Bulletin No. 16 April, 1948
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Library of The Harvard Musical Association Bulletin No. 16 April, 1948 Library Committee CHARLES R. NUTTER CYRUS W. DURGIN WALDO S. KENDALL GEORGE B. WESTON ALEXANDER W. WILLIAMS Director of the Library and Library and Custodian of the Marsh Room Marsh Room Marsh Room CHARLES R. NUTTER MURIEL FRENCH FLORENCE C. ALLEN To the Members of the Association: Your attention is called to an article in this issue by Hugo Leichtentritt. * * * * The first 14 bulletins issued by the Library, 12 of which narrate the history of this Association now in its 111th year, have been considerably revised and bound in book form. Here and there the text has received additions, a few mis‐statements and typographical errors corrected. A volume stands on the shelves for circulation or for reference. * * * * At the present moment it is the intention of the writer, in this bulletin and in succeeding bulletins if and when written, to narrate in connection with each concert season certain details not included in Bulletin No. 5, for the purpose of record. Also included will be, as heretofore, articles informing or entertaining if the latter can be dug up, and very likely references to other musical events not closely allied to this Association. For instance, the World’s Peace Jubilee and International Musical Festival, held in Boston June 17‐22, 1872, which far excelled the National Jubilee of 1869, itself a tremendous undertaking, was too astonishing in conception and too stupendous in execution to be completely ignored. As a matter of fact, en passant, the story of music in Boston from 1850 to these later years is not only of general interest but is a striking revelation of the changed musical taste of the public, the recognizable contrast in the personnel of audiences following the rise of the proletariat, the significant difference in what is offered on all programmes, all and more subject to influences which change life’s customs and habits from decade to decade but which appear to be more sweeping in the art of music. * * * * In 1865, when on December 28 the Harvard Orchestra opened first season of symphony concerts, to be followed by sixteen seasons, Gen. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox on April 9, Lincoln had been assassinated on April 14, and on the 15th Andrew Johnson had taken the oath of office as President of the United States. The excellent Frederick W. Lincoln sat in the Mayor’s office which, after being housed for two years in the building of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics’ Association corner of Chauncy and Bedford Streets, was transferred in September of this year to the new City Hall on School Street. The story of the founding, organization, growth, and demise of the Harvard Orchestra, managed successfully by this Association through its seventeen seasons, has been narrated in Bulletin No. 5. Mention was made of the few orchestral and choral societies surviving the war and of certain foreign musicians who visited Boston. Very slight reference was made to a few opera troupes making short visits, and as Boston then and ever since has been especially interested in opera, which played an important part in musical life, a brief review of what has been offered is pertinent as forming part of the musical background. Opera began feebly in Boston against great odds. One of these odds occurred in 1750 when, on the attempt to perform Otway’s The Orphan, the municipal fathers passed an ordinance forbidding “public stage‐plays, interludes, and other theatrical entertainments.” This ban was circumvented by having operas read, as is the case of the first Boston opera Love in a Village in 1769, and The Beggar’s Opera in 1770. In February, 1794, occurred the first stage performance of an opera: The Farmer; sung by English singers under the management of Charles S. Powell. In 1797 a M. Labarre gave Boston the first American performance of Grétry’s Richard Coeur de Lion. Significant of the growth of opera, by 1800 as many as 97 different operas and ballets (including Gluck’s Don Juan) had been performed in Boston. In the year 1833 a visiting company under John Sinclair presented for the first time in Boston Auber’s Masaniello, and for the first time in the United States Fra Diavolo, as well as Arne’s Artaxerxes, Rossini’s Cenerentola, and Boieldieu’s Jean de Paris and La Dame Blanche. Other touring companies followed under Mr. and Mrs. Wood, Louisa Pyne, etc. All operas were sung in English. By the middle of the century touring companies came often to Boston, a noted one being the Havana Italian Company under Max Maretzek. They presented the operas pertinent to that period: Lucrezia Borgia, Barbiére, Favorita, Norma, Semiramide, Don Giovanni. A famous opera company and one of the very successful companies was that under Colonel Mapleson, in the 70’s and on. He