The Mapleson Memoirs, 1848-1888 Volume I Part 10

Gye had been thrown through the turn lately taken by operatic affairs.

As he lay exhausted on the sofa there seemed, indeed, but little chance of his ever rising again to take part in the active business of life. He could scarcely speak. He was pale, agitated, and such was his feverish condition that it was necessary from time to time to apply wet bandages to his forehead. In his state of exhaustion, combined with a certain nervous irritability, it seemed cruel to delay the signature he so much desired; and the effect of my putting pen to paper was, indeed, to cause him instantaneous relief. Never before did I see such a change. His despondency left him. He rose from the sofa, walked about with an elastic step, a cheerful air, and had he been anything of a vocalist would, I feel sure, have sung.

By the terms now agreed to between Mr. Gye and myself I was freed from all outstanding claims upon the theatre, and received a payment in money. I at the same time agreed to withdraw the Chancery proceedings against Dudley and Gye.

Immediately afterwards I set about forming a Company for my provincial operatic tour of 1870; also renting Covent Garden from Mr. Gye for the autumn, as I found it impossible to obtain Her Majesty's, being informed by Lord Dudley's solicitors that it had been let to Mr. Gye. The ensuing spring I returned to my old quarters at Drury Lane, my first act being to secure the services of Sir Michael Costa, who forthwith began forming his orchestra, whilst I went to the Continent in quest of vocal talent.

I will not trouble the reader about my provincial opera tour, which, as usual, was very successful indeed; nor with my spring concert tour of 1871, with t.i.tiens, Trebelli, Santley, Foli, and other eminent artists.

I opened my London season of 1871 under brilliant auspices, the Prince of Wales having taken a box as well as all the leading supporters from the old house. About this time I secured the services of Mdlle. Marimon, who drew enormous receipts, but unfortunately fell sick after the third night. It was only on rare intervals that she appeared again during the season. I, however, got safely through; producing several standard works, under the able direction of Sir Michael Costa, in addition to a revival of _Robert the Devil_, also _Semiramide_, with t.i.tiens and Trebelli, who in this work always drew crowded houses. I also produced _Anna Bolena_. The season finished up satisfactorily, and I was glad to get a fortnight's well-earned rest prior to my autumn tour of opera, which was pre-eminently successful. I returned to London to take up my autumn season afterwards at the Royal Italian Opera, Covent Garden, which terminated early in December, after which I gave a few concluding operatic performances at Brighton.

Early the following year I again started on my spring concert tour; during which I gave 48 concerts in 48 cities in 48 days, followed by a spring opera season at Edinburgh.

I have omitted to state that prior to the opening of my successful Drury Lane season of 1871, the Earl of Dudley became the plaintiff and Mr. Gye the defendant with regard to Her Majesty's Theatre. Finding I was at Drury Lane, and in open opposition to the Royal Italian Opera, Mr. Gye did not seem to think it desirable that he should execute the lease; whereupon Lord Dudley took proceedings against Gye for 7,500, as arrears of rent for Her Majesty's Theatre.

About this time Jarrett, in reply to my constant applications, informed me that Mdlle. Nilsson was about to be married, and, in fact, that her future husband had already arrived in America, but that he, Jarrett, had succeeded in inducing her to give four performances the next season prior to the marriage, which was to be postponed until the following year. He explained in his letter that as her performances were to be limited to four I was not to complain of the only terms he could get the lady to a.s.sent to; namely, 200 for each representation. He explained that 800 would be the total sum; "and what," he asked, "is that where thousands are concerned, in addition to the prestige it will give to your house, as well as the influence on the subscription list?" I thereupon authorized him to close the matter for the season of 1872.

About this time my attention was drawn by my friend Zimelli, the manager of the theatre at Malta, to a most charming young soprano, who he a.s.sured me was destined to take a very high rank; and about the same time I received a letter from a regular subscriber to the house, a distinguished officer, pointing out the excellence of this young lady. I at once opened negotiations which ultimately led to favourable results.

Colonel McCray, I may add, had written to me from Florence on the same subject. The name of the young singer was Emma Albani; and having, as I thought, secured her services--positively promised in a letter written to me by the lady--I found myself deprived of them by Mr. Gye; who I find, now that I look back on the past, paid me an attention of this kind--sometimes greater, sometimes less--regularly every year.

On her arrival Mdlle. Albani was to sign the contract; and as soon as she got to London she, with perfect good faith, drove to what she believed to be my theatre. She had told the cab-man to take her to the manager's office at the Italian Opera. She was conveyed to the Royal Italian Opera, and, sending in her card to Mr. Gye, who had doubtless heard of her, was at once received. On Mdlle. Albani's saying that she had come to sign the contract which I had offered her, Mr. Gye, knowing that I never made engagements but with artists of merit, gave her at once the agreement she desired.

