Chapter 8 PATTI AND SCALCHI-NEVADA'S DéBUT-A CHINESE SWING-A VISIT FROM ABOVE-RESCUED TREASURE-GREAT CHICAGO FESTIVAL-AMERICAN HOSPITALITY.

FOR our opening night at San Francisco, as already explained, the opera substituted at Mdme. Patti's request for Semiramide was Linda di Chamouni. Of course the house was crowded, and the brilliancy of the occupants of the auditorium baffled all description. An assembly was there of which the city might well feel proud. The costumes worn by the ladies were mostly white. The leaders of fashion were, of course, all present; Mrs.

Mark Hopkins, of Nobs' Hill, conspicuously so, as she was attired in a costume of black velvet, with diamond ornaments, the value of which was estimated at 200,000 dollars. The best order prevailed. The majority entering the theatre on the opening of the doors were accommodated in their various seats without any crushing. Patti was greeted with even more demonstrativeness than she had hitherto received. Mdme. Scalchi on entering must have felt proud that she was none the less welcome for appearing as "Pierotto" in lieu of "Arsace."

Notwithstanding all this there was a coolness about the house in consequence of Mdme. Patti's having insisted upon this change in the opera. Consequently numbers of tickets for the first night instead of being at a premium were sold at a discount. Mdme. Nevada was announced for the second evening, but, unfortunately, she had not yet recovered from her Cheyenne cold, which developed gradually almost to pneumonia. She kept her bed in San Francisco for over three weeks, causing me the greatest annoyance as well as loss, since I was obliged to engage Mdme. Patti to sing a great many extra nights beyond her contract, all of which, of course, I had to pay for. Il Trovatore was consequently performed the second evening in lieu of La Sonnambula. The following night I brought out La Favorita with Scalchi, De Anna, Giannini, and Cherubini, which was a great success; followed by Lucrezia Borgia, in which Fursch-Madi pleased the audience.

These changes and disappointments tended to mar the whole engagement. The following night, however, the opera boom really commenced, the work being Semiramide, which fully justified the anticipations that had been formed of it. The largest and most brilliant audience ever gathered in a theatre were there to hear Patti and Scalchi sing in two of the most difficult r?les in the whole range of opera.

Scalchi fairly divided the honours of the evening with Mdme. Patti; and in the duets they electrified the audience, who, not content with encoring each, insisted upon some half-dozen recalls. The stage was literally strewn with flowers; and the ladies of the audience vied with one another in the elegance of their toilettes. Not only were all the seats occupied, but even all the standing room, and the Press unanimously accorded me the next morning the credit of having presented the best operatic entertainment in that distant city the world of art could afford.

A similar audience greeted Patti and Scalchi at the performance of Faust the following week, whilst on the next Saturday Mdme. Patti appeared as "Annetta" in Crispino e la Comare, which is, without doubt, her best part.

About this time the auction took place for the second season of two weeks, which I determined to commence the following Monday. The particulars of this I have already given.

The proceeds were very handsome, but nothing like those of the previous sale. I decided, therefore, that all unsold tickets should be disposed of at the box-office of the theatre in order that the general public might have an opportunity of attending the opera prior to our departure.

During the following week, being the first of this extra season, Mdme. Patti appeared in Semiramide, La Traviata, and Martha. At each performance there were nearly 3,000 persons assembled in the theatre. On the following Monday, it being our last week, I induced Mdlle. Nevada to make her first appearance, on which occasion the receipts reached the same amount as Mdme. Patti's. Mdlle. Nevada, perhaps because she is a Californian, drew probably the largest audience we had had.

On her entering the stage some 3,000 or 4,000 persons shouted and applauded a welcome as if they were all going mad. She was hardly prepared for her reception. She had looked forward for many years to appearing in her native city and singing a great r?le before the people amongst whom she had spent her early life; and this was a momentous occasion for her. The enthusiasm of any other public would have spurred her on. But she was here so much affected that, although she sustained herself splendidly, yet after the curtain fell she was unable to speak.

