Anschütz German Opera: Fidelio

Event Information

Venue(s):
Academy of Music

Manager / Director:
Max Maretzek

Conductor(s):
Carl Anschütz

Price: $.50; $1 reserved; .25 amphitheatre

Event Type:
Choral, Opera

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
30 September 2013

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

09 Apr 1863, Evening

Program Details

82nd performance by Anschütz German Opera in the 1862-63 season.
Called 15th Night of the Maretzek season, but this is a German opera company, not Maretzek's Italian opera company.

Performers and/or Works Performed

1)
aka Leonore, oder Der Triumph der ehelichen Liebe; Leonore, or The Triumph of Married Love; Fidelio, oder Die eheliche Liebe;
Composer(s): Beethoven
Text Author: Sonnleithner
Participants:  Anschütz German Opera Company;  Arion Männergesangverein;  Joseph Weinlich (role: Rocco);  Bertha Johannsen (role: Leonora);  Anton Graf (role: Don Fernando);  Minna von Berkel (role: Marzelline);  J. Kronfeld (role: Jaquino);  William [baritone, bass] Hartmann (role: Don Piazarro);  Guglielmo Lotti (role: Florestan)
2)
aka Leonore overture, no. 2
Composer(s): Beethoven
3)
aka Leonore overture, no. 3; Leonora overture, no. 3
Composer(s): Beethoven
4)
aka Leonore overture, no. 4; Fidelio overture; Fidelio overture, no. 4; Fidelio overture, E major
Composer(s): Beethoven
5)
aka Leonore overture, op. 138; Fidelio overture, no. 1 ; Fidelis overture, no. 1
Composer(s): Beethoven

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 06 April 1863, 7.

2)
Announcement: New-York Times, 06 April 1863, 4.
“Anschutz has returned to the City, and has made an arrangement with Mr. Maretzek, by which he will be able to give two performances of German Opera at the Academy of Music during the present week.”
3)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 06 April 1863, 7.
Cast.  “The three celebrated Overtures, written for this Opera by Beethoven, will all be performed during the performance, viz.: One prior to the commencement of the Opera, and the other two between the acts.”
4)
Announcement: New York Post, 06 April 1863.

5)
Announcement: New York Herald, 07 April 1863, 6.

6)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 07 April 1863, 7.
Cast.
7)
Announcement: New York Post, 07 April 1863, 2.

8)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 08 April 1863, 7.
“Subscribers who are desirous of retaining their seats for the GERMAN OPERA, on Thursday or Saturday evening of this week, are respectfully requested to give notice, at the box-office of the Academy, by 11 o’clock on Thursday morning.”
9)
Announcement: New York Herald, 09 April 1863, 4.
 “To give effect to the choruses the Arion Society will lend their aid in this opera.”
10)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 09 April 1863, 7.
Cast.
11)
Announcement: New-York Times, 09 April 1863, 4.
“Anschutz’s celebrated German Opera Company will appear here for the first time.  Beethoven’s ‘Fidelio’ will be played, with largely increased orchestra and chorus.”
12)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 09 April 1863, 7.
Cast, prices, etc.
13)
Announcement: New York Post, 09 April 1863, 7.

14)
Announcement: Courrier des États-Unis, 09 April 1863.
“This evening, The German opera takes over the hall to give us Fidelio.  Anschutz’s company will succeed again in this respectable surrounding.”
15)
: Strong, George Templeton. New-York Historical Society. The Diaries of George Templeton Strong, 1863-1869: Musical Excerpts from the MSs, transcribed by Mary Simonson. ed. by Christopher Bruhn., 09 April 1863.
“After dinner went off by myself to Acad. of Music (a thing I have scarcely ever done before), took a parquette seat, and heard Fidelio, done by Madame Johannsen and the rest of Carl Anschutz’ German company.  House was full, interested, unconversational, & applausive.  Performance might have been much better, but it was a most satisfactory evening.  The music, though rather tough and refractory to one not familiar with it, is very noble.  And the opera, dramatically considered, is less base & idiotic than most operas.  The grave digging scene and Leonora’s pistol business are most effective.  They bring water into the eyes of weak people like myself, which hydraulic power is possessed by no other opera I know, except the Freischutz and Sonnambula—The intense emotion with which one listens to e.g. Vedrai Carina in Don Giovanni, & Dove sono in Nozze di Figaro is to be credited not to the dramatic or operatic situation but to the purity & pungency & expressiveness of the music!”
16)
Review: New York Herald, 10 April 1863, 4.

“An immense audience greeted the appearance of Manager Anschutz’s German opera troupe at the Academy of Music last night. We have no space to review the performance at length. We can but notice its great success. The artists were loudly applauded. The opera was admirably sung.”

17)
Review: New-York Times, 10 April 1863, 4.

Academy of Music.—…Mr. Anschutz’s German company gave a fine performance of ‘Fidelio’ at this establishment, last evening, to an exceedingly large and fine audience. The success of this experiment demonstrates what we have always maintained—namely, that German opera will succeed with an up-town as well as down-town audience. The cast, last evening, was the same as heretofore, with the exception of the jailer’s daughter, which rôle was played very charmingly by Mme. Von Berkel, who will be remembered as a favorite of our public. A considerable amount of applause was bestowed on the general representation.”

18)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 11 April 1863, 4.

“Mr. Anschutz, the most accomplished musical director has transferred his German company for a few nights to the Academy. The ‘Sympathetic’ Soprano, Madame Johannsens [sic], and the lively Soprano, Madame Von Berkel, are among his treasures. On Thursday the stately opera of Fidelio was given to a fine house . . . All amateurs, worthy the name are catholic—cosmopolitan—in their tastes—and will be pleased with this chance of hearing the masters of the German School.”

19)
Review: Dwight's Journal of Music, 02 May 1863, 23.
“ANSCHUTZ’ German company has given ‘Fidelio’ and ‘Don Giovanni’ at the Academy, with much less effect and success than at the small theatre, where the little troupe had no disadvantageous comparisons to fear—of course leaving the character of the music they perform and their excellent orchestra out of the question.”