The Mapleson Memoirs, 1848-1888 Volume I Part 11

This is the only instance in the course of my lengthened career in which an artist introduced by me has not been forthwith accepted by the public, and I admit that the result in this particular case was entirely due to my own neglect in not hearing her beforehand.

It was rather hard lines on the "Faust" of the evening, M. Capoul, who made his first appearance in England on this occasion; likewise on Moriami, the favourite baritone, and Rives, a young French artist, who sustained the _role_ of "Mephistopheles" with great credit.

The following evening I produced _Robert le Diable_, in which Signor Nicolini made his first appearance in England, enacting the _role_ of "Roberto" to perfection. Belval, the first ba.s.s of the Paris opera, was the "Bertramo," Mdme. Ilma de Murska the "Isabella," and t.i.tiens the "Alice." In the excellence of this performance my "Margherita" of the previous evening was soon forgotten, and I booked her an early pa.s.sage back to America, where, strange to say, she still retained a first-cla.s.s position, and did so for many years afterwards.

As matters were still unsettled between Lord Dudley and his would-be tenant, Gye, I again secured Drury Lane for my season of 1872. Prior to concluding Mdlle. Nilsson's engagement, as she was still unmarried, her Paris agent, who advised her, called upon me, stating that in the event of my requiring her services I had better notify to him that the marriage must be postponed until the close of my proposed opera season.

To this I consented, and I attended at a meeting where I met the future husband and the agent, when it was explained to the former that Mdlle.

Nilsson was ready and willing to perform her agreement to marry him, but that in that case she would lose her London engagement, and would be very angry; whereupon it was agreed the marriage should be further postponed. Papers were drawn up, and the proper stamps affixed, whereby Mdlle. Nilsson was to return to me for my season of 1872.

On the 28th May she made her reappearance, after an absence of two years, renewing her success as "La Traviata," followed by _Faust_, _Trovatore_, etc.

During this season I produced Cherubini's Water-carrier, in which t.i.tiens sang; also _Lucia di Lammermoor_, with Nilsson for the first time as the heroine, which drew enormous houses; followed by the _Marriage of Figaro_, in which t.i.tiens and Kellogg appeared, Nilsson acting the "saucy page" to perfection. A most successful season was the result, and in lieu of appearing only four times Mdlle. Nilsson sang never less than twice a week until the close. The terms I was paying her caused a deal of trouble between Patti and Gye; for _la Diva_ had heard of Nilsson's enormous salary. Gye had ultimately to give in; but 200 a night would not satisfy Mdme. Patti, although previously she had been contented with 80; and it was ultimately arranged that she should have more than Nilsson. Gye managed this by paying her 200 guineas nightly, whilst Nilsson had only 200 pounds.

Some two or three weeks after the opening of the season I heard of a desirable tenor in Italy, named Campanini, and at once endeavoured to add him to my already strong Company. My agent reached Rome before Mr.

Gye, and secured the prize. I thereupon set to work to create all the excitement I possibly could, knowing that unless this were done no curiosity would be felt by the public as to his first appearance. I said so much of him that general expectation was fully aroused. In the meantime I was anxiously awaiting his arrival. One evening, about nine o'clock, the hall-keeper brought me word that there was someone "from Campini, or some such name." I immediately brightened up, and said, "Send the messenger in," who accordingly entered. He had a coloured flannel s.h.i.+rt on, no s.h.i.+rt collar, a beard of two or three days' growth, and a little pot-hat. He, in fact, looked rather a rough customer. In reply to my interrogation he informed me that Campanini had arrived, and was in London. I replied, "Are you sure?" Thereupon he burst out laughing, and said that he was Campanini. I felt as if I should go through the floor.

However, the night arrived for his first performance, which took place on May 4th, when he appeared as "Gennaro" in _Lucrezia Borgia_, with t.i.tiens and Trebelli, and with Agnesi as the "Duke." The house was crowded from floor to ceiling, and I must say the tenor fulfilled every antic.i.p.ation, and, in fact, surpa.s.sed my expectations. The salary I paid him was not a large one, and I had engaged him for five years. After ten or twelve days an agent arrived from America who had heard of his success, and offered him 1,000 a month, which was five times what I was to pay him. I need hardly say that this offer, coupled with his great success, completely turned his head, and he became partially unmanageable. Marie Roze, I may add, made her first appearance in England during this season.

At its close Mdlle. Christine Nilsson was married to M. Rouzaud at Westminster Abbey, surrounded by a numerous circle of friends, the ceremony being performed by Dean Stanley. The wedding party were afterwards entertained by the Cavendish Bentincks at their splendid mansion in Grafton Street, where a sumptuous _dejeuner_ was served.

