Garcia the Centenarian And His Times Part 19

"The theatres here seem struggling to get on their legs again. The only speech that was listened to attentively during my visits to the a.s.sembly was that by Victor Hugo, advocating an annual grant of 680,000 francs to the Paris theatres."

Let us now look at the musical events which were taking place during the first weeks after Manuel Garcia's arrival in London.

We find many interesting announcements in the concert world; and it is strange to note that practically none of the halls in which they were given survive at the present day. On June 23 M. Chopin gives his _matinee_; while the Philharmonic Society informs the "subscribers and the public" that their eighth concert will take place at the Hanover Square Rooms, on June 26, with the following programme:--

Sinfonia in A, No. 2, Mendelssohn; overture, "Leonora," Beethoven; sinfonia in C minor, Beethoven; overture, "The Ruler of the Spirits," Weber.

_Vocal performers._--Mme. Castellani and Signor Mario.

_Conductor._--Mr Costa. Tickets, 1, 1s. each.

On the same day there takes place in the Great Concert Room of Her Majesty's Theatre, Mr Benedict's Grand Annual Morning Concert, with the following artists:--

"Tadolini, Cruvelli, Vera, de Mendi, Schwartz, Sabatier, Mme.

Lablache, Miss Dolby, the Misses Williams, Mme. Doras-Gras, Gordoni, Marras, Brizzi, Lablache, Caletti, Belletti, Ciabatta, Pischek, and John Parry."

Three days later Monsieur Berlioz gives a recital at the Hanover Square Rooms.

During the same week we find the Musical Union giving a Grand Matinee at Willis's Rooms, with vocal music, sung by Mme. Viardot-Garcia and Mdlle. de Mendi: instrumentalists, Molique, Sainton, Hermann, Deloffre, Hill, Mellon, and Piatti; pianist, Charles Halle; accompanist, Benedict.

Soon after this Thalberg gives a recital; while "John Parry, the laughter-provoking and ingenious," holds his concert in the Hanover Square Rooms. "His new 'whimsy' (for he is the Hood of musicians in his amount of whim, and whim cannot exist without genius) is 'The Rehearsal of an Operetta.'"

There is also a notice of Exeter Hall: "Mr Hullah's choralists celebrated the anniversary of laying the first stone of their new music hall with the best miscellaneous English concert that one recollects....

Mr Sims Reeves, who seems wisely taking the tide at the flood, and by increased care justifying his increasing success, was an attraction, singing among other music Purcell's 'Come if you dare,' with spirit enough to 'rouse a s.h.i.+re.'"

Then there is a season of Promenade Concerts at the Royal Adelaide Gallery, Strand, not to mention "M. Jullien and his unrivalled band" at the Royal Surrey Gardens.

'Musical Gossip' of July 1848 contains some items, the first of which cannot fail to bring an ironical smile to the face of modern composers.

"We have year after year adverted to the unsatisfactory state of the law of musical copyright in this country."

"It is now stated that Mdlle. Lind has at last declined to take an engagement at Norwich: the sum of 1000 was offered her."

"A correspondent at Florence writes: 'Old Rossini is here enjoying his well-earned _otium c.u.m dignitate_.'"

Now let us turn to operatic matters in that far-off season of 1848.

Mr Delafield had undertaken to finance the Covent Garden venture, for which a bevy of great names had been secured. As in the preceding season Garcia's pupil, Jenny Lind, had been the princ.i.p.al star at Her Majesty's, so in this year another pupil, his sister, Pauline Viardot, was the star at the rival establishment. In addition to her there were Alboni, Persiani, Grisi, Mario, Ronconi, Marini, and Castellani.

Unhappily, things did not run as smoothly as might have been wished: Michael Costa and Delafield were at loggerheads, and in July, soon after Garcia arrived from Paris, a financial crisis occurred which was only averted by the a.s.sistance of Gye.

