Venue(s):
Academy of Music
Manager / Director:
Maurice Strakosch
Max Strakosch
Conductor(s):
Max Maretzek
Price: $2; $3 and 4, reserved seat; $1 family circle; $.50 extra, reserved seat; $5 box or front row of balcony
Event Type:
Opera
Status:
Published
Last Updated:
18 October 2023
Announces forthcoming season of Italian opera, to be managed by Max and Maurice Strakosch; lists artists engaged and partial repertory.
Notes Max Strakosch’s departure for Europe to complete arrangements; provides testimony from London regarding the merits of the new tenor Capoul.
Lists singers so far engaged by Strakosch for his forthcoming season.
Company's arrival in New York; names of members; itinerary.
Notes Strakosch's engagement of eminent baritone Barre, of the Paris Opera Comique.
Announcing the comapany’s principal singers and repertory.
Notes that the Boston season will begin on October 9.
"Season of twenty nights." Lists principal singers and repertory.
Christine Nilsson's reception on board the Swedish frigate, Josefine.
“At last the golden days of Italian opera have returned. At length we really hear Mlle. Nilsson; she has emerged from the pale, cold light of the concert room into the warmth and glow and lustre of the lyric stage. She has laid aside the trammels of formalism that hem in and confine the singer of arias, and assumed the freedom of the prima donna. [Illegible line] the great artist. At last she is in her true sphere, and was recognized at once by every one of the great audience that gathered to hear her last evening to be so.
It would be useless to enter into details as to the manner in which ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ was given, or as to how this or that cavatina was sung. Suffice it to say, that so far as the prima donna was concerned, there seemed nothing left to be desired. There may be a better Lucia somewhere in the world, but if there is we have no desire to hear her. Mlle. Nilsson suffices.
Both in action and vocalism she seemed to do all that could be done. The series of pictures that she gave was sufficient to delight the eye, and every note was a pearl of purity— translucent, glowing, and of perfect beauty. The praise may seem extravagant, but the fact remains that such a prima donna has not been heard in this country since the days of Malibran. Her singing was more than good enough to atone for every deficiency in the minor parts.
“The opening of the Nilsson season last night at the Academy was socially and artistically brilliant beyond record. Of Miss Nilsson we have spoken elsewhere in these columns. For the rest we can only note briefly that M. Barré is a pleasing but not a forcible singer; that Brignoli is as ponderously deliberate and as wheezily melodious as usual, and that Herr Reichhardt in his weakness, as Signor Coletti in his strength, were alike quite from the mark of music. Chorus and orchestra did well, and when the strong artists of the troupe are conjoined, as in ‘Faust’ to-morrow, we may expect such opera as shall make the walls of the Academy memorable and reverend with great associations in a single night.”
“Let us spare ourselves a description of the festival aspect of the Academy last night, when the great event toward which Art and Society have both looked forward with so much anxiety crowned expectation with rich fulfillment. It is enough to say that what ever New York could show of beauty and brightness was there to welcome Miss Nilsson. The radiance of jewels and sparkling eyes shed luster over the scene. Full dress fluttered in the boxes, and regiments of young men about town, interspersed with myriads of spare tenors and battered baritones, made an effective background for the glowing picture. Thus Italian Opera, dead, Sirs, a hundred times within the past five years—came to life once more with phenomenal vigor, and Mr. Maretzek, who has buried it so many times that he has become a sort of lyric undertaker, presided from the orchestra over a brighter musical resurrection than he has ever witnessed before. Lucia is said to be one of Miss Nilsson’s favorite roles, and we doubt not that in [illegible] two [illegible] it will rank among her strongest. And yet, judging from what we have seen and heard at her concerts, we question whether it was well chosen to show her best power or to give full play to the indescribable personal charm which, more than voice or action, is the secret of her success. It will be accounted rank heresy, we suppose, to say that the first act was rather disappointing, but we believe that is the exact truth. The entrance of Lucia was of course the signal for a best round of applause and a liberal offering of flowers. She came upon the stage in a quick, resolute way, thinking, apparently, more of the business of the part than the audience, the slender, graceful figure becomingly [illegible] and the deep eyes seeming to light up the cold, [illegible] face with the peculiar Northern beauty of which she has set her admirers raving. Her opening cavatina was given with much more intense action than [illegible] accustomed to see, for Lucia, in her conception, is not the simple, trustful, loving girl of the conventional prima donna, but a nervous, passionate, and, we should imagine, rather willful heroine—an uncomfortable sort of person to be in love with, but with a predisposition to insanity, which, if not pleasant, is appropriate. With the entrance of Edgardo she passes into a somewhat softer mood, and the latter part of the duet (‘Verrano a te sull’aura’) is thoroughly sweet, tender, and charming. The whole business of the second act is the wedding with Arturo, the return of the absent lover, and the despair of Lucia at the discovery of the fraud of which she has been made the victim. The alternations of anguish and melancholy in the first part of the act are admirably indicated [illegible] terrible scene of the close is superb. Here, when she tore off the wedding vail, threw herself at Arturo’s [illegible], grasped his hands, clung to him as to her last hope, and almost fought with him as he tried to tear himself away, one felt that the fierce consuming love which [illegible] in every look and gesture must turn to madness if it [illegible] defeated of its object. The effect upon the audience was electrical. It was impossible to mistake the demonstrations which followed; they were the marks of real enthusiasm. In the mad scene the action was perhaps [illegible] finer. An actress raving in white muslin is generally of the most ridiculous of objects; but the [illegible] of Nilsson’s Lucia is something awful, and, at the same time pathetic. There is no violence, no rant, no horrible grotesque fancy, but simply the mad melancholy of a bewildered [illegible] broken heart, bearing through all [distractions?] the memory of a great sorrow. There was something [illegible] and painful in the exquisite cadenza with the flute obbligato which occurs in the midst of this number, [illegible] of such beauty must be out of place in mournful company, and the closing melody, ‘Spargi d’amoro pianto,’ with which Lucia finally disappears from the scene, left an impression too deep to be soon forgotten.
Yet with all these dramatic triumphs, we doubt, as we have said already, whether ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ shows the best that Nilsson can do. We saw no reason last night to modify the opinion we have heretofore expressed of her singing, abounding as it does in crude phrasing, extravagant contrasts, and defective intonations, nor was her voice often heard in the [illegible] and fineness for which it has been so justly [illegible]. Her success was that of an actress rather than [illegible]. But we must admit that after the first act it was success of the most pronounced kind.
The rest of the company must be dismissed for [to-day?] with brief mention. Brignoli exerted himself to [the?] utmost as Edgardo, and went through the trying scene with no little credit to himself and satisfied the audience. The new baritone, M. Barré, cannot be said to have made a profound impression in any [way?]. His voice is too light for the rôle of Ashton, and his [illegible] as an artist is evidently not of the highest. But it [illegible] funny to see him shake himself when he wants to [give?] emphasis to the music. The chorus numbers [illegible] and the orchestra the same.”