Steinway and Irving Halls Attaches Benefit

Event Information

Venue(s):
Steinway Hall

Manager / Director:
Lafayette F. Harrison

Conductor(s):
Theodore Thomas [see also Thomas Orchestra]

Price: $1; $1.50 reserved

Event Type:
Chamber (includes Solo)

Performance Forces:
Vocal

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
18 January 2018

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

16 Mar 1867, 8:00 PM

Program Details

W.J. Hill (tenor) and S. Strini (bass) were scheduled to appear but were indisposed. Hill was supposed to sing “Schalf wohl, du süsser Engel du.” They were replaced J.R. Thomas and either Severini (according to the New York Times), or George Simpson (according to the New York Herald). (It is possible both Severini and Simpson performed, but the papers chose to highlight different names.)

Performers and/or Works Performed

2)
aka The Standard Bearer; The Standard Watch; Der Fahnenträger; Der Fahnen Träger; The Warrior Bard
Composer(s): Lindpaintner
3)
aka Sleep well, sweet angel; Sleep well, dear angel
Composer(s): Abt
4)
aka Blitz, Der ; Eclair, L'
Composer(s): Halévy
5)
Composer(s): Unknown composer
Participants:  Sebastian Bach Mills
6)
Composer(s): Unknown composer
Participants:  Carl Rosa
7)
Composer(s): Barnard
Participants:  Euphrosyne Parepa
8)
aka Kiss; Kuss, Der
Composer(s): Arditi

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 13 March 1867.

Performers. “Last Grand Popular Concert and last appearance in the concert room of the celebrated Prima Donna, Madame Parepa-Rosa, previous to her appearance in Italian opera.”

2)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 14 March 1867.
3)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 15 March 1867.
4)
Announcement: New York Post, 16 March 1867.

"This evening Madame Parepa-Rosa makes her last appearance, for the present, in the concert room. The concert, which will be given at Steinway Hall, promises to be one of the most brilliant of the season, judging from the names of the performers announced. Madame Parepa-Rosa will be assisted by Carl Rosa, Signor Strini, and Messrs. W. J. Hill, S. B. Mills, Schmitz, Heindl, Eben, Letsch, Deitz, Caulfield and Colby."

5)
Review: New York Herald, 17 March 1867.

“The last grand popular concert for the benefit of the attaches of Steinway and Irving Halls took place at the former well known establishment last evening. The night was one that augured badly for a benefit, but a pretty large audience attended in spite of the storm. The artists on the occasion were from the celebrated Harrison and Bateman troupe, assisted by Messrs. Simpson and Thomas, who replaced Hill and Strini, both indisposed. The inclemency of the weather did not mar the E flat or F in alt of the soprano in Arditi’s glittering Il Bacio, Rosa’s admirable violin playing, or Mill’s [sic] clear, crisp touch and sweep on the grand. The concert was a success in a musical (and we hope in a financial) point of view.”

6)
Review: New-York Times, 18 March 1867, 5.

“Amusements. The concert for the benefit of the officers of Irving and Steinway Halls, which came off at the latter on Saturday evening, was noteworthy as employing Mme. Parepa for the second time that day, and in a laborious programme, which she fulfilled with extraordinary spirit, throwing into her final piece—‘Five O’clock in the Morning’—an air of eagerness that quite disguised any reasonable weariness she may have felt. The illness of Mr. W. J. Hill and Sig. Strini, and their inability to sing, might have caused a disappointment, but that Mr. Harrison somewhat resembles Johnson’s friend, who, if he promised you an acorn, and the season failed in England, would have sent to Norway for one. That conscientious manager, under whose direction the concert was arranged, having promised the audience a tenor and a baritone, kept his faith, and presented to them Sig. Severini and Mr. J. R. Thomas.”

7)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 18 March 1867, 5.

“Music. The last of Mr. Harrison’s week-day popular series of concerts was, according to announcements, given on Saturday evening at Steinway Hall. Three-fourths of the programme were hackneyed or trivial, but we are bound to speak of Messrs. Dietz’s and Letch’s [sic] clever trumpet and trombone obligato to The Standard-bearer; of Mr. Hill’s good sentimental tenor, heard well in Abt’s ‘Schlafewohl;’ of Messrs. Eben and Schmidt’s [sic] flute and horn obligato to Halevy’s charming L’Eclaire romance. Mr. Mills played a fantasy, and Mr. Rosa, a reminiscence, for the hundredth time; and Madame Rosa, with a [illeg.] her own, sang a worthless song by ‘Claribel,’ and Arditi’s Il Bacio—tolerable, perhaps, if we had heard it for the first time, mawkish, it may be, at any time—and now as bad as spent confetti after the carnival.”