Maretzek Italian Opera: Les Huguenots

Event Information

Venue(s):
Academy of Music

Manager / Director:
Max Maretzek

Event Type:
Opera

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
8 February 2016

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

16 Oct 1867, 8:00 PM

Performers and/or Works Performed

1)
aka Hugenotten
Composer(s): Meyerbeer
Text Author: Scribe
Participants:  Maretzek Italian Opera Company;  Fernando [bass-baritone] Bellini (role: St. Bris);  Euphrosyne Parepa (role: Valentine);  Signor Anastasi (role: Raoul);  Domenico Orlandini (role: Nevers);  Fanny Natali-Testa [contralto] (role: the Page);  Angela Peralta (role: Queen);  P. [bass] Medini (role: Marcels)

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 15 October 1867, 7.
2)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 16 October 1867.
3)
Announcement: New York Post, 16 October 1867.

“The ‘Huguenots’ will be presented for the third time this season at the Academy of Music this evening. It has been by far the most successful opera of the season, and could be profitably run for a few nights more, but on Friday evening will make way for the first production of the comic opera ‘Don Bucefalo,’ which has many elements of popularity in the gaiety of its music, its amusing scenes and its effective tableaux.”

4)
Advertisement: New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 16 October 1867, 6.
5)
Announcement: New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 16 October 1867, 8.
6)
: Strong, George Templeton. New-York Historical Society. The Diaries of George Templeton Strong, 1863-1869: Musical Excerpts from the MSs, transcribed by Mary Simonson. ed. by Christopher Bruhn., 16 October 1867.

“Poverty has its compensating advantages. Were I a millionaire, I might be weak enough to own a Box at the Acad. of Music, and feel bound to appear in my Place two nights out of three. How dreadful that would be! I feel it keenly for Travers very kindly sent us his nice proscenium box for tonight. . . Opera was Huguenots. I sat out three acts of laborious feebleness and then came off, with the sensations of a Norwegian who has been supping on bread made of sawdust and no butter. The party in the Box was pleasant, but Meyerbeer’s music, with all its elaboration, seems to me utterly barren and vapid.”

7)
Review: New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 20 October 1867, 4.

This opera was a splendid success. Parepa-Rosa’s performance as “Valentine” was artistic and full of warmth and soul. Peralta as “Queen” excelled and stunned with the incredible precision and purity of her coloraturas. Anastasi’s “Raoul” was rather clumsy; his beautiful voice made up for it, however. Medini’s “Marcel” was also notable.