offered for the first time in Boston Carmen, with the celebrated Minnie Hauk. Thomas’ Mignon was performed for the first time in the States by Grau’s French Opera Company. Grau’s presentation of The Flying Dutchman in 1888, sung in Italian, included a novel incident not in the score, which he narrated in his “Memoirs” as follows. A rather startling event occurred during the first act on the arrival of the Phantom Ship which, after sweeping gracefully around, broadside to the audience, suddenly capsized, casting the Dutchman and his crew promiscuously on to the stage, the masts going straight across the occupants of the stalls and the sails covering Arditi who was then at the desk. At this juncture loud screams were heard. They came from the wife of the principal baritone, who, witnessing the accident, had fears for her husband’s safety. The choristers, who were thrown pell‐mell into the water and on to their stomachs, began with a great deal of tact to strike out as if swimming, until—as soon as possible—the curtain was lowered. The ship was soon set on its keel again, but nothing could induce Galassi to board the vessel. The Boston Ideal Opera Company, a touring group comprised of singers from a series of Sullivan operettas, came also in the 80’s with Zélie de Lussan, later a member of the Metropolitan Company. In the same period came The Theodore Thomas American Opera Company; and in the 90’s the Castle Square Company was organized under Henry W. Savage. In 1910 was established Boston’s one and only home opera company: The Boston Opera Company presenting, under the direction of Henry Russell, operas in the Opera House built by Eben D. Jordan. An exchange of singers was arranged with the Metropolitan Opera Company, and in the performances certain artists participated whose voices have not been equalled since: Nordica, Homer, Sembrich, Alda, Noria, Maria Gay (celebrated for her Carmen), Emmy Destinn, Mary Garden, Emma Eames, Geraldine Farrar, Bori, Constantino, with a beautiful tenor voice, Slezak, Amato, Clément, Vanni‐ Marcoux, John McCormack, Didur, Mardones. On the demise of the Boston Opera Company Max Rabinoff offered opera for a short period under the title of The Boston Grand Opera Company.* During the 90’s the Metropolitan Opera Company presented operas in Mechanics’ Hail, a most wretched and deplorable place for acoustics and the comfort of the audience. In those days an advertised star for an opera often might decline at the last moment to go on the stage. One star in an opera was considered sufficient to thin the public’s purse; the supporting cast, with a chorus of wooden figures, was negligible. The writer remembers, for instance, a performance of Faust with Emma Eames as Marguerite. The gentleman who tried to sing Faust could scarcely be heard; toward the latter part of the opera one saw an open mouth, one heard little. Nevertheless, miserable Mechanics’ Hall was always sold out and males with hardy legs filled all standing room. Sufficiently well known is the Boston Opera Association, the latest and the present organization for presentation of opera, to require any exposition. So, too, are the plans for opera of the capable and initiative Boris Goldovsky, which happily promise success. * * * * The first season of the Harvard Orchestra (1865‐66), naturally viewed with misgivings by the two Association Committees, dispelled all doubts and encouraged the promise of success in future seasons. At the annual meeting in 1866 Mr. Dwight, as Chairman of the Concert Committee—a position he held during the seventeen seasons—read a voluminous report. Dwight’s reports will not be included in these accounts, but as this first report shows the fine spirit and the sincerity and the determination in launching what was for those days, or even for any day, a difficult and hazardous undertaking, certain extracts from that report are of significance. Boston, [he wrote] familiar for twenty years with the Beethoven Symphonies and rich in memories of inspiring music, was still without any organizations corresponding to the Philharmonic Societies of London and New York, the Gewandhaus concerts in Leipzig, the Société des Concerts of the Conservatoire at Paris, etc. The old Academy, the Musical Fund Society, the Germania which for two or three years, small orchestra as it was, created so much enthusiasm and brought so many great composers here to us, had all passed away ... It was reasonable to suppose that what had been done before could be done again and better. It was purely a problem of “reconstruction” and all that was needed was the proper “guaranties.” These were defined to be (1) the guaranty of pure programmes, (2) of good performances at least to the extent of our musical means, (3) a musical audience in tone, in character, in behavior encouraging and sympathetic, (4) but first in working order—money… The condition of good performances was not quite so easy.