In New Orleans during the first half of the nineteenth century opera flourished with a brilliance unknown elsewhere in America. The Louisiana city was, as we have pointed out, an American Paris, and the best operatic artists of the French capital appeared there in works selected from the current Parisian répertoire. The opera house was the centre of social, artistic, and musical New Orleans. It was an institution with a tradition and an atmosphere. The brilliant and cultured Creole society lent to it the glamour which only society can give, but it was not dependent upon social support in the same sense as the successive New York opera houses were dependent on such support. It was a popular institution; it was an integral part of the life of the city; it was a source at once of pride and pleasure to the humblest citizen. And to a certain extent it remains so still.
The father of opera in New Orleans, as we have already pointed out, was John Davis, who built the Théâtre d'Orléans in 1816. This theatre was remodeled in 1845 and was destroyed by fire in 1866. Its glory, however, had departed several years previous to the latter date and had passed over to the New French Opera House, erected by the New Orleans Opera-House Association in 1859. The moving spirit in the new enterprise was M. Boudousquie, who became its manager. M. Parlange tried a season of opera at the Théâtre d'Orléans in 1859-60, but without success, and the old house then fell into disuse. Its history, however, had been a brilliant one. For over forty years it had maintained a standard of artistic excellence unsurpassed in America and not far below that of the best European opera houses. Its ensembles, both vocal and instrumental, were exceptionally good—notably so, indeed, in a period when operatic stars were too conspicuously in the ascendant. True, its repertory was never remarkable either for its novelty or for its eclecticism. But that was a fault only too common to opera houses both here and abroad during the first half of the nineteenth century. The list of operas presented at the Théâtre d'Orléans between 1825 and 1860 would be too long to quote here, but it may be mentioned that during that time New Orleans heard the following operas for the first time: Le Barbier de Séville, La Maette de Portici, Fra Diavolo, Robert le Diable, L'Éclair (Halévy), Sémiramide, Les Huguenots, La Sonnambula, Zanetta (Auber), Lucia di Lammermoor, La Esmeralda (Prévost), Beatrice di Tenda, Il Furioso, L'Elisir d'Amore, Norma, Guillaume Tell, La Favorita, La Fille du Régiment, La Juive, Lucrecia Borgia, I Puritani (in Italian), Belisario (in Italian), La Reine de Chypre, Der Freischütz, Les Martyrs, Charles VI (Halévy), Jérusalem (Verdi), Le Prophète, Le Caïd (Thomas), Les Deux Foscari, Les Montenégrins (Limmander), La Gazza Ladra, Tancredi, Othello (Rossini), Moses (Rossini), Don Giovanni, Marguérite d'Anjou (Meyerbeer), La Vestale (Spontini), L'Étoile du Nord, Il Trovatore, Ernani, Jaguarita (Halévy), Martha and Rigoletto. Of these Il Furioso, L'Elisir d'Amore, Les Martyrs and Le Prophète were given for the first time in America.
M. Boudousquie opened the New Orleans Opera House with a brilliant company which included Mathieu (tenor), Melchisedes (baritone), Genebrel (basso), and Feitlinger (soprano). He presented Le Pardon de Ploërmel for the first time in New Orleans and put on a number of operas already familiar to the city, including Rigoletto, with the novice Patti in the rôle of Gilda. The war naturally killed all operatic activities for the time being. Subsequently the New Orleans Opera House was reopened with a strolling company managed by the Alhaiza brothers. In 1866 a splendid company gathered together by the Alhaizas in France was drowned on the voyage to America in the wreck of the Evening Star. A surviving brother opened with an Italian troupe, and since then the New Orleans Opera House has continued its functions, with occasional interruptions, per varios casus per tot discrimina rerum. Italian, German and English companies have been heard there from time to time, but on the whole it has remained a thoroughly French house directed by French managers and presenting opera in the French tongue. Its principal artists have been selected from among the best on the contemporary French stage and have included many singers of world-wide reputation. For years it has been the custom of the house to change its singers every season, and on that account it would be impossible to enumerate here the list of distinguished artists who have appeared on its boards. Mention may be made, however, of such well-known names as Devoyed, Durnestre, Ambre, Tournie, Levelli, Pical, Michat, Orlius, Etelka