Christine Nilsson Matinee: 1st

Event Information

Venue(s):
Steinway Hall

Manager / Director:
Max Strakosch

Conductor(s):
Max Maretzek

Price: $2; reserved, $3 and $4

Performance Forces:
Vocal

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
24 December 2022

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

24 Sep 1870, 1:00 PM

Performers and/or Works Performed

2)
aka Angels ever bright and fair
Composer(s): Handel
Text Author: Morell [librettist]
Participants:  Christine Nilsson
3)
aka Ophelia's mad scene; A vos jeux, mes amis
Composer(s): Thomas
Participants:  Christine Nilsson
4)
aka Through valley, through forest; Through valley, o’er mountain
Composer(s): Blangini
5)
aka If thou couldst know
Composer(s): Balfe
Participants:  Pasquale Brignoli
6)
aka Spanish melody
Participants:  N.[baritone] Verger
7)
Composer(s): Wehli
Participants:  James M. Wehli
8)
aka Home sweet home
Composer(s): Bishop
Text Author: Payne
Participants:  Christine Nilsson

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 20 September 1870, 7.
2)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 22 September 1870, 7.

Change in time from 2 pm to 1 pm.

3)
Review: New York Herald, 25 September 1870, 7.

“The announcement of the postponement of Friday’s concert would, it was thought, exercise a depressing influence on yesterday’s matinée at Steinway Hall, but we could see but little diminution in the audience. Very few seats were vacant, and the usual garde d’honneur of artists and littérateurs lined the rear of the hall. Owing to the illness of Miss Cary the programme was considerably changed. The nightingale sang the little air from Handel’s ‘Theodora,’ ‘Angels Bright and Fair,’ in which she was first heard before an American audience, and the grand scena from Thomas’s ‘Hamlet.’ The wonderful art displayed by the fair cantatrice was never exemplified so thoroughly as in the magnificent rendering of this trying scena yesterday, with no other accompaniment than that of Mr. Wehli at the piano. The main feature of Thomas’ opera is its excellent instrumentation, which compensates to a great extent for its poverty of melody, and when an artiste can produce an effect in such disjointed, characteristic measures as are found in the scene where poor Ophelia’s demented mind pours forth its sorrows, the conclusion can only be one of the highest praise of her art. The little duet, ‘Per Viali, per Bosche,’ by Blangini, which she sang with Brignoli, is not worthy of such artists. It is light and trifling, and should never have found a place on the programme. In fact, the programmes of the Nilsson concerts are not, as a general thing, of the standard which we would expect, and a very different style of music should be substituted. All the artists have extensive repertoires, and the public wish to hear them in other pieces than those which are hackneyed in the extreme. With the exception of the Hamlet scena we have not had as yet a novelty. The management should look to this, as novelty in the programme is as important an element of success as the artists themselves. Brignoli sang ‘Tu Savais,’ by Balfe. His beautiful tenor voice never pleased more than this season, and next to the Diva he makes the principal feature at the concerts. Verger sang a Spanish song with his accustomed care and in pleasant style. He is an artist that never fails to please, but very little beyond that. Vieuxtemps gave a very clear and effective transcription of his own on, ‘Willie, We Have Missed You,’ and responded to an encore with a fanciful illustration of ‘St. Patrick’s Day.’ Mr. Wehli played a couple of his own brilliant works. But the gem of the matinee was the singing of ‘Home, Sweet Home,’ by Mlle. Nilsson. It was so touching and artless that it found ready way into the hearts of her hearers. The extreme purity of her voice, which is the quality that arrests attention and admiration at first, gave the simple melody of the household a charm that was irresistible. It is a pity that we cannot hear her for a long time in opera. We believe that it is the intention of the management to bring her out in opera before the close of the season, but we think it more judicious and fair to the artist to produce opera at as early a date as possible. In opera Nilsson is in her own field, in which she has won lasting fame, and in which the awkward restraints of the concert hall are thrown aside. Her Mignon, Ophelia, Traviata and Marguerite have become household words in London and Paris. The desire of the public to hear her in opera is of the most intense kind. At all events, we would recommend a different class of music in the programmes for this week than that which characterized those of last week. Why not produce novelties at each concert, some of which may become the favorites of the public this winter? The suggestion is worth attending to.”

4)
Review: New York Sun, 26 September 1870, 2.

“Miss Nilsson appeared at the Saturday matinee. If, as Sydney Smith maintains, a main element of wit is surprise, the programme on this occasion must be taken as a very choice bit of fun, as the audience got all sorts of unlooked-for things, with very little of what they expected. Some of this irregularity was due to the sudden hoarseness and consequent non-appearance of Miss Cary; much, we are inclined to surmise, from the clashing vanities or whimsies of the subordinate artists.

“Mlle. Nilsson sang duly according to programme, but carefully and with economy of power, in view of the slight indisposition of the preceding evening. She gave a duo with Brignoli, and repeated the ‘Angels ever Bright and Fair,’ and the scena from Hamlet of her first concert. In response to a call she sang very sweetly ‘Home, Sweet Home,’ with just a bit of ornament in the last bar to relieve its entire plainness of form.

“But Miss Cary and Miss Nilsson were not the only ones under the weather. Mr. Wehli wore a look of injured innocence that appealed very strongly to the sympathies of the audience. He certainly made it very apparent to the public that his position as accompanist was not altogether to his liking.”