Arion Grand Fancy Dress Ball

Event Information

Venue(s):
Academy of Music

Conductor(s):
[conductor] Deitz
[cond./composer] Eckhart

Price: $5 for a gentleman and two ladies; $2 for extra ladies

Event Type:
Orchestral

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
6 June 2016

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

09 Feb 1865, Evening

Program Details

Music for entertainment began at 7:30 p.m. Songs included “Die Ritter von Ovalen Zirkel.” Music for the Ball began at 9 p.m.

Source: Encyclopedia of New York, p. 52, “Arion Gesangverein.”

Performers and/or Works Performed

1)
LIST OF PERFORMER(S)/ORGANIZATION(S)
Participants:  Orchestra, unidentified
2)
Ritter von Ovalen Zirkel, Die
3)
Arion march
Composer(s): Candidus
4)
"Zache Zany"
Composer(s): Meyerbeer
5)
Waltz, unidentified
Composer(s): Lanner
6)
Works, selections
Composer(s): Bergmann
7)
Quadrille, unidentified
Composer(s): Strauss
8)
Arion polka
Composer(s): Schmidt
9)
Waltz, unidentified
Composer(s): Strauss
10)
Galop, unidentified
Composer(s): Eckhart
11)
Works, selections
Composer(s): Bergmann
12)
Waltz, unidentified
Composer(s): Eckhart
13)
Polka, unidentified
Composer(s): Freising
14)
Lancers, unidentified
Composer(s): Zabel
15)
Galop, unidentified
Composer(s): Lanner
16)
Polka, unidentified
Composer(s): Strauss
17)
Works, selections
Composer(s): Bergmann
18)
Polka, unidentified
Composer(s): Balfe

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 01 February 1865.

2)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 02 February 1865.

3)
Announcement: New York Herald, 08 February 1865, 4.
Includes history of the Arion Society.
4)
Review: New York Herald, 10 February 1865, 4.
Detailed account of decorations, music, non-musical entertainments, and attendees.  Seven thousand people attended, three thousand in costume.  Ten thousand dollars were taken in tickets.
5)
Review: New York Post, 10 February 1865.

“The crowd at the Academy of Music last night . . . was so great as to render locomotion difficult and dancing almost impossible. Over half the guests were in fancy dress, including some costumes of decided originality. One lady wore for her head-dress a photographer’s camera while her dress was profusely adorned with photographs in the carte de visite style. Another lady attracted much attention as the Queen of the Night; another wore a newspaper dress; while peasants and flower girls, daughters of the regiment, and hundreds of other characters, made up the motley crowd. The gentlemen’s dresses were equally varied. Several couples in the costume of fifty years ago created much amusement; and there were several Chinese mandarins arrayed in garments of real magnificence.

            Among the special features of the evening was the procession of mousquetaires; some jovial singing by the members of the Arion, gymnastic exercises and a grotesque frog quadrille. The house was elaborately decorated with bunting and transparencies, and the scene, whether viewed from the stage or the upper circles, was one of unusual gaiety and mirth. . . . The receipts at this ball have been roughly estimated at ten thousand dollars.”
6)
Review: New-York Times, 13 February 1865.
“We learn that tickets [for the Liederkranz Ball] are in great demand. . . . We were called upon yesterday to speak with merited censure of the shortcomings of the Arion ball; shortcomings which were inevitable in view of a crowd that was unmanageable. The scenes that occurred at the Academy on Thursday last, were in the highest degree reprehensible, and we trust that the Liederkranz will be able to avoid them by taking the proper precautions in time. We learn that the greatest effort will be made to do so. The number of tickets will be limited, and they are to be sold through the Committee and to persons whose respectability is, like CAESAR’S wife, above suspicion. We are pleased to learn, too, that the cloak-room will be in different hands. It was wretchedly conducted at the last ball.”