After two or three weeks' holiday at Aix-les-Bains, I started my autumn tour, as usual, at Dublin, for which I engaged t.i.tiens, Marimon, de Murska, Trebelli, Scalchi, Agnesi, Campanini, Fancelli, Foli, etc. This season of fourteen weeks, which carried us up to Christmas, was an unbroken series of triumphs, the receipts being simply enormous; whilst on the spare days when certain of my singers were not required I filled in sometimes as much as 1,000 a week from concerts, without the regular service of the tour being disturbed. We visited Dublin, Cork, Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, and Brighton. This was followed by the usual spring concert tour of 1873, when we did, as usual, our 60 or 70 towns, concluding with a spring opera tour in the north.

For my season of 1873, which again took place at Drury Lane--Her Majesty's Theatre, although built, being still without furniture or scenery--I re-engaged Mdme. Nilsson, paying her 200 per night, in addition to my regular company, which, of course, included t.i.tiens; also Ilma de Murska, Marie Roze, Trebelli, etc., etc. I, moreover, introduced Mdlle. Valleria, Mdlle. Macvitz, an excellent contralto; Aramburo, a tenor possessing a marvellous voice, who has since achieved European fame; Signor Del Puente, the eminent baritone, and many others.

I likewise engaged Mdme. Ristori, who appeared in several of her favourite characters alternately with the operatic performances. Her success was striking, notably in the parts of "Medea," "Mary Stuart,"

"Elizabeth," and "Marie Antoinette." In the latter impersonation she moved the audience to tears nightly by her pathetic acting.

During this season, early in the month of July, it was intimated to me that His Majesty the Shah of Persia would honour the theatre with his presence. I thereupon set about organizing a performance that would give satisfaction both to my princ.i.p.al artists and to the Lord Chamberlain, who had charge of the arrangements, and decided that the performance should consist of the third act of La Favorita, Mdlle. t.i.tiens enacting the _role_ of "Leonora," the first act of _La Traviata_, and, after a short ballet, the first act of _Mignon_, Mdme. Nilsson taking the t.i.tle _role_ in the two latter operas. Mdlle. t.i.tiens, who rarely created difficulties, took rather an exception to commencing the evening, and said that it would be better to divide the two appearances of Nilsson by placing the act of _La Favorita_ between them; Mdme. Nilsson, on the other hand, objected to this arrangement. Two days before the performance Mdme. Nilsson suddenly expressed her willingness to commence the evening with the act of _La Traviata_, she having ascertained from the Lord Chamberlain, or some other high personage (as I afterwards discovered), that His Majesty the Shah could only be present from half-past eight until half-past nine, being due at the grand ball given by the Goldsmiths in the City at about ten o'clock.

Mdme. Nilsson had ordered, at considerable expense, one of the most sumptuous dresses I have ever seen, from Worth, in Paris, in order to portray "Violetta" in the most appropriate style. On the evening of the performance His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales arrived punctually at half-past eight to a.s.sist in receiving the Shah, who did not put in an appearance; and it was ten minutes to nine when Sir Michael Costa led off the opera. I shall never forget the look the fair Swede cast upon the empty royal box, and it was not until half-past nine, when the act of _La Favorita_ had commenced, that His Majesty arrived. He was particularly pleased with the ballet I had introduced in the _Favorita_.

The Prince of Wales, with his usual consideration and foresight, suggested to me that it might smooth over the difficulty in which he saw clearly I should be placed on the morrow in connection with Mdme.

Nilsson, if she were presented to the Shah prior to his departure.

I thereupon crossed the stage and went to Mdme. Nilsson's room, informing her of this. She at once objected, having already removed her magnificent _Traviata_ toilette and attired herself for the character of "Mignon," which consists of a torn old dress almost in rags, with hair hanging dishevelled down the back, and naked feet. After explaining that it was a command with which she must comply, I persuaded her to put a bold face on the matter and follow me. I accompanied her to the ante-room of the royal box, and before I could notify her arrival to His Royal Highness, to the astonishment of all she had walked straight to the farther end of the room, where His Majesty was then busily employed eating peaches out of the palms of his hands.

The look of astonishment on every Eastern face was worthy of the now well-known picture on the Nabob pickles. Without a moment's delay Mdme.

Nilsson made straight for His Majesty, saying--

"Vous etes un tres mauvais Shah," gesticulating with her right hand.

"Tout a l'heure j'etais tres riche, avec des costumes superbes, expres pour votre Majeste; a present je me trouve tres pauvre et sans souliers," at the same time raising her right foot within half an inch of His Majesty's nose; who, with his spectacles, was looking to see what she was pointing to. He was so struck with the originality of the fair prima donna that he at once notified his attendants that he would not go to the Goldsmiths' Ball for the present, but would remain to see this extraordinary woman.