Gerster, Fursch-Madi, Paulin, Baux, Mounier, Deo, Feodor, Albers and Maurice Renaud. The following operas have been given in New Orleans for the first time from 1866 to 1914, inclusive: Crispino e la Comare, Faust, Un Ballo in Maschera, Petrella's Ione, Linda di Chamouni, L'Africaine, Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, Donizetti's Don Sebastian, Der fliegende Holländer, Lohengrin (in Italian), Fidelio (in Italian), Tannhäuser (in Italian), Aïda, Carmen, Mefistofele (in Italian), Paul et Virginie, Mireille (in Italian), Les Petits Mousquetaires (first time in America), Planquette's Rip Van Winkle, Gounod's Le Tribut de Zamora (first time in America), Thomas's Le Songe d'une nuit d'eté, Lalo's Le roi d'Ys (first time in America), Le Cid, Sigurd (first time in America), Cavalleria rusticana (in English), Hérodiade (first time in America), Samson et Dalila (first time in America), Lakmé, Esclarmonde (first time in America), Manon, Les Pécheurs de Perles, Werther (first time in America), Salvayre's Richard III (first time in America), Die Walküre (in German), Siegfried (in German), Tristan und Isolde (in German), Die Götterdämmerung (in German), La Navarraise, Benvenuto Cellini, I Pagliacci, La Reine de Saba (first time in America), Reyer's Salammbo (first time in America), Godard's La Vivandière, La Vie de Bohême, La Giaconda, Cendrillon (first time in America), Messaline, Verdi's Otello (in English), Tosca (in English), Parsifal (in German), Siberia (first time in America), L'Amico Fritz, Cilea's Adrienne Lecouvreur (first time in America), Madam Butterfly (in English), Fedora (in Italian), Louise, Le Jongleur de Notre Dame, Hänsel und Gretel, Thaïs, L'Attaque du Moulin, Leroux's Le Chemineau (first time in America), Don Quichotte (first time in America), Quo Vadis, Sappho, Saint-Saëns' Phryne, and Bizet's L'Arlésienne (first time in America).
III
Historically the French opera in New Orleans is of great importance for its influence on the operatic development of other cities. This is especially true of Philadelphia, which was introduced to opera by the New Orleans organization in 1827. Philadelphia, of course, was already familiar with the English ballad opera and it had heard a diluted English version of Der Freischütz in 1825, but of opera in its real sense it was still quite innocent. The New Orleans company which appeared at the Chestnut Street Theatre in 1827 returned each succeeding season until 1834. The following list of operas produced by them may be of interest: Le petit Chaperon rouge, Joconde, Robin des Bois (Der Freischütz), Azema, La Dame blanche, Le Maçon, Werther, Thérèse, Rendezvous bourgeois, Le Solitaire, La fète du village voisin, Adolphe et Clare, Les voitures versées, Les Visitandines, Le nouveau seigneur de village, Cendrillon, Les Folles amoureuses, Aline, Moses in Egypt, La Vestale, Jean de Paris, Trente ans de la vie d'un joueur, Fiorella, La Fiancée, Gulistan, La Caravane de Cairo, La Dame du lac, Le Calife de Bagdad, Comte Ory, La Muette de Portici, Fra Diavolo, Guillaume Tell, Le Barbier de Séville, La Clochette, La Gazza Ladra, Le Petit Matelot, La pie Voleuse, La Jeune Prude, Zampa, Jean, Rossignol, Le Philtre, La Tour de Nesle. The Montressor Troupe, an Italian company, appeared at the Chestnut Street Theatre in 1833 and gave Philadelphia its first taste of Italian opera, presenting Il Pirata, Italiani in Algieri, La Cenerentola, Rossini's Otello, and Mercadante's Elisa e Claudio.
The proximity of New York insured frequent visits of opera companies from that city, and it may be said without exaggeration that from this time forward New York was almost exclusively the source of supply for opera in Philadelphia. So much is this so that to follow the history of opera in the former city is practically to follow it in the latter, except that New York was a base and Philadelphia a visiting point. Opera in English by the Woods was a feature of the Philadelphia season in 1843 and, in the following year, the Rivafinoli Opera Troupe, which we have already met in New York, gave a season of ten nights. Cimarosa's Matrimonio segreto was the most interesting of their offerings. More opera in English by the Woods, the Seguins, Caradori-Allan, Fanny Elssler, and others occupied musical Philadelphia until 1845, the only break being a short season in 1843 by an Italian company which presented Norma, Lucia di Lammermoor, Belisario, I Puritani, and Gemma di Vergy. The New Orleans company reappeared in 1845 with La Favorite, La Fille du régiment, Robert le diable, Le Domino noir, La Muette de Portici, L'Ambassadrice, La Juive, and Les Huguenots.
