The year is, however, perhaps most important to us from the, at that time, unparalleled constellation of stars who were appearing at Drury Lane: Macready, Kean, Young, Munden, Liston, Elliston, Terry, Harley, Knight, Miss Stephens, and Mme. Vestris.
In 1824, the year of Byron's death, Henry Bishop left Covent Garden for Drury Lane, and Carl Von Weber was engaged in his place, in honour of which event "Der Freischütz" was brought out at the English Opera House, being also produced in the autumn at Covent Garden, where it was given for no less than fifty-two performances during the season of 1824-25.
And what of the salaries which were being received by theatrical stars at the beginning of the nineteenth century?
The great Charles Mathews writes at this time of a proposed engagement, "Now to my offer, which I think stupendous and magnificent, £17 a-week." John Kemble, for acting and managing, was receiving £36; Miss O'Neill, at the most brilliant portion of her career, never had more than £25 a-week; while Mrs Jordan at her zenith had thirty guineas; and Charles Kemble, until he became his own manager, never received more than £20 a-week.
Strange reading, indeed, when we compare it with the salaries which theatrical stars were receiving during the last few years of Garcia's life.
CHAPTER V.
OPERA IN AMERICA.
(1825-1826.)
THE earliest operatic performances in America were derived not from Italian but from English sources. Elson tells us in his book on American music that "The Beggar's Opera," which created such a furore in Great Britain, probably was the first entertainment of the kind given in the colonies, being performed in New York as early as December 3, 1750, and innumerable times thereafter. This was followed by a series of other ballad operas.
"From the conglomerate Ballad Opera, often the work of half a dozen composers," Elson continues, "New York passed on to a more unified art-work, and the operas of Arnold, Storace, and Dibdin were given with some frequency. During the British occupation, in revolutionary days, the English regimental bands often assisted in the orchestral parts of the operatic performances. At a later period many refugees, driven from France by the Revolution, were to be found eking out a precarious livelihood in the orchestra.
"At the beginning of the nineteenth century Charleston and Baltimore entered the operatic field, and travelling troupes came into existence, making short circuits from New York through the large cities, but avoiding Boston, which was wholly given over to Handel, Haydn, and psalms.
"In March 1825 New Yorkers heard a great opera for the first time, for 'Der Freischütz' came to America by way of England. It was adapted and arranged with the boldest of alterations and makeshifts. Extra dances were introduced to charm the audience, and the incantation scene was often given without singing, as melodrama that is, recitation with orchestral accompaniment, while the fireworks let off during the scene won public favour at once.