His Majesty did not consequently reach the Goldsmiths' Hall until past midnight. The Lord Mayor, the Prime Warden, the authorities, and guards of honour had all been waiting since half-past nine.

On the close of my London season of 1873 I had considerable difficulty in obtaining a renewal of Mdme. Nilsson's contract for the ensuing year; in fact, she declined altogether to discuss the matter with me. I was fully aware that she was very jealous of the firm position which Mdlle.

t.i.tiens enjoyed in the good opinion of the British public. This had manifested itself on the occasion of t.i.tiens's benefit, when _Nozze di Figaro_ had been selected for the closing night of the season. Much correspondence took place, in the course of which it was a.s.serted that M. Rouzand would not allow his wife to put on "Cherubino's" trunks, he having decided that her legs should never again be seen by the public.

I, therefore, had to subst.i.tute Mdme. Trebelli, who, as an experienced contralto, could make no objection on such points.

Mdme. Nilsson's agent, Mr. Jarrett, succeeded at last in inducing her to sign a contract, and he then explained to me that Mr. Gye had been repeatedly making offers to her during the previous week, which, in spite of his notorious friends.h.i.+p for Mr. Gye, he had the greatest difficulty in making her refuse.

Ultimately an engagement had been prepared, and Jarrett asked me to sign it at the station just as Mdme. Nilsson was about to start for Paris.

Before doing so I requested permission at all events to glance it over, when Mdme. Nilsson replied--

"The train is going. Either sign or leave it alone. I can make no possible alteration."

I mechanically appended my signature; the train started.

On perusing the engagement I discovered that she had reserved for herself the exclusive right of playing "Norma," "Lucrezia," "Fidelio,"

"Donna Anna," "Semiramide," and "Valentine" in _Les Huguenots_. But having omitted the words "during the season," and inasmuch as her engagement for 1874 did not commence until the 29th day of May, I had a clear period of eleven weeks during which another prima donna could play the parts Mdme. Nilsson claimed without overstepping her stringent condition.

I, moreover, felt placed in great difficulty with regard to Mdlle.

t.i.tiens, who was then at the Worcester Festival, and to whom it was, of course, necessary to mention the matter. I decided to go to Worcester at once and unbosom myself.

The great prima donna, on hearing what I had to tell her, smiled and said--

"By all means let her play the parts she wants; and, if the public prefers her rendering of them to mine, by all means let her keep them.

But during the first eleven weeks they are open to other singers, and I will repeat them one by one so that the public may have a fair opportunity of judging between us."

The great artist was, therefore, on her mettle during the early performances of 1874, prior to Nilsson's arrival.

The season opened with _Semiramide_, followed immediately by _Fidelio_, _Norma_, _Huguenots_, _Lucrezia_, etc., which were played one after the other until the arrival of Nilsson, who sang first in _Faust_, and immediately afterwards in Balfe's _Talismano_, after which I called on her to appear as "Lucrezia."

The next morning I had a visit from her agent requesting me not to press the matter, as she was not quite prepared. I thereupon said "Semiramide"

would do as well; to this he offered some objection; but at length, on my urging "Fidelio," he explained to me that if I insisted upon her playing any of those characters which she had expressly stipulated for I should mortally offend her. I could not even induce her to appear as "Donna Anna." Not one of those parts which she had reserved for her exclusive use was she able to undertake. We, therefore, had to fall back on _Faust_, alternated with _La Traviata_.

Finally a compromise was made whereby Mdme. Nilsson undertook the _role_ of "Donna Elvira" in _Don Giovanni_, Mdlle. t.i.tiens retaining her great impersonation of "Donna Anna," in which she was acknowledged throughout the world of music to be unrivalled. This happy combination having been brought about, the season concluded with my benefit, when _Don Giovanni_ was given to some 1,200 receipts.

During the autumn of 1873 I made my usual operatic tour, commencing in Dublin about the middle of September, where we remained three weeks, afterwards visiting Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Bath, and Brighton, where we concluded on the 20th December.

Early in January, 1874, I again gave my usual forty-eight concerts in the various cities, opening the Edinburgh opera season about the middle of February. We afterwards visited other places, which brought us on to the London season, when I again occupied Drury Lane Theatre.

During this year I produced Auber's _Crown Diamonds_, and afterwards Balfe's _Talismano_, in which Mdlle. Nilsson undertook the princ.i.p.al _role_, Marie Roze appearing as the "Queen." Balfe's opera was very successful, and this, coupled with the alternate appearances of t.i.tiens and Nilsson in other characters, followed by the revival of the _Magic Flute_, in which the whole Company took part, brought the season to a successful conclusion.

