Di Murska Italian Opera: Dinorah

Event Information

Venue(s):
Academy of Music

Manager / Director:
Max Maretzek

Conductor(s):
Carl [conductor] Schramm

Price: $1.50; $.50 & $1, reserved seat; $12 boxes; $.50 family circle

Event Type:
Opera

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
10 May 2025

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

10 Apr 1874, 8:00 PM

Performers and/or Works Performed

1)
Pardon de Ploërmel, Le
aka Dinorah; Pilgrimage of Ploërmel
Composer(s): Meyerbeer
Text Author: Barbier, Carré
Participants:  Di Murska Italian Opera Company;  Enrico Testa (role: Reaper);  Fanny Natali-Testa [contralto] (role: First Goatherd);  Giovanni [baritone] Reyna (role: Hunter);  Ilma di Murska (role: Dinorah);  Signor [tenor] Verati (role: Corentino);  Enrico Mari (role: Hoel);  Elise Heiss (role: Second Goatherd)

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 08 April 1874, 7.
2)
Review: New-York Times, 11 April 1874, 7.

“Meyerbeer’s tuneful opera ‘Dinorah’was represented at the Academy of Music last evening, for the first time in many years. Like each and all of Meyerbeer’s achievements ‘Dinorah’ demands good acting and excellent scenic appointments, no less than an impressive vocal performance, and its rehearsal, under less advantageous circumstances than the rather exacting composer counted upon, rarely produces the effect awaited. This was the case last night, when ‘Dinorah,’ brought out in the midst of a very brief operatic season, seemed rather tedious. There were, however, some striking incidents of the recital, for Mme. Di Murska was Dinorah. Mme. Di Murska’s vocalization is simply wonderful, and to listen to her delivery of high and florid passages is to hearken to unique achievements. In ‘Dinorah’ the soprano’s part abounds in trying numbers, and the compass and flexibility of Mme. Di Murska’s voice enabling her to make light of all difficulties, gratifying and enlivening results followed her exertions. The Dinorah of the evening was frequently applauded, but the delight of the audience found expression in a particularly unanimous demonstration after the ‘Shadow Song,’ which was broken in upon by plaudits, again and again. At the close of the second act, she was called before the curtain, as a matter of course. The remaining rôles in ‘Dinorah’ were allotted to [see above]; in relation to the general recital, we have only to say that ‘Dinorah’ is altogether too elaborate an opera to be gotten up hastily.”

3)
Review: New York Sun, 11 April 1874, 2.
“A very large audience assembled last evening to hear and see a performance of Meyerbeer’s opera, ‘Dinorah,’ or rather to see and hear Madame di Murska act and sing the part of the heroine. The assembly manifested no enthusiasm except for this lady and what she did. The music gave excellent opportunities for the display of her very extraordinary power and skill as a vocalist, and she took advantage of them with taste and good judgment. She was compelled to repeat a portion of the ‘Shadow Song,’ was called before the curtain at the end of each act, and received some very handsome bouquets of flowers. When she was not upon the scene the auditors were listless, plainly were not excited by the opera itself; appeared, indeed, to think it dull.
 
Of the performance in general little need be said. It would be hardly fair to expect such a representation from a company made up for an especial occasion as should be given by a regularly organized and trained troupe. Under the circumstances, therefore, much indulgence should be shown. It must be admitted that there was some occasion for it. And yet, in the main, the work was only a little short of excellence.”
4)
Review: New York Post, 11 April 1874, 4.
“After Meyerbeer had won an imperishable glory in the grander walks of lyric composition he essayed to bring his genius down to the lighter phases of operatic writing. The man who had written ‘Robert’ and the ‘Huguenots’ attempted to produce an idyl, and the result was ‘Dinorah, or the Pardon of Ploërmel.’ A skillful, masterly work it certainly proved to be; but the flow of spontaneity was wanting. The simplicity was labored; and Meyerbeer’s friends had to acknowledge that, with all his genius, the subtle charm which Bellini, for instance, had so successfully seized, was lacking in the great master.
 
Yet ‘Dinorah’ has always been fairly popular in London and Paris. It is the vehicle for the display of a prima donna. The character allotted to the tenor is that of a frightened, half-imbecile country lout, and affords no scope whatever. The baritone has one charming aria, and takes part in several duets. To the contralto is given two excellent arias, and the cast further involves the services of a basso, a second tenor and a second soprano.
 
Many of the audience last night listened to the music of ‘Dinorah’ as to an utter novelty. Thirteen years had elapsed since it was last performed in this city, and this period had brought to the surface of society a number of opera-goers who then were scarcely out of the nursery. Cordier Brignoli, the younger Amodio and Susini sang in it then, and were pleasantly brought to mind last night by those who had heard them in the years gone by. 
 
