MUSICAL



GEORGE P. UPTON



MUSICAL MEMORIES



MUSICAL MEMORIES

MY RECOLLECTIONS OF CELEBRITIES

OF THE HALF CENTURY

1850—1900



BY

GEORGE P. UPTON

AUTHOR OF "THE STANDARD OPERAS," ETC., ETC.



WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS




CHICAGO

A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1908



At i~ r-

U (r>



COPYRIGHT

A. C. McClurg & Co.
1908

Published October 3, 1908

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England



THK UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMHRinOE, U.S.A.



/ dedicate these Memories
to the Ghosts



255141



PREFACE

IT is with the purpose of preserving my records of
music during the last half century in compact and
accessible shape, and also to satisfy many friends
who have suggested that I should undertake a work of
this nature, that I have compiled these "Memories,"
covering the half century 1850-1900. During nearly
all that time I was engaged in the labor of musical
criticism in Chicago, and therefore had unusual oppor-
tunities to observe what was transpiring in the musi-
cal world. I did not personally know Jenny Lind,
Henriette Sontag, Marietta Alboni, Anna Thillon, and
Catherine Hayes, the artists mentioned in the first
two chapters, but I had the rare pleasure of hearing
them in concerts. I have had personal acquaintance
of a more or less intimate kind, however, with all the
others.

I have recalled the events herein set down from
conversations, managerial statements taken with the
proper discount, reviews, records, and programmes I
have kept, as well as from a diary in which I jotted
down much of interest for reference in my journalistic
duty. In looking back over so long a period, memory-
may sometimes exaggerate and even play false, but I
have striven to keep within the bounds of accuracy



VI PREFACE

and to avoid mere gossip or statements that might
wound the sensitive. I have also made use of history
and biography only so far as they are necessary to keep
the context clear. As the public is sufficiently familiar
in these days of personal journalism with artists still
upon the stage, I have confined these " Memories "
only to those who have retired into the shady nooks
of life and to that other goodly company for whom
are the last words of Canio in " Pagliacci," " La com-
media e finita."

It follows as a matter of course that these recollec-
tions are mainly local, for I wrote the first musical
criticism printed in a Chicago newspaper, and that
means a far cry back into the past. In the hope that
the beginnings of music in Chicago may possess some
interest I have gone back to the first note Chicago
heard, at a time when Indians and coyotes outnum-
bered whites there almost ten to one. But as the fifty
years of Chicago's musical history means fifty years
of memories of all the great artists who have been in
the United States, the mere location is not of any
special significance.

With these prefatorial remarks I venture to submit
these memories of "days that are no more" with the
hope that they will prove of value to musicians and will
not be wholly unacceptable to the general public.

G. P. U.
Chicago, July 1, 1908.



CONTENTS



CHAPTER I

Jenny Lind

Arrival of Jenny Lind in New York — Her First Concert — Bar-
num's Methods of Management — The Jenny Lind Fever — Her
Enthusiastic Reception — Popular Ovations and Extravagance* —
The Concert in Providence — Student Delirium — Ross's $650 Ticket
— Jenny Lind's Personal Appearance on the Stage — Her Voice and
Method of Singing — The Nobility of her Character — Testimony of
her Great Contemporaries 17



CHAPTER II

SONTAG, ALBONI, ThILLON, HAYB8

A Flight of Songbirds — Henriette Sontag — Her Numerous Ad-
mirers — The Romance of her Career — Marriage to Count Rossi —
Her Personal Appearance — Her Voice and Style of Singing —
Troubles in her Last Days — Sudden Death in Mexico — Cruel
Reports of a Scandal — Sontag's Rival, Alboni, the Great Contralto
— Her Finished Singing — Anna Thillon — Great Success in "Crown
Diamonds" — Her Beauty and Magnetism — "Kate" Hayes — The
Victim of Speculators — Her Success in Ballads 26



