Maretzek Italian Opera: Otello

Event Information

Venue(s):
Academy of Music

Manager / Director:
Max Maretzek

Conductor(s):
Angelo Torriani

Price: $1.50; reserved seats $2.50; boxes, $9-$12; family circle, $.75

Event Type:
Opera

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
24 February 2016

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

25 Sep 1867, 8:00 PM

Program Details

E. Pancani (debut).

Performers and/or Works Performed

1)
Otello
aka Moro di Venezia, Il
Composer(s): Rossini
Text Author: Berio di Salsa
Participants:  Maretzek Italian Opera Company;  Signor [tenor] Baragli (role: Cassio);  Emilio [tenor] Pancani (role: Otello);  Fernando [bass-baritone] Bellini (role: Iago);  Euphrosyne Parepa (role: Desdemona);  Giuseppe B. [basso] Antonucci

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 16 September 1867, 6.
2)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 16 September 1867, 7.
3)
Review: New-York Times, 26 September 1867, 4.

“The revival of Rossini’s ‘Othello’ [sic] is welcome on all accounts. When first produced here in 1849 it became one of the favorite works of the season. Although the great master has certainly not shown all his genius in this work, or revealed in it in any marked degree the inventive power evinced in others, the music is always natural, often flowing, as often graceful, and never dull. Its orchestral treatment, moreover, is in its way masterly; and, altogether, in the present dearth of great new works, such an opera could hardly fail to meet with general acceptance. In rejecting all of the subordinate characters, and confining the action to the transactions on the Isle of Cyprus, the librettist has made a fitting vehicle for music, at the same time preserving all the more salient characteristics of SHAKESPEARE’S tragedy. The representation of this work at the Academy last night was a happy one in every essential particular, and an audience certainly gratifying to the impressario [sic] (in view of the varied attractions elsewhere) gathered to witness the revival of an opera which, as we have shown, has lain dormant in the repertoire of MARETZEK for the last eighteen years, and one that no other impressario has had the spirit to attempt. It is one of those works, like all of ROSSINI’S, which must be well done in every department, or a failure is the sequel. It requires extraordinary talent and artistic skill as well in the orchestral labor as in the vocalism, for the score throughout is of such delicate and harmonious texture, so much so, that to the uninitiated even a slip in either, be it ever so slight, becomes quickly and painfully apparent. It is pleasant to be able to state that in these respects the most captious had no foundation last evening for censure. The cast was extraordinary as the demands of the music, and the most conscientious performance of duty characterized the effort of everybody concerned in the representation. Sig. PANCANI, who made his début as the lyrical Othello, is certainly a rare and valuable addition to Mr. MARETZEK’S forces.  His voice is the tenor robusto, with strong baritone tendencies, or rather capacities; flexible and sweet in the higher notes, and full of power and expression in the lower. He sings as if he felt what he uttered, and threw into the somber passages of last night’s rôle a sadness and tenderness that denoted deep sympathy with the theme that he interpreted. He was well received by the audience, and after his first morceau was taken into warm favor, which he increased by deserving efforts up to the final descent of the curtain. Where so much was entirely good and nothing entirely bad, it is not so necessary to specify this or that passage or this or that ensemble. Mme. PAREPA fairly reveled in the ornate music which ROSSINI has given to Desdemona, and sang it as if her voice and other capacities had been measured for the score. She was made the recipient of frequent recalls and the most spontaneous outbursts of friendliness throughout. Sig. BARAGLI was more at ease in the light role of Cassio than in anything he has done this long time, and his merits were justly appreciated by the audience.  Sig. BELLINI, always good, rendered the music which expresses so well Iago’s conspiring character admirably, and   Sig. ANTONUCCI deserved the lively manifestations of favor that frequently greeted his efforts. The orchestra, under the conductorship of Sig. TORRIANI, was severely correct, and the choruses unexceptionally good. It is seldom that we have felt compelled to speak, in all respects, of an opera so entirely favorably as of this.”

4)
Review: New York Post, 26 September 1867.
“Rossini’s ‘Othello’ had not, until last evening, been produced in this city for eighteen years.  In 1849 it was performed at the Astor Place opera house, and since then no manager has ventured to repeat the experiment, until Mr. Maretzek placed it among his list of revivals. It is unlike those works of Rossini which are familiar to our public, in many respects. Far less rich in melodies which appeal to the popular as well as the educated ear than such operas as the ‘Barber’ or ‘Semiramide,’ it abounds in in extreme specimens of Rossini’s florid style, whose difficulty of execution can hardly be appreciated by non-professional hearers. This is, at least, one good reason for the unwillingness of managers to attempt the thankless task of bringing out this opera, whose real merits are unquestionable. 
 
