Salle Diabolique

Event Information

Venue(s):
Salle Diabolique

Price: $1 orchestra stalls; .50 parquet; .30 gallery

Event Type:
Chamber (includes Solo), Variety / Vaudeville

Performance Forces:
Instrumental

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
17 July 2011

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

08 Sep 1864, 8:00 PM
09 Sep 1864, 8:00 PM
10 Sep 1864, 8:00 PM

Program Details

Opening Night of the season [THU]. Heller performs “Program no. 3.”

Performers and/or Works Performed

2)
Composer(s): Thalberg
Participants:  Robert Heller
3)
Composer(s): Heller
Participants:  Robert Heller

Citations

1)
Announcement: New York Herald, 29 August 1864.

2)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 29 August 1864.

3)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 04 September 1864.
“The orchestra being converted into an Alpine Garden of the Genii, replete with floral beauty, flowing cascades and fantastic rock scenery. . . . . Ten Animated Anthropoglossi or, Heller’s Wood-(en) Minstrels, and the Goblin Drum, beating the tattoos of Elf-land untouched by mortal hands. . . . Two New Pianoforte Solos, on Steinway’s Grand Pianoforte.”
4)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 05 September 1864.

5)
Announcement: New-York Daily Tribune, 05 September 1864, 5.

6)
Announcement: New York Clipper, 10 September 1864, 174.
“Heller will open the Salle Diabolique on Thursday next.  During the two months that it has remained closed, there have been fearful doings within its walls.  To look at Robert Heller on the streets, parading Broadway in white pants, or to see him on the stage in the evening, benignanily (sic) smiling in his bob-tailed coat, with wit as brilliant as his burnished boots, one would scarcely suppose him to be guilty of the horrid deeds in which he really participates.  For instance, we learn, that, in the mystic stillness of midnight, he has sat within his Hall, uttering incantations to conjure up hobgoblins, and that, having caught them, he has confined them within the two drumheads of his Goblin Drum, a diabolical invention of his own, which is to beat tattoos before your face, with no mortal form near to touch it.  Then he has, by means of cabalistic cantrips (sic) caused a part of the souls of Mr. M. Campbell, Mr. Frank Brower, Mr. Cool White and others to leave their owners and come across the road to animate ten wooden minstrel forms constructed by the weird fingers of this Frankenstein of Broadway.  Furthermore, he has engineered, within his Salle Diabolique, an Enchanted Garden with every niche in the rocks, every shrub and every flower, full of small-sized demons prepared to assist in any kind of infernal machinations.  As the public taste runs towards the terrible, the frightful and the naughty, Heller is likely to attract many to his pretty theatre.  Last season he demonstrated, most satisfactorily, two things: first, that he is one of the best conjurers we have had; secondly, that a good artist is always duly appreciated in New York.”
7)
Advertisement: New York Clipper, 10 September 1864, 175.
Works listed.  “[T]wo new pianoforte solos on Steinway’s Grand Pianoforte.”
8)
Review: New-York Times, 10 September 1864, 5.
“This neat and brilliant little establishment has reopened for the season. . . . [T]he hall has been very prettily decorated. . . . [As a pianist he is admirable.  The two solos, which he plays every night, are in themselves an attraction sufficient to bring a large class to his entertainment and to adequately reward the listener.  In a word, Heller’s Salle Diabolique is admirable.”
9)
Review: New York Clipper, 17 September 1864, 182.
Good physical description of the venue.  “The house was filled to its utmost capacity on the opening night. . . . His programme of the evening was a very good one, being composed of Magic, Music, Second sight, and the first appearance of the Anthropoglossi, which means ten wooden figures; by the aid of machinery they are made to speak and cut up a few capers similar to a band of minstrels.  The first part of the entertainment passed off very well, and Mr. Heller was very clever in his Art dè Magique.  His piano-forte playing is always a great feature with him, and on this ocassion (sic), he executed two solos in a masterly manner, which drew forth bursts of applause.  He is one of the best performers on that instrument we ever heard.”