The Havana troupe, which we met in New York, regaled Philadelphia in 1847 with Pacini's Saffo, Verdi's Ernani, I Lombardi and Due Foscari, with Bettini's Romeo e Giuletta, with La Sonnambula, Mosé in Egitto, Norma, and Linda di Chamouni. The Seguins still continued to give opera in English. Sanquirico and Patti brought their company from New York in 1848, without setting the Delaware on fire, though they included Don Giovanni in their extended répertoire. They remained in Philadelphia until 1851, when the Havana troupe appeared with a splendid company, including Bosio, Bertucca, Salvi, and Marini. The only novelty produced by the Havana company was Don Pasquale, but their performances were artistically the finest that had been heard in Philadelphia. In 1852 the Seguins produced Verdi's Luisa Miller for the first time in America. Both Albani and Sontag appeared in Philadelphia in 1853 with the old Rossini-Bellini-Donizetti program, and a similar repertory secured the appearances of Grisi and Mario in 1855. Il Trovatore was heard in 1856 with Brignoli and Anna La Grange. Opera in English still continued under various auspices.
An event in the operatic history of Philadelphia was the opening in 1857 of the Academy of Music, which continued to be the home of opera in that city until Oscar Hammerstein built his Philadelphia Opera House in 1908. It was erected by a company promoted and organized by most of the wealthy and socially prominent residents of Philadelphia. The first year of its existence was rendered interesting by the visit of a German company headed by Mme. Johannsen, which gave Der Freischütz, Fidelio, Auber's Le Maçon, and Lortzing's Czar und Zimmermann. There was Italian opera of the usual sort aplenty in that and the succeeding year. The winsome Piccolomini made her Philadelphia début in 1859 and additional variety was introduced into the same year by the production of Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona, Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots and Robert le diable, Verdi's I Vespri Siciliani, and Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. Ronconi, Carl Formes (somewhat passé), and Adelina Patti-Strakosch were the most notable artists—apart from Piccolomini. A French company gave Offenbach's La Chatte Métamorphosée and other comic operas in 1860 and the following year saw the first production in Philadelphia of Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera and Massé's Les Noces de Jeanette. Meyerbeer's Dinorah was a novelty of 1862.
The German company with Madame Johannsen reappeared in 1863 and 1864, and to musical Philadelphia it must have come like the first breeze of autumn after a parching summer. Its répertoire included Martha, Der Freischütz, Le Maçon, Kreutzer's Nachtlager in Granada, Fidelio, Die Zauberflöte, Lortzing's Der Wildschütz, Boieldieu's Jean de Paris, Flotow's Stradella, Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Le Nozze di Figaro, Méhul's Joseph, Adam's Le Postillon de Lonjumeau, Nicolai's Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Spohr's Jessonda, Gounod's Mireille, as well as Don Giovanni, Faust, and Tannhäuser. At least seven of these were complete novelties to Philadelphia. The Italians continued in force with Clara Louise Kellogg, Bellini, Zucchi, and others. Petrella's Ione was a novelty of 1863 and in 1864 'Notre Dame of Paris,' by the American composer W. H. Fry, was produced under the leadership of Theodore Thomas. In 1865 La Forza del Destino appeared and in 1866 L'Africaine, Crispino e la Comare, and L'Étoile du Nord.
Balfe's 'The Rose of Castile,' Auber's La Fiancée, Eichberg's 'Doctor of Alcantara,' Wallace's 'Maritana,' and other works were given in English by Ritching's troupe in 1866 and 1867. Indeed, opera in English persisted in Philadelphia as it has done nowhere else in America. Italian opera continued on its usual course from year to year without any achievements of special note. In 1868 and again in 1873, 1875, and 1879 there was an epidemic of opéra comique during which Philadelphia heard La Grande Duchesse, La Belle Hélène, Barbe-Bleue, La Périchole, Orphée aux Enfers, Les Bavards, Monsieur Chaufleuri, Géneviève de Brabant, L'Œil Crève, Fleur de Thé, La Vie Parisienne, Le Petit Faust, Les Cent Vierges, La Fille de Madame Angot, and other works of that type. The first performance of Gounod's Romeo et Juliette in 1868, Le Prophète in 1869, Bristow's 'Rip Van Winkle' in 1870, Thomas's Mignon and Hamlet in 1872, Verdi's Aïda in 1873, Lohengrin in 1874, Der fliegende Holländer in 1877, Rienzi and Carmen in 1878, and Boïto's Mefistofele in 1881 may also be worthy of notice. During those years Strakosch and Mapleson were the chief purveyors of opera to Philadelphia, excepting, of course, the French troupes who were so generous of opéra comique novelties. In 1882 the Boston Ideal Opera Company, of which we shall have something to say later, appeared at the Walnut Street Theatre presenting Fatinitza, 'The Pirates of Penzance,' 'The Mascot,' Olivette, 'Czar and Carpenter,' 'H. M. S. Pinafore,' and 'The Chimes of Normandy.' The Emma Abbott Grand English Opera Company appeared in the same year, as did Maurice Grau's French Opera Company.