National Hall Inaugural Concert

“The doors of this building were thrown open to the public last evening for the first time. The hall, which is capable of holding about six hundred persons, has a very chaste appearance, the coloring both of walls and ceiling being very neat and tasty. The only fault which can [be] found with the room is the unusual lowness of its ceiling, owing to which its acoustic capabilities are of anything but first rate order. The inaugural concert given last evening was well attended. The programme was a very attractive one to all lovers of operatic music, containing, as it did, many gems of that peculiar class of harmony. Madame Gazzaniga sang with her usually brilliancy the aria ‘Come e Bello,’ from Lucrezia Borgia, and ‘Ah! Mon Fils’ from Meyerbeer’s Prophet. Both pieces were received with rapturous applause and secured encores. Madame Gazzaniga was in capital voice, her first song giving full play to its great compass, and the rendering displaying to the fullest extent this artiste’s superior vocal power. Signor Limberti sang with considerable expression, but now and then fell into almost too vehement a style, at any rate, considering the smallness of the room and stage. Mr. J. R. Thomas gave ‘Beautiful Isle of the Sea’ and ‘Simon the Cellarer’ in good style. The latter was, so far as the audience expressed themselves, decidedly the pièce de resistance of the evening.  Messrs. Pease and Colby gained a well deserved encore to their duet for two pianos, as also did Signor Garibaldi to Heller’s ‘Exile.’ The audience might have been larger, but could not certainly have been more appreciative and demonstrative.”

“Thursday in Harlem, at the corner of 129th Street and 4th Avenue, a hall that has just been constructed by M. W.F. Morgan was inaugurated. This hall is charming, and one has to notice above all the frescoes executed by M. Garibaldi.

The hall was inaugurated with a concert of which Mme Gazzaniga, who very much wanted to lend her cooperation, was naturally the star. The pieces she sang, from the ‘Prophete,’ the ‘Traviata,’ the ‘Lucrezia’ and the ‘Lombardi,’ were all encored. Mme Gazzaniga belongs to that great school of singing that has made the glory of Italy, and to which we owe the Malibrans, Sontags and Pastas. The festival was quite fully attended, and the hall at the northern extremity of our city was worthily inaugurated.”