The Mapleson Memoirs, 1848-1888 Volume Ii Part 6

Patti went for a drive with Nicolini. During her absence a limited number of notabilities were allowed to inspect her car, which had cost 12,000. It was without doubt the most superb and tasteful coach on wheels anywhere in the world. The curtains were of heavy silk damask, the walls and ceilings covered with gilded tapestry, the lamps of rolled gold, the furniture throughout upholstered with silk damask of the most beautiful material. The drawing-room was of white and gold, and the ceiling displayed several figures painted by Parisian artists of eminence. The woodwork was sandal wood, of which likewise was the casing of a magnificent Steinway piano, which alone had cost 2,000 dollars.

There were several panel oil paintings in the drawing-room, the work of Italian artists. The bath, which was fitted for hot and cold water, was made of solid silver. The key of the outer door was of 18-carat gold.

On Patti's being interviewed she spoke with unbounded enthusiasm of her trip to California, and expressed at the same time a wish to sing in Omaha the following year. One of the most constant companions of the _Diva_ is the famous, world-renowned parrot, which has mastered several words and sentences in French and English. On Patti whistling a particular tune, the bird imitates her exactly. The reporter wished for its biography, and asked whether it was true that whenever Mapleson entered the car the bird cried out: "Cash, cash!" The parrot had really acquired this disagreeable habit.

That evening Mdme. Patti attended the opera, and received a perfect ovation. At the close of the performance the whole Company started for Chicago, which we reached the following Sunday, when I received telegraphic news of the sad state Cincinnati was in. The riots had a.s.sumed terrible proportions, the streets were full of barricades, the gaol had been burned down by petroleum, and the prisoners released from it; whilst absolute fighting was taking place in the streets, and numbers had been killed or wounded.

According to the pictures sent me in an ill.u.s.trated paper, the militia were firing upon the populace; the Court House had been destroyed by fire, as well as the gaol; and the struggle had already been on for over three days. I therefore telegraphed at once to Fennessy, at Cincinnati, the impossibility of my coming there, the singers one and all objecting to move.

To my great regret I was obliged to cancel my Cincinnati engagement, and we started our train in the direction of New York. On the succeeding Monday we opened the season, during which we produced _Romeo and Juliet_, with Patti and Nicolini, and gave performances of _Elisir d'Amore_, followed by _Semiramide_, in which I was glad to be able to reinstate Scalchi as "Arsace." She having been thrown out of her engagement by the collapse of Mr. Abbey, I readily re-engaged her, not only for that year, but also for the year following.

Mdme. Patti afterwards sailed for Europe, leaving by the _Oregon_, which was to start early on the Sat.u.r.day morning. She decided to go on board the day previously, but as it was Friday she drove about the city until the clock struck twelve before she would embark. The following day I shipped off the remainder of my Company.

I myself was compelled to remain behind in consequence of a deal of trouble which was then gathering, and which began by the attachment of the whole of the Patti benefit receipts at the suit of the Bank of the Metropolis. This bank had discounted a joint note of guarantee which the stockholders of the Academy of Music had given me early in the season to enable me to defeat the rival house, which I succeeded in doing.

My losses during the New York season having exceeded 1,200 a week, I was compelled to draw the maximum amount authorized. Nothing at the time was said about my repaying any portion of the money, although I felt morally bound, in case of success, to do so. The stockholders had really acted for the preservation of their own property, my own means having been already swamped in the undertaking. I worked as economically as I possibly could to achieve the purpose for which their a.s.sistance had been given; and, in fact, drew some 800 less than I was ent.i.tled to.

Judge, therefore, of my surprise when I learned of their harsh course of proceedings, beginning with what appeared to be the repudiation of their own signatures.

The Secretary having requested my attendance before the Directors, it had been hinted to me by friends that I was to be invited to a banquet at Delmonico's in recognition of the energy and skill with which, through unheard-of difficulties, I had at last conducted my season to a successful issue. All, however, that the Secretary had to say to me was that unless I immediately took up my guarantors' joint note seizure would be made on the whole of my worldly belongings.

Just at this time most advantageous offers were made to me from the rival Opera-house, then without a manager. But as I still had an agreement with the Academy, I did not enter into the negotiation, explaining my inability to do so, and at the same time relying fully on the justice and liberality of my own Directors and stockholders.

I felt sadly injured at their sending the Sheriff in on the very night of Patti's benefit to lay hands on all my receipts in order to squeeze the guarantee money out of me.

The next day Sheriff Aaron and his satellites took entire charge of the Academy. They commenced by unhanging all my scenery, and it was only with difficulty that I got permission to remove a small writing desk containing a few sheets of paper and half-a-dozen postage stamps. In vain did I remonstrate with the Directors, urging that if they were dissatisfied with my management they could easily set me at liberty from my next year's lease, which would be a great saving to them, inasmuch as by its terms they had to find the theatre for me free, and pay all the gas, service, and other expenses. All my approaches were met with silence, and I was again obliged to decline the tempting offer from the rival theatre, at which I should have had the use of the magnificent house and a very heavy subsidy to boot.

