Harrison-Maretzek Italian Opera: Ernani

“Ernani: The second performance of ‘Ernani,’ last night was better than the first. Pancani was in magnificent voice, and his admirable qualities as an artist received more of the appreciation due them than they have generally had heretofore. Mrs. States, freed from the embarrassment of her debut, developed a better range of voice than on Monday night, but we found no reason to change our opinion of her culture.”

“Last evening ‘Ernani’ was repeated for the second time this season. The cast was the same as before. Mme. States, who made a successful debut on Monday evening, repeated her impersonation of the heroine. The lady was in better condition, and had more confidence in her audience. The result was a marked increase of power and freeness of delivery. We know of no American prima donna who can at all equal Mme. States in the matter of voice. The lady has yet much to learn, but it is the learning which will come naturally and quickly by experience, which, as Shakespeare says, ‘is by industry achieved and perfected by the swift course of time.’ There was a tendency last evening to over-exertion. The male artists were not in their usual good trim, but the opera, nevertheless, was given with spirit.”  

“Pike's Opera House—‘Ernani’ last night, to a fashionable and delighted audience, was spiritedly and handsomely done at this popular house. As the bill defines it, ‘the splendid cast’ [names of cast and roles] was well adapted for an effective execution of the several parts in detail and in combination. It is a powerful team, pulling beautifully together. Madame States, fine as she was on her first appearance here, was still better last night. She had passed the ordeal of her introduction to a New York audience with marked approbation, and she was therefore ‘at home’ on this occasion, and without reserve and confident that the house was with her she sang with the enthusiasm of an accepted favorite. She has a remarkably fresh, vigorous, elastic and powerful silvery voice, and is withal handsome in person and graceful in her movements as a born duchess. With half a chance she will surely maker her mark in the world and get her diamond necklace from the Czar. Pancani was splendid as the ernani of this Elvira, and Bellini was really grand in his rôle. The chorus, too, shared with the leading singers the honors of the night, and they were justly bestowed, for seldom indeed has the opera here had a better chorus than this of Harrison’s at Pike’s.”