At the conclusion of the opera she was recalled several times, and large set pieces of flowers, some six feet in height, were handed up, numbers of the leading florists having been busy putting them in shape all the fore part of the day. New dresses were ordered for that occasion, and an invitation to get a seat in a box was looked upon as a prize.

Long before half-past seven the vestibule of the theatre held a mass of fashionably-dressed ladies and gentlemen, all waiting to be shown to their places in order to be present on the rising of the curtain.

During all the first act the singer was critically and attentively listened to, scarcely with any interruptions; but when the curtain fell after the duet with "Elvino" the pent-up enthusiasm of the audience broke loose. Nevada was called out, and with shouts, cries, and every manner of wild demonstration. Flowers were carried down the aisles, thrown from the boxes and dress-circle, until the stage looked like the much-quoted Vallambrosa. Again and again the prima donna was called out, until she was fairly exhausted. Amongst the set pieces handed up to the stage was a large floral chair built of roses, violets, and carnations on a wicker frame, and Nevada, as the most natural thing to do, sat plumply down in it, whereat the house fairly howled with delight. On the back of the chair were the words, "Welcome home!"

The following night Aida was performed with the great cast of Patti, Scalchi, De Anna, and Nicolini, when the largest receipt during the whole engagement was taken. To describe that evening would be impossible; it would exhaust all the vocabulary. The gratings along the alley-way were wrenched off by the crowd, who slid down on their stomachs into the cellars of the theatre to get a hearing of Patti and Scalchi.

On this day we discovered the "Chinese swing," of which so much was said in the papers, and which had, doubtless, been in operation throughout the season. In the alley-way leading to the theatre is a lodging-house facing a sort of opening into the building used for ventilation. An ingenious fellow had rigged up a swing, and so adjusted it that he could toss people from his house on to the roof of the theatre to the ventilation hole. Once there, the intruder passed downstairs through the building, got a pass-out check on leaving it, which he immediately sold for two dollars, and then repeated the swing act again. We arrested one man who had performed the trick four times. The police had to cut the ropes and take the swing away.

So many devices were resorted to for entering the theatre without payment that I had to put it during this performance in a state of siege, as it were, and to close the iron shutters, as people came in from ladders through the windows of the dress-circle unobserved in many instances.

The following evening Mdlle. Nevada made her second appearance, performing the character of "Lucia" in Donizetti's opera, when the receipts were almost equal to those of the first night. Mdme. Patti performed the next night Il Trovatore to similar receipts. The next day I produced Gounod's Mirella, when the Grand Opera-house was again crowded brimful, people considering themselves lucky when they could get standing room without a view of the stage or a glimpse of the singers. The following morning was devoted to a performance of Faust, in which Patti took her farewell as "Margherita."

Just at this time a strange complaint was made against me by a body of "scalpers," who accused me of having put forward Adelina Patti to sing on a night for which Nevada had been originally announced. This I had, of course, done simply from a feeling of liberality towards my supporters. No one could reasonably accuse me of paying ￡1,000 a night to Mdme. Patti with the view of injuring the scalpers. They had, however, got more tickets into their hands than they were able to dispose of at the increased rates demanded by them. They, therefore, banded together, employed a lawyer to proceed against me for damages, and as a preliminary procured an order laying an embargo on my receipts.

The Sheriff's officers dropped into the gallery pay-box through a skylight on to the very head of the money-taker, who was naturally much surprised by this visitation from above; and they at once seized two thousand dollars.

It was very important for me not to let this money be taken, as it would have been impounded; and being on the point of taking my departure for Europe I should have been obliged to go away without it.

The only thing to do was to find securities-"bondsmen," as the Americans say. It was already nearly four o'clock (I was giving a so-called matinée that afternoon), and at four the Sheriff's office closed. I insisted on the money being counted, and one of the Sheriff's officers who was employed in counting it proposed in the most obliging manner to do the work very slowly if I would give him 50 dollars. This generous offer I declined, though it would have had the effect of giving me more time to find bondsmen. I soon, however, discovered seated in the theatre two friends who I knew would stand security for me. But it was necessary to find a Judge who would in a formal manner accept the signatures.

