The Mapleson Memoirs, 1848-1888 Volume Ii Part 20

He began by starting a _claque_ of which he const.i.tuted himself chief, and which was at the service of any of my singers who chose to pay for it. He was always ready, moreover, to act as interpreter. There was no language which he did not speak in courier fas.h.i.+on more or less well; and as in a modern operatic Company artists from such outlandish countries as Spain and Russia as well as from Italy, France, and Germany are to be found, Angelo's talents were often called into requisition by singers who did not understand one another and who were altogether ignorant of English.

Angelo knew where to buy cheap cigars, and he used to make the members of my Company buy them as dear ones. He speculated, moreover, largely and advantageously in vermuth, which he sold in the United States for at least a dollar a bottle more than he had paid for it in Italy. Campanini acted as his friend and accomplice in these _vermuth_ sales. Entering a bar, in no matter what American city, the great tenor would call for a gla.s.s of _vermuth_. "Pah!" he would exclaim when he had tasted what the bar-keeper had offered him. Then, after making many wry faces, he spat out the liquor which had so grievously offended him.

"Where did you get this horrible stuff?" he would then inquire.

"_Vermuth?_ It is not _vermuth_ at all. What did the rascal who sold it to you charge for it?"

"Three dollars a bottle."

"And here is a gentleman," pointing to Angelo, "who has genuine _vermuth_ of the finest quality and will sell you as much as you like for two dollars a bottle."

The bar-keeper thought, with reason, that an eminent Italian tenor like Campanini must know good _vermuth_ from bad, and at once bought from Angelo a case or two of the true _vermuth di Torino_.

Angelo, in addition to his other talents, is a first-rate cook, and in the preparation of certain Italian dishes, dear to those born in the "land of song," has scarcely an equal. He was too important a personage to act as cook to any one singer; but on the Atlantic pa.s.sage he would take a pound a-head from some thirty different vocalists in order to see that each of them was provided with Italian cookery during the voyage.

Angelo made most of his money, however, by speculating in opera tickets during my Patti seasons. He had, of course, peculiar facilities for getting (unknown to me) almost as many tickets as he wanted at box-office prices; and he could count as a matter of certainty on selling them at enormous premiums--often as much as two or three pounds a-piece.

During the retreat from Frisco, seeing that there would be a scarcity of food along the line, he laid in a stock of provisions, which he retailed at enormous profits.

Angelo had made himself a prominent figure in connection with my Company, and was frequently spoken of in the newspapers. On our arrival at New York he waited upon the Secretary of the Academy, as I found out some time afterwards, and actually took the building from him for a season of opera, which was to begin in the following October. He accompanied us, however, to London as though nothing had happened. He returned at the appointed time to America, taking with him a company which included Mdme. Valda, Giannini, and others. When his prospectus came out I noticed two announcements which struck me as strange in connection with his costumes and music. The former, said the prospectus, had been "lent" by Zamperoni, the latter by Ricordi and Mdme. Lucca.

They would not, then, be liable to seizure. He had taken the precaution to secure what he considered a proper reception at New York. Thus he had hired a steam tug with a bra.s.s band on board. This excited the mirth of all the New York journals.

When the season began Angelo on the opening night occupied my box, wearing for the first time in his life a white s.h.i.+rt; and it was noticed that when he made memoranda on his cuffs he now did so with a black lead pencil.

After the first week, the salaries having become due, the theatre closed, and the would-be impresario found himself surrounded in his hotel by infuriated choristers, who, with drawn stilettos presented, formed a veritable _chevaux de frise_ in front of him. Angelo appeared himself at the second floor window in order to hold parley with his aggressors at a safe distance, and for some days he remained confined to his hotel.

A public subscription was got up for the choristers to enable them to return to Europe, and Angelo himself now accepted an appointment as interpreter in Castle Garden, where he had to receive the emigrants, make known their wants, and give them instructions in whatever happened to be their native tongue; but he would do nothing for them unless they began by buying a certain number of his detestable but high-priced cigars. Even Dr. Gardini, the husband of the distinguished prima donna, Mdme. Gerster, was actually afraid in Angelo's presence to smoke any cigars but his. I remember on one occasion giving Dr. Gardini an Havanna of the finest brand. He knew that Angelo, who was acting at the time as _chef de claque_ to Mdme. Gerster, would, if he came in, recognize at once its superior flavour; and when the door-keeper suddenly entered to tell me that Angelo wished to speak to me for a moment, the doctor thought it politic to throw aside the cigar I had given him and replace it by one of Angelo's vile weeds.

As to Angelo's exact pecuniary position at this moment it is difficult to speak with certainty. Some say that he is without a s.h.i.+lling, and my baritone, Signor de Anna, declares that he accommodated him with that sum a few weeks ago when he was pa.s.sing through New York. According to other accounts he is a millionaire, with his millions safely invested in Italian securities.

