Sacred Festival Concert: J. C. Fryer Benefit

Also included a “grand sacred concert.” 

“The Academy of Music contained, last night, the largest crowd collected within its walls this season. All the standing room was filled, as well as all the seats, and tickets were sold during the day at a large premium. The programme consisted first of a miscellaneous sacred concert, in which Mlles. Torriani, Maresi, and Frida de Gebele, and Messrs. Capoul, Tom Karl, Del Puente, Sohst, and Nannetti took part; and secondly of Rossini’s ‘Stabat Mater,’ sung by Nilsson, Lucca, Maresi, De Gebele, Capoul, Karl, Nannetti, and the opera chorus. Mr. Behrens led the orchestra in the first part of the evening, and Sig. Muzio in the second. Mme. Nilsson had been announced to sing ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth.’ This was omitted; but to make amends she sang the ‘Inflammatus’ solo in the ‘Stabat Mater.’ The one great feature of the evening was the ‘Quis est homo’ duet by Nilsson and Lucca. The rosiest anticipations of the audience were more than realized by it. That each prima donna would put forth her best effort and her utmost care was to be expected; but the duet was not more remarkable for exquisitely finished execution than for the perfect blending of tone and charming effects of contrast. Each voice seemed to supply something the other lacked, and each to bring out the other’s beauties in bolder relief. To this harmonious union Nilsson’s voice contributed purity and spirituality, and Lucca’s gave warmth and rich color. So close was the apparent sympathy between the two that one could almost fancy they had sung together all their lives, had been all their lives heightening the effect of each other’s charms, and supplementing each other’s powers.”

“Sunday concerts in this city have been frequent and often well attended, yet withal have been more or less under a social ban. In Boston, they are patronized by all classes of society. In New York, they have been generally left to our citizens of foreign birth or tastes.

Last night, however, seemed to be an exception to the rule, for the Academy of Music was crowded as probably it has never been before, the vast assemblage including many of the regular frequenters of the opera house and numbers of our best-known citizens. It was not only a very large, but a very decorous audience. The pieces on the programme were all sacred in their character, and were calculated rather to give gratification than to awaken enthusiasm. After miscellaneous selections sung by Torriani, Del Puente, Maresi, Tom Karl, De Gebele, and Nannetti, Rossini’s ‘Stabat Mater’ was given. The performance of this immortal work was not equal to that given by local artists at the Grand Opera House a few Sundays ago. Nannetti was the only one of the artists who seemed at home in the music. Capoul sang the ‘Cujus animam,’ with great expression and taste, though in his rather exaggerated style. The other singers were tame and feeble, though undoubtedly the acoustic properties of the building were weakened by the vast size of the audience, which crowded aisles, and fringed walls, and blocked-up doorways, so that all resonance seemed to be lost.

But the one great feature of the evening, and the one which undoubtedly attracted this vast crowd, was a triumphant success. This was the duet, ‘Quis est homo,’ sung by Nilsson and Lucca. It was a marvelously beautiful performance, the voices blending most deliciously, yet each asserting itself to be a truly great voice, managed with consummate artistic skill. There was no attempt at sensational singing by either vocalist; yet we doubt whether Rossini’s melodious duet has received such an interpretation since the days when it was sung by Jenny Lind and Alboni.

The ‘Inflammatus,’ sung by Madame Nilsson, and (like the duet) encored, was accepted by the audience as the signal for dismissal, and the unaccompanied quartet, ‘Quando corpus,’ and the final chorus, were sung to the beat of retreating footsteps and the disgust of the singers.

Mr. Fryer must have made very largely by this benefit. He is a courteous and efficient member of the management, and the successful results of his appeal to the public will gratify everybody.”

“The grand benefit concert tendered to Mr. J. C. Fryer, the business manager of the Strakosch Italian opera troupe, took place last evening at the Academy of Music. The house was crowded to excess, hundreds being unable to obtain even standing room, and the sale of tickets was stopped long before the concert commenced. The receipts amounted to nearly $8,000, and the audience, generally speaking, was the largest ever known within the walls of the opera house. The programme opened with a Mozart overture, which was followed by a sacred aria, sung by M. Capoul. Herr Sohst contributed a noble rendering of Elijah’s grand aria, “It is Enough,’ and Mlle. Torriani was heard to advantage in Gounod’s ‘Ave Maria’ and the prayer from ‘Der Freischütz.’ Signor Del Puente’s fine voice gave significance to Valentine’s air in ‘Faust’ (written for Santley), and Mlles. Maresi and Frida De Gebele and Messrs. Karl and Nannetti sung, with the chorus, the prayer from ‘Moses in Egypt.’ The ‘Stabat Mater’ formed the second part of the bill, the soloists being Mme. Nilsson, Mme. Lucca, Mlle. Maresi, Mlle. De Gebele, and Messrs. Capoul, Karl and Nannetti. Mr. Behrens conducted the first part of the concert and Signor Muzio the work of Rossini. The chorus and orchestra of the Italian opera took part in the latter. The sensation of the evening was, of course, the appearance of Mmes. Nilsson and Lucca in that beautiful duo, ‘Quis est homo,’ which they sung with such entrain and effect that an instant redemand was the result. M. Victor Capoul’s rendering of the tenor solo, ‘Cujus animam,’ was one of the most artistic features of the performance, and, being music of an order so different from what we have been accustomed to hear him sing, his success is the more significant. The orchestra did their work very commendably, and the chorus, in the ‘Inflammatus’ (the soprano solo being given by Mme. Nilsson with all the fire and expression of a great artist), acquitted themselves with credit.”