Patriots of Cuba Benefit Entertainment

“A benefit performance, under the auspices of the Junta de Cuba, will be given at an early day at the Academy of Music, the proceeds of which will be devoted to the relief of the suffering patriots in Cuba. The promised performance will be upon a grand scale, and the worthy object for which it will be given will doubtless prove sufficient in itself to crowd the house, from parquet to gallery, with the lovers of liberty and the admirers of valor.”

“Under the auspices of the Cuban Junta, a grand performance will be given at the Academy of Music next Tuesday night, and in aid of the Cuban revolutionists. Full particulars will be made public in a day or two.”

“ACADEMY OF MUSIC.—PARTIES DESIROUS OF participating in the grand benefit entertainment in aid of the patriots of Cuba will please call on or address EDMOND GERSON, Director, Academy of Music, from 11 to 2 P. M.”

“The performance for the benefit of the Cuban patriots, which is announced to come off at the Academy of Music on next Tuesday evening, promises to be a most enjoyable and varied entertainment. The affair has been gotten up under the auspices of the Cuban Junta, and nearly two thousand tickets have already been disposed of, the proceeds of which will be devoted to the relief of the sick and wounded patriots in ‘the Ever Faithful Isle.’ Among those who have volunteered their services for the occasion are Miss Fanny Stockton and Messers. Sanderson, Aberle, Genot, Francis and Bourgoin, and Mme. Victoria Maurice, Mlles. Diana Baretta, Mme. Lumley and Señorita Filomeno.”

“The performance in aid of the Cuban patriots, which is announced to come off at the Academy of Music next Tuesday evening, promises to be a most successful and enjoyable affair. A good varieties [sic] programme—just suited for the hot weather—is offered as an inducement for crowded houses, and 300 Cuban volunteers, in full uniform, will also assist at the performance.”

“A grand musical and varieties entertainment will be given this evening [sic] at the Academy of Music, under the auspices of the Cuban Junta, for the benefit of suffering patriots in the ‘ever faithful isle.’ A good programme is offered and a ‘host of talent’ has volunteered for the occasion.”

“Our readers are reminded that a performance for the benefit of the Cuban Patriots will be given at the Academy of Music this evening. The programme promises much—so much, in fact, that the exercises will begin at 7½ o’clock, and last, we fancy, till midnight. Mr. Anschutz will conduct the musical part of the entertainment. A vaudeville is to be presented, by M. Genot and Mme. Maurice, and Offenbach’s ‘Les Deux Avengles’ will be performed. Two hundred Cuban volunteers, in uniform, will sing ‘Marseillaise,’ and finally a lot of dancing girls will execute ‘The original French cancan.’ This latter morsel is announced with a good deal of stress. The following performers have volunteered their services: Mme. La Tuer, Mlle. Filomeno, Henriques De Leon, Victoria Maurice, Diani, Baretta, and the Sisters Lucelles, Therese, and La Petite Mathilde; Messrs. Harry Sanderson, Arthur Matthison, Genot, Bourgoin, Francis, Benedick, Cellini, and Aberle.”

“The programme for the ‘Grand Benefit Entertainment in aid of the Patriot Cubans,’ which was given at the Academy of Music yesterday evening, under the management of Messrs. Genese, Starr, Morrissey and Gerson, offered the greatest possible variety of attractions. The first part consisted of the overture from ‘William Tell,’ by the orchestra; ‘Croyneville,’ a one act vaudeville, by Lamber Thiboust, with M. Genot as Oscar Lecordier, and Mme. V. Maurice as Lousie, and the dancing of a pas de fascination, by Mlle. Diani and Signor Cellini, and a pas seul by La Petite Mathilde. Part second comprised a piano solo from ‘Norma’ and a violin solo from ‘Lucrezia Borgia,’ by Mlle. Filomeno; a song, ‘Lo Schiavo,’ by Mlle. Henriquez de Leon; a new Cuban song, composed expressly for the occasion, by Henry Tucker, ‘The Banner that Bears the Lone Star,’ and sung by Mr. Arthur Matheson; a piano solo; ‘Old Guard Polka’ and ‘Malakoff;’ a national Cuban dance, arranged and executed by Harry Sanderson, and a grand aria from ‘Judith,’ by Mlle. La Tuer. Part third—Hungarian Polka, by Mlle. Baretta; ‘Les Deux Avengles,’ a musical bouffonery [sic] by Jacques Offenbach, ‘interpreted’ by Messrs. Bourgoin and Francis (but sans accompagnement d’orchestra); a pas de bouquet by Mlle. Diani and Signor Cellini; a ‘Grand Patriotic Song and Military Tableaux;’ ‘La Marseillaise’ (in English), by Mme. La Tuer, ‘as the Goddess of Liberty, assisted by chords, orchestra and the entire company, with two hundred volunteers in full uniform,’ (the two hundred volunteers of the programme having mysteriously dwindled to twenty), and finally the original French cancan, arranged by Mlle. Baretta and dance by Mlles. Theresa, Lapointe, the Lucelle Sisters and Diani and Baretta. Although this patriotic Cuban entertainment was not encouraged by the special patronage of Marshal Barlow it passed off quite successfully, amid enthusiastic shouts of ‘Patria v [sic] Libertad!’”

