Kellogg English Opera: Il Trovatore

Forthcoming second season of C. D. Hess’s English opera company; principal singers, repertory.

Principal singers. 

Principal singers. 

Repertory, principal singers. 

Repertory for the first week.

“The last word was long since said about Verdi’s ‘Trovatore.’ Its merits and demerits have been worn as threadbare as a miser’s coat. People have even ceased to wonder at its astonishing vitality. We are prepared to hear of its being performed at any time or place, under any circumstances, and in any language. Doubtless it is done at Allahabad in good Hindostanee. There should be therefore no surprise that it has been selected to inaugurate Miss Kellogg’s operatic season. What the librettist underwent who undertook to translate its lurid horrors into poetical English it is not easy to imagine. It is amazing enough to know that the feat has actually been accomplished. And after all it does not seem much worse in English than in Italian—possibly because it couldn’t be. We refer, of course, to the plot and poetry. As to the music, it received an excellent rendering. Among the legion of representations of this work that have been given on the Academy stage, that of last evening has, in comparison with most of its predecessors, many points in its favor. Certainly the chorus singing was decidedly better than any we are accustomed to get from the Italian companies. There was more unity, better drill, better tune, better time, and more attention to expression. All the details of the representation seem to have been looked after with a careful eye. Nor were the solo parts slighted. Miss Kellogg’s Leonora has always been a strong and sterling presentation. The prima donna’s voice is as fresh and pure, and her style as correct and pleasing as ever.

Mr. Carleton is an excellent bass singer, with fine voice and good style, and though Mr. Maas, the tenor, left something to be desired on the [genteel?] resonance of voice for so dramatic a part as Manrico, his voice commended itself by its sweetness.

There is every reason to believe, judging from the first performance, that the operas that are to follow each other in quick succession during the present season will be found all to have been carefully prepared, and that the season will be one of the most creditable ones of English opera that have ever been given in this city.”

“The first performance of English opera this season at the Academy of Music took place last evening, on which occasion Verdi’s popular opera ‘Il Trovatore’ was presented with the following cast [see above]. The attendance was particularly good, and the performance was followed with marked attention. The large assembly remained patiently waiting till the close of the opera, as if this work of art, as a whole, was an attraction, and not as though the singing of one or two principal singers was the chief source of interest.

As Leonora Miss Kellogg made a good impression. During the recent Italian opera season Signora Potentini and Mlle. Heilbron have undertaken this part. Signora Potentini’s impersonation was distinguished by great dramatic force and vehemence. By the employment of her powerful chest voice she made irresistible appeals to the feelings, and by the display of great intensity of passion atoned in some measure for the want of artistic skill in rapid runs and the hard, unpleasant quality of her high notes. Mlle. Heilbron, on the contrary, failing to portray violent emotion with the same degree of fervor, and to evoke sympathy in deeply passionate and pathetic passages by making us unusually susceptible to such impressions, sang so extremely well—displayed her beautiful voice and highly-finished execution with such art—that the refinement of this representation, with the more restrained betrayal of emotion, made amends, to some extent, for the absence of great tragic power.

Miss Kellogg’s performance is more passionate and demonstrative than Mlle. Heilbron’s, and her vocalization more artistic than that of Signora Potentini. She seems to combine the good qualities of both, though not to the same extent. The two highest notes in the song which opens the fourth act were not of the best quality, though elsewhere these notes were quite agreeable in tone. In the ‘Miserere,’ for instance, the high C on both occasions was quite satisfactory. There was apparent throughout a certain sense of security that nothing would be attempted that might not be successfully attained.

Miss Annie Beaumont made her first appearance as Azucena on this occasion, and was well received. Her conception of the part is correct, and she has most carefully studied the music, though her memory failed at the part where, appealing to Manrico for assistance on being arrested, she should have commenced a sequence on high G.

Mr. Maas, in the character of Manrico, was greatly admired. His voice is of a very pleasant quality, which is uniformly good throughout the entire compass. He sustains high B flat without appearing to strain or use very great effort, so that the result is quite agreeable.

Mr. Carleton, as Count di Luna, was warmly greeted by the audience on his entrance. He was encored in ‘Il Balen’and received other marks of approbation. Mr. Hamilton, as Ferando, also distinguished himself. The chorus, though not strong, had been well trained, and the concerted pieces were sung in tune throughout, though they were mostly curtailed.

The orchestra, under the direction of Mr. A. Predigam, played the simple accompaniments with care. Being small it is fully under control, and does not oppress the vocalists. The violas and cellos are, however, very weak. One failed to hear the chromatic ascending passage in the introduction and the scales in the soldier’s chorus ‘Sound the Loud Trumpet.’ Once or twice the conductor proceeded without waiting for the accommodation of the singer.

The sound of the funeral bell was dispensed with in the ‘Miserere,’ but other matters of detail received careful attention, and the general effect of the whole performance was good. The singers were well acquainted with their parts, and therefore the voice of the prompter was not heard shadowing forth the coming event.

None of the soloists indulged in the vibrato or exaggerated forms of the portamento, but sang uniformly with good taste.”

