Maretzek Italian Opera: La Sonnambula

Event Information

Venue(s):
Grand Opera House

Proprietor / Lessee:
Augustin Daly

Manager / Director:
Max Maretzek

Price: Evening: $2 general admission; $1 family circle; $1-2 extra reserved, according to location

Event Type:
Opera

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
14 March 2025

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

07 Oct 1873, Evening
11 Oct 1873, 1:00 PM

Program Details

First appearance of Signor Rossi-Galli.

No reserved seats in the family circle.

Matinee pricing: $1.50 general admission; reserved $.50-$1 extra.

Performers and/or Works Performed

Sonnambula, La

aka Sleepwalker; Nachtwandlerin

Composer(s): Bellini

Text Author: Romani

Participants: Maretzek Italian Opera Company; Antoinette Leidecker; E. [contralto] Ferretti; Ilma di Murska (role: Amina); Signor Vizzani (role: Elvino); Enrico Rossi-Galli (role: Count Rodolfo)

Citations

Announcement: New York Herald, 28 September 1873, 6.

“‘La Sonnambula’ has not been given here for so very long that it will have something of the flavor of a novelty. It will introduce Mlle. di Murska to us next Tuesday evening week [sic].”

Advertisement: New York Herald, 04 October 1873, 2.

Advertisement: New-York Times, 06 October 1873, 7.

Advertisement: New York Herald, 06 October 1873, 9.

Announcement: New York Post, 07 October 1873, 2.

“Di Murska is a prima donna noted in the principal theatres of Europe for her skill as a florid executant. Her voice is a high soprano trained with the greatest care by Madame Marchesi, of Paris, and other teachers. She is a blonde with golden hair, and is accompanied to this country by her husband, Count Nugent, of Austria. [Some history provided of her career thus far.]

Di Murska is pleased with New York, charmed with Broadway and the Central Park, and, like the other operatic artists now in our country, is delighted with our climate. Perhaps a few months’ sojourn will alter her and their opinions on this latter point. Luckily for themselves, the Maretzek troupe will be in Havana during the severest part of our winter.”

Review: New York Sun, 08 October 1873, 1.

“This eventful week of Italian opera brought before the public last evening still another singer of great European reputation.

Whatever disappointment may have been felt in regard to Signor Tamberlik, there can be no doubt that Mlle. Ilma di Murska exceeded even the expectations that had been formed of her. Add to the advantages that she already possesses those of youth and beauty and there would scarcely be a limit to the favor with which she would be received. The lady is no longer in the first freshness of her beauty or her voice, and yet she is so accomplished and finished a vocalist in the school in which she sings that it is necessary to remember back to the days of Frezzolini, if not Sontag, to recall a prima donna with such splendid execution combined with a dramatic talent of so high an order.

Mlle. Di Murska is called upon the programmes, the Hungarian Nightingale. The soubriquet is a trite one, but it expresses sufficiently the bird like character of her singing, the perfect flexibility, ease, and certainty with which she can render the most difficult passages, the charming grace of her trill and of all the vocal embellishments that she adds to her music. Her singing, however, is not overlaid with ornament. She is mistress of her profession and as well able to render a dramatic aria or a pathetic cantabile movement as to execute cadenzas.

Bellini’s ‘Sonnambula,’ which was the opera performed last evening, gives opportunity for the display of these varied accomplishments, and long before the splendid finale of the last act was reached Mlle. Di Murska had convinced her audience that they were listening to an artiste in every way worthy of admiration. The ‘Ah! Non Credea’ was sung with touching delicacy and sweetness, and the famous finale of the opera ‘Ah, Non Giunge’ was given with a fervor and an exquisitely executed lacework of ornament that made it the fit climax of an evening wholly successful, so far as the prima donna was concerned.

Before the season is ended Mlle. Di Murska will have taken her place as a public favorite, and that in spite of the fact that her voice is somewhat worn and occasionally is hard and metallic. Its strength is preserved and sufficient of its beauty to give, combined with the discretion, assurance, and perfect method with which it is used, constant pleasure to those who listen to it.

