Rodrigue (his original character) …………… Jean de Reszke
Don Diégue (his original character) ………. Édouard de Reszke
Le Roi ……………………………………. Jean Lassalle
Le Conte de Gormas (his original character) …….. Pol Plançon
St. Jacques |
L'Envoye Maure | ……………………………. Jacques Bars
Don Arras ………………………………….. Signor Corsi
Don Alonzo …………………………… Signor de Vaschetti
L'Infante …………………………….. Clementine de Vere
Chimène ………………………………….. Felia Litvinne
Conductor—Signor Mancinelli
The table of performances from 1893 to 1897 follows here:
PERFORMANCES IN REGULAR SUBSCRIPTION SEASONS
Operas 1893-94 1894-95 1895-96 1896-97
"Faust" ………………… 8 7 8 10
"Philémon et Baucis" …….. 4 0 2 1
"Cavalleria Rusticana" …… 7 3 7 4
"Lohengrin" …………….. 5 5 6 6
"Lucia di Lammermoor" ……. 2 3 3 2
"Hamlet" ……………….. 1 0 2 1
"Roméo et Juliette" ……… 5 4 4 5
"Orfeo" ………………… 1 0 1 0
"Pagliacci" …………….. 3 2 2 0
"Les Huguenots" …………. 2 6 5 2
"Carmen" ………………. 12 7 11 7
"Don Giovanni" ………….. 1 3 0 3
"Rigoletto" …………….. 2 4 1 1
"Die Meistersinger" ……… 3 0 1 3
"L'Amico Fritz" …………. 2 0 0 0
"Semiramide" ……………. 3 1 0 0
"Tannhäuser" ……………. 2 0 3 3
"Le Nozze di Figaro" …….. 3 0 0 0
"La Traviata" …………… 1 1 2 3
"Guillaume Tell" ………… 0 3 0 0
"Aïda" …………………. 0 3 4 3
"Il Trovatore" ………….. 0 3 2 2
"Otello" ……………….. 0 4 0 0
"Mignon" ……………….. 0 1 0 0
"Elaine" (Bemberg) ………. 0 2 0 0
"Manon" (Massenet) ………. 0 4 0 0
"Falstaff" ……………… 0 3 3 0
"Samson et Dalila" ………. 0 1 0 0
"Tristan und Isolde" …….. 0 0 6 2
"L'Africaine" …………… 0 1 0 1
"La Favorita" …………… 0 0 2 2
"La Navarraise" …………. 0 0 4 0
"Fidelio" ……………… 0 1 0 0
"Die Walküre" …………… 0 0 2 0
"Les Pêcheurs de Perles" …. 0 0 1 0
"Mefistofele" …………… 0 0 2 4
"Martha" ……………….. 0 0 0 2
"Siegfried" …………….. 0 0 0 6
* "Werther" …………….. 0 0 0 1
"Le Cid" ……………….. 0 0 0 2
* "Werther" had a single performance in the supplemental season of 1893-94.
CHAPTER XIX
BEGINNING OF THE GRAU PERIOD
From 1896 to the end of the season 1902-03 Maurice Grau was in name as well as in fact the monarch of the operatic world of America. For a brief space he also extended his reign to Covent Garden, but the time was not ripe for that union of interests between London and New York which has so long seemed inevitable, and his foreign reign was short. So was his American dictatorship; but while it lasted it was probably the most brilliant operatic government that the world has ever known from a financial point of view, and its high lights artistically were luminous in the extreme. At the end of the period Mr. Grau had retired from operatic management forever, for though his desire to remain in active employment was intense, his mental powers unweakened, and his will strong, his health was hopelessly shattered, and before another lustrum had passed he had gone down to his death, his last thoughts longingly fixed on the institution which had brought him fame and fortune in abundant measure. For several years he had maintained a beautiful summer home at Croissy-Chatou, on the Seine, about ten miles from Paris. He died in the French capital on March 14, 1907, of a disease of the heart which had compelled his abandonment of active managerial life.