To do Mr. Gye justice I must here mention that after the contract had been signed he, in the frankest manner, avowed to Mdlle. Albani that he was not Mr. Mapleson, for whom she had hitherto mistaken him. He explained to her that there was a manager named Mapleson who rented an establishment somewhere round the corner where operas and other things were from time to time played; but _the_ opera, the permanent inst.i.tution known as such, was the one he had the honour of directing.

If, he concluded, Mdlle. Albani was sorry to have dealt with him she might still consider herself free, and he would at once tear up the contract.

Mdlle. Albani, however, was so impressed by the emphatic manner in which Mr. Gye dwelt on the superiority of his theatre to mine that she declared herself satisfied, and kept to the contract she had signed.

Colonel McCray called on me soon afterwards to beg that out of consideration for the lady I would give up the letter in which she declared herself ready to sign with me. I a.s.sured him that I had no intention of making any legal use of it, but that I should like to keep it as a souvenir of the charming vocalist who had at one time shown herself willing to be introduced to the London public under my auspices.

Why, it may be asked, as a simple matter of business--indeed, as an act of justice to myself--did I not take proceedings for an enforcement of the agreement which Mdlle. Albani had virtually contracted? I, of course, considered the advisability of doing so, and one reason for which I took no steps in the matter was that t.i.tiens, Nilsson, Murska, and Marimon were members of my Company, and that even if Mdlle. Albani had come to me I should have found it difficult to furnish her with appropriate parts.

The young lady duly appeared at Covent Garden about the beginning of April in _La Sonnambula_, and at once achieved a remarkable success, which caused me very much to regret the loss of her. She afterwards appeared as "Elsa" in _Lohengrin_ in an Italian version, which had been made for me by Signor Marchesi, husband of the well-known teacher of operatic singing, and himself an accomplished musician.

I had ordered from Signor Marchesi as long before as 1864 an Italian version of _Tannhauser_, which I duly announced in my prospectus for that year, but which I was dissuaded by some critical friends, who did not believe in Wagner, from presenting to the public. I had been advised, and there was certainly reason in the advice, that if I had quite decided to run such a risk as would be necessarily incurred through the production of an opera by Wagner (whose _Tannhauser_ had three years previously been hissed and hooted from the stage of the Paris Opera-house) I should at least begin with his most interesting and most attractive work, the poetical _Lohengrin_. Accordingly, reserving _Tannhauser_ for a future occasion, I determined to begin my Wagnerian operations with the beautiful legend of Elsa and the Knight of the Swan; and I commissioned Signor Marchesi to execute such a version of _Lohengrin_ as he had previously given me of _Tannhauser_--a version, that is to say, in which, without any departure from the meaning of the words or from the forms of the original versification, the musical accents should be uniformly observed.

But in England the laws relating to dramatic property seem to have been made for the advantage only of pirates and smugglers. I had printed the Italian translation of _Lohengrin_ which Signor Marchesi had executed for me, and for which I had paid him the sum of 150. But I had not secured rights of representation in the work by going through the necessary farce of a mock performance before a sham public; and anyone, therefore, was at liberty to perform a translation which in any country but England would have been regarded as my property. How Signor Marchesi's translation of _Lohengrin_ got into Mr. Gye's hands I do not know. But the version prepared for me at my cost was the one which Mr.

Gye produced, and which somehow found its way to all the Italian theatres.

It has amused me in glancing through the history of my operatic seasons since 1861 to see how persistently Mr. Gye endeavoured by some stroke--let us say of policy--to bring my career as operatic manager to an abrupt end.

In 1861, when at Adelina Patti's own suggestion I was engaging a Company and taking a theatre with a view to her first appearance in England, he entangled her in an engagement by means of a fifty-pound loan.

In 1862, just when I was on the point of opening Her Majesty's Theatre, the late Mr. Augustus Harris, Mr. Gye's stage manager and adviser on many points, approached Mdlle. t.i.tiens with an offer of a blank engagement.

In 1863 Mr. Gye's insidious but unsuccessful advances towards Mdlle.

t.i.tiens were repeated.

In 1864 Mr. Gye having, as he pretended, bought exclusive rights in _Faust_ over my head, tried by means of an injunction, impossible under the circ.u.mstances (since the right of representing Faust at my own theatre had been duly purchased by me from the Paris publishers), to prevent me from performing the most successful opera I had yet secured.

In 1865 Mr. Gye did not renew his annual attack until my season was almost at an end. But on the last night, or nearly so, just when I had been promising good things for the ensuing season, he attempted to spring a mine upon me in my own house. I was sitting calmly in my box watching a particularly good performance of _Faust_, with t.i.tiens, Trebelli, Gardoni, Junca, and Santley in the princ.i.p.al parts, when the old Duke of Leinster came in and said--

"Look here, Mapleson; what is the meaning of this?"