Signor Rossi-Galli, a basso, also made his first appearance here on this occasion. He is a singer of much merit, with a fine voice and admirable style. Signor Vizzani sustained the rôle of Elvino very fairly. The music of the ‘Sonnambula’ is so gracious and delightful that it is a true pleasure to hear it again so well give as, on the whole, it was last evening.

The drawbacks were in the chorus singing and in the orchestra, but we have long since ceased to look for any delicacy of treatment or light and shade in either of these essential branches of the opera under Maretzek’s baton. If they manage to drag through always fortissimo that seems to be all that is required of them.”

Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 08 October 1873, 6.

“Mr. Max Maretzek produced his third star last night at the Grand Opera House before an audience much smaller than an artist of Mme. Ilma di Murska’s splendid reputation had a right to expect. Mme. di Murska has long enjoyed an exceptional celebrity in the chief centers of musical culture abroad, dividing the plaudits of London and the Continent with Lucca and Nilsson and Patti, and she comes to us with a fame well assured and a place already settled in the history of art. For her first appearance in America she chose the part of Amina in ‘La Sonnambula.’ When she came upon the stage we saw a slight, graceful—we had almost said girlish—figure and a wealth of blonde hair crowning a pleasant face. She was very far from the ideal of the simple young peasant girl, but she was clearly a thorough adept in all manner of theatrical arts. She began her aria d’entrata, the ‘Come per me,’ apparently with the perfect assurance of triumph. The first sensation of the house was probably one of disappointment. There was something acidulous in her voice;—it was not exactly sharpness, but something less de[illeg.] than that; a suggestion the bloom had died away from it, that the indescribable charm which never outlasts the morning of life had vanished. This seemed to be not Amina, but a mature little fine lady masquerading in Amina’s clothes. Such, we say, was the first impression. The audience was quick to perceive, however, that the voice was a clear and brilliant as crystal. It is perfectly true; it is strong; it is penetrating; it is homogenous; and it soars with ease among those difficult hights [sic] to which most soprano voices climb with painful effort. At last, toward the close of the first part of the aria, Mme. di Murska indulged in one of those amazing feats of vocalization for which she has become famous, and from that moment her victory was won. She is by far the most brilliant vocalist we have had here. Carlotta Patti rivals her in some of the mechanical achievements of her art, but lacks both the sentiment, the intelligence, and the good taste which regulate all Mme. di Murska’s vocal displays. The trill, in its several varieties, the run, the crescendo, and the delicious little bird-like staccato with which Adelina Patti took the town captive when she first went upon the stage—all these accomplishments Mme. di Murska had at her tongue’s end. She is a singer to delight connoisseurs and amaze the multitude, and we can easily believe that when she was younger managers may have fought for her and audiences thrown themselves at her feet. Her acting calls for no extended criticism. It is neat, graceful, appropriate, but thoroughly conventional—the kind of acting that satisfied us for the moment and makes no impression upon the memory.

The rest of the cast need not detain us. Sig. Vizzani was a fair enough Elvino, and a new baritone, Sig. Rossi-Galli, made his début as Rodolpho. He did better than the gentleman who sang Severo the night before, but his voice is not fresh and he has no style. The chorus, a little disorderly at the best of times, was now and then at loggerheads with the orchestra. And the representation as a whole seemed to have been endlessly prepared and thrust forward in haste. It is perhaps difficult to obtain the required rehearsals when there is a performance every evening; we are not blaming anybody in particular; we only state the facts.”

Review: New York Post, 08 October 1873, 2.

“Ilma di Murska is a singer of a class which has not been heard here for several years. She is of the school of Laborde and Sontag, and in vocal fluency is what Lagrange was in her best days. Her appearance at the Grand Opera House last night was a decided success, and her repeated brilliancies of execution were emphasized by the applause and ‘bravas’ of a thoroughly delighted audience. Di Murska has a high soprano voice of extraordinary compass, generally sweet and tender in tone, though somewhat acute when used too forcibly. It is a voice under the thoroughly control of its owner, and is well trained in fioturi, in staccato passages and in the use of the crescendo and diminuendo. In the opening aria, ‘Come per me,’ the new prima donna won an instant recognition of her merits, and confirmed it by her rendering of the cabaletta which follows. In the bedroom scene of the second act she evinced considerable dramatic power; and in the last act the ‘Ah non credea,’ with its tender, plaintive strains merging into the joyous rhythm of the ‘Ah non giunge,’ was as exquisite a piece of delicate vocalization as has been heard in this city for many a day. Of course there were flowers, and applause, and calls before the curtain; and in these demonstrations of approval, dear to the heart of the operatic artist, Lucca and the other foreign vocalists who were at the Grand Opera House last night, heartily joined.

