Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images available by The Internet Archive) THE MAPLESON MEMOIRS VOL. I. [Illustration: J H Mapleson] THE MAPLESON MEMOIRS 1848-1888 IN TWO VOLUMES WITH PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR VOL I CHICAGO, NEW YORK, AND SAN FRANCISCO BELFORD, CLARKE & CO., PUBLISHERS. 1888 [_All rights reserved_]. COPYRIGHT, 1888, BY JAMES H. MAPLESON TROW'S PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY, NEW YORK. PREFACE. HAVING been repeatedly urged by numerous friends on both sides of the Atlantic to set forth a few of the difficulties attending the career of an _impresario_, who, during the last thirty years, has fought many operatic battles, I have undertaken the task, having at the present moment for the first time in my recollection a few weeks of comparative repose before again renewing my lyrical campaigns. I willingly sat down to the work, trusting that an account of the few partial defeats and the many brilliant victories incident to my life may be found interesting. This being my first appearance as an author, I am naturally unpractised in the artifices of style familiar to more experienced hands. Some of my plain statements of facts will not, I fear, be fully appreciated by the personages to whom they refer; and in case they should feel offended by my frankness, I ask their pardon beforehand, convinced that they will readily accord it. J. H. MAPLESON. _Junior Carlton Club, 21st September, 1888._ CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Qualifications for the Career of Impresario--My First Appearance as Violinist--_Début_ as a Vocalist--Difficulties as a Critic--Engaged at Lodi and Verona--Radical Operation on my Throat--I start as Musical Agent--Meeting with Mr. E. T. Smith--Management of Drury Lane pp. 1-12 CHAPTER II. Injunction against the Birds on the Trees--Drury Lane Season of 1859--_Débuts_ of Victoire Balfe, Mongini, and Guarducci--My Contralto Marries a Duke--The Duke and Duchess at Naples pp. 13-22 CHAPTER III. Nocturnal Negotiations--Reopening of Her Majesty's Theatre--Sayers and Heenan Patronize the Opera--English and Italian Opera Combined--Smith and his Speculations--Discovery of Adelina Patti--My Management of the Lyceum pp. 23-39 CHAPTER IV. At Her Majesty's Theatre--Verdi's Cantata--Ginglini at the Seaside--Pollio and the Drum-stick--An Operatic Conspiracy--Confusion of the Conspirators pp. 40-57 CHAPTER V. Running over a Tenor--Titiens in Italy--Cashing a Cheque at Naples--A Neapolitan Ball--Approaching a Minister--Return to London pp. 58-65 CHAPTER VI.