The following night Rigoletto was given, then Il Trovatore, and the night after that Lohengrin.
At the close of the second act of Lohengrin there came a call from all sides of the house, and I was compelled to appear before the curtain, when I addressed the audience in the following words:—
"Ladies and gentlemen,—I am rather unprepared for the flattering compliment which you pay me in thus calling for me. I assure you that I join with you in my appreciation of the successful termination of this opera season, and I can bestow nothing but the most cordial thanks for the liberal support which the people of Chicago have given their Opera Festival. It is an evidence of their taste, and I hope will prove the forerunner of many more similar meetings. (Applause.) There are several persons who deserve special mention and thanks, but I shall have to be content simply with testifying to the earnestness of purpose with which all have laboured who were in any wise connected with the Festival. I therefore thank them all. It is no small thing to present thirteen different operas in two weeks' time, yet the attendance and manifestations of appreciation on the part of the audience will justify me in claiming that success has crowned my efforts; and the knowledge that we have given you all we promised and have satisfied you repays us for all our work."
President Peck likewise came forward and thanked the people of the city for their generous attendance at the first Opera Festival. It had been a success in every respect, and the management had done its best to accommodate and please the public.
A leading journal, in giving a review of the Opera Festival, said:—
"The Great Operatic Festival is now over, and only the memories of its magnificence and importance are left. The last note has been sung at the Chicago Operatic Festival, without doubt the greatest musical undertaking that has ever been accomplished anywhere. In no great city of Europe or America could 190,000 people have been able to attend the opera in two weeks. In the first place, the accommodations of even the largest Opera-houses are not such that 10,000 people could be present at any one performance. The Operatic Festival Association have been untiring in their earnest endeavours to present all the operas in the best possible manner. Each performance has been given as announced, and the casts have been uniformly good. Thirteen operas have been produced, all of which were mounted in a manner never before equalled. Many of the stage pictures, as in Semiramide, Mirella, L'Africaine, Aida, and Faust, have been simply superb, and will be long remembered for their beauty. The pictorial charm of the scene on the banks of the Nile in Aida was also most poetic. The processions, and the way in which they were controlled, indicated that the stage manager was a man of taste and ability."
Prior to my departure, 18th April, 1885, my attendance was requested by the Mayor, Mr. Carter H. Harrison, at the City Hall, when I was amply repaid for all the labour I had bestowed upon the Festival by the magnificent presentation which was then made me, and which I value more than anything of the kind I have ever received. It was nothing less than the freedom of the City of Chicago—a compliment I can say with safety that has never been paid to any other Englishman, and what is more, is never likely to be. Chicago, as everyone at all connected with America must know, will within a very few years be the first city in the United States, and probably in the world.
The success of the Chicago Festival was due in a great measure to the personal efforts of Ferdinand W. Peck, the President, from whom I immediately afterwards received a notification to attend the final committee meeting, when the following testimonial was presented to me, magnificently engrossed on parchment:—
At a Meeting of the
CHICAGO OPERA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION
held April 18th, 1885,
The following Resolution was unanimously adopted:
Resolved
That the Chicago Opera Festival Association
Recognizes the satisfactory manner in which
COLONEL JAMES HENRY MAPLESON
has fulfilled his obligations under his contract with
this Association,
And they desire to express their high appreciation
of his liberality in the presentation of all the operas
produced, without which the grand success of the
FESTIVAL
could not have been achieved. In attestation of
the above the Officers and Board of Directors have
hereunto subscribed their names:
| FERD. W. PECK, President, | ||
| WILLIAM PENN NIXON, Vice-President, | ||
| LOUIS WAHL, Second Vice-President, | ||
| A. A. SPRAGUE |  | |
| GEORGE M. BOGUE | ||
| EUGENE CAREY | ||
| HENRY FIELD | directors. | |
| R. T. CRANE | ||
| JOHN R. WALSH | ||
| GEORGE F. HARDING | ||
| GEORGE G. SCHNEIDER, Treasurer. | ||
| S. G. PRATT, Secretary. |