Vizzani was the tenor of the evening, and made some good points. His duet with Di Murska, ‘Son geloso del zeffiro,’ was charming [entirely line illegible here] made a good impression. He saw fit, however, to omit the two or three graceful and pathetic passages in which Elvino, wrought to tender anxiety, breaks upon the dreamy sweetness of Amina’s ‘Ah non credea.’

The new baritone, Rossi-Galli, was a pronounced success. His voice is rich and full, his phrasing excellent, and his stage bearing at once manly and unaffected. Miss Ferretti made a much better Lisa than we usually hear, and should have been allowed to sing the aria for Lisa in the third act—an aria generally omitted, but seldom with as little reason as in this case.

Maretzek’s new chorus was at times astray, but generally did good service. The scenery was good, save in one instance, where a spacious marble terrace appertaining to an Italian palace served for what should have been a Swiss rural scene.

Altogether this revival of ‘Sonnambula’—that enchanting idyl with which are associated the names of Malibran, Persiani, Sontag, Frezzolini, Laborde, Patti, Marimon and other great singers of past and present times—was entirely successful; and its sweet, familiar melodies were as welcome as ever. They may be heard again at the Saturday matinee.”

Review: New-York Times, 08 October 1873, 5.

“Mme. Ilma di Murska, a Hungarian artist who, for many years, has been well known in Europe, last evening made her first appearance in this country. Her introduction was effected at the Grand Opera-house, and its medium was Bellini’s ‘La Sonnambula.’ Mme. di Murska created more than a favorable impression, for she occasioned an actual furore. Her reputation as a prima donna is founded mainly upon a wide range of voice and great facility of execution. After her first air, last night, all her claims to distinction as a bravura songstress were acknowledged by an outburst of applause which, in spontaneity and enthusiasm, has had no equal for a long while. Mme. di Murska’s performance was really deserving of this and of the subsequent tokens of delight. We can recall no kindred effort. Mme. di Murska’s tones seem to have no limits set them, so exalted are the heights in altissimo to which they attain; the lowest tones are not of a superior quality, but except the few chest notes of the soprano they are extraordinarily in their clearness and power. Fine as is Mme. di Murska’s voice, however,—and it must be here remarked that it is deficient in sympathetic quality, and that it has none of that richness which causes the sound to linger after the effort producing it has ended—it is still less remarkable than the use to which its possessor puts it. Nature has of course done much for Mme. di Murska, but the performer is not merely a phenomenon, but a singer of exceeding culture. Nothing has been listened to in this City that will compare with Mme. di Murska’s staccato; her runs are exquisite in point of definition; her trills are faultless, and, to cap the climax, everything she attempts is done with faultless accuracy and without the slightest visible exertion. This is very warm praise, but it is none too warm for Mme. di Murska’s work. She cannot be spoken of as a lyric tragedienne, for she is seemingly lacking in sensibility, or perhaps she willfully subordinates her powers of expression to an exhibition of her skill as a vocalist; but she unquestionably is unrivaled in the precise and brilliant delivery of music fitter for a bird than for a woman, and yesterday’s demonstrations were in no way out of place. We need hardly say after this that there have been many more touching Aminas than Mme. di Murska’s, and few whose airs were sung with so much effect. Neither love nor sorrow ever tinges Mme. di Murska’s voice; the prima donna manages it throughout the entertainment with a single view to displaying its volume, compass, and complete subjugation, and she does so with entire success. Mme. di Murska’s first triumph followed the aria, ‘Come per me serene,’ or rather the succeeding allegro, ‘Sovra il sen,’ both pieces affording the songstress, in an elaborate cadenza and several variations of the theme, opportunities for introducing passages built upon the scale, and sung with a prodigality of sound and a boldness of attack which made the correctness of the intonation little else than marvelous. The pretty duet commencing, ‘Prendi l’annel,’ was next applauded, and thus the artist grew in favor with the audience until the final ‘Ah! non giunge,’ which, like the solo in the first act already alluded to, and the beautiful finale of act the second, was redemanded, and, as in the case of the preceding numbers, was denied the clamorous spectators. Mme. di Murska, we have scarcely occasion to add, was summoned before the curtain again and again. Her début lacked no incident of a great success. It was the one feature of the night, though Signor Vizzani reappeared as Elvino, and a new basso, Signor Rossi-Galli, was presented in the part of Count Rodolfo. We are inclined to think that freedom from duty is not beneficial to the tenor, for at the close of last season his pleasant voice was under better control than last evening. As an actor, Signor Vizzani proved to be unchanged; we never dreamed that a straw hat could be such a steady cause of annoyance to its wearer as Elvino’s apparently was to the artist who had unwisely donned it. The basso, Signor Rossi-Galli, has a sonorous voice and a good stage presence. He sang satisfactorily his one air, ‘Vi ravviso’.”