CHAPTER III

Adblina Patti

Pattl's Family — Her Career — Concertizing with Ole Bull —
The Contract with Mapleson — Concerts in the Fifties — Her First
Concert in Chicago — Her Love of Dolls — Characteristics of the
Child Prima Donna — The Mapleson-Abbey Competition — The Patti
Marriages — Her Success as a Vocalist — The Farewell Habit — At
the Auditorium Dedication 33



vin CONTENTS

CHAPTER IV

The Pattis and Parodi

Carlotta Patti — Dedication of the Central Music Hall in Chicago

— A Comparison with Adelina Patti — Her Lameness — Natural
Sensitiveness — A Singular Combination of Qualities — Her Musical
Career — Amalia Patti — How she was overshadowed — Carlos
Patti — His Adventurous and Melancholy Career — Parodi — Why

she came to the United States — Her Qualities as a Singer . . 44

CHAPTER V

The Germania Society

The Germania Society — Gungl's Opinion of Americans — Char-
acteristics of the Germania — Its Visits to Chicago — A Critic's Soul
Longings — The Society's Lasting Influence upon Musical Progress —
The Work of Individual Members — The Career of Carl Bergmann —
The Sad End of his Life — Julien, "The Charlatan of all the Ages"

— His Egotism and Eccentricities — the "Firemen's Quadrille," etc. 51



CHAPTER VI

Some Violinists

Ole Bull — His Personality — Manner of Playing — A Dreamer —
Unsatisfied Visions — The Romance of his Life — His Numerous Fare-
wells — Concerts in Chicago — Remenyi — His Far Wandering —
Extravagances and Mannerisms — A Memorable Afternoon — Sudden
Death — Vieuxtemps — Characteristics of his Style — Nilsson's
Birthday and "The Arkansas Traveller" — Wieniawsky — Relations
to Rubinstein — Gambling Losses — Wilhelmj — An Intellectual
Player — Camilla Urao as Child and Woman — Her Last Days . . 57



CHAPTER VII

Some Pianists

Thalberg as Man and Artist — His Sudden Disappearance —
Gottschalk — His Music and Style — An Afternoon with him —
Rubinstein and the American Tour — Von Bulow and his Peculiarities
— Jaell and the Drum — A Procession of Pianists — Wehli, the Left-
hander, and the Greased Piano — "Blind Tom" and his Feats —
Carreno 73



CONTENTS lx

CHAPTER VIII

Some Prima Donnas

Nilsson — Qualities of her Singing — Her Moods and Habits —
Many Admirers — A Memorable Birthday — Pauline Lucca and her
Romantic Career — Etelka Gereter — A Brief and Brilliant Career —
The Famous Gerster-Patti Episode — Lagrange, Minnie Hauck, and
Marie Roze — Another Famous Episode — Kellogg and Cary —
Cadenzas and Car Ventilation — Materna and Lehmann — Two Great
Wagner Singers — Lehmann's Plea for the Animals 87

CHAPTER IX

More Footlight Favorites

Anne Bishop's Long Career — Fabbri and "The Star-Spangled
Banner" — Frezzolini's Vanity — Piccolomini, the Fascinating Im-
postor — Her Farewell — Di Murska — Her Cadenzas and Menagerie
— Emma Abbott's Career — Albani, the "Chambly Girl " — Burmeis-
ter and Others 112

CHAPTER X

Tenors and Bassos

Their Comparative Popularity — Brignoli, his Style and Voice —
Superstitions and Anecdotes — Campanini's Triumphs — Jealousy
of Capoul — A Bout with Mapleson — Wachtel, the Cab-driver —
Old-time Advertising Curiosities — Adams, best American Tenor —
Amodio and Bellini in the "Liberty Duet" — Hermann's Interpola-
tion — Formes in Concert and Opera — Myron D. Whitney's Ora-
torio Triumphs 120

CHAPTER XI

English Opera

The Pyne- Harrison Troupe — Caroline Richings — Her Industry
and Various Ventures — The Old Quartette — Zelda, Seguin, Castle,
and Campbell — Henri Drayton — The Scared Cat — Parepa — Her
Ancestry — Difficulties of Avoirdupois — Bouts with the Clergy —
Her Marriage — Madame Rudersdorf's Tribute — The Bostonians —
Jessie Bartlett Davis — The "Pinafore" Fever 135