“The benefit entertainment given last night at the Academy of Music in aid of the Patriot Cubans was decidedly successful in point of attendance, the building being very nearly full, and many tickets having probably been sold in addition to those taken up at the door. A warm, not to say hot, enthusiasm moreover pervaded the assemblage, and smoothed over the little defects and delays inseparable from such irregular performances, at which scene-shifters, call boys, prompters and stage managers are unfamiliar with one another and with the machinery of the house. The curtain would not always come down when it was called, but nobody seemed to care much for such trifles; actors got off the stage and best they could, and tableaux broke up with difficulty and dribbled slowly out of sight. The drama was represented on this occasion by a vaudeville of Lambert Thiboust’s—‘Croque-Poule’—acted by Mlle. Maurice and M. Genot, and by Offenbach’s bouffonneirie of ‘Les Deux Avengles,’ in which the characters were played by MM. Bourgoin and Francis. All these artists are well-known relics of the Grau and Bateman troupes. There was music by Mr. Harry Sanderson, Miss Josefina Filomeno, Mlle. Henriques de Leon, Mad. La Tuer, and a small orchestra commanded by Carl Anschutz. Mr. Sanderson’s performance of the Malakoff National Cuban dance kindled a wild uproar, through which the piano could scarcely be heard. There was a rich variety of ballet, wherein Mlles. Diani and Baretta, the Lucelle sisters, Mlle. Theresea, and Mlle. Lapointe—not to speak of the manly Signor Cellini—each shook a leg; and there was promise of a grand patriotic and military tableau, with a chorus for the Marseillaise and ‘200 Cuban volunteers in full uniform.’ This was very fine, though, to be sure, the performance fell somewhat short of the promise. The chorus did not appear, and the 200 volunteers amounted to precisely 19 young men and lads, wearing a uniform of brown linen with leather gaiters. Madame La Teur as the Goddess of Liberty, draped in the Cuban flag, sang the Marsellaise with marked dramatic effect, while Miss Filomeno stood behind her holding a corner of the revolutionary standard, which was supported by a patriot in uniform. At the end of the song vivas rent the building. Gentlemen rose in their seats to hurrah again and again for ‘Madame La Tuer,’ ‘Gen. Golcouris,’ the ‘Junt,’ ‘Los Voluntarios,’ and anything else of a Cuban character they could think of. They shouted all the way up Fourteenth-st., after the performance was over, and some of them, we should think, must have shouted after they got to bed. The last piece on the programme was the real ‘original French can-can,’ danced by four ingenuous young ladies, who probably satisfied Mr. Richard Grant White himself, if he was there to see them, which we take it for granted he was. We hope they profited their Cuban treasury, for we don’t believe they profited anything else.”

“The attendance at the Cuban Benefit Concert at the Academy of Music last night was large, and the enthusiasm of the audience something to be wondered at. If the Cubans are half so enthusiastic in the face of the enemy as they are in the less dangerous precincts of the Academy, the triumph of their cause is secure. The entertainment as a varied one, embracing a vaudeville entitled ‘Croque-Poule,’ played by M. Genet and Mlle. Maurice; ‘Les Deux Avengles,’ a musical trifle by Offenbach, played by MM. Bourgoin, Genot and Alfred, and singing and piano-forte playing by Mme. La Tuer and Mr. Sanderson. The ‘Marseillaise,’ to be sung by Mme. La Tuer as the Goddess of Liberty, assisted by a chorus and a grand orchestra, and further enlivened by the moral support of two hundred Cuban volunteers in uniform, was promised in the programme; and though the orchestra was rather small, and the two hundred volunteers were represented by twenty young men in linen coats, the enthusiasm of the patriotic audience could hardly have been increased had Mme. La Tuer possessed the voice of Parepa and been supported by Thomas’s orchestra and the whole Cuban army. A rather excessive amount of ballet, furnished by Mlles. Diani, Lapointe, Baretta and Lucelle was distributed through the evening, and the performance closed with a cancan, to which the programme called particular attention and which was doubtless of inestimable benefit to the Cuban arms. The concert did not pass off quite as smoothly as might have been desired; but every one [sic] was pleased, and it was an undoubted pecuniary success.”

“Miss Inez Henriques de Leon, the young Cuban lady who sung [sic] the new Cuban song with so much spirit and brilliancy at the Academy of Music on last Tuesday evening, contemplates making her debut in opera in the fall. She is a hard student, and is possessed of a strong, sweet voice, and should she adhere to her purpose will, in time, be pretty certain to make her mark upon the lyric stage.”