The Mapleson Memoirs, 1848-1888 Volume I Part 22

I now took a decision either to perform _La Favorita_, or to close up, as it was already 6.30 p.m. I at length persuaded Signor Clodio, one of the tenors, to a.s.sume the part of "Fernando." But a new difficulty arose, as, being a very portly gentleman, there were no costumes in the house to fit him. The tailors were then set to work, who promised to have the dress ready in time. At this juncture word came from Mdme.

Gala.s.si, who was to have taken the part of "Leonora," that she was in bed suffering, and that it would be impossible for her to appear. I immediately went off to Mdme. Gala.s.si myself. She a.s.sured me of her willingness to do her best; but she had two large boils under her right arm which caused her acute agony. At that moment she nearly swooned from the pain. To fetch Dr. Mott, our talented theatrical surgeon, was the work of a moment. We raised her up and the boils were lanced, which at once gave her relief, and I got her down to the theatre just at five minutes to eight. She had time to dress, as "Leonora" does not appear until the second act. The performance went off successfully; I had got out of another serious difficulty after changing the opera seven times.

In the midst of my trouble a deputation arrived from Kalakaua I., King of the Sandwich Islands, informing me that they were commanded by his Majesty the King of Hawaii to confer on Mdme. Patti the Royal Order of Kapirlani. They had the diploma and jewels with them, and they were accompanied by the King's Chamberlain. I had to entreat them to wait "a moment" while I got through my troubles. That moment must have been nearly two hours.

At length we all went off to Patti's hotel, when the Order was conferred upon her in the presence of some intimate friends. The Order consisted of a jewelled star, suspended by a red and white striped ribbon, accompanied by the following parchment doc.u.ment:--

"Kalakaua I., King of the Hawaiian Islands, to all who shall see these presents greeting, know that we have appointed and commissioned, and by these presents we appoint and commission, Mdme. Patti to be a Knight Companion of our Royal Order of Kapirlani, to exercise and enjoy all the rights, pre-eminences, and privileges to the same of right appertaining, and to wear the insignia as by decree created.

"In testimony whereof we have caused these letters to be made patent, and the seal of the Order to be hereunto affixed.

"Given under our hand, at our palace at Honolulu, this 8th day of November, in the year of our Lord 1882.

"KALAKAUA REX.

"By the King, the Chancellor of the Royal Order of Kapirlani.

"(Signed) CHARLES H. JUDD."

The season continued, and _Lohengrin_, _Africaine_, _Huguenots_ and other important operas were produced. The unfortunate illness of Scalchi had long delayed me from producing _Semiramide_, which, however, was at length brought out on the 20th December, being the last night but two of the season. Never shall I forget the enthusiasm of the crowded and fashionable audience of that evening. Mdme. Patti's exquisite purity of intonation and her breadth of phrasing filled the large audience a.s.sembled with delight. At length Mdme. Scalchi appeared, and she at once proved herself an artist of extraordinary excellence, and a true dramatic singer, with a contralto of unusual richness, volume, and compa.s.s. The enormous success achieved by Scalchi inspired _la Diva_, and it was generally p.r.o.nounced that her singing on this occasion was the best she had ever given in America, being, indeed, the perfection of vocal art. The whole performance was beyond criticism.

For the morning of the following Sat.u.r.day, the 23rd, I announced the opera of _Carmen_. This was to be the closing _matinee_ of the regular winter season, and the announcement drew one of the largest a.s.semblages of ladies, there being very few gentlemen, to the doors of the Academy.

It was about three-quarters of an hour before the opening of the doors when Ravelli sent word that he could not sing. It was then too late to change the opera. I therefore rushed off to his hotel, leaving word that the doors were on no account to be opened until I returned.

I found him in bed. Hearing me enter he slunk under the clothes, and I could not get him to answer my questions. I approached the bed to remove the sheets, when a dog sprang out at me, Ravelli's favourite dog Niagara.

"Laissez moi dormir!" muttered the sluggard, as he turned over on the other side.

"Get up," I exclaimed; "don't you understand that you are imperilling my enterprise by lying in bed and refusing to sing when there is nothing the matter with you?"

He told me that he was very tired, that he was quite out of sorts, that his voice was not in good order, and so on.

