Music Trade Review
Issue: 1881 Vol. 4 N. 8 - Page 6
May 20th, i88r.
124 Music Trade Review THE
-- © mbsi.org,
arcade-museum.com
-- digitized
with support from namm.org
MUSICAL
CRITIC AND TRADE
REVIEW.
OUR EXCHANGES.
WHAT THEY TALK ABOUT.
MADAME VAI/LERIA IN
With which is incorporated T H E MUSIC TRADE JOURNAL.
THIIE
of th.© M u s i c i a n s
AND THE MUSIC TRADES OP AMERICA.
PUBLISHED ON THE 5 t h & 2 0 t h OF EACH MONTH,
AT 853 BROADWAY, Corner 14th Street.
CHARLES AVERY WELLES,
Editor and Proprietor.
AGENTS
FOR THE SALE OP THE
MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW.
New York City.
THE AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY, AND BRANCHES.
BRENTANO'S, 39 Union Square.
NEWS STAND UNION SQUARE HOTEL, 15th Street and 4th Avenue.
THE ARCADE NEWS ROOMS, 71 Broadway, (Elevated Rail Road Main Station).
Boston.
JOHN F. PERRY & CO., 13 West Street.
NEWS STAND, Youngs'Hotel.
NEWS STAND, Parker House.
LOBING'8 LIBRARY, Washington Street.
Chicago.
THE ROOT & SONS' MUSIC CO., 156 State Street.
S. BRAINARD'S SONS, 158 State Street.
THE CHICAGO MUSIC CO., 152 State Street.
Philadelphia.
W. H. BONER & CO.
J. DITSON & CO.
Baltimore.
OTTO SUTRO.
GEO. WILLIG & CO.
New Orleans.
LOUIS GRUNEWALD.
Albany, N. Y.
C. E. WENDELL.
Troy. N. Y.
CLUETT & SONS.
Buffalo, N. Y.
DENTON & COTTIER, Main Street.
A. J. HAWKS, 31 East Seneca Street.
0. S. RILEY, 313 Main Street.
Brantford, Canada.
HEWETT, USHER & RAYMOND.
' WILLIAM
TELL.
SEASON.
OTHER NEWS OF GYE S LONDON
Rossini's " Guillaume Tell," the serious masterpiece of the Swan of
Pesaro, has long been a stock opera of Mr. Gye's repertory, although it has
now passed out of the list of works performed at Her Majesty's, where, forty-
two years ago, it was first produced in Italian. The opera has rarely been
given in its entirety ; a tradition only now remaining that the attempt was
made in Paris in 1852, with the result that the opera lasted from seven
o'clock at night until half past one o'clock the next morning. As a ridicu-
lous custom survives to begin the opera in England at half past eight, where
Mr. Gye to perform it in its integrity the curtain would finally be lowered
at about three o'clock in the morning. The custom has, therefore, recently
been to perform selections only from the opera, and that custom was followed
on Tuesday, when " Guillaume Tell," was produced for the debut of the
Polish tenor M. Mierwinsky, for the first appearance of Madame Alwina
Valleria in the part of Mathilde, for the debut as conductor of M. Dupont of
Brussels, and for the Italian debut of an English lady who for many years
has been known to concert goers as Miss Julia Welmi, but who now spells
her name " with a Wee." I t is far too late in the day to complain of the in-
artistic fashion in which successive "conductors, composers, and directors of
the music"—to adopt the Covent Garden phraseology—have cut Rossini's
masterpiece and patched it together again. We must take it as it is, for-
getting that as it is now performed it is a mere pasticchio, that some of its
best music is never sung, and that its story is lopped off in the middle.