With, however, such artists as Madame Parepa-Rosa and Signors Pancani, Bellini, Antonucci and Baragli at his disposal, with an orchestra perfectly trained and equal to any emergency, and with a chorus much strengthened and improved, Mr. Maretzek was safe in making the venture, and in putting in his comprehensive programme a work so characteristic of Rossini’s early style. And we should say just here that the performance of last evening, taken as a whole, was in a high sense satisfactory and thorough. Full justice was done to the composer, and the audience could not have failed to appreciate his meaning. This we regard as an important point in that it illustrates the immense advantage of a permanent management like that of Mr. Maretzek’s, which enables him to perfect details overlooked by transient managers who flit over the country with ‘star’ attractions.
 
Signor Pancani, the new heroic tenor was partly fortunate and partly unfortunate in making his first appearance in the title character of ‘Othello.’ The opportunities afforded him as an actor were excellent, and finely improved.  Among Italian opera singer, generally the standard of acting is neither very high nor very correct. They almost always subordinate dramatic properties to musical effect, and are apt to either plunge into the melodramatic, or to be too awkward and stiff in their stage manners.  Signor Pancani, however, has evidently studied in the best schools of acting, and wins our approbation from the outset by his easy, natural and yet forcible style.  His voice in the middle and lower ranges is of excellent and sympathetic quality, and is full and deep enough for a baritone.  With regard to his upper tones, we prefer to hear him again before expressing an opinion. That he is a thorough and accomplished artist there can be no doubt.
 
Madame Parepa-Rosa, as Desdemona, was superb. The difficulties of the numbers assigned were so easily compassed that one could not realize the sense of effort, and in some of the more delicate passages, where the attenuated notes were scarcely more audible than a whisper, the marvellous [sic] fineness of her execution held the audience in rapt astonishment. Of the other performers it is needless to say that more than that all did well, while Signor Bellini displayed his rich and pure tones to especial advantage.”
5)
Review: New York Herald, 27 September 1867, 6.
“About forty years since the grand opera of Othello was given at the Park theatre, with Signor Garcia in the title role and Malibran as the gentle Desdemona.  Both were impersonations rarely witnessed in opera.  Shakespeare’s wondrous creation of the jealous, passionate Moor has seldom found a more fitting representative than Garcia. The fiery, passionate nature of the son-in-law of Brabantio was powerfully and faithfully portrayed. Garcia’s voice was a more tenore robusto, full of passion and energy, and his acting may be compared to that of the actor Kean in the same rôle. A fitting companion picture in characterization was Malibran’s Desdemona. Nothing could be more artistic and life-like than her delineation of the victim of frantic jealousy. And her glorious voice, which will ever ring in the ears of our hearers, seemed to us the very acme of the vocal art.
 
On Wednesday night the same opera was presented at one of our theatres.  A new tenor named Pancani was the Othello; and had Garcia been present on the occasion he would have found no fault in his substitute.  The new Othello is an admirable actor, and thoroughly enters into the spirit of Shakespeare’s great creation.  He has a voice of considerable power and dramatic expression, and in the more delicate passages he displayed artistic feeling and thorough training.  He completely identified himself with the character, and united the rough, blunt nature of the soldier with the jealous devotion of the husband. But where was the Desdemona of Malibran?  The Desdemona on this occasion was one of the forty prime donne of the present Italian opera troupe, and the rest of the cast was made up of the twenty tenors, fifty bassos, and the other minstrels and fiddlers of the company.
 