He handed me a printed announcement which I found had been placed in every seat in my theatre, and which I here reproduce with all possible precision, not excepting the typographical peculiarities by which the name of the "Right Hon. the Earl of Dudley" is made to appear in large capitals, and that of Mr. Gye in larger capitals still. Here is the astonis.h.i.+ng doc.u.ment which if, on reflection, it filled me with mirth, did also, I freely admit, cause me for a few moments considerable surprise:--

=Mr. GYE= has the honour to announce that he has transferred the proprietors.h.i.+p of THE ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA, COVENT GARDEN, to a Public Company.

=Mr. GYE= will occupy the position of General Manager.

The Company has now made arrangements for purchasing of THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF DUDLEY his Lords.h.i.+p's interest in HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE, HAYMARKET.

The Prospectus of the Company will be issued in a few days.

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA, COVENT GARDEN, JULY 29TH, 1865.

On inquiry I found that an emissary from Covent Garden had bribed one of my box keepers, who, for the small sum of one sovereign, had betrayed his trust, and deluged my theatre with daring and mendacious announcements from the opposition house.

In 1866 Mr. Gye tried to carry out the arrangement with which he had audaciously threatened me in my own theatre just as the season of 1865 was terminating. I happened to hold a twenty-one years' lease of Her Majesty's Theatre; and to purchase Lord Dudley's interest in the establishment was a very different thing from purchasing mine. But what at once put a stop to Mr. Gye's action in the matter was an injunction obtained by Colonel Brownlow Knox to restrain Mr. Gye from dealing with the Royal Italian Opera as his property until the seemingly interminable case of Knox _v._ Gye had been decided.

In 1867 Mr. Gye may have been nurturing I know not what deadly scheme against my theatre. But this year a fatal accident came to his aid, and he was spared the trouble of executing any hostile design. It was in 1867 that Her Majesty's Theatre was destroyed by fire.

In 1868 came the proposition for partners.h.i.+p. Mr. Gye wished to grapple with me at closer quarters.

In 1869 Mr. Gye was intriguing with Lord Dudley to get Her Majesty's Theatre into his hands.

In 1870 Mr. Gye made his droll proposal to the effect that I should go equal shares with him in paying the rent of Her Majesty's Theatre, I binding myself not to open it.

In 1872 Mr. Gye engaged Mdlle. Albani, already under contract to me, and helped himself to my version of _Lohengrin_.

In 1873 he offered an engagement to one of my two leading stars, Mdlle.

Nilsson; and I had myself to write explaining to him very clearly that she was engaged to me.

For two whole years Mr. Gye remained quiet as towards me. But in 1876, when I was on the point of completing the capital necessary for carrying out my grand National Opera project on the Thames Embankment, he wrote a letter which somehow found its way into the _Times_, denouncing the whole affair, and proving by an extraordinary manipulation of figures that my rent would be something like 40,000 a year.

In 1877 Mr. Gye, knowing that I had engaged Gayarre, and well a.s.sured that I should not have done so had not Gayarre been a good artist, offered him double what I was to pay him. Gayarre, with all the innocence of a tenor, explained to me that the temptation presented to him was irresistible. I brought an action against him all the same, and obtained in the Italian Courts a judgment for 8,000, which I have not yet been able to enforce by reason of his having no property in Italy.

CHAPTER XI.

ADELINA'S SUCCESSOR--A PRIMA DONNA'S MARRIAGE NEGOTIATIONS--POUNDS _V._ GUINEAS--NILSSON AND THE SHAH--PRODUCTION OF "LOHENGRIN"--SALVINI'S PERFORMANCES AND PROFITS--MARGUERITE CHAPUY--IRONY OF AN EARL.

HAVING relied upon Mdme. Nilsson's services for my Drury Lane season of 1871, I felt in a position of great difficulty. I thereupon set about inquiring for a capable prima donna to supply her place. About two days afterwards I received a letter from America informing me of a most extraordinary singer, the writer further setting forth that his father had, some twenty years previously, recommended me Adelina Patti, and that he could equally endorse all that was now said of this coming star.

Without one moment's hesitation I accepted, feeling sure the "tip" must be a good one, and in due course the lady arrived. She was of short stature and remarkably stout, which I considered at once a drawback; but so unbounded was my confidence in the recommendation that I persuaded myself these defects would be of no consequence whatever in the general result.

At the conclusion of the first rehearsal Sir Michael Costa came down in a most mysterious way, asking me if I was sure as to the prima donna's talents. I told him he need be under no apprehension whatever on the subject.

At length the general rehearsal arrived, and a message came from Sir Michael, begging me to ask the little lady to sing out, as up to the present time n.o.body had heard her voice at any of the rehearsals. I came on to the stage, but as our new _Diva_ was conducting herself with great importance, and moreover seemed to be busy with the preparation of her music, I told Sir Michael that he need labour under no misapprehension, as she was guaranteed to take the town by storm.

Evening came, and a more dismal _fiasco_ I do not recollect. Such unbounded faith had I placed in my American friend's recommendation, together with the laudatory notices which had appeared in the numerous journals he had sent, that I confess I was on this occasion taken in.