10)

Advertisement: New York Herald, 08 October 1873, 8.

11)

Review: New York Herald, 08 October 1873, 6.

“The first appearance of Ilma di Murska in this country was almost unheralded and the desire to hear her was far from being adequate to her merits. There were many empty benches in the Grand Opera House last night, though ‘La Sonnambula’ had not been sung in this city for a number of years. It seemed as if Di Murska had been left to fight her battle alone, but she fought it nobly and gained a very great triumph. Her victory was almost a repetition of the Lucca enthusiasm of the previous night, while, as a singer and artist, she showed herself possessed of exceptional merit.

Bellini is one of the most tuneful of the Italian operatic composers, and his works can never fail to hold their own with any public while pure, spontaneous melody retains precedence over the new[-]fangled theory of musical metaphysics which has crept into the German schools. The Swan of Catania, as Bellini has been happily called, in the opera of ‘La Sonnambula’ conceived a delightful pastoral, an elegy rather than a dramatic work, delicious in its very naïveté. It was written in Milan for Mme. Pasta, and has reflected the lustre [sic] of some of the brightest stars of the lyric stage since that time. It has become a stranger to the American boards in late years, owing to the inability of procuring a cast adequate to its demands. In fact, Bellini’s works, as well as those of Rossini have well nigh disappeared from our stage, owing to the same cause. There is no chance for an ill-trained or patchy voice in the great works of these two masters; solid art and singing—in the true sense of the term—can alone suffice. The Semiramides, Normas, Othellos and Rosinas of the past can hardly be revived in this degenerate age of music, when bawling is mistaken for expression and when a half dozen notes, given with trumpet like force, is called a grand aria. We hear no move [sic, more] the ‘Puritani’ of Bellini, which he wrote for the immortal quartet, Grisi, Rubini, Tamberini and Lablache, because singers nowadays are trained only in the noisy school, not in that of true melody. The success of Mlle. Di Murska last night in one of Bellini’s operas, is, therefore, of more significant value than if she had made her début in a more modern work. ‘La Sonnambula’ has had many brilliant casts in this country. Bosio, Salvi and Marini sang in it twenty years ago at Castle Garden, and the year after Sontag replaced the little Turinese nightingale, Lagrange, Brignoli and Badiali made it popular for three years at the Academy, and Patti and Kellogg, with Morelli and Amadio won their laurels in it some years later. The principal drawback to the success of the opera is the number of its recitatives, which, like those of ‘Don Giovanni’ and ‘Nozze di Figaro,’ have no interpretors [sic] at the present day, unless such a teacher as Tamberlik will instruct the rising generation of singers.