There is one remarkable feature regarding the new tenor. The other papers indulge in lengthy comments on the opera; but they seem to be in a muddle when they come to Signor Pancani.  Their efforts to give an idea of his voice or acting are similar to the proceedings of ‘a bull in a china shop.’ They do not know what to make of him.  They are so accustomed to fifth rate tenors that when they meet a thorough artist like Pancani they can only speak of him as a curiosity. They speak of his ‘by-play and noble meaning;’ but his dramatic power and delicacy of expression are things they know nothing about.  The advent of such a tenor as Pancani is an event in the annals of Italian opera in this country, and may be of benefit to the forty prime donne, twenty tenors and fifty bassos, who are quite in a flutter about this terrible rival.  We hope his example will do this long abused department of the lyric art some service and elevate it to the position it commands.”
6)
Review: New York Herald, 27 September 1867, 7.
“Rossini’s grand opera of Othello was given by the Italian opera company on Wednesday night. The title role was supported by a new tenor from Paris, named Pancani. The habitués of the opera were astonished at this unlooked for acquisition to their long abused establishment, which has re-echoed for years past to cracked voices and lymphatic actors. From first to last the new Othello, a rara avis in American opera, proved himself worthy of the high reputation he has brought with him from Europe. His dialogues with Desdemona, his anguish of spirit when Iago poison into his ear, and his terrible remorse, were, in acting and singing, the very perfection of the vocal and dramatic art. Rossini, to be sure, has taken strange liberties with the immortal Will, but there is still enough left to the actor and singer to give a good idea of the soldier, the passionate Moor and the jealous husband. Some forty years ago Garcia electrified the audience of the Park theatre in the same role, and on Wednesday the great tenor seemed to be revivified in Pancani. A clear, ringing, sympathetic tenore robusto, with an admirable appreciation of the character in the dramatic sense of the word, formed characteristics of the debutant. Such an acquisition to Italian opera in this country will go far towards elevating this much abused department of the lyric art to its right position, which should be the first. Of the rest of the cast we can only quote the old adage de mortius nil nisi bonum. Their voices are long since dead to the public ear.”
 
7)
Review: New York Herald, 27 September 1867, 6.
“About forty years since the grand opera of Othello was given at the Park theatre, with Signor Garcia in the title role and Malibran as the gentle Desdemona.  Both were impersonations rarely witnessed in opera.  Shakespeare’s wondrous creation of the jealous, passionate Moor has seldom found a more fitting representative than Garcia. The fiery, passionate nature of the son-in-law of Brabantio was powerfully and faithfully portrayed. Garcia’s voice was a more tenore robusto, full of passion and energy, and his acting may be compared to that of the actor Kean in the same rôle. A fitting companion picture in characterization was Malibran’s Desdemona. Nothing could be more artistic and life-like than her delineation of the victim of frantic jealousy. And her glorious voice, which will ever ring in the ears of our hearers, seemed to us the very acme of the vocal art.
On Wednesday night the same opera was presented at one of our theatres.  A new tenor named Pancani was the Othello; and had Garcia been present on the occasion he would have found no fault in his substitute.  The new Othello is an admirable actor, and thoroughly enters into the spirit of Shakespeare’s great creation.  He has a voice of considerable power and dramatic expression, and in the more delicate passages he displayed artistic feeling and thorough training.  He completely identified himself with the character, and united the rough, blunt nature of the soldier with the jealous devotion of the husband. But where was the Desdemona of Malibran?  The Desdemona on this occasion was one of the forty prime donne of the present Italian opera troupe, and the rest of the cast was made up of the twenty tenors, fifty bassos, and the other minstrels and fiddlers of the company.
There is one remarkable feature regarding the new tenor. The other papers indulge in lengthy comments on the opera; but they seem to be in a muddle when they come to Signor Pancani.  Their efforts to give an idea of his voice or acting are similar to the proceedings of ‘a bull in a china shop.’ They do not know what to make of him.  They are so accustomed to fifth rate tenors that when they meet a thorough artist like Pancani they can only speak of him as a curiosity. They speak of his ‘by-play and noble meaning;’ but his dramatic power and delicacy of expression are things they know nothing about.  The advent of such a tenor as Pancani is an event in the annals of Italian opera in this country, and may be of benefit to the forty prime donne, twenty tenors and fifty bassos, who are quite in a flutter about this terrible rival.  We hope his example will do this long abused department of the lyric art some service and elevate it to the position it commands.”
8)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 04 October 1867, 4.

“. . . Signor Pancani justifies the emphasis of the welcome given him. He is a tenor robusto of decided ability and intelligence, with a heroic style to which our stage, within some years, has been almost a stranger. His voice has an excellent range and volume, and a quality best described as manly. We take it for granted that he will give us nothing but good performances.”

9)
Review: New-Yorker Musik-Zeitung, 05 October 1867, 136.
Pancani’s peak performance time is long gone. Although he sings with taste and understanding, and his acting skills are good, his voice is merely a shadow of how it used to be. Unfortunately Pancani chose the leading role of Othello as his debut, which is a part that requires much vocal strength. (…)