................ 28 Her Personal Life .......................................................................................................... 31 Her Character .............................................................................................................. 35 Her Finances .............................................................................................................. 41 CHAPTER III. JOURNALISM ABOUT CLARA LOUISE KELLOGG IN THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE .............................................................................................................. 50 Kellogg’s Voice and Performing Abilities ................................................................... 52 Her Appearance ............................................................................................................ 64 Her Personal Life .......................................................................................................... 68 Her Character .............................................................................................................. 76 Her Finances .............................................................................................................. 79 CHAPTER IV. Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 85 vii BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................................. 90 DISCOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................................... 95 APPENDIX A. ICONOGRAPHY .......................................................................................... 96 APPENDIX B. THE UPTON SCRAPBOOKS (NEWBERRY LIBRARY, CHICAGO) ..... 105 viii LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1 Kellogg’s roles reviewed in the Chicago Tribune, 1860-1876 .................................... 57 1 CHAPTER I. GEORGE P. UPTON AND MUSIC CRITICISM IN CHICAGO, 1860-1876 Introduction: George P. Upton on Opera Stars “I was a Freshman in Brown University when I caught the Jenny Lind fever.” 1 Thus writes music critic George P. Upton (1834-1919) in the early pages of his 1908 book Musical Memories. Upton was a colLege student when, in September of 1850, Swedish soprano Jenny Lind began her famous tour of the United States. He saw her perform in Boston and in Providence, and fifty-eight years later could stiLL write, “my recolLections of the subsequent concert in Providence are as vivid as if it had taken place yesterday. The student body, and apparentLy the entire population of the city, were infected with the Jenny Lind fever.”2 Upton goes on to describe the public’s obsession with this singer both in Europe and in the United States: buoyed by the intense publicity generated by her manager Phineas T. Barnum, who “flooded the newspapers with portraits, sketches, and letters,”3 Lind became the foremost musicaL ceLebrity of her day. Upton would reflect on her weLL in his Musical Memories, writing that “her singing stiLL remains my ideaL of the highest exposition of the art of song.”4 In the years after he saw Lind perform, Upton finished his studies at Brown University, worked as a teacher in Massachusetts for one year, and then in 1855 moved to the recentLy established city of Chicago, where he took a job as a reporter. He joined the staff of the Chicago Tribune in 1861 and would later become the paper’s music critic, eventuaLLy moving up the ranks as an editor. Upton made Chicago his home for the rest of his long career as a journaList and author, and over the course of his lifetime he became one of the city’s best-known music critics 1 George Upton, Musical Memories: My Recollections of Celebrities of the Half Century 1850-1900 (Chicago: A.C. McClurg, 1908), 18. 2 Upton, Musical Memories, 19. 3 Upton, Musical Memories, 19-20. 4 Upton, Musical Memories, 17. 2 and advocates for cLassicaL music. WhiLe he covered many different arts events in the papers, he is best known today for his articLes and books focused on cultivating an appreciation for cLassicaL music among the Chicago public. He was not trained in music, but had a colorful writing style and a famiLiarity with the Western art music tradition that he brought to bear in his journaLism on LocaL, nationaL, and internationaL musicaL happenings. Upton’s writings on musicaL life in Chicago encompass a vast array of topics. In his music criticism and his book Musical Memories, one particular facet of his writing style that stands out is the way he vividly describes solo performers. Jenny Lind was the first major musician whom he remembered hearing, according to his book, and Upton’s experience of the explosion of public interest in Lind seems to have paved the way for his future writing on the musicaL ceLebrities of succeeding decades. When writing on prima donnas, leading men in opera, and instrumentaL virtuosi, Upton, like many journaLists of his time, often described aspects of their personaLities, physicaL