CHAPTER XII

Opera Bouffe

First Performances in Chicago — Lambele\ Tostee, and Aimee —
Emily Soldene and the Galtons — Soldene's Literary Ability —



x CONTENTS

Lydia Thompson and the "British Blondes" — Her War with the
Newspapers — Her Assault upon an Editor — The Tables turned —
Offenbach's Music 152



CHAPTER XIII

Some Impresarios

Habits of the Class — Bernard Ullman and his Bad Qualities —
Maurice Strakosch and his Good Qualities — Max Maretzek's Long
Career — Jacob Grau and Maurice Grau — Commercialism vs. Art —
The only De Vivo — Philosophical Max Strakoscb — Col. James Henry
Mapleson '.'of Her Majesty's" 159



CHAPTER XIV

Theodore Thomas

Early Visits to Chicago — Our First Meeting — His Honesty of
Character — A Loyal Friend — His Broad Culture — Love of Con-
viviality — Aversion to Sentimentalism — Three Disappointments

— Columbian Exposition — Cincinnati College of Music — American
Opera Company — Notable Sayings 180

CHAPTER XV

Musical Festivals

Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore — His Qualities as a Band Leader —
Chicago Rebuilding Jubilee — National Peace Jubilee — Anvils, Ar-
tillery, and Church Bells — Parepa and Adelaide Phillips — Interna-
tional Peace Jubilee — A Monster Aggregation — Musical Effect —
International Bands — Johann Strauss and his Personality — Franz
Abt — Bendel and the Autograph Hunters — Madame Rudersdorf

— Her Peculiarities and Will — Cincinnati Festivals — Chicago May
Festivals 194



CHAPTER XVI

Early Days — A Prelude

Mark Beaubien's Fiddle — Jean Baptiste's Piano — i'The Man
of Color's" Announcement — Mr. Bowers's Entertainment — The Old
Settlers' Harmonic Society — First Organ and First Church Choir
Row — The First Theatre — Joseph Jefferson's First Appearance —
The Old Ballads — Debut of Richard Hoffman — J. H. McVicker in
Song and Dance — David Kennison's Donation Party — Miscellane-
ous Concerts in 1850-1852 211



CONTENTS xi

CHAPTER XVII

Early Opera in Chicago

The First Opera — '.' Sonnambula" at Rice's Theatre — Burning
of the Theatre — The Artists' Association — Opera at McVicker's
Theatre — The first Italian Troupe — Great Enthusiasm — A Mis-
hap at North's Amphitheatre — Operatic Rivalry in 1860 — The
War Period — The Grau Troupes — Some Home Concerts — The
First German Troupe — Grau's Troupe of Mediocrities .... 225

CHAPTER XVIII

Thb Crosby Opera House

Its Construction — A Hive of Art Industries — Dedication in 1865

— An Ovation to Generals Grant and Sherman — Opera Seasons —
Debuts and First Performances — The Lottery — The Mysterious
Mr. Lee — U. H. Crosby loses the House — New Management —
Gilmore inaugurates the Charity Balls — Period of Decadence —
From Opera to Vaudeville — Redecoration — Its Destruction in the
Great Fire — Summary of Operatic Events 237

CHAPTER XIX

The Orchestra in Chicago

Julius Dyhrenfurth'8 Story — Ibach's "Sharp Corner " — How the
First Orchestra was organized — Various Philharmonic Societies —
Carl Bergmann's Failure — The First Masquerade — Henry Aimer's
Melancholy Fate — The Unger-Mozart Rivalry — Hans Balatka —
The Philharmonic of the Sixties — Its Rise and Fall — The Philhar-
monic Funeral — Early Chamber Music — A Glimpse at the Sanger-
fests — Advent of the Thomas Orchestra 253

CHAPTER XX

Musical Societies

The Early Societies — The Musical Union and '.' The Haymakers"