Nor can we—pace Henry Fothergill Chorley—forget that the opera is half
a century old, and that although the work is and will remain a masterpiece
of its period, yet that in this rapid age times and manners change. The in-
terest of "Guillaume Tell" is now centred in its second act, and it so hap-
pens that this act not only contains the best music, but also the principal
work for the leading performers. First of all comes the Mathilde of Madame
Alwina Valleria. This lady has but recently returned from a series of tri-
umphs gained with the Mapleson troupe in the principal cities of the Ameri-
can Union, and although Mathilde have not previously been in her repertory,
directly Mr. Gye had expressed a wish to mount the opera, she set about her
task of learning it at a week or two's notice. Since Madame Valleria has
been in America, too, the air of her native land has seemed to improve her
voice, which is now fuller than it used to be, and, like the voice of Madame
Patti, increases yearly in richness as it reaches maturity. How well Madame
Valleria sang " Sombres Forets," in which tradition states Madame Persiani
introduced elaborate cadenzas such as the present generation would hardly
allow, may well be imagined. Mathilde is purely a singing part, and as no-
body, from Persiani down to Miolan Carvalho, has ever attempted to increase
its dramatic significance, Madame Valleria, in this respect, wisely followed
precedent The pretty voice of Miss Velmi was excellently suited to the
music of Jemmy, and the lady may be credited with a successful debut. The
new Arnold was M. Mierwinsky, a gentleman who has for a year or two past
been a leading tenor at the Paris Opera, but who now sang the part in
Italian for the first time. M. Mierwinski has few of the faults and many of
the virtues of the French school, and notably that " sensibilite" which the
music of Arnold demands. He sang his music as it was written, and, con-
trary to the usual custom, did not transpose a single song. His chief faults
seemed on Tuesday to be a tendency to shout, and to sing out of tune ; but
he did enough to prove his claims to be a useful if not a brilliant artist.
The new conductor, M. Dupont, seems a " safe " man,- and, although young,
fully up to the business of the stage and the orchestra. He was quiet and
not fussy ; attempting no new points, but carrying the opera through with-
out a hitch. On Saturday Madame Sembrich reappeared as Lucia, and
Madame Albani is announced to make her rentree to-night.—"Oherubino" in
the London Figaro.
Syracuse. N. Y.
HUCKMAN & HERRICK, 7 Larned Block.
Worcester, Mass.
S. R. LELAND & CO.
NEWS STAND, Post Office.
NEWS STAND, R. R. Depot.
GILBERT AND SULLIVAN'S NEW COMIC 0PEKA OP "PATIENCE,
BRIDE." A GENERAL DESCRIPTION.
OE BTTNTHORNE'S
" Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride," is the name of Messrs. Gilbert and
Sullivan's new opera; and, this being the name of it, those who know how
Cleveland, Ohio.
fond Mr. Gilbert is of tripping people up along the beaten tracks of thought
S. BRAINARD'S SONS.
will suspect that Patience does not embody the chief interest of the piece,
that she is not Bunthorne's bride, and that, in point of fact, Bunthorne has
Cincinnati, Ohio.
no bride at all. I t is even so, " a n d that's the humor of it." The work pre-
. L. BENHAM, 174 Race Street.
sents itself as an " aesthetic opera," and, having regard to circumstances not
San Francisco.
mentioned, perhaps because easily imagined, Mr. D'Oyly Carte considered it
MATTHIAS GRAY.
advisable to state formally that the libretto was completed in November last.
London, Eng.
As far as reference is here implied to Mr. Burnand's aesthetic play, ' ' The
WILLIAM REEVES, 185 Fleet Street.
AMERICAN EXCHANGE IN EUROPE, HENRY F. GlLLIG, General Manager, 449 Colonel," the announcement may be regarded as superfluous. Although Mr.
Strand, London, W. C.
Gilbert sometimes chooses to economize his ideas by using them again and
Sydney, Australia.
again, no one suspects him of lacking originality so far as to be obliged to
NICHOLSON & ASCHERBERG.
borrow from other people. More important is it to observe that the caustic,
Melbonrne, Australia.
satirical dramatist did not keep his eyes shut to a tempting theme till the
opportunity had almost passed. Mr. Gilbert, we may well believe, marked
NICHOLSON & ASCHERBERG.
Messrs. Maudle, Postlethwaite & Co. for his own before those worthies
Toronto, Canada.
figured in the pages of Punch.