The performance was at an end, and fortunately there was at this moment a Judge on the stage in the act of making a presentation to Mdme. Patti, doing so, of course, in a set speech.

I did not interrupt the oration; but as soon as it was over, and whilst Mdme. Patti was weeping out "Home, Sweet Home" as if her heart would break, I presented to the Judge my two bondsmen. I at the same time took from my waistcoat pocket and handed to him my ink pencil, and he at once signed a paper accepting the bondsmen, together with another ordering the release of the sequestrated funds.

Armed with these documents, I drove post haste to the Sheriff's office, and got there at two minutes to four, just as the last bag of silver was going in. All the bags were now got out and heaped together in my carriage. The story was already known all over San Francisco. An immense crowd had assembled in front of the Sheriff's office, and as I drove off bearing away my rescued treasure I was saluted with enthusiastic cheers.

When a year later I returned to San Francisco I thought the case would possibly be brought to trial; but the lawyer representing the "scalpers" told me that he had been unable to get any money out of them, and that if I would give him a season ticket he would let the thing drop. The thing accordingly dropped.

On reaching Burlington on the Thursday morning following I was desirous of having a general rehearsal of L'Africaine, which was to be performed on the second night of the Chicago Opera Festival, and which had not been given by my Company during the previous twelve months. I could not rehearse it at Chicago, lest the public should think the work was not ready for representation. I resolved, therefore, to stop the train at Burlington in order to rehearse it at a big hall which I knew was there available. But lest news should get to the Chicago papers that the Company had stayed at Burlington merely for the purpose of rehearsing L'Africaine, I determined, if possible, to give a public performance, and on seeing the manager of the theatre, arranged with him for one performance of Faust. For five hours I rehearsed L'Africaine in the hall, and in the evening we had a most successful representation of Faust at the theatre. Dotti was the "Margherita," Scalchi "Siebel," Lablache "Martha," Del Puente "Valentine," Cherubini "Mefistopheles," and Giannini "Faust." There was no time for putting forward announcements by means of bills, and the fact that a performance of Faust was to be given that evening was made known by chalk inscriptions on the walls. The receipts amounted to ￡600. Patti honoured the performance with her presence in a private box, and a somewhat indiscreet gentleman, Dr. Nassau, paid her a visit to remind her that it was over twenty-nine years since she had sung under his direction at the old Mozart Hall, "Coming through the Rye," "The Last Rose of Summer," Eckert's "Echo Song," and "Home, Sweet Home." He substantiated his statements by one of the original programmes which he had brought purposely to show her. She received him coldly.

We left Burlington immediately after the night's performance, reaching Chicago the following Sunday morning, when I immediately paid a visit to the large Opera-house that had been constructed, and was astonished at its surpassing grandeur.

A vast deal had, indeed, been done, and still had to be done in the few remaining hours to complete it for the reception of the public, the building being one of the most stupendous, and the event one of the most brilliant Chicago had ever known. It was impossible to realize the magnitude of the task which had been undertaken, or the splendid manner in which it had been performed, the auditorium being probably one of the finest ever constructed for such a purpose. An increased chorus had been organized of 500 voices, whilst the orchestra had been augmented by a hundred extra musicians. A new drop curtain had been painted. The scaffolding was being removed from the ceiling, revealing decorations both brilliant and tasteful. The opening of the proscenium measured no less than 70 feet, with an elevation of 65 feet at the highest point of the arch, and a projection of 20 feet in front of the curtain. There were two tiers of proscenium boxes, and between the main balconies, which rose to a height of 30 feet, extending over and above the dress circle, there was a further space of 50 feet for standing accommodation in case of overcrowding. To ensure proper warmth the great auditorium was closed in, and all parts of the building supplied with steam pipes for heating, upwards of four miles in length. Amongst the features of the hall were two beautifully-arranged promenades or grand saloons, one decorated in the Japanese and the other in the Chinese style. Dressing-rooms for ladies and gentlemen had been constructed all over the building. The acoustic properties were simply perfect; sounding-boards, stage drop deflectors, and other scientific inventions being brought to bear.

