Maretzek Italian Opera: Il Barbiere di Siviglia

Maretzek has announced his spring season. The written announcement is longer than usual, because he used to refrain from drawing too much attention. Unfortunately times have changed and nowadays it is necessary to display larger ads to attract the audience. He managed to engage the fine singer Parepa who will perform as “Norma”, “Donna Anna” and other roles. The ensemble consists of the following:

Prima donnas: Clara Louise Kellogg, Carmen Poch, Fanny Nathali Testa, Amalia M. Hauch, Antoinetta Ronconi, Stella Bonheur, Euphrosyne Parepa

Tenors: F. Mazzoleni, R. Baragli, E.Testa, H. Bernardi

Buffo: Giorgio Ronconi

Baritones and bassos: F. Bellini, G. Antonucci, A. Bacelli, L. Fossati

The orchestra will be conducted by Bergmann, Signor Torriani and Max Maretzek.

The repertory consists of the following operas: Die Afrikanerin, Norma, Trovatore, Rigoletto, Faust, Barbier von Sevilla, Zampa, Lucretia Borgia, Die Favoritin, Martha, L’Etoile du Nord, Die Nachtwandlerin, Ernani, Un Ballo in Maschera, Fra Diavolo, La Traviata, Crispino e la Comare, Don Pasquale, L’Elisir d’Amore, Jone

Article on Maretzek’s forthcoming spring season.

“Maretzek has announced his repertoire for the new season. His promises are not difficult to fulfill. He will stage only one new opera, Petrella’s Carnival in Venedig. The rest of the operas in the repertoire have been performed many times before. Even the ensemble will not change significantly. Only a new bass, who is not yet known, and the excellent concert singer Parepa will be added. Parepa, however, still needs to grow in the dramatic aspect of her performance. Mazzoleni will remain the only ‘Helden Tenor’ for the time being. Apart from the fact that most good tenors are drawn to the World Exhibition in Paris, there is not much of a contingent for good Italian tenors currently. Not even in Italy.

The success of the first weeks of the season is secured, because everyone wants to see the new opera house. This will draw people into the opera that do not usually attend. Consequently many of them will be enchanted by the opera again and thus become more regular attendees.”

“The company with which Mr. Maretzek is to open the Academy of Music, is said to be unusually strong. He calls it a triple company, and says he will be able to give twenty-one standard operas without overtaxing the powers of the artists. A very agreeable feature will be the appearance of Mme. Parepa on the boards, who is to make her debut in opera during the coming season.”

“Amusements. The announcements for this week are more than ordinarily interesting. Prominent among them is the bulletin of Mr. Maretzek, who will open the operatic season at the new Academy on Thursday evening, with the favorite comic opera, ‘Barber of Seville.’ This work has been so often given with the admirable cast of this occasion, that extended mention is unnecessary. Miss Kellog and Signori Baragli, Bellini, Antonucci and Ronconi will sing the principal parts, and Mr. Maretzek will conduct in person. Doubtless the new house, which is universally conceded to be a miracle of beauty and convenience, will be thronged by a brilliant and fashionable audience in honor of the occasion. Opera has become an essential element in the social life of our people, and the long season of deprivation happily passed, gives way now to a time of rejoicing and delight. The prospectus issued by the Director indicates the intention of extraordinary effort on his part, the production of novelties, and the presentation of favorite and cultured artists. The subscription books for the season are opened, and it is gratifying to know that the list of subscribers is already unusually long. If perseverance and honorable endeavor entitle one to success, Mr. Maretzek has attained the point where he should be able to read his title clear. Upon the fair shoulders of Miss Kellogg, the brightest star in our galazy, will rest the burden of the early season; but Mme. Poch, Miss Hauck and Mme. Parepa will soon be admitted within the circle of industry and consequent popularity.”

“Miss Kellogg will sustain the role of Rosina, and, in addition to the accustomed beauties of the part, will sing a charming romanza by Muzio, and a festive little song called ‘She’s Fooling Thee,’ in which the fair maiden invariably brings down the house.”

“The opera season commences Thursday, March 7^th. The company is large and capable—in fact, a triple company. There are seven prima donnas, Clara Louise Kellogg, Carmen Poch, Fannie Natali Testa, Amelia M. Hauch, Antonietta Ronconi, Stella Bonheur and Euphrosyne Parepa. The first six are known to opera, and admired and applauded. The last named is the distinguished vocalist, whose concerts have made a new era in music throughout the country, and who, in making her appearance on the lyric stage, challenges the enthusiasm of every lover of music. Madame Parepa has, probably, no superior in the world, and when she takes the role of Norma or Donna Anna the new Academy will seem beggarly in size.”