— The Mendelssohn Society — The Germania Mannerchor — Internal
Dissensions — Rival Operatic Amateur Performances — The Ger-
mania Gemutlichkeit — Dyhrenfurth's Punches — Dietzsch and his
Coroner's Reports — The Concordia and Liederkranz — The Oratorio
Society — A Victim of Fire — Winter Post-fire Entertainments —
Origin of the Apollo Club — A Remarkable Career — Carl Wolfsohn

and the Beethoven Society 270



xii CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXI

World's Fair Music

The World's Fair Music — Its Inception and Failure — What was
done and not done — The Forces engaged — Music of the Civil War
Period — Dr. George F. Root — His Early Career — " The Battle Cry
of Freedom " — How it came to be written — Root as a Composer
— The Auditorium — Home of Grand Opera — Its Dedication —
Works performed in it — Milward Adams's Management — The
Studebaker Theatre — Home of Opera in English — Works Per-
formed in it — Charles C. Curtiss's Management 294

CHAPTER XXII

POSTLUDE 317



Index 323



ILLUSTRATIONS



Page
George P. Upton Frontispiece

Jenny Lend 24

Henriette Sontag 30

Marietta Alboni 30

Kate Hayes 30

Anna Thillon 30

Adelina Patti. Four Portraits 36

Am alia Patti Strakosch 46

Carlotta Patti 46

Carl Bergmann 54

Louis Antoine Julien 56

Ole Bull. Two Portraits 60

August Wilhelmj 68

Sigismund Thalberg 74

Christine Nilsson 92

Pauline Lucca 92

Etelka Gerster 98

Marie Roze. Two Portraits 100

Minnie Hauck. Txvo Portraits 102

Clara Louise Kellogg 106

Annie Louise Cary 108

Anne Bishop 112

Mabietta Piccolomini 114



XIV ILLUSTRATIONS

Page

Ilma di Murska 116

P. Brignoli 122

Theodore Wachtel 126

Italo Campanini 126

Myron W. Whitney 132

Carl Formes 132

Caroline Richings 138

William Castle 138

Zelda Seguin 138

S. C. Campbell 138

Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa 144

Cabl Rosa 144

Ulmar, Fabster, and St. Maur — " The Three Little

Maids from School" in " The Mikado " 148

Mlle. Aimee 154

Theodore Thomas 182

Johann Strauss 204

P. S. Gilmore 204

The Sauganash Tavern 212

Crosby's Opera House, Chicago, in 1871 238

Thomas Whiffen 246

Hans Balatka 262

Adolph W. Dohn 274

Carl Wolfsohn 290

George F. Root 300



MUSICAL MEMORIES



MUSICAL MEMORIES



CHAPTER I
JENNY LIND

ARRIVAL OF JENNY LIND IN NEW YORK — HER FIRST CON-
CERT BARNUM's METHODS OF MANAGEMENT THE

JENNY LIND FEVER HER ENTHUSIASTIC RECEPTION

POPULAR OVATIONS AND EXTRAVAGANCES THE CON-
CERT IN PROVIDENCE STUDENT DELIRIUM ROSS'S $650

TICKET JENNY LIND's PERSONAL APPEARANCE ON THE

STAGE HER VOICE AND METHOD OF SINGING THE

NOBILITY OF HER CHARACTER TESTIMONY OF HER

GREAT CONTEMPORARIES

MY musical memories reach back to Jenny Lind ;
my dramatic memories to Elise Rachel — a
span of more than fifty years. Recalling those
far-away days of youth, I count it exceptionally fortu-
nate that I have heard and seen those two artists, as
they have given me standards of appreciation and criti-
cism. Making due allowance for the fact that Jenny
Lind was the first really great singer who came to
this country, also for youthful enthusiasms, for the
delirious effects of that extraordinary popular frenzy
which everywhere characterized her reception, and for
the enchantment which distance lends to the view, her
singing still remains my ideal of the highest exposition
of the art of song.