To return to my own managerial business. I now fitted out an expedition for the following October, when I proposed to make an operatic tour throughout Great Britain and Ireland. Some few days before my departure I was much astonished at an embargo being laid on all my costumes and music under a bill of sale, voluntarily given by me to two friends, in order to secure a sum which they had advanced as subscribers for the previous season; which, but for Mdme. Patti's refusal to sing, would have been completed. I thought that, under the circ.u.mstances, my friends might have waited until after the tour had started. This incident prevented me from getting away at the appointed time, and I was delayed in London for nearly a week with the whole of my artists and chorus on my hands. I, however, got over this difficulty, and left for Ireland with a most attractive Company.

We opened in Dublin about the middle of October with an excellent performance of _Carmen_; Minnie Hauk not having appeared there since ten years previously on our way to America for our first visit, when Bizet's opera was totally unknown. On this occasion we were rewarded with a very crowded audience. Mdme. Rolla made her _debut_ as "Michaela," in which she met with great success; Del Puente, of course, being the "Toreador."

On the following night Mdlle. Dotti appeared as "Leonora" in _Trovatore_, when the house was again crowded. The third night was devoted to the _Barbiere_, for which I expected Mdlle. Arnoldson, who did not turn up. The part was, therefore, undertaken by Mdme. Rolla, who met with great success. Some eight months previously it had been agreed with Ravelli, prior to his departure for South America, that he should return to me in Ireland for this engagement, and I must give him credit this time for having kept his word. He had been travelling continuously for over seven weeks, and, landing at Bordeaux, had to work his way on to Dublin, where he joined the Company. There was now no murderous feeling between him and Minnie Hauk; they seemed to be the best of friends. I felt sure, however, that this reconciliation would be only temporary. I remained in Dublin a fortnight, during which time I produced _Le Nozze di Figaro_, and _Ernani_, with Mdme. Rolla's excellent impersonation of "Elvira" and Signor De Anna's superb rendering of "Carlo V." This was followed by _Don Giovanni_, _Faust_, _Rigoletto_, _Il Flauto Magico_, in which the whole Company took part, the exceptionally difficult _role_ of the "Queen of Night" being undertaken with great effect by Mdlle. Marie Decca. I afterwards left for Cork, where the Company met with great artistic success, the Press notices being more favourable than they had ever been on previous visits.

On the 29th October, being the centenary of Mozart's _Don Giovanni_, I was determined to celebrate the event with due circ.u.mstance; and the great opera was given with the following very efficient cast:--"Donna Anna," Mdlle. Louise Dotti; "Donna Elvira," Mdme. Rolla; "Zerlina,"

Mdme. Minnie Hauk; "Don Ottavio," Signor Ravelli; "Leporello," Signor Caracciolo; "Il Commendatore," M. Abramoff; "Masetto," Signor Rinaldini; and "Don Giovanni," Signor Padilla; conductor, Signor Arditi.

I had arranged at the close of the first act to place a bust of Mozart on the stage, executing at the same time the grand chorus of the _Magic Flute_ while the High Sheriff of the County crowned the immortal composer. Alas! there was no bust of Mozart to be obtained. But the property-man reported that he had one of Parnell, which, by the removal of the beard and some other manipulation, could be made to resemble Mozart. The High Sheriff having declined to perform the ceremony in connection with the bust of Parnell, the Mayor of Cork immediately volunteered to replace him. The public soon got wind of what was going on; and, fearing a popular commotion--as this very day the city had been proclaimed in consequence of the Land League meetings--I had to content myself with performing the opera as Mozart originally intended.

The part of the dissolute "Don" was superbly rendered by Signor Padilla, the eminent Spanish baritone, whose appearance reminded me forcibly of Mario. He had just returned from Prague, where Mozart's centenary had been duly celebrated, the whole of the arrangements having been left in his hands. He told me many interesting stories concerning his researches in the museums and libraries that had been placed by the Government at his disposal during his stay there, which extended over some five or six weeks. He succeeded in ascertaining the correct date of the original production of _Don Giovanni_ at Prague. The authorities in Paris insisted that it had been first performed on the 27th October, 1787, and they even went so far as to regulate their centenary performance by that day. Signor Padilla, however, obtained the original play-bill from the National Library, in which it was clearly set forth that _Il Don Giovanni_, _Ossia_, _Il Dissoluto Punito_ was first produced on the 29th day of October, 1787.

In my representation the absurd scene of "Don Giovanni" surrounded by a lot of stage demons flas.h.i.+ng their torches of resin all over him was, of course, omitted. He simply went below in the hands of the Uomo di Pietra.

This reminds me of an amateur operatic performance we once had at Woolwich, in which I took part for the benefit of some regimental charities.