On the 20th of the month the first important operatic event took place of the many which the maestro was to witness here during the last fifty-eight years of his life. As the "Huguenots" had been produced twelve years before in the original French version during his stay in Paris, so now, with his advent to London, Meyerbeer's masterpiece was given for the first time at Covent Garden in its Italian version, under the t.i.tle "Gli Ugonotti," with the part of Urbain transposed for Alboni, and an additional cavatina written specially for her. The cast on this occasion was as follows:--

_Valentine_ Mme. Viardot-Garcia.

_Marguerite_ Mme. Castellani.

_Urbain_ Mdlle. Alboni.

_Raoul_ Signor Mario.

_Marcel_ Signor Marini.

_Nevers_ Signor Tagliafico.

_Saint Bris_ Signor Tamburini.

As to the rival operatic season at Her Majesty's Theatre, it will be sufficient if we quote a rather typical critique of one of the representations:--

"'Poor Don Pasquale,' Donizetti's prettiest musical comedy (!), 'produced to fill an off-night,' was an exclamation there was no escaping from on Tuesday evening. Why was it produced at all? To us the performance was an execution in the Tyburn acceptation of the word.

"But a murder far more heinous has been committed at Her Majesty's this week. Poor M. Meyerbeer, how must his ears have tingled when his 'Roberto' was given with one princ.i.p.al character--involving two entire acts, the two princ.i.p.al soprano songs of the opera, and its only grand finale--coolly swept away! By past musical performances we were apprised that neither Mr Lumley nor Mr Balfe recognises the difference between one of the flimsy Italian operas and those thoughtful works in which sequence, contrast, and stage effect have all been regarded by the composer.... If no prima donna equal to 'En vain j'espere' and 'Robert'

be in the theatre, wherefore give the work at all, unless 'the Swedish lady' is _in extremis_ for a new attraction? Why not withdraw as superfluous all solos in Mdlle. Lind's operas save Mdlle. Lind's own?

Why not mount 'Don Juan' without Donna Anna's arias? Rapacious as these propositions sound, they are as defensible as the liberties taken with Meyerbeer."

We find the first mention of Senor Garcia's arrival made in the 'Musical World' of July 1, in these words:--

"Manuel Garcia, the celebrated professor of singing in the Conservatoire of Paris, has arrived in London. He is brother to Malibran and Pauline Garcia, and was teacher of Jenny Lind."

On July 15 the 'Athenaeum' gives further details: "We are informed that Monsieur Garcia meditates settling here as professor of singing."

With the publication of this news the maestro was besieged with applications from those who were desirous of becoming pupils. He was at once regarded as the foremost professor in the capital, and his house in George Street, Hanover Square, not only saw numbers of students anxious to enter the profession, but was equally sought out by the aristocracy and wealthy cla.s.ses of society, as had been the case in Paris.

On November 10, 1848, he was appointed a member of the professional staff at the Royal Academy of Music.

The inst.i.tution had only been founded twenty-five years previously, when Garcia was eighteen, receiving its charter of incorporation seven years later.

It was very different from the Academy as we know it now. Up to the January of the year in which Garcia joined, it had had in all 767 pupils. It may be of interest to those who have been connected with it during recent years, to learn that the total number of new pupils admitted to the Academy during 1847 were forty, of which thirteen only were members of the sterner s.e.x. a.s.suming that every pupil stayed at the Royal Academy of Music for a three years' course--the a.s.sumption is rather more than doubtful--we should find the average number of pupils per term during the first twenty-five years of its existence to have been exactly ninety. Compare that with the five hundred or more who attend at the present day.

The princ.i.p.al of the Academy at that time was Cipriani Potter, and we find some strangely bygone names upon the staff of professors. Sir Henry Bishop, Mons. Sainton, Moscheles, Goss, George Macfarren, Signor Crivelli, Sir George Smart, Mme. Dulcken, J. B. Cramer, Julius Benedict, Lindley, Chatterton, J. Thomas (the harpist), Signor Puzzi, and as an a.s.sistant professor of the pianoforte, Walter Macfarren. These were some of the colleagues with whom Garcia found himself a.s.sociated when he commenced his work at the Academy.