With the aid of his wife, I succeeded in making him get up. He dressed himself. Then taking him to the piano I tried his voice, and found that there was nothing whatever the matter with it. He could sing perfectly well.

Ravelli, however, for some minutes still hesitated. In his difficulty he determined to consult Niagara. Appealing to an animal whose superior intelligence he recognized, Ravelli said in the French language--

"Est ce que ton maitre doit chanter?"

The dog growled, and Ravelli interpreted this oracular response as an order not to sing. He tore his clothes off, sprang hurriedly into bed, and left me to my own resources.

In London I had raised poor Volpini almost from the dead to make him sing the part of _Faust_, when but for his services I should have had to close my theatre. I had induced George Bolton (of whom I knew nothing at the time, except that he had a tenor voice, and that I had nearly run over him in a cab) to undertake literally at a moment's notice the part of "Lionel" in _Martha_, of which he knew nothing until I coached him, except one air. But neither a Bolton nor a Volpini was now to be found, and thanks to my lazy, superst.i.tious, dog-ridden tenor, I had to close my theatre and send away one of the most brilliant audiences that New York could produce.

I wrote a hurried notice which was put up in ma.n.u.script just as I had scribbled it down, to the effect that in consequence of Ravelli's refusing without explanation to sing, the theatre was closed for that morning.

The excitement outside was prodigious. Everyone, of course, said that it was through my fault the doors were shut.

"It is all that Mapleson," one charming lady was heard to exclaim.

"Wouldn't I scratch his face if I had him here!"

Worst of all, the "scalpers" went off with the money they had received for tickets sold outside the theatre.

Let me here explain what "scalper" means. I am afraid that in America our excellent librarians who do so much for the support of the Opera would be called "scalpers;" a scalper meaning simply one who buys tickets at the theatre to sell them at an advance elsewhere. The ferocious name bestowed upon these gentry shows, however, that their dealings are not quite so honourable as those of our "booksellers." For when they had disposed of their tickets, and the performance changed, or the theatre by some accident closed, they would walk off without any thought of restoring the money they had received for tickets now unavailable. At times, too, I have caught them exhibiting a gallery diagram, and selling gallery places as orchestra stalls. They are now obliged, by a just law, to take out licenses, and register their places of abode. Nor do managers allow any one of them to buy more than four tickets for each representation.

Meanwhile the New York fall season of 1882 finished up grandly with _Semiramide_, the receipts reaching 14,000 dollars, and the public mad with enthusiasm.

I afterwards started with the Company for Baltimore, where we opened with rather less than our usual success, on account of the small-pox which was raging all over the city. Very few notices were given of the opera in consequence of three and four columns a day being occupied with the crusade undertaken against the small-pox by Mayor White, who had telegraphed for a large number of vaccination physicians from various States, determined as he was to stamp out the disease.

The whole of the twenty wards of the city had been placed under properly const.i.tuted medical authorities, and there everyone had to be vaccinated, including the whole of my Company. Prima donnas had to be vaccinated on the legs, whilst ballet-girls were vaccinated on the arms; in fact the theatre at one time became quite a hospital.

However, we managed to get through our engagement with success, though Mdme. Patti remained over at Philadelphia, being afraid to enter the city of Baltimore.

The production of _L'Africaine_, which was new to Baltimore, was a marked success. On terminating our engagement we went over to Philadelphia, where Patti made a splendid opening in _La Traviata_, the vast theatre being crowded from floor to ceiling.

The next night we produced _Aida_, the Directors of the Academy of Music having caused to be painted specially for the occasion some of the most gorgeous Egyptian scenery I have ever seen.

At five o'clock Mdme. Scalchi sent me word that she was very ill, and unable to sing. I thereupon went for the physician, whom I conducted forthwith to her hotel. On our arriving at the door of her apartment I saw a waiter going in with some lobsters, salad, and roast duck. I immediately asked for whom he was catering, and he replied: "Mdme.

Scalchi." I waited a few minutes in order to give her time to begin operations on the duck and the lobsters; and she was recounting some amusing story which ended in loud laughter, when I took this as my cue for entering.

Mdme. Scalchi could no longer plead indisposition, and in due time she came to the theatre.