18 MUSICAL MEMORIES



Jenny Lind arrived in this country September 1,
1850, convoyed by Phineas T. Barnum. I have often
wondered, considering her rare simplicity and unosten-
tation, if she did not suffer at times from the peculiarly
bombastic methods of management practised by that
showman. Her first concert was given at Castle Gar-
den, New York, September 11. Her supporting artists
were Sir Julius Benedict, Richard Hoffman the pianist,
who was engaged in New York for the American tour,*
and Signor Beletti, barytone. Her numbers in the open-
ing night's programme were the " Casta Diva " from
" Norma " ; the " Herdsman's Song," popularly known
as the " Echo Song " ; and the " Welcome to America,"
the text of which was written by Bayard Taylor and
the music hastily set by Benedict. She also sang with
Beletti in the duet " Per piacer alia Signora " from
Rossini's "11 Turco in Italia," and in a trio from
Meyerbeer's " Camp in Silesia," for voice and two
flutes.

I was a Freshman in Brown University when I
caught the Jenny Lind fever. I heard her for the
first time in Boston, but my recollections of that occa-
sion are somewhat hazy, for the scenes attending the
concert were quite as riotous as musical, owing to an
oversale of tickets and the resultant rage of the crowd
who could not get into the hall. But my recollections

* The American tour included the following cities, in the order named :
New York, Boston, Providence, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington,
Richmond, Charleston, Havana, Matanzas, New Orleans, Natchez, Mem-
phis, St. Louis, Nashville, Louisville, Cincinnati, Wheeling, Pittsburg,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York. Jenny Lind made a second tour
after cancelling her contract with Barnum, giving sixty-one concerts
between June and December of 1851.



THE JENNY LIND FEVER 19

of the subsequent concert in Providence are as vivid as
if it had taken place yesterday. The student body, and
apparently the entire population of the city, were in-
fected with the Jenny Lind fever. Thousands met her
at the station, crowded about her hotel, and lingered
around the hall at night, hoping to hear a note now and
then, or at least catch a glimpse of her after the con-
cert. No other singer in the history of the stage has
received such ovations. They can only be compared
with the reception of Kossuth when he visited the
United States as the champion of Hungarian liberty,
and of General Grant when he returned triumphant at
the close of the Civil War. This Jenny Lind fever is
worth dwelling upon, for it was unique.

The fever began in Europe during her operatic
career. Even Berlioz wrote to a friend at that time :
" I shall not go to London this season. The Lind fever
makes all musical enterprises impossible." Barnum's
keen eye recognized an opportunity for rich profits
after she retired from the operatic stage. He sent
his agents abroad and made a contract, engaging to
give her a thousand dollars for each concert and her
expenses, also the expenses of a lady companion, the
services of a maid and servant, and a carriage and pair.
Probably misled by the belief that Jenny Lind's art
was above the comprehension of that day, he treated
his new venture after the manner of a musical circus.
He set afloat stories almost as remarkable as those
which illustrated the astonishing careers of Joyce
Heth, the Mermaid, and the Behemoth of Holy Writ,
exaggerated her goodness and generosity, and flooded



20 MUSICAL MEMORIES

the newspapers with portraits, sketches, and letters. It
was an incongruous partnership, but genius maintained
its dignity and truth as against the cunning tricks of
the showman.

As the steamer approached New York, the bay was
alive with boats which had gone down to meet it. She
was welcomed at the landing with the enthusiastic
shouts of thousands and passed to her carriage under
arches erected in her honor. Spirited white horses
conveyed her to her hotel, followed by an enormous
crowd. She was serenaded at midnight by singing
societies and the city firemen, for in those days firemen
were the spectacular feature of every public event.
This was in the days when Chanfrau's " Mose " used to
delight us boys. On the following day she was visited
by the leading officials and citizens. Public reception
days were also appointed, and at such times the hotel
was thronged with people of all classes. She literally
absorbed everything. Maretzek, the impresario, once
told me they were trying days for him. He was boom-
ing Parodi, a really excellent prima donna, whose
superb personation of " Norma" still lingers in my mem-
ory ; but resourceful and plucky as he was, he could not
stand the pressure. Before the week was out the store
windows were rilled with Jenny Lind bonnets, gloves,
coats, hats, parasols, combs, jewelry, bric-a-brac, and
fineries, and tradesmen sent their wares to her rooms,
eager for an advertisement. Quacks used her name.
She was besieged by autograph hunters and genteel
beggars. The music stores published hundreds of
songs, waltzes, and polkas named after her. Her



