The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 01, November, 1857: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and PoliticsVarious
General
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 01, November, 1857: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
For the select few, who hold communion in the love of classical quartet
and trio music by the great masters,--in the piano poems of Chopin,
Mendelssohn, and Beethoven, there will be abundant opportunities. The
Mendelssohn Quintette Club, the German Trio, Mr. Satter, the pianist,
and would we might add Otto Dresel, will give series of concerts in the
pleasant Chickering Saloon, that holds two hundred. Alas! we may be
disappointed there. The Masonic Temple has been sold to the government for
a United States Court-house. Think of the musical associations that haunt
and consecrate the place, and think of the uses to which it may soon be
put! What profanation! Hitherto the only _chains_ that have surrounded that
Temple have been chains of harmony, which one may wear and not be a slave!
It has been a Temple of Concord;--may we hope that it will be in truth a
Temple of Justice!--For virtuoso concerts, we shall have what the managers
at New York send us. We shall of course have Vieuxtemps and Thalberg, if no
more.
In New York the campaign has been opened for this month past, and we do not
yet hear that the troubles down in Wall Street have discouraged the lessees
of the Academy of Music. Great is the array of singers and of players that
revolve around the little knot of musical speculators in New York. Strange
to say, Italian opera has German managers. They catch the birds, having
beforehand caught and prepared the public. But it is as well to state, that
there are _two_ great operatic enterprises, as there are two rival musical
broker managers: to wit, Maretzek and Ullman; the former backed by Marshall
of the Philadelphia Academy, and proceeding forth with hope to conquer
from that centre; the latter backed by Thalberg, and strengthened by the
Strakosch and Vestvali tributaries that roll proudly in from scenes of
conquest in the Western States and Mexico. The Ullman party hold the New
York Academy; the other party hold the theatres of Philadelphia and Boston;
either must make itself felt at the three points, to avoid a losing game.
Hence these harmonious and deadly rivals have perforce entered into a
league of amity and commerce, whereby they exchange singers, so that all
shall in turn be heard at every theatre. At New York the company includes,
for leading soprani, Madame Lagrange, the wonder of the last two years,
greatest of vocal gymnasts, and fine actress always, with voice well worn,
and Madame Frezzolini, as the last imported celebrity from Europe; her
voice, too, is past its prime, but her art is pronounced immaculate, and
she is quite a charmer, if we may trust the critics. For contralto there
is Vestvali, the dashing tall one, who delights in man's clothes, and
sings Charles the Fifth, the baritone (!) rôle in "Ernani." There is a
delicate new tenor, Labocetta, and another named Maccaferri, and a fresh,
universally admired baritone, Gassier; and there is our old buffo friend,
Rocco, and many more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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