New-Yorker Stadt-Theater Opera: Fidelio

“The Beethoven Männerchor gave last evening a very creditable performance at the Academy of Music of Beethoven’s only opera. The house was quite full. The opera is not one that arouses the enthusiasm of an audience, but it commands their sincerest admiration. The choruses were admirably sung, and in strong force, and the solo parts were also in excellent hands.”

“Mme. Lichtmay, the soprano, has a voice of excellent quality, which she has never been taught to use properly. The only thing she can do satisfactorily is to sing a sustained note. Her whole vocalizaion is rendered painfully bad by a vice that is scarcely tolerated in a beginner, the excessive use of the portamento. When the lady has to sing an interval, say of a fifth, she slides up to it. Her entire singing consisted in this sliding about the scale, now up and now down.”

[taken from longer article on Beethoven celebrations]

“We suppose a performance like that of ‘Fidelio’ last night, at the Academy of Music, is not to be judged by the ordinary rules of criticism, though it certainly would pass such an ordeal with high credit. Given under the auspices and with the assistance of the Beethoven Männerchor, it must be regarded as the tribute of a society of amateurs to the great name which all musicians delight to honor, rather than the venture of a company of professional artists, though the principal solo parts were taken by well-known public singers. But look upon it as we may, it was a most successful performance, and, despite some little drawbacks, by far the best rendering of ‘Fidelio’ that has been heard in New-York for a number of years. The leading roles were filled by Madame Lichtmay (Leonore), Miss Roemer (Marcelline), Mr. Bernard (Florestan), Mr. Habelmann (Jaquino), Mr. Franosch (Rocco), and Mr. Vierling (Pizarro). The part of Leonore is exactly suited to Madame Lichtmay’s broad dramatic style, the music fits the compass and quality of her voice, and she has a true appreciation of the sentiment and the grandeur of the magnificent strains which Beethoven has given to this great lyric character. In all the most famous numbers she came as near to the ideal Leonore as any singer now on the American stage could come, and several times during the evening, especially in the climax of the prison scene and the finale of the opera, she impressed every one as an artist of real greatness. In the beautiful canon Mir ist so wunderbar she was just a shade out of tune; but her grand recitative and aria, Abscheulicher! Wo eilst du hin? was exquisitely given. Mr. Bernard was good in all his slow music, but, when his voice fill with fire his passion is apt to run  away with his voice—which is a great pity, for it is a voice very grateful to the ear, and he uses it at other times like an artist. Mr. Franosch deserves high praise for a neat, sonorous, and well phrased interpretation of the principal bass part, and Mr. Vierling delivered the baritone with great force—rather too much, sometimes—and with intelligence. The weak spot in the cast was the Marcelline. There are but three choruses in the opera, and the first of these contains only a few measures sung sotto voce, so there was comparatively little for the Männerchor to do; but that little is rare music, and they did it splendidly. The Prisoners’ Chorus can never be appreciated except when it is given, as it was last night, by a large body of trained singers, and even though they were shuffled rather awkwardly about the stage and displayed some singular varieties of costume, one was not disposed on such an occasion to be over critical about minor points. It was in the finale of the opera that the 150 ladies and gentlemen appeared in full force, and closing the performance with a most glorious outburst of inspiriting [sic] song. As the curtain fell, the enthusiasm of the crowded audience found vent in loud shouts of pleasure. The orchestra, conducted by Mr. Neuendorf, played the wonderful accompaniments for the most part with care and precision, an uncertain sound now and then from the horn being the principal defect. The overture chosen was the one in E (No. 4), the one which Beethoven himself finally adopted. It is, of course, inferior to the great No. 3, if not to the others also, but it is so commonly given as the Introduction to the opera, while the others are known as the overtures to ‘Leonore,” the original title of the opera. Mr. Neuendorf divided the work last night into three acts instead of two. This was convenient for the artists and the carpenters, but the effect was not pleasant. The supernumenary division was made after the prison scene. It is in this scene that the interest of the opera culminates, and if the curtain falls at the end of it we feel that the performance ought there to end. The consequence is an ante-climax [sic], and the next scene opens languidly.

“But with the echoes of this divine music still ringing in our ears, and the recollection of so much that was excellent in the representation tempting us to enthusiasm, we do not find it in our heart to find fault. We may better close with a word of congratulation to the Männerchor for what they have accomplished, and of thanks for the pleasure they have given to the musical public.” 

Includes roster.

[part of a larger article on observances of Beethoven’s birth]

“The Beethoven Maennerchor, as was to be expected, were foremost in upholding the glory of their great protagonist. On Friday evening week they occupied the Academy of Music, and performed ‘Fidelio.’ It happens that the rare opportunities of hearing this one of the four greatest operas ever written, generally occur when there is technically said to be ‘no opera;’ but whatever the circumstances, no true musician would willingly fail to be present. The audience on Friday could not be called a fashionable one, for the regular Academy habitués were not all there. Still less could it be pronounced unfashionable, but rather noticeable for the number of persons it contained having the look of travel and culture, and intellectual distinction. They were rewarded for their pains, for the performance, taken as a whole, was unusually fine.

In ‘Fidelio’ the chorus and orchestra are of even more consequence than the principal parts; and on this occasion the orchestra being very good, the chorus really superb, and the principal parts at least respectable, there was little room for criticism, and ample leisure to enjoy undisturbed the lovely music. Of this there is little to be said that has not already been said a thousand times before. Still, one may record the satisfaction with which he listens to strains, every bar of which he anticipates, and yet finds on the rehearing that it is as fresh, as profound, and as delightful as ever. BEETHOVEN had no occasion to depart from that law of beauty which hampers lesser men; he could sound the lowest depth of sorrow or despair without needing to be harsh or ceasing to be majestic. The chorus of the unhappy prisoners who, after years of confinement, are permitted, at the prayer of Fidelio, to enjoy once more the air and sunshine, is a subject admirably suited to BEETHOVEN’S genius, and in his broad and noble, yet solemn periods, we realize intensely the feelings of men who have suffered for so long a time that even their thankfulness is tearful and dejected. This justly famous number was splendidly given on Friday night, by a chorus which had made the study of it a labor of love; and, full as the house was, we could have wished its audience doubled, that more might have enjoyed so great a musical treat. Mme. LICHTMAY was the Leonore, and Mlle. ROEMER, Marcelline. Both ladies possess good voices and some cultivation, and if they share somewhat largely in the prevailing faults of the modern school, they sing a conscientious correctness, and a freedom from affectation very pleasurable to hear. Pizarro and Rocco were represented by Messrs. FRANOSCH and VIERLING, Florestan by a fine if rather impulsive tenor, Mr. CARL BERNARD, and the little part of Zagnino [sic] was gracefully filled by a competent artist, Mr. THEODORE HABELMANN. But in speaking of each individual, we come back to his or her crowning merit, viz., the way in which the individuality was subordinated to the desire of contributing to the completeness of the whole—a merit which rendered this representation, got up with the hope of profit, and mainly by amateurs, worthy of repetition and warm praise.”