“The promised season of English opera was entered upon at the Academy of Music last evening, when ‘Il Trovatore’ was represented. Performances of this sort do not appeal very successfully to the habitual frequenters of  Italian opera, but it is evident that they have a public of their own, for the audience last night was large, appreciative and respectable. The interpretation of ‘Il Trovatore’ was so good as to handsomely repay attendance. It was by no means equal to the rendering of the same work by Mme. Rosa’s company, two years ago, but it was smooth and correct, and sufficiently spirited to be decidedly impressive. Miss Kellogg’s Leonora is a well-remembered effort. The lady is one of the most conscientious artists of the age, and also one of the best trained, and all that conscientiousness and skill can accomplish crowns her labors. Her singing is as true and as finished as ever, her voice as pure and as flexible—soupçon of shrillness in the higher notes being the only token of a life of unusual industry—and her acting is animated and free from restraint. That Miss Kellogg’s dramatic impulses are not strong is still undeniable, but it is clear that she has progressed so far in her art as to be able to effectively stimulate when she cannot feel. Her portrayal of Leonora, it may be inferred from this, was symmetrical and very pleasing. Quite as much can be said of the personations of her associates. Azucena had for a representative Miss Beaumont , a mezzo-soprano endowed with a strong voice, and of exceptional talent as a songstress. Manrico was depicted by Mr. Maas, a tenor whose voice is of rather small compass, but a performer who uses his organ with cleverness and taste; and Count di Luna was embodied by Mr. Carleton, whose rich baritone is always agreeable to the ear. Every familiar air in the opera—and so many airs in ‘Il Trovatore,’ are familiar that the elderly lady in the story might complain of the opera as she did of ‘Hamlet,’ on the ground that it was made up of quotations—was applauded, and several numbers, among which were ‘Il balen,’ and the tower scene, had to be repeated.”

“Miss Kellogg opened her season of English opera last evening with the ‘Trovatore,’ and, considering the number of years that the public has been called on to witness the representation of this well known opera, it responded loyally to the appeal, both in numbers and in enthusiastic greeting. The performance was creditable on the whole, barring a certain meagerness of aspect which attaches itself, as a general thing, to the mise en scène of a travelling company. The chief artists performed their parts fairly, and if no electric success crowned their efforts, at the same time no chilling sense of failure was their portion. Miss Kellogg, the fair manager of the troupe and promoter of the scheme of English opera, seemed a little fatigued as to voice, but her rendering of the rôle of Leonora was as thorough and painstaking a performance as ever. Her cavatina in the last act was received with outbursts of applause, and was rewarded with a floral tribute of more than ordinary circumstance. The ‘Miserere’ (we still cling to the traditions of the Italian stage and cannot so suddenly adopt the English version in our musical indications) was likewise the occasion of much enthusiasm and an encore. The tenor, Mr. Maas, gave the ‘Non ti scorda di me’ with correctness and with the charm of a suave and agreeable voice. The heroic song of the third act ‘Di quella pira,’ does not lie within his capacity to the same extent, the metallic quality and timbre of voice necessary for that vocal effort lacking in his musical endowments. The baritone, Mr. Carleton, who replaces Campbell since the death of the latter, has a good and sonorous voice, united to a certain vigor of style which, if wanting in method and finish, is not devoid of interest. Miss Beaumont, the Azucena of the opera, performed her part satisfactorily, without aiming at any striking effect or permitting herself any departure from the beaten track of the gypsy’s melancholy career. Miss Kellogg has, at least, decided on variety as the spice of all entertainments, and will treat her audiences to a change of programme every night during the week…The liberal encouragement which has attended the opening night of Miss Kellogg’s enterprise should certainly not be withdrawn in the face of so rich a choice, and we prophesy for the coming season of English opera, which must be brief as it is interesting, all the success that we hope.”

“Miss Kellogg’s English Opera Company began its season at the Academy of Music last night, and had a pretty large audience and a pleasant reception. It is a fair company, containing several artists of merit, and showing many signs of hard study and careful rehearsal. We have no doubt that Miss Kellogg with the materials now at her disposal might do a great deal to revive a neglected school of art and give the pleasing and graceful strains of the English composers a new lease of popularity. She cannot accomplish anything of permanent value, however, by turning into English the most familiar and typical works of the Italian stage, and presenting them under circumstances which must suggest unfavorable comparisons. The ‘Trovatore’ cannot be naturalized. Its impossible situations, wild rhetoric, and musical bombast are bearable only when they are seen and heard through another atmosphere than ours. It is true that Miss Kellogg has always been highly successful in the character of Leonora; she made it last night as dramatic and vigorous as ever; she sang the music with sweetness and at the proper times with brilliancy; and the consciousness of what she could do with the part was her excuse for presenting this opera on the opening night. But the other singers were not as fortunate. Neither the Manrico of Mr. Maas nor the Di Luna of Mr. Carleton can be called successful if judged by the standards with which comparisons seemed to be invited, although both gentlemen have pleasant voices which would serve well in less heroic parts. Miss Beaumont, who took the role of Azucena, produces some excellent effects with her strong and resonant upper notes, though her lower register is neither full nor rich.”

“A highly interesting season of English opera opened on Monday night at the Academy of Music, under the auspices of Miss Kellogg, the most popular and perhaps the most artistically successful artist that this country has produced. The lyric drama has been for a considerable portion of this century a subject of attention on the part of the public and press, and of speculation on the part of managers, and in the glamour of Italian opera, as represented by great prime donne from the days of Malibran down to Nilsson, the hearty, intelligible, and always popular English opera has been at times either neglected or unappreciated. Yet Malibran nade her most pronounced success in this department of the lyric drama, and the Woods, Miss Sheriff, Mr. Seguin, Miss Pyne, Mr. Harrison, Miss Richings and the lamented Parepa-Rosa bestowed upon it the brilliancy of their genius. The latest comer in the field is Miss Kellogg, and she has demonstrated during two seasons the high esteem in which English opera is held by the public of this country. She has assembled around her a company of artists that, by their own positive merits and by the satisfactory results which long association in various rôles must bring around, tend toward presenting an artistic ensemble in every opera of her very large répertoire. The opening performance on Monday evening was a highly successful one, and during the three weeks of the present season there is every reason to expect the same happy results.”