CAMILLA URSO.
This generous offer was at once accepted and without delay the officers of the Association, the city government, and in fact, the whole community united with her to make the proposed festival one of the great musical events of the Pacific Slope. Boston had given its musical festival, why not San Francisco? There, it had been comparatively easy. Here, it was an undertaking almost too vast and difficult for comprehension. There was not a choral society in the State. If there were a few choirs of male voices they had never sung together and though there were many individual singers and performers in different parts of the State they had never been brought together. A hall must be prepared, the orchestra drilled, the music for the chorus selected and printed, and the whole festival lasting three days be planned, laid out, and carried into effect.
Never before has a single woman been so made a queen over an army of men, women and children. The moment the event was announced the Occidental Hotel was besieged by editors, musicians, officials, contractors, carpenters, decorators, chorus masters and a hundred others who thought they might be of use in some way. Madam Urso held high state in her rooms and heard each one in turn, gave him her commands, and bid him move on to his appointed work. The Mechanics’ Pavilion, a huge wooden structure erected for the Mechanics’ Institute Fair in 1868, was still standing. Orders to take it down had been given, but at her request they were revoked and a host of carpenters swarmed into the building and began to remodel it for the great Festival. Railroads, Hotels, and Telegraph companies were ready to obey her every wish in regard to the reception of the great company to be assembled. The State arsenal opened at her command and a whole park of artillery was ready to speak at the wave of her baton. An organ was built to order, and a drum more portentous than the Gilmore affair was manufactured. The firemen met to pound the anvils in the “anvil chorus” and Camilla herself drilled them in the work. And at the head of it all was the one woman, mistress of the whole kingdom, and with the resources of a State at command. As if this was not enough she personally assumed the entire expense and was responsible for the whole vast sum of thousands and thousands of dollars that the festival involved. Had it been a failure the Mercantile Association would not have lost a dollar. Every bill was in her own name, be it for organ, contractors, printing music books or agents’ fares by rail or boat.
The event exceeded expectation and was one of the most marked musical successes ever recorded. On Washington’s birth-day, February 22d, 1870, ten thousand people filled the Mechanics’ Pavilion to listen to Camilla Urso’s concert. A chorus of twelve hundred composed the choir, and an orchestra of two hundred good musicians furnished the accompaniment for the choral members.
The programme was popular in its character and each piece was given with unexpected effect. The concert was opened at half past two by the performance of Von Weber’s Jubilee Overture by the orchestra under the direction of Mr. Harold, the conductor of the festival. This was followed by a chorus for men’s voices by the united singing societies of the State. Next the orchestra and military bands gave a selection of national airs and at the end the chorus and the entire audience rose and sang “My country ’tis of Thee.” The chorus, organ and orchestra then united to give the chorus “Night shades no longer,” from Moses in Egypt, which was given in a skillful and effective manner. A chorus of men’s voices from “Eurianthe” with horn obligato was next performed and then came the Anvil Chorus, with chorus, bands, orchestra, organ, battery and all the bells in the city united for accompaniment.
It was an event in its way and the irrepressible enthusiasm peculiar to the Californians found vent in cheers and the waving of hats, handkerchiefs and whatever was in hand. Certainly Madam Urso had never in her whole experience seen such enthusiasm and she may have well wondered if it was not all some strange, fantastic dream. The band gave a selection from “Tannhauser” and then the concert closed with the “Star Spangled Banner” given with cannon, big drum, church bells, organ and great chorus.
The concert on the second day was honored with an audience of fifteen thousand persons, the largest assembly that had ever met in California. The programme began with the overture to “Ali Baba” which was followed by the “Gloria,” from Mozart’s Twelfth Mass. Then the orchestra gave two movements from the symphony in C, by Gade. “Sleepers wake,” from St. Paul, and the “Prayer,” from “Moses in Egypt,” were next given in such a superior manner by the chorus, that the last number won an encore.
At this point Madam Urso appeared and met with a reception that for wild enthusiasm and fervor has probably never been exceeded by any concert audience. The very proper coldness and passiveness of Eastern audiences finds small favor beyond the mountains. The fifteen thousand people met under that roof tendered her an ovation the like of which has probably never been given to any artist in the world. Respect and love for the woman who had done so much for them, admiration for her genius, and gratitude for her splendid efforts in behalf of the Mercantile Association roused the people to a pitch of excitement almost past belief. For a few moments it seemed as if they would never cease cheering, nor stop piling the mountains of flowers at her feet.
Then she took her violin and played for them, giving the Beethoven Concerto. The building was too vast for all to hear her instrument but they listened in eager silence and at the close there was another tempest of applause and showers of flowers till the stage about her was literally “knee deep in fragrance.” She was twice called out after the performance, but the excitement and fatigue were too much for her and she declined to play again.
The chorus—“The Heavens are Telling,” the overture to “Der Freyschutz,” the Anvil Chorus, and the “Hallelujah” chorus, from the Messiah concluded the entertainment and the vast audience quietly dispersed.