I was dining at my Club with some friends when the performance was first suggested. It was decided to give _Rigoletto_, in which I was asked to undertake the part of the Duke; this to be followed by the last act of _Don Giovanni_.

I, of course, said "Yes," as I usually do to everything; and before the dinner was over so many bets had been made on the question whether or not I would appear as the "Duke of Mantua" that, on making up my book, I found I must either play the arduous part or pay some 300 or 400. I determined on the former course.

I, of course, kept the matter a profound secret from all connected with my theatre. On the night of the performance, on the rising of the curtain, I was horrified in the midst of my first aria at seeing Mdme.

t.i.tiens, Mdme. Trebelli, Sir Michael Costa, and Adelina Patti amongst the audience; and it required some nerve to pull myself together and continue the part. I succeeded, however, in obtaining the customary encore for the "La donna e mobile" and for the quartett; and on the whole I believe I acquitted myself well. So, at least, said the notices which, to my astonishment, appeared next morning in the daily papers.

A catastrophe occurred at the close of the last scene, where the late Colonel Goodenough, in the character of "Rigoletto," had to mourn over the corpse of the murdered "Gilda." At the rehearsal a man had been placed in the sack, but he was too heavy to be dragged out; and, as Colonel Goodenough was very nervous, the property-man made the sack lighter by placing inside some straw and two large bladders full of air.

Just as the curtain was descending Goodenough, who was a very heavy man, threw himself for the final lament on to the corpse of his daughter, when a loud explosion took place, one of the bladders having burst.

The performance concluded with the last act of _Don Giovanni_, in which Colonel Stracey undertook the part of the dissolute "Don." The demons were gunners from the Royal Artillery. It was most ludicrous, every time the Colonel gave the slightest stage direction as to where these men were to go and when they were to take hold of him and carry him down, to see the eight demons all give the military salute at the same time.

Stracey told them not to salute him, on which they said "No, Colonel!"

and gave another salute.

On leaving Cork we had to return to Dublin, where, in consequence of enormous success, we were called upon to give an extra week. We finished up on the following Sat.u.r.day evening with a performance of Wallace's _Maritana_, in the Italian language, to a house literally packed to the very roof. Ravelli sang the part of "Don Caesar;" and being encored in "Let me like a soldier fall," gave it the second time in English.

We afterwards went to Liverpool, when suddenly Mdme. Minnie Hauk, without a moment's warning, left the Company. Two days afterwards I received a medical certificate from Dr. Weber, to the effect that the lady was in a precarious state of health, and utterly voiceless, so that it was necessary for her to go to a certain mountain in Switzerland to recover her health. It was the month of December.

I afterwards ascertained that _en route_ she had sung at three concerts for her own benefit.

We next visited Nottingham, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Brighton, etc., concluding at the last-named town just before Christmas with a memorable performance of _Maritana_, when the curtain had to be raised no less than five times.

On the termination of the season we returned to London, where the Company disbanded for the holidays, my Italian chorus being now sent back to Italy.

It costs 8 to get an Italian chorus singer from his native land to England; and this seems money wasted when one reflects that just as good voices are to be found in this country as in Italy. If such a thing as a permanent Opera could be established in London arrangements might be made by which it would look for its chorus to one or more of our numerous musical academies, which at present seem to exist and to be multiplied solely to deluge the country with music teachers, whose keen compet.i.tion lessens daily the value of their services. When the Royal Academy of Music was established the Earl of Westmorland, who presided at the first meeting of the promoters, said, in reference to the expected advantages of such an inst.i.tution, that he hoped to see the day when music lessons would be given in England at the rate of 6d. an hour.

A nice time music teachers will have when ten hours' work a day will give them an income of 30s. a week! But what, if not music teachers, are the pupils of our four leading musical academies to become? The Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College of Music, the Guildhall School of Music, and Dr. Wylde's London Academy of Music must send out annually some thousand or two well-taught musicians who have nothing to turn to but teaching.

Except among the richer cla.s.ses almost everyone who studies music ends by teaching music to someone else. Such is his fate whatever may have been his ambition. What, except a music teacher, or an orchestral player, or, by rare good luck, a concert singer, is he or she to become?

In other countries there is an established musical theatre with which the recognized Academy of Music is in connection, and which in some measure depends upon it as upon a feeder. The students of the Paris Conservatoire sing in the chorus of the Grand Opera; and those students who gain prizes, or otherwise distinguish themselves, obtain an appearance, as a matter of course, at the great Lyrical Theatre, for which they may be said to have been specially trained. In England, however, we occupy ourselves exclusively with the teaching of music, never in any manner dealing with the question what the students are to do when their period of study is at an end. In other countries there is together with one musical academy one Opera-house. Here we have four musical academies and not one permanent operatic establishment.