“Amusements. Italian Opera, Opening of the Season.—Last evening the new Academy of Music was devoted, for the first time since the opening, to the legitimate purpose of its construction. It must have seemed strange to many, last week, that the new opera house should have been inaugurated with dancing, but after all it was not more of an inconsistency than many we are wont to disregard. We know for instance, that our friend’s ‘study’ is the place where he has smoking parties and brews punch; that a modern ‘villa’ is one house in half an acre of ground, and so on; but we have got to disregard any propriety in the naming of anything. Still we may hope that if the new house is to be free to Terpsichore as well as to Apollo, it shall be closed to many of the uses which made the old building lose so utterly its distinctive character. Let us say here, by the way, that there was something odd in the fact that the first time the doors were opened this season it should be for the firemen’s benefit. Those gallant fellows were the last persons in the old Academy and the first in the new. The removal of the dancing floor opened up all the beauties of the opera house last evening. The excellent shape of the balcony and the parquette not only lends a beauty to the new which the old house did not possess, but is something that the occupants will be most grateful for. This part of the auditorium now becomes the most elegant, as it is the most convenient and pleasant of any theatre in the City, and perhaps of any city in the world. These seats, and the grand tier furnish inducements for grand toilettes, to which the auditors last night fully yielded, and the brilliancy of the Academy’s career, and of Mr. Maretzek’s season were insured. The inspiring effect of a new house produced on the audience last night—who were most amiably disposed—was also strongly felt by the artists who dedicated the beautiful building to song in Rossini’s immortal opera of the ‘Barber of Seville.’ The individual performances were not phenomenal enough to call for extended comment; nevertheless they were equal to most of the previous representations of the same work this Winter, when the same artists gave it life and color—that is, if it is possible for anybody to add more luster to the brilliant numbers of this opera than their composer gave them at the outset. The first genuine outburst followed Miss Kellogg’s infectious expression of the ‘Venzano Waltz’—an air, by the way, which belongs to Muzio, and not to Rossini. It received a most vehement encore, and from that forward the rewards were more liberal and earnest than any that had been given to the exquisite music of the first act. Sig. Ronconi was in remarkable spirits, and consequently Figaro received the benefit of them. The rôle of the butterfly barber has never been better acted or sung. Baragli’s Almiviva [sic], Bellini’s Bartolo and Antonucci’s Basilio have received such frequent justice in these columns as to need no new praises. The public like them, and expressed their satisfaction last evening. The satisfaction also embraced, and was fully deserved, by the chorus and orchestra, which was conducted by Mr. Maretzek in person. In brief, the opening performance of the new Academy and the new season may be said to have been altogether worthy of the occasion. The acoustics of the new house, it may be worth while stating, also are about double what they were in the old. A whisper on the stage can be heard distinctly in the most remote seat. A pleasing incident of the inauguration of the season was the presentation to Mr. Maretzek during yesterday, by Sig. Ronconi, of a baton very handsomely mounted in gold. It was a timely gift, and thus twice welcome.”

“Music. Italian Opera has, according to annual custom, opened charmingly to the wave of Mr. Maretzek’s baton, and poured ‘music’s beautiful disdain’ on that specimen [sic] of brand-newness, our new Academy. It was good taste to choose Rossini’s sprightly Barber for this introduction, which should either be very grand or very merry; and the Barber, as we all know, is the brightest of lyric comedies—just such a fountain of melodious humor as it pleases us to have bubble up in front of an opera season. Better still, this Barber had the liveliest and most effective illustration in the cast of last night. Ronconi, best of buffos, gives us humor with the crispest of crusts over it, and he was thoroughly at home with the dapper Figaro. Miss Kellogg’s Rosina, with its florid clearness and keenness of vocalization, is well remembered, but we must allow ourselves for once to object to her introduction of an irrelevant, unassimilative, meretricious song in the second act. The parquette last night was, indeed, a parterre, and the audience was a sight to be seen as well as the play. It may be said that the stage of the Italian Opera is a school of style; the audience, a school of fashion; and between the two (so brilliantly witness these ambrosial nights of Mr. Maretzek), the alliance appears to be complete.”

“The theater was completely filled with the most fashionable and elegant audience; the wardrobes were comparable to the ones at the annual opera ball. Maretzek and the artists were welcomed warmly, especially Kellogg who received applause lasting several minutes. There is not much to say about the performance, because it was given with the same cast at the Wintergarten not long ago. Kellogg and Ronconi received the most applause.”

Ronconi and Kellogg excelled in their parts. The theater was completely filled. 

“Music…Mr. Maretzek has thus far produced three favorite operas, none of which boast absolute novelty, but all of which have presented a fresh and excellent vocal strength. The Barber and Fra Diavolo have introduced Ronconi in some of his very drollest impersonations.”

“The Academy of Music was opened for operatic performances on the 7th inst. by Maretzek’s Italian Opera Troupe. The ‘Barber of Seville’ was the initial opera, with Miss Kellogg as Rosina and Sig. Ronconi as Figaro. The house was crowded.”

Kellogg and Ronconi are the magnets of the Italian opera season. Kellogg, especially, has entranced the critics. Ronconi always gets the laughs of the audience, meaning his comedic streak is very much liked. He is one of the last buffos of the good ole days; unfortunately these buffos are heading for extinction. Considering Ronconi’s advanced age of almost 60 years, his youthful humor and physical agility is impressive.

“The renewal of the Italian Opera has been welcomed like the return of a long-lost friend. Other things may be doubtful, but of this fact there can be no question, that the New York public like, that they must have and will have, Italian Opera. And Mr. Maretzek is just the man to give it to them, ‘sweetened to taste,’ as the cook-books say. The season opened with Rossini’s ‘Barber of Seville.’ This selection was made partly as a recognition of the talents of that most estimable artist, Clara Louise Kellogg. There is no part in which her talents as a singer and actress appear to better advantage than in that of Rosina in this opera. The opening was a grand success, as has been the whole season thus far. The principal stars by which the firmament of the Academy is lighted are Miss Kellogg, Mad. Poch, Mdlle Testa, Miss Hauck, Mdlle. Rovini [sic], Signori Bellini, Antonucci, Rovini [Rovere], Baragli, Mazzoleni, and Marra. To this list must now be added the name of Parepa (her husband must excuse us, but the old name will slip out before we are aware), who made her début in Il Trovatore, and has had a repetition of the success by which she has before been crowned in every field she has undertaken.”