Maretzek Italian Opera: Martha

Event Information

Venue(s):
Academy of Music

Manager / Director:
Max Maretzek

Conductor(s):
Max Maretzek

Event Type:
Opera

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
4 April 2013

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

24 Oct 1864, 8:00 PM

Program Details

Twelfth subscription night.

Performers and/or Works Performed

1)
aka Martha, oder Der Markt zu Richmond; Martha, or The Market at Richmond
Composer(s): Flotow
Text Author: Friedrich
Participants:  Maretzek Italian Opera Company;  Guglielmo Lotti;  Augustino Susini;  Catarina Morensi (role: Nancy);  Clara Louise Kellogg (role: Lady Henrietta)
2)
aka Grande valse; Valse de concert; Bird of the forest
Composer(s): Venzano
Participants:  Clara Louise Kellogg

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 23 October 1864.

2)
Announcement: New-York Times, 24 October 1864, 5.

3)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 24 October 1864, 7.
“Miss Kellogg will sing at the end of the opera The Celebrated Venzano Waltz.”
4)
Announcement: Courrier des États-Unis, 24 October 1864.

5)
Announcement: New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 24 October 1864.

6)
Review: New-York Times, 25 October 1864.

“Amusements. ACADEMY OF MUSIC.—FLOTOW’S opera of ‘Martha,’ in whatever language it may be presented, returns always pleasurably to its permanent place in the public affections. It holds its own with a rare tenacity. The story, perhaps, has much to do with this. It is lively, somewhat piquant, and illustrated by a quartette of nicely-balanced characters who reflect many moods of musical sensibility, and give Herr VON FLOTOW a corresponding number of opportunities for displaying the felicity of his invention. The latter is never overtasked, and hence ‘Martha,’ with many peculiar merits in the way of instrumentation, is never overstrained in the matter of melody. Beginning with the airiest of court-embroidered coquetry, there is in the later parts a good, stout, honest texture of domestic earnestness, and the two, deftly interwoven, form an article that is at once elegant and comfortable. As Le Follet might say: ‘The opera is a specimen of fine needlework and good taste.’

Miss KELLOGG, Mlle. MORENSI, Signor LOTTI and Signor SUSINI were the interpreters of this work last night, and their efforts were rewarded with complete success. ‘Martha’ will undoubtedly form one of the most popular operas of Mr. MARETZEK’S lighter repertoire.”

7)
Review: New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 27 October 1864.
Miss Kellogg was the called the ‘Price of the evening,’ a German way of describing ‘the star of the evening’ who is worth the price of a ticket.
8)
Review: Courrier des États-Unis, 31 October 1864.

M. Susini surprised us during [Martha], where he filled a role that isn’t made for him. He was a hundred times better it than in Faust or in Lucrezia. M. Lotti sings the romance of the third act extremely well, but he is as cold as Mlle Kellogg, and that’s not saying a little. This young person, who pleases part of the public so much, doubtless has qualities, but she is not endowed to sing opera. She would be infinitely better placed in concerts. Her voice is accurate, but shrill; her method [technique?] is correct, but the artist is completely destitute of sacred fire. Nothing vibrates in her, and we have never noticed a flash of feeling in her singing. As an actress, we reproach her for being too mannered, especially in Martha. In Faust, she passes for the ideal and most agreeable of Marguerites, and we will not go against this judgment, which we don’t ratify. Mlle. Morensi has developed new qualities in the role of Nancy. Here is an artist in progress; you can’t be sure of her, as with others, that what you see one time, you’ll meet again every time. From the beginning, she hasn’t given everything she can give, and we’re convinced that she’ll lend a new strength to our assertion in Don Giovanni.

9)
Review: Dwight's Journal of Music, 12 November 1864, 344.

[General comments regarding singers this season:] “Signor Massimiliani is, there is no disguising the patent fact, a most unsatisfactory first tenor, the tone of his voice, not an uncommonly powerful one, is compressed and covered; his articulation is indistinct, and his style unfinished. As an actor he is too often cold and embarrassed, and his appearance and manner are not imposing. These deficiencies in the premier have made Lotti’s thread-like tenor, and uniform conception of parts, appear to better advantage and meet with more favor than they did last season. With the exception of the fine baritone, Bellini, and, of course, Miss Kellogg, the whole company is far behind Mme. Zucchi. The contralto, Mlle. Morensi, need to acquire more dramatic animation, if she would follow up the advantages which her pleasing voice and appearance give her. The second contralto, Miss Gebele, a new German singer, needs vastly more cultivation; while Susini’s once fine organ is growing woolly in quality of tone, and unmanageable. Miss Kellogg, in Faust, in Martha, and as ‘Zerlina,’ has renewed her old successes. . .

        The so-called ‘fall season’ is now over; the winter season is to commence on the 14th November. We are again promised (?) by the management, Donizetti’s Don Sebastian, and Auber’s new arrangement of his Fra Diavolo, but not a word of the more important works which were promised at the opening—to-wit: Les Huguenots, Le Prophète, Mireille, and La Forza del Destino. When will the patience of operatic subscribers at last wear out?  --Lancelot”