He could hardly do otherwise without
A. &. S. NORDHEIMER.
Ask for the MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW at any News abandoning his mission.
Who but he should hold up to boundless ridicule
Stand or Music Store in any City.
the silly creatures now doing their little best to make true art contemptible
All communications should be addressed to the editor, CHARLES AVERT WELLES,
through exaggeration, antics, and slang? He was necessary, and had he
Broadway, N. Y. City.
Checks and Post-Office Orders should be made payable to CHARLES AVERT WELLES, Pro- held back sensible folk would have cried out for him. His holding back,
prietor.
however, was not likely. I t is far more easy to imagine the grim delight
We are not responsible for the return of rejected manuscript.
Correspondence must always be accompanied by the name and address of the sender, no with which the dramatist took up his keen and acrid pen, while the only dan-
ger was that circumstances might postpone the bringing forth of his work
necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith.
Trade reports, items and communications, relating to the music trade, are solicited from till the latest social " fad " had vanished before universal and extinguishable
all parts of the world.
laughter.
We shall not stop to compare the libretto of the new opera with any of
NEW YOEK, MAY 20, 1881.
its precursors among Mr. Gilbert's works. Nor would it show much discre-
tion to point out instances wherein the author, even when not avowedly
ADVERTISING RATES.
engaged in caricature, throws all sense of probability to the winds. Mr.
O n e i n c h (Two columns to the page,.)
Per quarter, $20.00 Gilbert does nothing without a purpose, and often those who think they
have caught him tripping find themselves enmeshed in a net cunningly
ADVERTISING CARDS,
1 i n c h (Three column* to the page)
Per quarter, $14r«00 spread by sly and subtle hands. We may take it that whenever the drama-
tist employs a serious moment in turning a summersault he knows perfectly
Post-paid one year, invariably in advance,
$2
well what he is about. Plays of this sort are, in point of fact, not for criti-
SUBSCRIPTION :
Single copies
10 cism by any standard save such as they themselves supply. Do they make
124 Music Trade Review THE
-- © mbsi.org,
arcade-museum.com
-- digitized
with support from namm.org
MUSICAL
CRITIC AND TRADE
REVIEW.
OUR EXCHANGES.
WHAT THEY TALK ABOUT.
MADAME VAI/LERIA IN
With which is incorporated T H E MUSIC TRADE JOURNAL.
THIIE
of th.© M u s i c i a n s
AND THE MUSIC TRADES OP AMERICA.
PUBLISHED ON THE 5 t h & 2 0 t h OF EACH MONTH,
AT 853 BROADWAY, Corner 14th Street.
CHARLES AVERY WELLES,
Editor and Proprietor.
AGENTS
FOR THE SALE OP THE
MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW.
New York City.
THE AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY, AND BRANCHES.
BRENTANO'S, 39 Union Square.
NEWS STAND UNION SQUARE HOTEL, 15th Street and 4th Avenue.
THE ARCADE NEWS ROOMS, 71 Broadway, (Elevated Rail Road Main Station).
Boston.
JOHN F. PERRY & CO., 13 West Street.
NEWS STAND, Youngs'Hotel.
NEWS STAND, Parker House.
LOBING'8 LIBRARY, Washington Street.
Chicago.
THE ROOT & SONS' MUSIC CO., 156 State Street.
S. BRAINARD'S SONS, 158 State Street.
THE CHICAGO MUSIC CO., 152 State Street.
Philadelphia.
W. H. BONER & CO.
J. DITSON & CO.
Baltimore.
OTTO SUTRO.
GEO. WILLIG & CO.
New Orleans.
LOUIS GRUNEWALD.
Albany, N. Y.
C. E. WENDELL.
Troy. N. Y.
CLUETT & SONS.
Buffalo, N. Y.
DENTON & COTTIER, Main Street.
A. J. HAWKS, 31 East Seneca Street.
0. S. RILEY, 313 Main Street.
Brantford, Canada.
