Tammany Sunday Concert: 1st

Includes program.

“Tammany enters the Sunday concert field to-morrow, and purposes inaugurating its sacred course with Gounod’s ‘Nazareth’—never yet performed in America’ [sic].”

Includes program.

“There were three other concerts last night, at Steinway, Irving and Tammany Hall. At the latter the regular Tammany orchestra and the more musical members of the company were aided and abetted by a pretty fair chorus from the Italian opera. The Sunday concerts at Tammany will be continued.”

“Sunday concerts having become an established institution in New-York, there is no reason why they should not be given at Tammany as well as at Steinway Hall, and some of the directors of the former place of amusement having come to this conclusion, inaugurated a series of weekly concerts on Sunday evening. They were no doubt actuated by the best intentions, but they evidently attempted a task to which they were far from equal, and they should have seen the fallacy of undertaking an enterprise of this sort with insufficient means, incompetent performers, and inexperienced management. The faults were many, and the redeeming qualities few. The orchestra, although adequate enough for the ordinary requirements of the establishment, was not powerful enough or good enough for a concert chiefly orchestral. There were six orchestral pieces in the first part and four in the second, beside accompaniments to all the choruses and solos. Signor Operti, the conductor, is reputed a good musician, and he shows some signs of deserving this reputation. His selections are well arranged and orchestrated, but he displays a want of judgment in making up the programme; he confines himself almost entirely to two composers, Verdi and Operti. The former predominates in the first part, and the latter in the second. Sig. Operti’s compositions are of the order called descriptive, that is to say, they are elaborately explained in the programme, without which explanation it would be difficult to discover what they mean. They are not music of the future, but rather of the realistic present. A march dedicated to Gen. Grant contains more than one operatic reminiscence. Another piece, descriptive of a fire, is illustrated by the ringing of a bell at the beginning, and shouts of the musicians at the finale. A third is a musical illustration of Jerome Park races. It is needless to pursue the list further. The taste of the audience may have been consulted in these selections, as the only encore during the evening was accorded to the classic overture of the ‘Forty Thieves,’ conducted by Mr. Conolly, its talented composer. It consists of a jumble of the popular, slangy, burlesque songs, terminating with the imitation of the railroad from ‘After Dark.’ The vocal portion of the concert was led by Mr. Robert Greene, an excellent singer of English bravura music. His performance of Gounod’s ‘Nazareth’ was the only meritorious feature of the evening. It is a splendid, solemn melody, skillfully orchestrated, and worked up to a grand finale with full effect of orchestra and chorus. It is unnecessary to go through the programme in detail. Perhaps charity would ascribe the weakness and incompetence of Miss Hattie Greene to nervousness, but the same excuse will not serve a second time. There is unlimited room for improvement in these concerts, and if the management is wise it will not attempt a second one until some of the needed reforms are carried out.”

“There will be no Sunday entertainment at the Tammany. The experiment last week was not attended with flattering success, and probably will not be repeated. As soon as a modern ingenuity can meet the emergency with a sacred ballet or a holy pantomime, Sunday entertainments are likely to be resumed at the Tammany.”