At the beginning of 1849 there came a reminder of the scenes of revolution through which the maestro had pa.s.sed a few months before, for Julius Stockhausen followed him to England, to pursue in the quieter atmosphere of London those studies which were so rudely broken up by the alarums and excursions of his duties with the French National Guard.

Stockhausen continued to have lessons from the maestro till 1851, and during this period sang at various concerts, by means of which appearances he quickly began to make his mark. During the last year of his studies he sang for the Philharmonic Society no less than three times.

The close of 1852 saw his first appearance on the operatic stage at Mannheim; while between the years 1857 and 1859 he was engaged at the Opera Comique in Paris, making especial success as the Seneschal in "Jean de Paris." In 1862 he settled in Hamburg as director of the Philharmonic Concerts there and of the "Sing-akademie," a position which he held till the end of the 'Sixties. During this period he took many concert tours with Mme. Schumann, Brahms, and Joseph. In 1870 he was back in England, and stayed till the close of 1871, singing once more at the Philharmonic, Crystal Palace, and other leading concerts. Three years after this he went to live in Berlin, to take direction of the vocal society founded by Stern. Thence he migrated to Frankfort as professor of the Conservatorium, presided over at the time by Raff; and it was in Frankfort that he spent the rest of his days.

His princ.i.p.al pupils were van Rooy, Scheidemantel, and George Henschel; and as a teacher he was generally acknowledged to be the foremost of his time in Germany, as Mathilde Marchesi was in France. It is therefore a matter of some note that during the years in which Manuel Garcia was himself the finest teacher in England, he should, through these two pupils, have had his banner thus upheld upon the Continent.

Among the most promising of Garcia's earliest pupils at the Royal Academy was Kate Crichton, who came to study under him at the commencement of 1849--the year in which Sims Reeves made his operatic _debut_ and music-lovers mourned the death of Chopin.

Miss Crichton soon showed that the maestro had not left behind him in Paris his cunning in the training of voices. As the time approached at which the idea of her _debut_ was taking shape, the advice of Garcia upon the point was sought by her father. The letter in which was embodied his reply may be quoted as showing the deep interest and sound advice which was ever displayed in his relations with his pupils:--

MONSIEUR,--Veuillez avoir la bonte d'excuser le r.e.t.a.r.d de ma reponse; une indisposition en a ete la cause.

Je regrette que le manque de courage tienne en echec les moyens de Mademoiselle Browne et comme Mr Hogarth je juge que l'exercice frequent devant le public est le meilleur moyen de vaincre sa peur.

Mais aussi je pense que les premiers essays (_sic_) de Mademoiselle Browne vont etre fort incomplets et par une sorte dans l'usage de procedes qu'elle ne domine pas encore completement et par la terreur que bien a tort lui inspire le public.

Or pensez vous qu'il faille donner a ses premiers essays (_sic_) tout le retentiss.e.m.e.nt possible, ou ne trouvez vous pas qu'il serait plus prudent de les faire a pet.i.t bruit laissant a la debutante le temps d'acquerir l'applomb (_sic_) qui lui manque avant de lancer son nom a la grand publicite.

Je vous soumets ces reflexions en vous laissant d'ailleurs la faculte de faire usage de mon nom si vous le croyez utile aux interests de votre enfant.

J'ai l'honneur d'etre, Monsieur, Votre tres humble Serviteur,

M. GARCIA.

At last her teacher thought her ready to make the trial. An engagement was secured under the management of Alfred Bunn, and on January 23, 1852, Kate Crichton made her _debut_ on the opening night of the Drury Lane season in "Robert le Diable." As to her success we may quote 'The Times':--