Meyerbeer might have written this opera for Di Murska. In every respect is it fitted to her voice and style. She looks to the best advantage in a costume which might serve for Shakespeare’s Celia, she acts with charming grace, and she sings with the most glorious fluency and ease. In the delightful opening aria, in the trio which ‘---to the tintinnabulation of the bells’ (the tinkling of the goat bells) so agreeably closes the act and in the wonderful Shadow song, Di Murska was simply perfection. The audience was most demonstrative and enthusiastic, and the fair prima donna was obliged to repeat the most brilliant portion of the Shadow song. Frequent calls before the curtain, and elegant floral offerings also testified to the appreciation of the audience.
 
The other members of the Maretzek troupe are somewhat nervous about singing before a New York audience. To Verati, the tenor, the music of his part of Corentino was entirely new, and he did not appear in it to advantage. Mari sang his aria in the third act neatly, and Madame Testa (who had never before seen the opera performed) won deserved applause. The chorus and orchestra were both indifferent, though the latter rendered with good effect the carefully elaborated overture, which, with its ‘Ave Maria,’ sung behind the curtain, opens this interesting opera.”
5)
Review: New York Herald, 11 April 1874, 7.

“It may appear rather unusual to head an article on Italian opera with the name of the prima donna instead of the lyric work represented; but when, as in this case, the prima donna is the principal, and, we might say, the only attraction, then the change will be readily understood by every opera goer. Nearly fifteen years ago ‘Le Pardon de Ploermel’ was brought out in Paris, a work totally un-Meyerbeerish as far as the subject was concerned, and a work that at its first production caused a great deal of talk. The departure from Scribe to two writers for the Opéra Comique, with a pastoral subject for musical treatment, raised at the time of its first representation such a popular discussion as seldom any lyric work has enjoyed. It was first brought before the American public at the Academy of Music in 1861, when Mlle. Cordier was the Dinorah, Fanny Stockton (who was unhappily cut off by death in the middle of her operatic career) was the Goatherd, and Brignoli, Amodio and Susini sustaining the other rôles. ‘Dinorah’ as this opera is now known, has evidently been written for a bravura prima donna. No better representative of the title rôle than Mlle. Di Murska could be found in the present domain of lyric art. When she first appeared on the stage in her conventional crazy state, and compelled the frightened Corentino to dance and play for her (he all the time mistaking her for a spirit), the wonderful bravura genius of the singer was at once shown. But the feature of the opera, the grand attraction last night, was the wonderful interpretation of the now world renowned ‘Shadow Scene,’ in which the extraordinary talent of Mlle. Di Murska was shown in its brightest light. Nothing could exceed in effect the magnificent manner in which she sang the florid music set down in this scene by Meyerbeer. The audience broke out into an uproar of applause, and well they might, for no such vocalization was ever heard before on the Academy boards. Of all the operas in which Mlle. Di Murska has yet appeared in commend us to ‘Le Pardon de Ploermel,’ and Mr. Maretzek will do well in keeping it before the public for the remainder of his short season.”

6)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 11 May 1874, 7.
“Mme. di Murska presented herself last night in a character far more picturesque, more clearly individualized, and more dramatically consistent than any other she has yet shown us. The embodiment of the poet’s or composer’s conception is always subordinate with her to the exhibition of that marvelous vocalism which the whole world has united to celebrate; but in ‘Dinorah’ she does not put the text and the score so far in the background as she does in ‘Linda,’ ‘Lucia,’ and ‘Sonnambula,’ and her representation of Meyerbeer’s wild and charming heroine is invariably pleasant and almost invariably truthful. Her delivery of the music is not extravagantly ornate. She resists the strong temptation to over-embellishment which always assails the prima donna leggiera in this opera, and now and then extorts our admiration by a noble simplicity and breadth of style which we did not look for. In other scenes however she seems fairly to revel in unheard of difficulties. The Shadow Song, of course, was an achievement of the most brilliant kind, glittering all over with delicate ornaments, and so perfectly and exquisitely finished that the sharpest critic could hardly find a fault with it.
 
The performance of the opera as a whole was not creditable. The only member of the company except Mme. di Murska who deserved any praise was the Goat. This animal walked through his part with dignity and composure, and did not try to sing. The long duet between Corentino (Verati) and Hoel (Mari) was an awful trial of the public patience, and Verati, in his important scena near the beginning of the first Act, was abominable. Mme. Testa, whose voice has been ruined by the vibrato, appeared as the First Goatherd. Mr. Schramm led the orchestra.”