The advance sale of seats on the first day of the opening reached over $50,000. In consequence of the vast size of the building new scenery had to be painted, which I entrusted to Mr. Charles Fox, with a numerous staff of assistants; this alone costing ￡6,000. Each scene was nearly 100 feet wide.

The house after the opening of the doors presented a surprisingly brilliant and attractive appearance, looking, in fact, like a permanent Opera-house. The orchestra was in excellent form, and numbered 155 musicians, under the direction of Arditi. The opera performed was Semiramide. The stage band and chorus numbered some 450, and there were 300 supernumeraries; so that when the curtain rose the effect was most magnificent. The audience was worthy of the occasion. There must have been over 5,000 people seated and some 4,000 or 5,000 standing. There were 80 ushers to attend to the occupants of the stalls; and at the commencement of the overture there was not one vacant seat. At the close of each act many of the vast audience repaired to the promenade and refreshment-rooms, to be recalled to their places by six cavalry trumpeters who came on the stage to sound a fanfare prior to the commencement of each act.

A leading daily paper wrote, the following morning:-

"The promises made by the Festival Association have been fulfilled to the letter, and the great temple of Art stood ready for the thousands for whom it was built. Not a single pledge made in reference to this building but what has been discharged, and the Manager is entitled to the thanks, and, indeed, the gratitude of the refined and music-loving classes of this community for the very thorough and self-sacrificing way in which all essentials and minor details of comfort and convenience have been achieved."

On the second night L'Africaine was performed, when a similar gathering attended. The audience was just as brilliant as on the previous evening, everyone being in full evening dress. Mdme. Fursch-Madi gave an effective interpretation of the title r?le, De Anna as "Nelusko" created quite a sensation, and Cardinali was an admirable Vasco di Gama.

On the third evening Gounod's Mirella, an opera never before heard in Chicago, was chosen for the first appearance of Mdlle. Nevada, and given with immense success, the part of the gipsy being taken by Mdme. Scalchi. This was followed on Thursday night by Linda di Chamouni, in which Mdme. Patti and Mdme. Scalchi appeared together. The Semiramide night had been thought a great one, but the audience on this occasion consisted of probably 2,000 more. Where they went to or where they stood it was impossible to say. Certain it is that 9,000 people paid for seats, irrespective of those who remained standing.

On the following evening Mdlle. Nevada appeared as "Lucia," and scored another triumph; whilst Patti and Scalchi drew 11,000 persons more for the morning performance. This was really a day for memory. The attendance consisted mostly of ladies, all tastefully, and often elaborately, dressed in the very latest fashion. Weber's Der Freischütz was performed in the evening, which terminated the first week of the Festival.

The second week we opened with La Sonnambula to an audience of some 8,000 persons, the next night being devoted to the presentation of Verdi's Aida, with the following great cast:-

"Aida" ... ... ... Patti.

"Amneris" ... ... ... Scalchi.

"Amonasro" ... ... ... De Anna.

"Rhadames" ... ... Nicolini.

Some 12,000 people attended this performance. The disagreeable weather did not seem to keep anyone away, and the streets were blocked with carriages for many squares, as far as the eye could reach. I was assured afterwards by an inspector that but for the aid of the rain, which came down in sheets, it would have been impossible to cope with the vast crowds who still poured in, attempting to enter the building.

About this time a complaint came to me from behind the scenes that Mdme. Patti and Mdme. Scalchi were unable to force their way from their dressing-rooms on to the stage, the wings and flies being crowded with some 2,000 persons, who during the first act had been joining in the applause of the singers with the audience in front. Together with these were some 500 supernumeraries with blackened faces, in oriental garb, chasing round to try to find their places, others with banners arranging their dresses. At length, with the aid of the police, Mdme. Patti was enabled to leave her dressing-room, but was surrounded immediately by crowds of ladies with pens and ink and paper, requesting autographs just as she was going on to sing her scena.

