Noteworthy were the efforts of an English company who in 1839 gave performances of Beethoven's Fidelio, Rossini's La Cenerentola and La Gazza ladra, Bellini's La Sonnambula, Auber's Fra Diavolo, Donizetti's Elisir d'amore, and Adam's Postilion de Lonjumeau.
This was by far the choicest operatic menu that had ever been placed before New Yorkers. The performances were in English and we are not enlightened as to their quality; we know only that the venture was not a success. In 1840 the Woods returned with a season of operas in English, including La Sonnambula, Fidelio, and—sublime bathos—the 'Beggar's Opera'! Later the singer and composer, Braham, beloved of Englishmen, appeared at the Park Theatre in 'The Siege of Belgrade,' 'The Devil's Bridge,' 'The Waterman,' and 'The Cabinet.' Except for the visits of the New Orleans opera companies, of which we shall speak in another chapter, these were the only operatic treats vouchsafed to New Yorkers between the years 1834 and 1844.
In the meantime a gentleman named Ferdinand Palmo was making quite a reputation as a cook and proprietor of the Café des Mille Colonnes on Broadway, near Duane Street. Mr. Palmo suffered from that ancient delusion known as 'opera for the people,' and under its influence he spent the accumulated profits of the Mille Colonnes in remodelling Stoppani's Arcade Baths, on Chambers Street, into a popular opera house. There, in 1844, he opened a season of Italian opera with Bellini's I Puritani. Mr. Palmo was certainly determined to give New Yorkers the best that could be obtained. He had Madame Cinti-Damoreau, whom Fétis described as one of the greatest singers the world had known; he had a great tenor in Antognini, whom Richard Grant White compares as a singer to Ronconi and as an actor to Salvini; he had a very good soprano in Borghese. In addition he had an orchestra of 'thirty-two professors.' He survived the first season, but in the middle of the second the 'thirty-two professors' went on strike for their wages and the sheriff's minions descended on the box office receipts, the Mille Colonnes and everything else attachable that Mr. Palmo possessed. The attempt at a democratic opera was a fine and courageous one, but the time was not ripe for such an effort.[42]
After Palmo's failure his theatre was taken over by a new company which included among its principal members Salvatore Patti and Catarina Barili, the parents of Carlotta and Adelina Patti. It had a very brief existence and in 1848 Palmo's Opera House became Burton's Theatre. In the meantime, however, New York had been enjoying an assortment of other operas, presented by various visiting companies. The most important of these was a French company from New Orleans which, in 1843, presented La fille du régiment, Lucia di Lammermoor, Norma, and Gemma di Vergy—in French, of course. There were also several English companies, notably the Seguins, who gave opera in English at the Park Theatre and elsewhere. In 1844 the Seguin company produced Balfe's 'Bohemian Girl' for the first time in America.
It has frequently been the lot of New York to be visited by Italian opera companies from Cuba, Mexico, and South America. These companies were sometimes very bad, sometimes indifferent, sometimes very good. Of the last-named category was the company brought from Havana by Señor Francesco Marty y Tollens in 1847. Señor Marty was backed in his enterprise by James H. Hackett, the actor, and William Niblo, proprietor of the famous gardens. He had a very good company, notable chiefly for the fact that its conductor was Luigi Arditi, composer of Il Bacio—the 'Maiden's Prayer' of aspiring coloraturas. A season was given at the Park Theatre, after which there were a number of extra performances at Castle Garden. The repertory included Verdi's Ernani and I due Foscari, Bellini's Norma and Sonnambula, Paccini's Saffo, and Rossini's Mosé in Egitto. Señor Marty returned in 1848,1849, and 1850, with a company which Max Maretzek described as the greatest ever heard in America. The famous contrabassist, Bottesini, was musical director and Arditi remained as conductor. Among the operas performed were Verdi's Attila and Macbeth, Meyerbeer's Huguenots and Donizetti's La Favorita.
