Articles and announcements on forthcoming Nilsson American tour

“The European papers still notice the movements of Mlles. Patti and Nilsson with great regularity, but no one of them alludes to the probability of a visit, this year, of Mlle. Patti. All, however, speak of Mlle. Nilsson’s advent as certain, Le Gaulois excepted. This journal states, on alleged authority, that the Emperor Napoleon has authorized M. Perrin to offer the Swedish artiste a ten years’ engagement on fabulous terms with a promise of a pension at the close. Similar proposals are usually credited to the Czar of Russia, and with no great appearance of truth, but the system of communiqués is one productive of considerable adhesion to facts, in relation to the acts of France’s ruler, at all events.”

Long announcement in a card on the ads page.

“At the close of a season of sustained brilliancy Mr. Max Strakosch desires to express to the American public his recognition of the appreciation shown the talent he has been the means of bringing before it, his gratitude for the encouragement accorded, and his resolve, by future labors, to assert his worthiness of approval and support. Three musical enterprises, each momentous in its influence and undertaking, have in consecutive years been honored with attention, criticism and encouragement. The inaugural representations of the Grand Opera House, consisting of operatic performances by Madame de Lagrange and Signor Brignoli; the lengthened series of operatic entertainments and concerts by Miss Clara Louise Kellogg, the representative of American art, and the Patti concerts, which displayed in so solid a setting the principal artist, have constituted the enterprises in question. The recollection of their successful results, growing out of the bestowal of the public’s critical time and patronage, forms now the motive for his latest and greatest endeavor. Mr. Strakosch, therefore, begs to announce the engagement for the United States, effected with the co-operation of his brother, M. Maurice Strakosch, of

MLLE. CHRISTINE NILSSON.

“It is not Mr. Strakosch’s intention to overstep, at present, the limits outlined above. He will, in consequence, confine himself to the statement that Mlle. Nilsson’s engagement has been formally concluded by M. Maurice Strakosch, in the face of competition with the most prominent managers of the Old and the New World, and of strenuous opposition from crowned heads. Mr. Strakosch sails for Europe on the 11th inst., to complete the arrangements for the first appearance of Mlle. Nilsson, with M. Maurice Strakosch, whose record of direct and indirect exertions in behalf of art in America will be crowned, he may be permitted to say, by the presentation of the public of this Continent of the sister of Jenny Lind and queen of song, Christine Nilsson, who will make her first appearance in American on Monday, September 19, 1870.”

“The advent of Mlle. Christina [sic] Nilsson is already causing a flutter in musical circles. Below her all other stars pale, if the universal verdict of Europe be relied upon.”

“Next September we shall have in this country the popular and accomplished prima donna Christine Nillsen [sic], who is at this moment the reigning attraction of the Paris and London opera houses, and who divides with Adelina Patti the position of pre-eminence in the musical world. The brothers Max and Maurice Strakosch are the enterprising managers under whose case the Swedish nightingale will warble her notes in America.

“It is intended that Nillsen [sic] shall sing in concert, oratorio and opera. In the concert room she will prove one of the most attractive artists that has ever been seen in this country. In oratorio she has made great successes in England, where oratorio singing is best understood and most critically judged. In a certain range of opera Nillsen [sic] has also been eminently successful. Indeed, there is in the versatility of Mlle. Nillsen [sic] something which appeals with especial force to the American mind and taste.

“We understand that the musical surroundings of Nillsen’s [sic] American engagement will be such as in every way will enhance her won great abilities. The gem will be displayed in a brilliant setting.”

“Nillson’s [sic] First Concert in America is announced to take place at Steinway Hall in this city on September 19th under Max Strakosch’s management. The tickets will have to be put at a high figure to make it profitable in a house of comparatively so small capacity, we should think. A letter is said to have been received here, stating that Louis Napoleon was to give Strakosch $50,000 as a salve for keeping Nillson [sic] in France, and breaking the American engagement. This is, probably, one of those clever little advertising dodges through which it is intended to bull the market previous to the advent of Nillson [sic] in this country.”

Nearly identical to New York Herald advertisement of 06/04/70, p. 12.

“Mr. Max Strakosch sailed for Europe yesterday to make the final arrangements for the visit of the great cantatrice, Christine Nilsson. She will be the sensation of the next season.”

“Max Strakosch has ‘gone for her’—Nillson [sic, and throughout], we mean; Nillson, the latest sensational singst [sic]. Max sailed in the Ville de Paris on the 11th inst.; so, from the present time until the ides of September, we may expect to hear marvelous things about Nillson—of the enormous salaries she is to receive, all the way from a thousand dollars in gold up to ten thousand per night—of her benevolence to the ‘poor firemen;’ kindness to the ‘down trodden Fenians,’ of the debilitating and pernicious effect upon her sensibilities created by the sight of a lame duck or a dead dog; of the angelic ministrations of this glorious woman upon a thousand battle fields, pouring whiskey down the parched throat of the tired soldier, picking lint for warriors’ wounds and contributing a ten dollar bill to the New York Soup Society. All these things we are to be crammed with before we will be ripe enough for the plucking. Seriously, however, we fear the Nillson speculation will ruin somebody interested. Barnum ‘done us’ all with Jenny Lind, but then we had not cut our eye teeth; we do not run so wildly after curiosities and monstrosities as we did then. If Nillson can dance the Can-Can, ‘with all the latest improvements,’ stand on her head for twenty-four hours or give us such progressive and pathetic ballads as that entitled ‘As I Walk-ed Round the Betterin’ House Garden,’ etc., she may answer; but if she fails to give us any of these novelties, better had Max Strakosch been drowned with Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red Sea.”

Very long Nilsson biography.