The boxes of the house were filled to overflowing, some containing as many as twelve persons. The flowers on the arm-rests in front were of the most expensive kind.

The march in the third act was really most impressive. There were 600 State Militia on the stage, each Company marching past in twelves, the rear rank beautifully dressed, the wheels perfect. The finale of the act, with the military band and the 350 extra chorus, together with the gorgeous scenery and dresses, was something long to be remembered. Well might the audience cheer as it did on the fall of the curtain.

The following night Rigoletto was given, then Il Trovatore, and the night after that Lohengrin.

At the close of the second act of Lohengrin there came a call from all sides of the house, and I was compelled to appear before the curtain, when I addressed the audience in the following words:-

"Ladies and gentlemen,-I am rather unprepared for the flattering compliment which you pay me in thus calling for me. I assure you that I join with you in my appreciation of the successful termination of this opera season, and I can bestow nothing but the most cordial thanks for the liberal support which the people of Chicago have given their Opera Festival. It is an evidence of their taste, and I hope will prove the forerunner of many more similar meetings. (Applause.) There are several persons who deserve special mention and thanks, but I shall have to be content simply with testifying to the earnestness of purpose with which all have laboured who were in any wise connected with the Festival. I therefore thank them all. It is no small thing to present thirteen different operas in two weeks' time, yet the attendance and manifestations of appreciation on the part of the audience will justify me in claiming that success has crowned my efforts; and the knowledge that we have given you all we promised and have satisfied you repays us for all our work."

President Peck likewise came forward and thanked the people of the city for their generous attendance at the first Opera Festival. It had been a success in every respect, and the management had done its best to accommodate and please the public.

A leading journal, in giving a review of the Opera Festival, said:-

"The Great Operatic Festival is now over, and only the memories of its magnificence and importance are left. The last note has been sung at the Chicago Operatic Festival, without doubt the greatest musical undertaking that has ever been accomplished anywhere. In no great city of Europe or America could 190,000 people have been able to attend the opera in two weeks. In the first place, the accommodations of even the largest Opera-houses are not such that 10,000 people could be present at any one performance. The Operatic Festival Association have been untiring in their earnest endeavours to present all the operas in the best possible manner. Each performance has been given as announced, and the casts have been uniformly good. Thirteen operas have been produced, all of which were mounted in a manner never before equalled. Many of the stage pictures, as in Semiramide, Mirella, L'Africaine, Aida, and Faust, have been simply superb, and will be long remembered for their beauty. The pictorial charm of the scene on the banks of the Nile in Aida was also most poetic. The processions, and the way in which they were controlled, indicated that the stage manager was a man of taste and ability."

Prior to my departure, 18th April, 1885, my attendance was requested by the Mayor, Mr. Carter H. Harrison, at the City Hall, when I was amply repaid for all the labour I had bestowed upon the Festival by the magnificent presentation which was then made me, and which I value more than anything of the kind I have ever received. It was nothing less than the freedom of the City of Chicago-a compliment I can say with safety that has never been paid to any other Englishman, and what is more, is never likely to be. Chicago, as everyone at all connected with America must know, will within a very few years be the first city in the United States, and probably in the world.

The success of the Chicago Festival was due in a great measure to the personal efforts of Ferdinand W. Peck, the President, from whom I immediately afterwards received a notification to attend the final committee meeting, when the following testimonial was presented to me, magnificently engrossed on parchment:-

At a Meeting of the

CHICAGO OPERA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION

held April 18th, 1885,

The following Resolution was unanimously adopted:

Resolved

That the Chicago Opera Festival Association

Recognizes the satisfactory manner in which

COLONEL JAMES HENRY MAPLESON

has fulfilled his obligations under his contract with

this Association,

And they desire to express their high appreciation

of his liberality in the presentation of all the operas

produced, without which the grand success of the

FESTIVAL

could not have been achieved. In attestation of

the above the Officers and Board of Directors have

hereunto subscribed their names:

FERD. W. PECK, President,

WILLIAM PENN NIXON, Vice-President,

LOUIS WAHL, Second Vice-President,

A. A. SPRAGUE

GEORGE M. BOGUE

EUGENE CAREY

HENRY FIELD directors.