HEWETT, USHER & RAYMOND.
' WILLIAM
TELL.
SEASON.
OTHER NEWS OF GYE S LONDON
Rossini's " Guillaume Tell," the serious masterpiece of the Swan of
Pesaro, has long been a stock opera of Mr. Gye's repertory, although it has
now passed out of the list of works performed at Her Majesty's, where, forty-
two years ago, it was first produced in Italian. The opera has rarely been
given in its entirety ; a tradition only now remaining that the attempt was
made in Paris in 1852, with the result that the opera lasted from seven
o'clock at night until half past one o'clock the next morning. As a ridicu-
lous custom survives to begin the opera in England at half past eight, where
Mr. Gye to perform it in its integrity the curtain would finally be lowered
at about three o'clock in the morning. The custom has, therefore, recently
been to perform selections only from the opera, and that custom was followed
on Tuesday, when " Guillaume Tell," was produced for the debut of the
Polish tenor M. Mierwinsky, for the first appearance of Madame Alwina
Valleria in the part of Mathilde, for the debut as conductor of M. Dupont of
Brussels, and for the Italian debut of an English lady who for many years
has been known to concert goers as Miss Julia Welmi, but who now spells
her name " with a Wee." I t is far too late in the day to complain of the in-
artistic fashion in which successive "conductors, composers, and directors of
the music"—to adopt the Covent Garden phraseology—have cut Rossini's
masterpiece and patched it together again. We must take it as it is, for-
getting that as it is now performed it is a mere pasticchio, that some of its
best music is never sung, and that its story is lopped off in the middle.
Nor can we—pace Henry Fothergill Chorley—forget that the opera is half
a century old, and that although the work is and will remain a masterpiece
of its period, yet that in this rapid age times and manners change. The in-
terest of "Guillaume Tell" is now centred in its second act, and it so hap-
pens that this act not only contains the best music, but also the principal
work for the leading performers. First of all comes the Mathilde of Madame
Alwina Valleria. This lady has but recently returned from a series of tri-
umphs gained with the Mapleson troupe in the principal cities of the Ameri-
can Union, and although Mathilde have not previously been in her repertory,
directly Mr. Gye had expressed a wish to mount the opera, she set about her
task of learning it at a week or two's notice. Since Madame Valleria has
been in America, too, the air of her native land has seemed to improve her
voice, which is now fuller than it used to be, and, like the voice of Madame
Patti, increases yearly in richness as it reaches maturity. How well Madame
Valleria sang " Sombres Forets," in which tradition states Madame Persiani
introduced elaborate cadenzas such as the present generation would hardly
allow, may well be imagined. Mathilde is purely a singing part, and as no-
body, from Persiani down to Miolan Carvalho, has ever attempted to increase
its dramatic significance, Madame Valleria, in this respect, wisely followed
precedent The pretty voice of Miss Velmi was excellently suited to the
music of Jemmy, and the lady may be credited with a successful debut. The
new Arnold was M. Mierwinsky, a gentleman who has for a year or two past
been a leading tenor at the Paris Opera, but who now sang the part in
Italian for the first time. M. Mierwinski has few of the faults and many of
the virtues of the French school, and notably that " sensibilite" which the
music of Arnold demands. He sang his music as it was written, and, con-
trary to the usual custom, did not transpose a single song. His chief faults
seemed on Tuesday to be a tendency to shout, and to sing out of tune ; but
he did enough to prove his claims to be a useful if not a brilliant artist.
The new conductor, M. Dupont, seems a " safe " man,- and, although young,
fully up to the business of the stage and the orchestra. He was quiet and
not fussy ; attempting no new points, but carrying the opera through with-
out a hitch. On Saturday Madame Sembrich reappeared as Lucia, and
Madame Albani is announced to make her rentree to-night.—"Oherubino" in
the London Figaro.
Syracuse. N. Y.
HUCKMAN & HERRICK, 7 Larned Block.
Worcester, Mass.
S. R. LELAND & CO.
NEWS STAND, Post Office.