Such is the national mania for establis.h.i.+ng schools of music that a few years ago some 200,000 was collected for establis.h.i.+ng a new musical academy with, for the most part, the same professors as those already employed at existing academies; and an attempt, moreover, was made to shelve Sir Arthur Sullivan (who may yet, it is to be hoped, compose an opera), by placing him at the head of this quite superfluous establishment. More recently Sir Arthur refused to allow himself to be shackled in the manner contemplated; and not many years afterwards another composer, Mr. A. C. Mackenzie, who has already proved himself capable of writing fine dramatic music, was put on the retired list in similar fas.h.i.+on. Mozart, Rossini, Auber, Bellini, Verdi studied at no academy; and my friend Verdi was rejected from the Conservatorio of Milan as incapable of pa.s.sing the entrance examination. We, however, hope everything from music schools though we have nothing to offer our composers or our singers when, in a theoretical sort of way, they have once been formed. The money wasted in establis.h.i.+ng the Royal College of Music might have been usefully spent in founding a permanent lyrical theatre for which our young composers might have worked, on whose boards our young vocalists might have sung. Thus only, by practice in presence of the public, can composers and singers perfect themselves in their difficult art. It should be remembered too that for operatic music the best school is an operatic establishment where fine performances can be heard.

The unhappy students, meanwhile, receive but small benefit from their tuition, seeing that they are simply turned out to swell the ranks of indigent teachers. No capital in Europe has anything like so many music schools as London, and no capital in Europe is so entirely without the means of offering suitable work to students who have once qualified themselves for performing it. We have some twenty or thirty theatres in London without one school of acting; which is possibly a mistake. But it is not such a bad mistake as to have four large music schools without one lyrical theatre. Nothing can be more preposterous. Yet there is at this moment more chance of a fifth music school being established than of an Opera-house being founded at which the shoals of composers and vocalists shot out every year would have an opportunity of pursuing their profession.

Sixty years ago, since which time we are supposed to have made progress in musical as in other matters, the Royal Academy of Music, which has produced so many excellent singers, instrumentalists, and composers, was intimately connected with the King's Theatre. Its students sang in the Opera chorus, and every fortnight gave performances of their own, at which leading vocalists, choristers, and orchestra were exclusively from the Academy. These performances took place in the King's Concert Room, a sort of _annexe_ to the theatre in which the performances of Italian Opera were given.

Nor in those days were singers who happened to be English ashamed to call themselves by their own names. The present custom of Italianizing English names as the only process by which they can be made fit for presentation to the public is much more modern than is generally known.

Even in our own time two admirable vocalists, Mr. Sims Reeves and Mr.

Santley, have had the manliness to reject all suggestions for Italianizing their names. The foreign musicians, often of the highest eminence, who have settled amongst us, seem, on the other hand, to have taken a pride in pa.s.sing themselves off as Englishmen. Handel is always called in the bills of the period Mr. Handel; Costa (until he was knighted) was always Mr. Costa; Halle (until he also was knighted) Mr.

Halle; Benedict (until the moment when he was empowered to adopt the "Sir"), Mr. Benedict; Herren Karl Rosa, August Manns, Alberto Randegger, Wilhelm Ganz, and Wilhelm Kuhe (whose knighthood has not yet reached them), are Mr. Carl Rosa, Mr. Manns, Mr. Randegger, Mr. Ganz, and Mr.

Kuhe. It cannot be a disgrace even for a musician to be an Englishman, or so many foreign musicians of eminence would not so readily have called themselves "Mr."

An English vocalist, on the other hand, will not hesitate to pa.s.s himself off, so far as a name can a.s.sist him in his enterprise, as some sort of foreigner. My old pal, Jack Foley, becomes Signor Foli, and the Signor sticks to him through life. We have a Signor Sinclair, a name which seems to me as droll as that of Count Smith at the San Francisco Hotel. Provincial managers have often entreated me to use my influence with Mr. Santley in order to make him change his name to Signor Santalini, which they a.s.sured me would look better in the programme, and bring more money into the house. A Mr. Walker being engaged to appear at Her Majesty's Theatre, called himself on doing so Signor Valchieri (Signor Perambulatore would certainly have been better); and a well-known American singer, Mr. John Clarke, of Brooklyn, transformed himself on joining my Company into Signor Giovanni Chiari di Broccolini.

The English and American young ladies who now sing in such numbers on the Italian stage take the prefix not of Signora or Signorina, but of Madame or Mademoiselle. This, also, is confusing.

CHAPTER XVII.

FIGHT WITH MR. AND MRS. RAVELLI--AN IMPROVISED PUBLIC--RAVELLI'S DANGEROUS ILLNESS--MR. RUSSELL GOLE--REAPPEARANCE OF MR. REGISTRAR HAZLITT--OFFENBACH IN ITALIAN--WHO IS THAT YOUNG MAN?--FANCELLI'S AUTOGRAPH--RISTORI'S ARISTOCRATIC HOUSEHOLD.