POPULAR EXTRAVAGANCES 21

portrait was in every shop window. The choice dishes
of the hotel menus were "d la Jenny Lind." The Jenny
Lind pancake, that choice German confection, survives
even to-day. Young women dressed their hair in her
style and tried to imitate her naturally graceful gait.
Jenny Lind tea-kettles were advertised by one dealer,
" which, being filled with water and placed on the fire,
commenced to sing in a few minutes." Provision dealers
sold Jenny Lind sausages, and even cafes and bar-rooms
took her name. During that week's fever, however,
one person is recorded as immune. He was a Bowery
boy, and he is said to have replied to a friend who told
him Jenny Lind was the greatest singer in the world :
" I don't know about that." " Who is her equal ? "
said his friend. " Who ? why, Mary Taylor. Our Mary
would sing the clothes off her back." The fever lasted
during the entire American tour. There was a trotting
match in St. Louis, March 19, 1851, on the Prairie
Horse Course, and the entries were Jenny Lind, Barnum,
Benedict, and Beletti, Benedict winning the race. Jenny
Lind never came to Chicago, as many suppose. * Chicago
was not much of a city, musically or otherwise, in her
time, but the following advertisement, which appeared
in one of its papers, October 25, 1850, shows that the
city had the symptoms of the fever.

* St. Louis was the nearest to Chicago that Jenny Lind came on her
first tour. She sent, however, during the first week of her season in New
York, $1000 to the Swedish church of St. Ansgarius, then in process of
erection in Chicago. During her second tour in 1851, she sang in Buffalo,
Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati, and was to have sung also, I believe,
in Detroit and Chicago. For some reason, however, she gave up her final
concerts and returned East.



22 MUSICAL MEMORIES

"Just Arrived

" At 168 Lake Street, a beautiful lot of Jenny Lind long
and square shawls, extra fine quality and neat and elegant
styles, such as adorn the graceful form of that universal
charmer, the Swedish Nightingale, whose inimitable warblings
and acts of noble benevolence are now the admiration of the
world. Also Jenny Lind dress goods, etc., at our one-price
cash store.

Francis Clark."

Of course we had the fever in Providence. Every one
had it — men, women, and children, — and the students
had it worse than the rest. They even forgot to go
down to the Arcade just to see Gertude Dawes, the
graceful danseuse, walk and teach the ladies of Provi-
dence how to wear a shawl. They even neglected those
infant phenomena, the Bateman children, and declined
to see George Vandenhoff and Mrs. Forrest in the " Lady
of Lyons." Alma Mater threw up her ancient hands in
despair and let her children have their way. The fever
was intensified by local pride, for had not Ross, the
expressman, friend of all students, paid the highest
price for choice of seats, higher even than Genin in
New York and Dodge in Boston, although of course
he did not attend the concert.* He never did anything
like other people. His eccentricities would fill a vol-
ume. My room-mate, a wild Hoosier, who knew no more
about music than a hen, had a most violent attack of
the fever. He invested all his scanty pocket money in

* The various premiums paid for first choice during the tour were as
follows : New York, $225 ; Boston, $625 ; Providence, $650 ; Philadelphia,
$625; Baltimore, $100; New Orleans, $240; St. Louis, $150; Nashville,
$200; Louisville, $100; and Cincinnati, $575.



HER PERSONAL APPEARANCE ON THE STAGE 23

hairs supplied by one of the hotel chambermaids, who
declared she took them from Jenny Land's brush. He
paid a tidy sum for these souvenirs of the divinity and
brought them back exultantly. He reluctantly allowed
me to have one or two, and I kept them as precious
relics, until it was ascertained later that this thrifty
commercial maid had been doing a lucrative business
disposing of her own and others' hairs. I have known
of other such transactions in artistic hair, which will
appear later in these recollections.

At last the eventful night came — October 7, 1850, —
a red-letter date in memory. The usually staid city was
in a state of delirium, which astonished those conserva-
tive old families — the Iveses, Browns, Goddards, and
Hoppins. I can see it all now — the crowds, the
enthusiasm, the great audience inside, and the vastly
greater crowd outside wishing it were inside. I see