Adelaide Ristori Farewell: Asylum for the Children of the Italian Soldiers Benefit

Event Information

Venue(s):
Steinway Hall

Proprietor / Lessee:
Jacob Grau

Conductor(s):
Paolo Giorza

Price: $.50

Event Type:
Chamber (includes Solo)

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
29 June 2018

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

07 Jun 1868, 8:00 PM

Program Details

Includes recitations by Ristori: Borghi’s poem “To the Virgin,” “Meeting of the two queens,” from Schiller’s Maria Stuart, and Schiller’s “Les Adieux de Jeanne d’Arc.”

Performers and/or Works Performed

2)
Composer(s): Unknown composer
Participants:  Adelaide Ristori
3)
Composer(s): Rossini
Participants:  Eliza [contralto] Lumley

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 03 June 1868, 7.
2)
Announcement: New York Herald, 04 June 1868, 4.
3)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 06 June 1868.

Includes program of readings; ad promises “declamatory readings and also vocal musical illustrations by Mme Adelaide Ristori”).

4)
Announcement: New-York Times, 06 June 1868, 4.
5)
Review: New York Herald, 08 June 1868, 4.

“. . . Madame Adelaide Ristori gave a grand soirée of sacred, dramatic and declamatory readings, with a semi-concert, in which Madame Lumley, the celebrated contralto . . . took part.  Madame Ristori recited a poem by Borghi entitled ‘To the Virgin Mary,’ last scene from the third act of Schiller’s ‘Marie Stuart,’ ‘Les Adieux de Jeanne d’Arc,’ by the same author, and an Italian song which she rendered with a sweet, cultivated voice. Madame Lumley fully sustained her high reputation as a vocalist in a cavatina from Rossini’s ‘Stabat Mater,’ and was received with enthusiasm. The soirée was a fitting close to the long season of musical entertainments at this beautiful ball.”

6)
Review: Courrier des États-Unis, 09 June 1868.

“Mme Ristori has definitely finished her career in New York. Last Sunday [review says Friday, which is incorrect] she appeared at Steinway Hall in a dramatico-musical soirée given as a benefit for a charity. It couldn’t have been a better ending, and the memory that the talented artist leaves behind will remain illuminated by the halo of the woman with a heart.

“Mme Ristori was accompanied, in this farewell event, by several artists of merit, among others MM Paolo Giorza, Giovanni Aberle, and Cesar Alard. M. Giorza had given, a few days previously, at the seat of the Conservatory of Music, on 5th Avenue, an almost intimate concert which had great success, and whose subtlety will stay in memory, in the midst of very noisy entertainments that show off pompously every day, and that leave only an ephemeral echo. We heard with real surprise some yong people from the world of song with true artistic talent, among others the two young ladies Annie and Fanny Powell, daughters of one of the most distinguished painters of the American school; and also a young Miss M. Pitkin, who could, if she wished, scale the difficult summits of renown. As for the [established] artists, they have names that always make for a good programme. Giorza is probably the best accompanist and most energetic pianist that there may be in the United States. He could also be one of the most accomplished performers if he wanted to be a soloist; but he composes, and above all he teaches and he has everything that he needs—he’s proved that every day—to train first-class students. Massimiliani sang, Fossati and Gariboldi sang, and Camilla Urso played the violin. After that, nothing was left undone.”