_Aida_ was a great success. At two o'clock the following afternoon we performed _Lucia_ with Adelina Patti to a house containing over 14,000 dollars. In the evening we gave _L'Africaine_, magnificently placed on the vast stage, to receipts not far inferior to those of the morning.

Prior to the close of our very successful engagement sad alarm was created all over the city by a report in some of the leading morning papers that Mdme. Patti the preceding night had been devoured by mice.

Several persons had already applied at the box office for the return of their money on the ground that _la Diva_ had ceased to breathe.

On inquiry it turned out that Mdme. Patti had been bitten by a mouse on the left ear. I had better tell the story in the _Diva's_ own words, as given to the reporter of the _Philadelphia Press_.

"'So you were bitten by rats last evening?' the reporter said.

"'Oh, no, it was not so bad as that,' replied Patti, laughing heartily as she recalled the adventure. 'I hardly, however, like to mention it at all, for I am really so comfortable in this hotel. They do all they can to please me. When I went to bed last evening my maid turned the clothes over for me to get in, when out jumped six mice--a complete family, in fact; nice fat little fellows. I was not frightened; at least, I was only astonished. I took my bon-bon box and scattered some sweetmeats on the carpet so that the tiny intruders should have some supper, and I went to sleep without any apprehension. In the middle of the night, however, something disagreeable occurred, and I was awakened by a sharp pain in my ear. I put my hand to my head when a mouse jumped to the floor, and I felt blood trickling on the side of my cheek. I got up and called my maid, and examination showed a bite on my left ear. It bled a good deal, and to-day my ear is much swollen. I shall not put any bon-bons down to-night,' continued Mdme. Patti, 'and when I sleep in the day time I shall place my maid to act as sentry.'"

The reporter, feeling that he had pa.s.sed one of the most delightful quarters of an hour in his life, now left the apartment.

When the news got about that Patti had been bitten by a mouse, enterprising makers and patentees of mousetraps approached her from all sides with specimens of their various mouse-catching contrivances. Some of these were very curious. One was prompt and severe in its action, despatching the mouse at the moment of capture by a single cutting blow.

Another was apparently the work of some member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Far from killing the mouse, it provided the little creature with a wheel, which, as long as it was allowed to live, it could amuse itself by turning.

About this time two "sensations" occurred. One was connected with Commander Gye, who was leaving the city at an early hour, when he was robbed of his black leather travelling-bag, containing money, pins, rings, Roman coins, cigarette boxes, a cheque book, a cheque for 4,400 dollars, which I had signed for Mdme. Patti's previous night's salary, with other doc.u.ments of less value, including Nilsson's broken contract.

The reports of this robbery, as usual, were considerably enlarged, and it afterwards got into circulation that amongst the things lost were Mdme. Albani's jewels, worth several thousands of pounds. This cost Captain Gye a deal of inconvenience, for it brought down the Inland Revenue authorities on him. He was accused of having smuggled in the diamonds from abroad, and some considerable time pa.s.sed before all the excitement subsided.

The other "sensation" was the invasion of the ba.s.so Monti's room while he was in bed and the theft of 400 dollars worth of jewellery belonging to him. This, too, caused a deal of talk in the papers.

Our last night was, indeed, a gala night. The most brilliant audience of the whole season filled every corner of the theatre, so great was the curiosity of the public to see Mdme. Patti and Mdme. Scalchi together in the same opera. About five o'clock the crowd outside the Academy was already immense, and it was not until seven that we opened the doors.

The rush was great, and a sad incident now took place. A lady in the crowd who had purchased her ticket beforehand was taken up from the bottom of the staircase to the top, though she died before reaching the first landing from disease of the heart, rendered fatal by the excitement. Borne upwards by the dense crowd she did not fall till she reached the gallery. Fearing the alarm this occurrence might cause, the servants, in order that I should not hear of it, had placed the lady on the floor of a little top private box, where she remained during the whole of the performance; her body not being removed by her friends until the next morning.

After leaving Philadelphia we visited Chicago, where the advance sale of seats prior to our opening reached the enormous sum of 16,000 dollars.

On the evening of our arrival I received a telegram from Mdme. Albani stating that she would arrive early the following morning. I met her at the station. She was accompanied by her husband, Mr. Ernest Gye, and his brother, Commander Gye. She had just returned from some concerts which I had arranged in Albany and in New York, where she had met with the most enthusiastic reception.