San Francisco heard its first opera in 1853. The gold fever of 1849 drew people of all kinds to California, and among them were musicians. Henri Herz, the French pianist, reached California in 1849 when the excitement was at its highest, and he gives an interesting account of his adventures. It may also be well to mention here Signora Biscaccianti, who went to San Francisco in 1852, and was there more or less till 1864. Signora Biscaccianti was one of the first American singers to achieve a measure of success in Europe. She was the daughter of a musician named Ostinelli, was born in Boston, where she met with some success as a singer, went to New York and thence to Europe. Another American who was, perhaps, better known in her own country was Miss Isabella Hinkley who appeared in 1861, but another who appeared in New York in the same year, became still better known and was prominent for many years, Clara Louise Kellogg. Eighteen hundred and fifty-nine was the year of Adelina Patti's début.
The list of great singers who were imported during this period is long. We can but touch on it,—there was Jenny Lind in 1850, then came Marietta Alboni in 1851. Two years later Sontag, and the next year Grisi and Mario. In 1865 came Parepa Rosa, and in 1870 Christine Nilsson. In 1873, Maurel and Campanini. In 1855 Brignoli appeared, and was for many years a great popular favorite.
We find efforts in New York to promote German opera. Operas by Germans—"Fidelio" for instance—had been heard together with operas by Italians, and others, but now Wagner came above the horizon, and German opera began to mean Wagner. So we find a "Tannhäuser" and "Lohengrin" in New York in 1859,—quite inadequate performances according to the opinion handed down to posterity,—but yet, performances. They were followed in 1862 by "Der Fliegende Holländer," all worthy but inadequate efforts. Maretzek and Strakosch were the chief figures in grand opera during this period, but there were spasmodic efforts by others which need not be recorded.
Pianists were not so numerous as later. Alfred Jaell had appeared and, in 1854, Dr. William Mason returned from Europe and established himself in New York, but was not known as one of the traveling virtuosi. He had a great influence in musical education, for many years. Anna Mehlig visited America in 1869.
In 1862 Louis M. Gottschalk, a native of New Orleans, returned to America after a brilliant career in Europe, and he appears to have been the first American to have made a career as a piano virtuoso.
Violinists were few in comparison to singers,—Miska Hauser, Pablo Sarasate, in 1850, and Camilla Urso in 1852. Then a space of twenty years without any great virtuoso.
An important matter in the musical life of America was the establishment of conservatories. There had already been the Academy of Music in Boston, which enrolled twenty-two hundred pupils the first year, but the conservatory idea appears to have developed just after the Civil War, for we find in 1865 a conservatory of music established with Oberlin College, in 1871 Illinois College at Jacksonville followed suit, and in 1873 Northwestern University. In the meantime, in 1867, we find the Boston Conservatory, under Julius Eichberg, the New England Conservatory, under Eben Tourjée, the Cincinnati Conservatory, and the Chicago Academy of Music, which became the Chicago Musical College,—and in 1877, a couple of years after this period, Syracuse University added a conservatory.
1850. Jan. 12. Mendelssohn's "Meerstille und Glückliche Fahrt" and "Capriccio Brillante," with William Scharfenberg as soloist, given by the Philharmonic Society, New York City.
1850. Jan. 19. Beethoven's Third Pianoforte Concerto given by the Musical Fund Society, Boston, with G. F. Hayter, soloist.
1850. Mar. 9. Handel's oratorio "Jephtha" given by the Musical Education Society, Boston, under G. J. Webb and Lowell Mason.