In the autumn of 1874 I opened, as usual, at Dublin, with a very powerful company, and continued out in the provinces until the latter part of December. I then went on the Continent in search of talent for the ensuing year, and returned in time to be present at my first concert, which took place in Liverpool early in January, 1875. We afterwards went through Ireland and the English provinces, commencing in the beginning of March the regular Italian Opera season in the northern capital, followed by Glasgow, Liverpool, &c.

Ilma de Murska was punctual with a punctuality which put one out quite as much as utter inability to keep an appointment would have done. She was sure to turn up on the very evening, and at the very hour when she was wanted for a representation. But she had a horror of rehearsals, and never thought it worth while, when she was travelling from some distant place on the Continent, to announce that she had started, or to give any idea as to when she might really be expected. Her geographical knowledge, too, was often at fault, and some of the routes--"short cuts"

she called them--by which she reached London from Vienna, were of the most extraordinary kind. She had taken a dislike to the Railway Station at Cologne, where she declared that a German officer had once spoken to her without being introduced; and on one occasion, partly to avoid the station of which she preserved so painful a recollection, partly in order to get to London by a new and expeditious route, she travelled from Vienna to St. Petersburg, and from St. Petersburg took boat to Hull, where she arrived just in time to join my Opera Company at the representations that I was then giving in Edinburgh. We had not heard of her for weeks, and she came into the dressing-room to find Madame Van Zandt already attired for the part Mdlle. de Murska was to have played, that of "Lucia." She argued, with some truth, that she was in time for the performance, and declared, moreover, that in entrusting the part of "Lucia" to another singer she could see a desire on my part to get rid of her.

The prima donna has generally a parrot, a pet dog, or an ape, which she loves to distraction, and carries with her wherever she goes. Ilma de Murska, however, travelled with an entire menagerie. Her immense Newfoundland, Pluto, dined with her every day. A cover was laid for him as for her, and he had learned to eat a fowl from a plate without dropping any of the meat or bones on the floor or even on the table cloth.

Pluto was a good-natured dog, or he would have made short work of the monkey, the two parrots, and the Angora cat, who were his constant a.s.sociates. The intelligent animal hated travelling in the dog-truck, and he would resort to any sort of device in order to join his mistress in her first-cla.s.s carriage, where he would, in spite of his immense bulk, squeeze himself beneath the seat. Once I remember he sprang through the closed window, cutting himself severely about the nose in his daring leap.

The other animals were simple nuisances. But I must do the monkey the justice to say that he did his best to kill the cat, and a bare place on Minette's back showed how badly she had once been clawed by her mischievous tormentor.

The most expensive of Mdlle. de Murska's pets were probably the parrots.

They flew about the room, perching everywhere and pecking at everything.

Once at the Queen's Hotel, Birmingham, they tore with their beaks the kid off a valuable set of chairs, for which the hotel-keeper charged 30. The hotel bill of this reckless prima donna was always of the most alarming kind. She had the most extraordinary whims, and when Signor Sinico, Mdme. Sinico's first husband, in order to show the effect of parsley upon parrots, gave to one of Mdme. de Murska's birds enough parsley to kill it, nothing would satisfy the disconsolate lady but to have a post-mortem examination of the bird's remains. This was at Glasgow, and the post-mortem was made by two very grave, and I have no doubt very learned, Scotch pract.i.tioners. Finding in the parrot's maw some green matter for which they could not satisfactorily account, they came, after long deliberation, to the conclusion that the bird had been eating the green wall-paper of the sitting room, and that the a.r.s.enic contained in the colouring matter had caused its death. The cost of this opinion was three guineas, which Mdlle. de Murska paid without a murmur.

I again returned to Drury Lane for my London season of 1875. After lengthy negotiations with a great Italian tragedian, engagements were signed, and he duly arrived in London, and appeared the second night of my season in the character of "Otello." I need scarcely say that this tragedian was Salvini, who at once struck the public by his magnificent delineation of Shakespeare's hero. I was now compelled to open my theatre seven times every week (four for opera, three for tragedy), from the early part of March until the latter end of July. I produced various works, notably Wagner's _Lohengrin_, in which Mdlle. t.i.tiens, who very kindly undertook the _role_ of "Ortruda," really excelled herself. This, with Mdlle. Christine Nilsson as "Elsa," Campanini as the "Knight of the Swan," and Gala.s.si as "Telramund," with an increased orchestra under Sir Michael Costa's able direction, caused me to increase the prices of admission; and even then it was impossible to get a seat during the remainder of the season.