Opera in English was still given frequently but without any regularity at various theatres. Madame Anna Bishop appeared in a number of operas in 1847, and during the same year W. H. Reeves, brother of the famous Sims Reeves, made his operatic début. Among the novelties produced was Wallace's Maritana. In 1850 Madame Anna Thillon appeared in Auber's 'Crown Diamonds' at Niblo's and two years later Flotow's 'Martha' was produced.
III
In the meantime, however, New York had launched one of the greatest of operatic enterprises, a direct successor to the Italian Opera House conceived and carried out by the old dreamer da Ponte. Palmo's splendid experiment had only served to show that da Ponte was right. Democratic opera was a delusion. Opera in Italian or in any other language foreign to the mass of the people was foredoomed to failure. Only the glamour of social prestige could save it. And, just as opera needed society, so did society need opera. It was out of the question, of course, that persons of social pretensions should patronize Palmo's or Niblo's or Castle Garden or any other place geographically outside the social sphere and appealing largely to the common herd. Society is a jewel which shines only in an appropriate setting. Hence one hundred and fifty gentlemen of New York's social (and financial) élite got together and guaranteed to support Italian opera in a suitable house for five years. On the strength of this guarantee Messrs. Foster, Morgan and Colles built the Astor Place Opera House, a theatre seating about 1,800 persons. 'Its principal feature,' said the slightly malicious Maretzek, 'was that everybody could see, and, what is of infinitely greater consequence, could be seen. Never, perhaps, was any theatre built that afforded a better opportunity for a display of dress.' The Astor Place Opera House was opened in 1847, with Messrs. Sanquirico and Patti, late of Palmo's, as lessees, and Rapetti as leader of the orchestra. They produced during the season Verdi's Nabucco and Ernani, Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda, Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia, and Mercadante's Il Giuramento. In 1848 the house was taken over by E. R. Fry, an American, who brought over Max Maretzek as conductor and gathered together a fairly good company, including M. and Mme. Laborde. The operas given were Verdi's Ernani, Bellini's Norma, and Donizetti's Linda di Chamouni, Lucrezia Borgia, L'Elisir d'amore, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Roberto Devereux. Fry made a complete failure, and, judging by his list, one is impelled to say he deserved it.
In 1849 Maretzek became lessee of the house and began that chequered career as an impresario which ended only when the Metropolitan so to speak shut its newly made doors in his face. Most of his singers were taken from Fry's company, but he also had some new ones, among them the Signora Bertucca, who was included in the famous list which, according to Mr. H. E. Krehbiel, the redoubtable Max invariably checked off on his fingers when recounting his services to opera in New York. Maretzek remained at the Astor Place Opera House until 1850, and during three seasons gave Lucia, L'Elisir d'amore, Don Pasquale, Il Barbiere, Rossini's Otello, I Puritani, Belisario, Ernani—the list is tiresomely familiar.[43]
In the meantime the Astor Place Opera House was leased to William Niblo, the backer of Señor Francesco Marty y Tollens. Niblo's idea in leasing the opera house was to eliminate it as a competitor. In pursuance of this idea he engaged one Signor Donetti, and his troupe of performing dogs and monkeys, whom he presented to the aristocratic patrons of the institution. The patrons obtained an injunction against Niblo on the ground that the exhibition was not respectable within the meaning of the terms upon which the house was leased. 'On the hearing to show cause for this injunction,' says Maretzek, 'Mr. Niblo called upon Donetti or some of his friends who testified that his aforesaid dogs and monkeys had in their younger days appeared before princes and princesses and kings and queens. Moreover, witnesses were called who declared under oath that the previously mentioned dogs and monkeys behaved behind the scenes more quietly and respectably than many Italian singers. This fact I feel that I am not called upon to dispute.' Thus the ambitions and exclusive Astor Place Opera House ended as a joke. The building was used later as a library.