Maretzek Italian Opera: Il trovatore; CANCELLED EVENT

“The Maretzek Opera Troupe will give three performances at the Lyceum Theater next week, and will then go to Havana. Their contemplated Western trip has been abandoned.”

Announces operas for the week; notes that the “Chicago and Cincinnati papers are much exercised over the abandonment by Mr. Maretzek of his proposed western troupe” and briefly discusses that situation.

“It is a pity that architectural fates should be permitted to mar good music at the Lyceum Theatre. It cannot be denied with good reason, however, that the principal parts of ‘Il Trovatore’ are filled better by Di Murska, Lucca and Tamberlik, taken together, than by any other combination of artists that has ever sung the opera in this city.”

“The opera of ‘Trovatore’ will be presented on this occasion without alteration or transposition from the originals core of Maestro Verdi.”

“The Maretzek Opera. This institution is no more. The financial troubles of the period have involved Mr. Maretzek and his tuneful band. His principal singers, Murska and Lucca, wished to be paid in gold the $500 a night for which they contracted to sing, but Mr. Maretzek could only pay them in currency, and says he ‘felt justified in making this demand in consideration of the present hard times and the fluctuations of gold in Havana which the present political excitement might cause. Contrary to my expectation and to the noble example shown by Mme. Nilsson towards her manager, this proposal was declined and further services refused. The money received for tickets sold will be refunded at the various offices.’ So says Mr. Maretzek, and so closes an unsuccessful chapter in his musical career. He is accustomed to such reverses; but he has the sympathy of all music lovers, nevertheless, for he has done more than any other man for Italian music in this country. Of course, owing to this disintegration of the troupe, the operatic performances announced for the Lyceum Theatre for this evening will not take place, and the operatic tour to Havana will be abandoned.”

Lists operas scheduled for the week. “In about ten days Mr. Maretzek’s company will proceed to Havana, where there is reason to believe that their series of entertainments will be exceedingly profitable.”

“Maretzek’s evil star is again in the ascendant. After struggling through a season of difficulties and embarrassments, which at last came suddenly to a close, matters were so far mended that the Havana trip was agreed upon, to be preceded by a week of opera at the Lyceum Theatre. All this, however, is now out of the question. In a published card Maretzek assures the public that Mesdames Lucca and Irma having declined certain modifications of their contracts made necessary, as he says, by the present hard times, and having refused their further services there will be no more opera under his direction and the money received for tickets sold will be returned at the various offices. This adds one more to a catalogue of misfortunes as long as that of Don Giovanni’s adventures. The arts and the artists are unhappily always the first to suffer in times of pecuniary trouble.”

Brief. “It is whispered in musical circles that the disintegrated atoms of the late Maretzek troupe will again coalesce, and that Lucca, Murska and Tamberlik will proceed to Havana on their own account, taking Signor Torriani as conductor.”

“The advertised performance of ‘Trovatore’ at the Lyceum Theater last night did not take place. Mr. Maretzek’s company has gone to pieces. The director felt himself under the necessity of reducing the salaries of Mme. Lucca and Mme. Ilma di Murska, and they consequently refused to sing. We must say that their melancholy result was neither unexpected nor undeserved.”

“Mr. Maretzek’s season of opera has ended. The impresario, we learn, intended to proceed to Havana, but the prime donne, he advises us, declined to accept their salaries in currency, as proposed by Mr. Maretzek on account of the disordered condition of affairs, and decided not to sing at the Lyceum Theatre this week. The relations of Mmes. Di Murska and Lucca, and of Signor Tamberlick, with Mr. Maretzek have, therefore, now terminated. It is whispered that the performers above named will proceed to Havana on Thursday. We do not believe, however, that any course of action has been finally determined upon.”

“Over $3,000 were received for the performance of ‘Il Trovatore,’ which was to take place at the Lyceum Theatre last evening, but which was indefinitely postponed. There was a steady stream of disappointed subscribers in the afternoon to the box office, demanding their money back, and it must be regretted that such an unexpected contretemps should have deprived the public of hearing such artists as Tamberlik, Di Murska and Lucca in their best rôles.”

“Maretzek's Italian Opera Company has come to grief, and the performances announced to be given at the Lyceum Theatre have been indefinitely postponed. The company was to have sailed for Havana this week, where a subscription amounting to nearly $100,000 awaits them. Mr. Maretzek made a written proposal to his prime donne, Mmes. Lucca and di Murska, who, by contract, should received each night $500 in gold, to accept their salaries in Havana, or whatever may be due to them now, in currency, leaving the control of the subscription money in Havana to their agents as a guarantee. That proposition was declined, and further services refused. Prime donne who would take advantage of a manager in times like these and prevent his going to a country where there was every prospect of his making money will not receive much sympathy from the public, if they are ever placed in a like position.”

“Madame Ilma de Murska and her husband, Count Richard Nugent, of the Austrian army; Madame Lucca and her husband, Baron Wallhoffen, late of the Prussian army; Ronconi and Vizzani left this city on Thanksgiving Day by the steamer City of New York for Havana.”

Part of “Introductory Overture” column. “Max Maretzek’s refractory operatives have left him desolate and lone. Di Murski [sic], Lucca, Tamberlik, etc. have sailed for Havana, intending to go it alone on Cuban soil, and rake in whatever little divvy the countrymen of Burriel the Butcher may have in store for them. But will these erstwhile exultant Habaneros be in proper condition to welcome the discordant elements of Maretzek’s soft shell clamberos? Will not their perfidious enmity extend to everybody and everything coming from the land of the stars and the stripes, now that the slaughters of defenceless [sic] men and boys have been forced to eat humble pie for their Thanksgiving fare? We think so. And in their extremity may even convert the gushing prime donne into Spanish sausages or mule pie, ‘country style.’”

Second article on the topic on the same page. “Mmes. Pauline Lucca and Ilma di Murska, with their husbands, also Signori Ronconi and Vizzani, sailed for Havana, Cuba, on Nov. 27. They were unwilling to sing there under Max Maretzek’s management unless he paid their salaries in advance in this city, but it would seem that they are willing to go there and sing on their own account, because they can take advantage of a large subscription which has been secured by Maretzek and his agents.”