Maretzek Italian Opera: Crispino e la comare

Event Information

Venue(s):
Winter Garden

Manager / Director:
Max Maretzek

Conductor(s):
Angelo Torriani

Event Type:
Opera

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
29 August 2018

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

26 Nov 1866, 8:00 PM

Program Details

New York debut of Giorgio Ronconi.

Performers and/or Works Performed

1)
aka Schuhflicker
Composer(s): Ricci, Ricci
Text Author: Piave

Citations

1)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 09 July 1866, 7.

“Despite the adverse circumstances which surround the present fortunes of the Italian Opera, Mr. Maretzek is quietly but surely perfecting his arrangements. . . . He has secured the services of Signor Ronconi, who is probably the greatest buffo singer of the present day.”

2)
Announcement: New-York Times, 01 October 1866, 5.
3)
Article: New York Post, 05 October 1866, 1.

Lengthy article on coming musical season discusses Maretzek’s Italian opera company, “almost homeless” because of the burning of the N.Y. Academy of Music. The season will open with Crispino e la Comare at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and open in N.Y. at the Winter Garden in a few weeks, until the Academy of Music is rebuilt. Discusses singers: Carmelina Poch, Miss Kellogg, Mlle. Ronconi, Giorgio Ronconi, Bellini, Mazzoleni, Signor Testa, Baragli, Natali Testa, Madame Ortolani-Mazzoleni, and the public debut of Minnie Hauck.

4)
Article: New-York Daily Tribune, 19 October 1866, 4.

New York suffers from the absence of Italian opera because of the burning of the Academy of Music last spring. The opera attracts thousands and has a significant impact on the economy (clothing, carriages, flowers, the railroads) and social life, to say nothing of artists and employees with no other employment. Max Maretzek has born his heavy losses with stoicism and has replenished his library of opera scores, wardrobes, and energetically assembled an excellent company, particularly Giorgio Ronconi. “We trust that by the time our indomitable impresario reappears with his splendid forces, the public of New-York will give him a welcome worthy of his efforts and sacrifices.”

5)
Announcement: New York Musical Gazette, November 1866.
6)
Advertisement: New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 07 November 1866.
7)
Announcement: New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 10 November 1866.
8)
Announcement: New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 11 November 1866.
9)
Announcement: New-Yorker Musik-Zeitung, 15 November 1866, 233.
10)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 15 November 1866, 7.

Includes season plan.

11)
Announcement: New York Clipper, 17 November 1866, 254.
12)
Announcement: New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 17 November 1866.
13)
Announcement: New-York Daily Tribune, 21 November 1866, 5.
14)
Announcement: New-York Daily Tribune, 24 November 1866, 5.
15)
Announcement: New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 24 November 1866, 8.
16)
Announcement: New-York Times, 26 November 1866, 4.
17)
Announcement: New-York Daily Tribune, 26 November 1866, 5.
18)
Review: New York Post, 27 November 1866.

“The Italian opera season at Winter Garden was most auspiciously begun last evening. The theatre itself looked unusually well, showing manifest evidences of the work that has been done to make it suitable for opera audiences. Before the curtain rose on the first scene the entire better portion of the house was filled with as fine a representation of the beauty and fashion of the metropolis as we have lately seen.

As for the performance of the opera—‘Crispino e la Comare’—we have already given a somewhat extended criticism in connection with the Brooklyn season. We need only say that Signor Ronconi and Miss Kellogg again and again received tempests of applause, and that the parts assumed by the rest of the company were all creditably, and some of them excellently, taken.”

19)
Review: New-York Times, 27 November 1866, 4.

Winter Garden.—Mr. Max Maretzek opened his initial season of Italian opera at the Winter Garden last evening. The house, we are happy to say, was crowded. Let us add too that the house itself has been vastly improved. Of the opera, ‘Crispino,’ we have already spoken. Signor Ronconi was an admirable Crispino,—so admirable that no one can be mentioned as next to him. Every humorous phase of the character was delineated with easy abandon, and every pathetic touch with true feeling. We have said these things before, and need not repeat them now. Ronconi is the greatest artist we have ever had in America, and it will be a blunder if the public does not recognize the fact. Miss Kellogg was of course admirable; so also were Signor Bellini and Antonucci. The performance could not have been better. It left nothing at which the critic could cavil.”

20)
Review: New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 27 November 1866.

The temporary venue is not suited for the large audience these operas attract. The house was fully booked and thus quite crowded. Signor Ronconi’s sense of humor and Kellogg’s graceful acting and beautiful singing gave the often performed opera some fresh appeal. The performance was absolutely flawless and the audience rewarded the actors with enthusiastic applause.

21)
Article: New-Yorker Musik-Zeitung, 28 November 1866, 265.

The Italian Opera has begun its season at the Wintergarten.  Improvements and beautifications have been made in the auditorium.

22)
Review: New York Sun, 28 November 1866, 1.