After the opening chorus a simple but interesting village pæan, Mlle. Feretti, the Lisa of the cast, sang the first aria, ‘Tutto è gioja,’ and considering the smallness of her part, which is now generally given to a chorus singer, she was an unexpected success, by the culture and flexibility of her voice and the ease with which she sang the florid measures of the aria. Before the appearance of Amina there were favorable indications given of the quality and promptness in attack of the chorus and very unfavorable ones of the calibre [sic] of the orchestra. Mr. Maretzek should introduce reform in the wind instruments, especially the clarionets, and a little more attention to the baton on the part of the violins would be desirable. The chef d’attaque might be changed for a better medium of interpretation between the leader and the orchestra.

The first appearance of Mlle. di Murska was hailed with an outburst of applause; but when she passed the trying ordeal in the aria, ‘Come per me Sereno’ and ‘Sovra il Sen,’ the house rose in an uncontrollable state of excitement. She closed the series of fiorituri passages at the end of the latter aria, with one of the most daring, most difficult and most effectively executed cadenzas that has been heard on any stage for many years. It would require a pianist of Rubinstein technique to give it due effect even on the piano. Vizzani, as Elvino, in his opening aria, ‘Prendi, l’a nel ti dono [sic],’ satisfied the audience that his voice was in better condition than during his first season in this country, and the succeeding duet with Amina was a triumph for both artists. Count Rudolpho next made his bow in the person of a new baritone, Signor Rossi-Galli, and the well known song, ‘Vi ravviso,’ received ample justice at his hands. The descriptive chorus, ‘A fosco cielo,’ was given with effect, and the act closed with the duet between Amina and Elvino, another gem in the rendering and expression.

The genius of Mlle. di Murska as a true artist, independent of the exceptional character of her voice, which revels in vocal pyrotechnics even beyond the reach of Carlotta Patti’s organ, was shown in an eminent manner in the second act, when she first appears in her character as a somnambulist in the Count’s bedroom. Her declaration and phrasing and her loving apostrophe to the absent Elvino were all delivered with rare expression, feeling and power. When roused from her sleep by the wild reproaches of her lover, the taunts of her unconscionable rival and the cries of astonishment of her neighbors, she gave expression to her mingled feelings of our perplexity, grief and despair in singing and acting in a manner that was never excelled by Mme. Gassier in her palmy days. The magnificent ensemble, commencing with Amina’s wail, ‘D’un Pensiero,’ and ending with the harmonious swell of all the voices of the chorus was given with an effect that gave still further evidence of the careful rehearsals to which the chorus of this company have been subjected. The scene between the discarded Amina and her deceived lover in the next act was another success for the prima donna. Anguish, pleading, despair, thrilled in every tone of her voice. Vizzani sang the aria ‘Ah! perche non posso odiarti,’ with a degree of passion that called forth applause, but the best part of the scene was left out. After another long cut, the great scene of the opera, in which Amina crosses the bridge over the mill wheel, came on. This was the crowning triumph of Mlle. Di [sic] Murska, as her rendering of the melodies, ‘Ah! non crede a mirarti’ and the pet of the parlor and concert, ‘Ah! non giungi’ was really marvellous [sic]. In the latter aria she wove around the measures of the melody a string of vocal pearls, trills, cadenzas, arpeggio, and every conceivable kind of embellishment, until the house was filled with her voice as with that of some tropical bird, showering forth its wealth of melody. Twice she touched G in alt with as much ease as if it were an ordinary note in her voice, and in several instances her staccato passages and rapid leaps, an octave at a time, made such an impression on the minds of the audience that they brought he rout again and again with their applause. As a bravura singer and an executant of vocal fireworks Mlle. Di [sic] Murska is entitled to high praise, and she further enhances the value of her extraordinary voice by a due attention to the rules of art and the demands, in intelligence and expression, of a composer. It is such a rare thing nowadays to find a singer who can warble like a mocking bird, or a Bosio, and yet declaim recitative as an artist, that one cannot avoid being roused out of the apathy of the critic and putting in a plea for the vociferous people at the Grand Opera House last night.”

12)

Review: New York Clipper, 18 October 1873, 230.

“During the week Mlle. Ilma di Murska made her first bow to an American audience, and she created quite a favorable impression, more by her finished execution than her dramatic power. Her first appearance was in ‘Sonnambula.’”