As the Metropolitan Opera Directors could wait no longer, they now opened negotiations with Mr. Gye.

In the meantime the myrmidons of the law, a.s.sisted by my regular scene-shifters and carpenters, set to work removing everything into the Nilsson Hall adjoining the Academy, of which I held the lease, whilst other a.s.sistants made out an inventory. As there were hundreds of scenes and thousands of dresses, the work continued for many days.

I met shortly afterwards one of the most prominent men of the Academy Board of Directors, who informed me that the Bank had not made application to him, nor, in fact, to any of his friends who had guaranteed the payment of the advance made on their joint bond; and he urged me to insist upon the Bank's making direct application to the signatories of the doc.u.ments before proceeding to such extremities.

At length I induced the Bank to make the application suggested, and I must say that all the gentlemen punctually paid up. I afterwards ascertained that the trouble had been caused by two individuals who were unwilling to honour their own signatures. All this turmoil and fuss, however, had given new encouragement to the rival directors, who on learning of all the bother, and finding that I could not obtain my release from the Academy, prosecuted their negotiations with Mr. Gye to manage their Opera-house.

It was not until the third week in May that I was able to take my departure from New York. Some three or four hundred people met me at the wharf on my leaving. On the table in the saloons of the steamer were the most gorgeous flower devices sent by my friends of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. One piece was five feet in height; another consisted of a large crown of roses supported on four rounded arms of metal, covered with vines and blossoms holding an inscription in the centre: "J. H. M., the Invincible," worked in forget-me-nots on a background of red and white carnations. In fact, such magnificent tributes had scarcely ever been offered even to my prime donne.

A tug followed the steamer up the bay with a band of music on board; and, to tell the truth, I was very glad to get out of the place in order that I might have a little relaxation.

CHAPTER VI.

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA LIQUIDATES--GETTING PATTI OFF THE SHIP--HENRY WARD BEECHER'S CIDER--PATTI'S SILVER WEDDING--A PATTI PROGRAMME OF 1855--A BLACK CONCERT.

After my departure the Directors of the Metropolitan Opera-house, convinced that they could make no arrangement with me in consequence of my engagement with the Directors of the Academy, which had still a year to run, took further steps towards securing Mr. Gye as manager; and it was proposed that he should open his season at the new theatre on November 10th, to continue for thirteen weeks. The negotiations were conducted on his behalf by his agent, Mr. Lavine. The stockholders of the Metropolitan Opera reserving seventy of the best boxes for themselves, Mr. Gye was to have the house rent free, together with a guarantee against loss, and 200 for each performance. This sum was ultimately raised to 300 for each performance.

Seeing another opera looming in the distance, I at once set to work by re-engaging Mdme. Adelina Patti on her own terms of 1,000 a night; likewise Mdme. Scalchi, Gala.s.si, and Arditi, thus forming a very strong nucleus to start with. I afterwards learned that Gye had been making overtures to Mdme. Patti, Gala.s.si, and others; but fortunately they had already signed contracts with me.

The Metropolitan Directors next dispatched their able attorney, George L. Rives, to Europe for the purpose of completing the arrangements with Gye.

Shortly after my return to London I learned that the Royal Italian Opera, Limited, had gone into liquidation. This, of course, snuffed out at once Gye's contract with the Metropolitan Opera Directors, who being now left without an impresario contemplated diverting the grand building to other purposes. They ultimately, however, resolved to try a German Opera rather than have no Opera at all, and they dispatched their energetic secretary, Mr. Stanton, to Europe for the purpose of engaging artists, Dr. Damrosch being appointed orchestral conductor.

During the summer months I visited various parts of the Continent for the purpose of obtaining the best talent I could find for the coming contest. Various meetings were held by my Academy stockholders in New York when they at length began to realize the justice of my demands for a.s.sistance, as it could not be expected that 200 of the best seats, for which no payment whatever was to be made, should be occupied for listening to Mdme. Patti, who was receiving 1,000 a night. After various meetings, a resolution was pa.s.sed by which they agreed to give me a nightly a.s.sessment of four dollars a seat for the proscenium boxes, three for the other boxes, and two for the seats elsewhere, which during my season it was estimated by them would produce some 6,000; and a cable was sent me to that effect in order to obviate the trouble we had all fallen into in the previous year. At the same time the Directors pa.s.sed a resolution to keep the theatre closed in case I did not accept their promised support.