R. T. CRANE

JOHN R. WALSH

GEORGE F. HARDING

GEORGE G. SCHNEIDER, Treasurer.

S. G. PRATT, Secretary.

"ADDRESS

"Tendered to Col. J. H. Mapleson by the Musicians and Citizens of the City of Chicago.

"SIR,-Now since the last note has died away, and lingers only in the ear of memory to warm and cheer the heart, and the great musical triumph of our city, the Chicago Opera Festival, is over, we extend to you in these words what we had expected to say to you amid music and song, had not the manifold duties that engrossed your time rendered us unable to do so.

"It is, indeed, as musicians, lovers of music, and citizens that we can cordially thank you in the name of the mighty people of that great and haughty city, the Queen of the North and the West. For this city, whose history has been the wonder of the world, whose greatness and energy in all things in which it engages are acknowledged by all, now yields this tribute to you, sir, as the one by whose direction, management, enterprise, and energy the greatest musical success ever given within its walls was accomplished.

"We might say more, but in our city's characteristic mode we express by deeds far better than by words. For two weeks our citizens night after night were turned away from the vast temple of music under your control, for the halls were crowded by others. They brought with them a hope that blossomed into unexpected realization, and the keen business men and tired toilers of the city lived a new life and shook the very ground with their applause.

"Never had music received such homage here. Again, we thank you for what you have done, and while we say farewell we also bid you welcome, for we hope to see you year after year in some vast Opera-hall in which ten thousand people can be seated, as proposed to be erected by some of our citizens, where you may win new laurels to your fame in your heaven-inspired mission of procuring and giving music for the people.

"With congratulations we remain-

FREDK. AUSTIN, 1st Regt.

Military Band Leader, Committee on

-Address and

Resolutions.

A. ROSENBECKER, Drct. 1st Regt.

Grand Orchestra,

ALBERT KLEIST, Pres. of C.

Musical Sy.,

E. B. KNOX, Col. 1st Rgt. Inf.

I.R.G.,

GEO. W. LYON, P.,

CHAS. N. POST,

"Done at Chicago, April 21st, 1885."

This may be the place to mention, what I am reminded of whenever I have to speak of America, the cordial, lavish hospitality with which English visitors are received in that country. Apart from the favour shown to me by railway and steamboat companies, who, so far as I was personally concerned, carried me everywhere free, the committees of the leading clubs offered me in all the principal cities the honours and advantages of membership. Not only was I a member of all the best clubs, but I was, moreover, treated in every club-house as a guest. This sometimes placed me in an awkward position. More than once I have felt tempted, at some magnificent club-house, to order such expensive luxuries as terrapin and canvas-back duck; but unwilling to abuse the privileges conferred upon me, I condemned myself to a much simpler fare. It seemed more becoming to reserve the ordering of such costly dishes for some future occasion, when I might happen to be dining at a restaurant.

It must be admitted that in many of the conveniences of life the Americans are far ahead of us, and ahead are likely to remain; so averse are we in England to all departures from settled habits, inconvenient, and even injurious as these may be. Every opera-goer knows the delay, the trouble, the irritation caused by the difficulty, when the performance is at an end, of getting up carriages or cabs. This difficulty has, in the United States, no existence.

When the opera-goer reaches the theatre an official, known as the "carriage superintendent," presents a large ticket in two divisions, bearing duplicate numbers. One numbered half is handed by the "carriage superintendent" to the driver. The other is retained by the opera-goer, who on coming out at the end of the representation exhibits his number, which is thereupon signalled or telegraphed to a man on the top of the house, who at once displays it in a transparency lighted by electricity or otherwise. The carriages are all drawn up with their hind wheels to the kerbstone, so that the approach to the theatre is quite clear. The illuminated number is at once seen, and the carriage indicated by it is at the door by the time the intending occupant is downstairs in the vestibule.

It is astonishing how easily this system works.