“Thanks to Mr. Stuart—always accommodating Mr. Stuart—Mr. Maretzek was able his opera season in New York on Monday evening. The commencement is somewhat late, and the Winter Garden is not the Academy of Music, but, as Richelieu says in the play, ‘All time Summer, and all place a temple,’ for the opera. So Maretzek’s old friends must have thought, as most all of them were on hand Monday evening. There was a splendid audience at the beginning, but it dwindled after the first two acts of Crispino e la Comare, and only the orchestra stalls remained occupied, poor ventilation making a seat in the dress circle almost unendurable when the curtain was down. The manner to which the Opera was put on the stage was not very complimentary to the [illeg.] attendance; the scenery was very old, and the sort of half curtain that was lowered his front to conceal the gas and machinery as the upper regions over the stage, remained a greasy and filthy—eyesore! The Opera was very admirably given, however, although Sig. Ronconi—as the Poor Cobbler, who is rewarded by the good fairy, in some of his antics expressive of joy, when telling his good fortune to his wife, indulged in certain vulgarities, which ought to have been replied to by the audience with some hearty hissing. The decent public of New York will excuse (in an artist) that attention to details which introduces any suggestion of indecency. We regret we have to speak this way of Ronconi, who impressed us originally as a gentleman in all respects. 

In this lively opera, Miss Kellogg has been admitted on all sides to have advanced several strides in the execution of her music, in the correctness of her acting, and the favor of the public. We are glad this little belle of the American operatic stage is getting along so bravely. No artist is watched with so much care by New Yorkers as Louise Kellogg—whom the Muse that presides over Americans (Clio, no doubt!) has rendered famous here and abroad.”

23)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 28 November 1866, 8.

“Max Maretzek’s company opened on Monday night at Winter Garden, to a crowded, brilliant and fashionable audience. It was pleasant to recognize familiar faces, and to know that the elite of society was once more rallying round the standard of Maretzek. Great alterations have been made in the interior of the house. The Parquette has been carpeted, 150 elegant chairs have been added, the gilding all over the house has been retouched, private boxes have been added round the dress circle, and a hundred new lights have been introduced. The auditorium has indeed been changed in a wonderful manner, and looks now not only clean, and cheerful but light and brilliant. It was a just homage to the refined habitués of the Opera, and was a pleasant sight to see once more the brilliant and recherche toilets of the ladies.

The house was not only elegant and fashionable, but it was in the best of humors, and greeted the artist in the most cordial manner. Of the performance of this opera by the same artists we spoke in terms of the warmest praise a few weeks since. There is little to be added, excepting that in Ronconi we discover new excellences each time he appears. He enters so thoroughly into the character that there is nothing stereotyped. He acts upon the impulse of the moment, and the result is a veritable piece of nature—of unadulterated humor—or pure, simplistic expression, whether it be of joy or sorrow. We do not desire to take our eyes off him from the moment of his entering on the scene, for every gesture has a meaning, every movement has a point which we would not willingly lose. He is indeed, a consummate artist, whether as an actor or a singer, and he seems to have renewed the vigor of his youth, for his voice is better in every particular than it was ten years ago. We confess that our enjoyment of this Crispino, principals, chorus and orchestra is keen to the extreme. Kellogg is so charming and warbles with such fluent grace.Testa, Bellini and Antonucci are so thoroughly admirable in all they do that we doubt if we ever had a more perfect ensemble than this opera presents and we cannot wonder at the success it meets with wherever it is performed. The individual and collective success of the artists last evening was very great indeed. Several encores occurred and the singers were frequently called before the curtain to receive the plaudits of the audience.”

24)
Review: Courrier des États-Unis, 28 November 1866.

“The inauguration of the Italian opera season was very sparkling. The crowd was considerable and the splendid attire embellished the parquet and the gallery. They performed Crispino e la Comare, whose success is undeniable. It’s impossible, in effect, to find an opera that contains more comical liveliness and unconstrained merriment.

The Ricci brothers’ piece is superbly acted and sung. M. Ronconi (Crispino), without a doubt, doesn’t have the voice of twenty years ago any more, but what acting, what wit, what distinction and what dimension in the burlesque! If M. Ronconi sings little, he declaims with such perfection and such great clarity that one prefers him to some singers whose voices haven’t yet succumbed to the effects of time. The great artist had to repeat the duet that ends the first act and the third-act trio.

Mlle Kellogg grows as a comic actress each day. She’s increasingly more sure of herself and mistress of her characters. Her acting sparkles with wit and roguishness, and she has gone as far as she can without passing the strict boundaries of good taste. As a singer, we recognize the accuracy and precision of her voice, and the solid turns and runs that are characteristic of her talent.

M. Bellini was perfect in the role of Mirobolano, and we were happy to hear the beautiful voice of M. Antonucci in the rather pale role he was given but which he sets off with his talent.”