About this time a young singer named Emma Nevada was attracting considerable attention in Europe, and after some difficulty I succeeded in adding her name to my already powerful list, which, however, did not include that of Madame Christine Nilsson, as I had contemplated; that lady having cried off at the last moment without any valid reason, after I had accepted all her conditions.

In due course the New York prospectus was issued, and a very fine subscription was the result, the demand for boxes being particularly brisk.

We sailed from Liverpool, and arrived in New York on the 1st November. I had a few hours only to give preliminary instruction regarding the commencement of my season when a telegram arrived to the effect that the _Oregon_, with Mdme. Patti on board, had been sighted off Fire Island.

I at once ordered the military band to go down to the _Blackbird_; but as no further telegram reached me from Sandy Hook they went on sh.o.r.e for beer. It was late in the evening when the expected telegram arrived, and the vessel had to start immediately. The only musicians I had now on board wherewith to serenade Patti were a clarinet, a trombone, and a big drum.

Stretched from mast to mast was a huge tarpaulin with the word "Welcome!" on both sides, in letters three feet long. In the lower bay of quarantine I met the _Oregon_, and as my steamer came alongside a small group appeared, and I at once recognized Patti. Handkerchiefs were waved, and three cheers given by my friends on board the _Blackbird_. We had a ladder with us which just reached from the top of our paddle-box to about two feet below the sides of the vessel. I was on the point of clambering up when the captain shrieked out--

"Patti cannot be taken out to-night without a permission from the health-officer."

I at once tendered a permit I had obtained from the barge office, allowing Patti to go on sh.o.r.e. I pa.s.sed it to the captain, who, on reading it, said--

"That is all right, but the health-officer must give me a permit before I will let her out of the ship."

I, therefore, had to steam my vessel to quarantine, and it was nearly two hours before I could find health-officer Smith, through whose kind a.s.sistance I obtained a permit to take Patti off the ship. On my returning the whole of the pa.s.sengers gave three hearty cheers as Patti was let over the side into my boat, followed by Nicolini, the maid, the parrot, and the diamonds.

Mdme. Patti, Nicolini, the maid, the parrot, and the diamonds duly arrived at the Windsor Hotel that evening, and the chief of the party was, of course, interviewed forthwith as to how she had pa.s.sed the previous summer.

"Delightfully," was the _Diva's_ reply. "We had lots of Americans stopping with us at my Castle, and the place grows dearer and dearer to me every year."

She was very much grieved to hear of poor Brignoli's death, which had occurred the previous day, and she sent a magnificent wreath to be placed on his coffin. I attended the funeral on behalf of my Company.

When the arrival of Patti became known in New York great excitement prevailed. The day afterwards the steamship _Lessing_ arrived from Hamburg with an entire German Company for the Metropolitan Opera-house.

I now felt quite at my ease, having no anxiety whatever as to the result of their season.

I opened brilliantly on the Monday following the arrival of Patti, with her inimitable performance of "Rosina" in _Il Barbiere_.

On Sunday I was invited by Henry Ward Beecher to visit Plymouth Church, at Brooklyn. On this occasion a number of railway guards and pointsmen had been asked; and never shall I forget the sermon he preached to them.

It was magnificent, and in every way impressive. At the conclusion of the service I was invited to Mr. Beecher's house to luncheon, where there were some twenty of his relations and intimate friends present.

As the water came round he may possibly have observed a distressed look on my countenance. But certain it is that within a few minutes afterwards he said he thought he had a bottle of cider which I might prefer to the beverage then before us; and, although it was labelled cider, I discovered that the bottle contained something resembling excellent old "Pommery _sec_."

Two nights afterwards I invited him to my box at the opera, scarcely hoping that he would come; but shortly after the overture had commenced I was surprised to find him sitting at my side. He remained there all that evening, the eye of every one in the audience being fixed upon him.

Shortly afterwards my new prima donna, Mdlle. Emma Nevada, arrived, and in due course made her first appearance, in _La Sonnambula_, when a remarkable scene occurred. At the close of the performance the audience, instead of rushing to the doors as usual, remained, rose to their feet, and called the prima donna three times before the curtain.

This was followed by a production of Gounod's _Mirella_, in which Emma Nevada again appeared with brilliant success; and afterwards by _La Gazza Ladra_, with Patti and Scalchi in the leading _roles_.

On the 24th November, it being the 25th anniversary of Patti's first appearance at the New York Academy of Music, great preparations were made for the purpose of celebrating her silver wedding with the New York operatic stage.

The opera selected for the occasion was _Lucia di Lammermoor_, being the same work in which she had appeared exactly 25 years previously on the Academy boards. Patti's first "Edgardo," Signor Brignoli, was to have appeared with her. But his sudden death necessitated an alteration of the original programme, and it was decided to give an opera which the _Diva_ had never sung in America, namely, _Martha_.