Articles on the European success of Clara Louise Kellogg

“London, April 2, 1869.

The Italian opera has commenced at Covent Garden and I full expect will fail. Nilsson has refused to sing there and a great many people have refused to take boxes. There are several plans afloat, only two of which have any chance of success. One proposes to open the Lyceum and the other the Drury Lane, and they want to get Nilsson, Kellogg and Faure, besides a very good tenor, according to report, who is at present in Italy. Neither plan is at all settled, but I feel sure that with the feeling of the publc several of the artists and nearly all the employés, orchestras and chorus of ‘Her Majesty’s,’ we shall have a rival house before many weeks are over. I should be only too happy if Miss Kellogg would allow me to be of use to her in arranging matters with the manager. I can assure you we cannot do without her. There is no one to take her place. So that I trust if we can see our way to a pleasant and profitable engagement you will persuade her to come.

“I should be glad to know as soon as possible what would be the terms that would tempt her to come, and as soon as I know I have little doubt but all can be satisfactorily settled. If we get Kellogg, as well as Nilsson, it must be a success.” The letter is not signed.

“It will be seen by a private letter from London, published in another part of the paper, which was written by one of the highest and most distinguished men in England, that our charming American prima donna, Miss Kellogg, is not less popular and appreciated by the English than by her own countrymen. The writer takes rather a despairing view of the prospect for Italian opera in London, but thinks that if the opera manager can get Miss Kellogg there will be hope of success. ‘I can assure you,’ he says, ‘we cannot do without her. There is no one to take her place.’ He urges the gentleman to whom he writes to persuade her to go to London. This is very flattering to Miss Kellogg, and shows how highly she is appreciated in England. In fact, she has taken the first rank in her profession both here and in England. She is the only artist here who can fill our opera houses, and, as we see by the programme for the first performance of Rossini’s grand work, the ‘Messe Solennelle,’ she is specially selected to take the most prominent part. We cannot afford to part with our prima donna for a long time, but as the British like her so much and cannot establish Italian opera in London without her, we have no objection to lend her—that is, provided she wishes to go—for a season or two. Her talents and our magnanimity in this case may have the happy effect of cementing the entente cordiale between the two nations.”