NEWS STAND, R. R. Depot.
GILBERT AND SULLIVAN'S NEW COMIC 0PEKA OP "PATIENCE,
BRIDE." A GENERAL DESCRIPTION.
OE BTTNTHORNE'S
" Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride," is the name of Messrs. Gilbert and
Sullivan's new opera; and, this being the name of it, those who know how
Cleveland, Ohio.
fond Mr. Gilbert is of tripping people up along the beaten tracks of thought
S. BRAINARD'S SONS.
will suspect that Patience does not embody the chief interest of the piece,
that she is not Bunthorne's bride, and that, in point of fact, Bunthorne has
Cincinnati, Ohio.
no bride at all. I t is even so, " a n d that's the humor of it." The work pre-
. L. BENHAM, 174 Race Street.
sents itself as an " aesthetic opera," and, having regard to circumstances not
San Francisco.
mentioned, perhaps because easily imagined, Mr. D'Oyly Carte considered it
MATTHIAS GRAY.
advisable to state formally that the libretto was completed in November last.
London, Eng.
As far as reference is here implied to Mr. Burnand's aesthetic play, ' ' The
WILLIAM REEVES, 185 Fleet Street.
AMERICAN EXCHANGE IN EUROPE, HENRY F. GlLLIG, General Manager, 449 Colonel," the announcement may be regarded as superfluous. Although Mr.
Strand, London, W. C.
Gilbert sometimes chooses to economize his ideas by using them again and
Sydney, Australia.
again, no one suspects him of lacking originality so far as to be obliged to
NICHOLSON & ASCHERBERG.
borrow from other people. More important is it to observe that the caustic,
Melbonrne, Australia.
satirical dramatist did not keep his eyes shut to a tempting theme till the
opportunity had almost passed. Mr. Gilbert, we may well believe, marked
NICHOLSON & ASCHERBERG.
Messrs. Maudle, Postlethwaite & Co. for his own before those worthies
Toronto, Canada.
figured in the pages of Punch.
He could hardly do otherwise without
A. &. S. NORDHEIMER.
Ask for the MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW at any News abandoning his mission.
Who but he should hold up to boundless ridicule
Stand or Music Store in any City.
the silly creatures now doing their little best to make true art contemptible
All communications should be addressed to the editor, CHARLES AVERT WELLES,
through exaggeration, antics, and slang? He was necessary, and had he
Broadway, N. Y. City.
Checks and Post-Office Orders should be made payable to CHARLES AVERT WELLES, Pro- held back sensible folk would have cried out for him. His holding back,
prietor.
however, was not likely. I t is far more easy to imagine the grim delight
We are not responsible for the return of rejected manuscript.
Correspondence must always be accompanied by the name and address of the sender, no with which the dramatist took up his keen and acrid pen, while the only dan-
ger was that circumstances might postpone the bringing forth of his work
necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith.
Trade reports, items and communications, relating to the music trade, are solicited from till the latest social " fad " had vanished before universal and extinguishable
all parts of the world.
laughter.
We shall not stop to compare the libretto of the new opera with any of
NEW YOEK, MAY 20, 1881.
its precursors among Mr. Gilbert's works. Nor would it show much discre-
tion to point out instances wherein the author, even when not avowedly
ADVERTISING RATES.
engaged in caricature, throws all sense of probability to the winds. Mr.
O n e i n c h (Two columns to the page,.)
Per quarter, $20.00 Gilbert does nothing without a purpose, and often those who think they
have caught him tripping find themselves enmeshed in a net cunningly
ADVERTISING CARDS,
1 i n c h (Three column* to the page)
Per quarter, $14r«00 spread by sly and subtle hands. We may take it that whenever the drama-
tist employs a serious moment in turning a summersault he knows perfectly
Post-paid one year, invariably in advance,
$2
well what he is about. Plays of this sort are, in point of fact, not for criti-
SUBSCRIPTION :
Single copies
10 cism by any standard save such as they themselves supply. Do they make
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).