Boston 1852 -- the Frenchies are coming!

 

E-bay rendered up two nice Bostonian playbills from the 1850s this week.  There was this one ...

They must have had good eyes in Boston. I needed a magnifying glass and two pairs of spectacles to decipher this. 'Spectacle' was apt, because that is what this entertainment, although based on a French original, was. The English re-arrangement was presented at the Adelphi Theatre 27 January 1828 with Mr and Mrs Yates, J Reeve, Wilkinson, Mrs H Hughes and Elliott as the would-be-naughty Viscount Volatil in Paris. The cast was vast and full of cameo roles. The 'comic burletta' was followed by ... the pantomime Harlequin and the White Mouse in which Elliott played Pantaloon!  It seems that his central role in the burletta was not the 'lead' and that the series of 'characters' had the best opportunities, which will be why the only really familar (to me) name on the Boston bill is that of William WARREN, in the role of the hairdresser

The others? Well, I winkled out the vocalist of the troup. Lena RADINSKI was German, born about 1817, the wife of artist Wilhelm Radinski ('artist'). She played several seasons at the Museum (No!, Peter Wilkins, The Irish Diamond, Aladdin ) and was then engaged at Barnum's Museum up till 1858 (Fraud, Thisbe in Cinderella, Princess in Giralda, Madame Poulet in Eustache Baudin, Ruth Oakley). I also see her playing Clari in The Maid of Milan at the Chatham Theatre. She seems to be in Brooklyn as late as 1901.

The other bill, however, was the one that interested me the more. It was a concert ...

Fr Anna Widemann I had encountered in the past, singing with Ines Fabbri. Mons Théodore Génibrel was unfamiliar to me. And look, there's local singer Lena R topping up the programme with 'a favourite song'.

At this stage, both the visiting vocalists were members of the opera company at the New Orleans French Opera House, currently in recess. So, they kept occupied by visiting Boston and other parts north of Louisiana.

Théodore GÉNIBREL (b Ariège 7 May 1820) was billed, on his debut at New Orleans, as being first bass of the Paris Opéra. Was he? Well, yes and no. Briefly, anyhow...

His first appearance, however, was made in other circumstances, as an advertisement for thr local mineral water cures

With the crises of puberty over, Théodore progressed to Paris, and the Conservatoire. 'Pupil of Garcia and Piermarini'. He didn't win any glittering recompenses: in a world which judges basses against tenors in competitions, he was crushed by Barbot and Gueymard, and came out with an accessit in grand opera. He was credited with a good natural voice, but the dire habit of attacking him notes from the underside. A fellow bass student was from America: Henri Drayton.

I see him in the occasional concert from 1846 -- at the Hôtel de Ville, the Société des Concerts, the Société Philharmonique -- and in 1849 at the Théâtre de la Nation as Fontanarose in Le Philtre and at the Opéra as Marhisen in Le Prophète. Then as Zaccaria in the same opera. But after just one year, he left the company 'à l'aimable' and headed for America as 'première basse de la grande opéra de Paris'.

I see him 17 March 1851 singing Bertram in Robert le diable, with Mmes Fleury Jolly and Devries at the Orleans Theatre, touring concerts with the Belgian violinist, Charles Wynen, then the following season teaming with Mme Widemann and Tisseyre in Le Prophète, La Gazza Ladra, Les Huguenots and then comes his tour with Widemann .. accompanied by the usual mendacious publicity

Well, if the facts weren't real, the appreciation was! 

I see that his concert solos included 'Tous le soldats' (Prophète) something by Verdi titled in English 'The Vengeance' and the abovementioned selections from Semiramide.

He appeared at New Orleans again, up till 1855, adding La Juive, Marguerite d'Anjou, Moïse et al to the French 'grand repertoire', before returning to France. I see him in 1856 at Lyon in La Juive, I Vespri Siciliani, and L'Étoile du Nord, at 1857 at Toulouse in L'Africaine and then he was hired for the Italiens in Paris. He made his debut there in Lucrezia Borgia and as the Commandant in Don Giovanni, but the engagement doesn't appear to have been a long one, and he turns up next in Bordeaux (Brabantio in Otello, Balthazar in La Favorita, Bertram) into 1859, when he set sail again for America and New Orleans. He played another three seasons (Charles VI, Jerusalem, Il Pirata, William Tell etc) outre mer, including a season with the young Patti, before once again returning home. 

I see him thereafter in Toulon (Roland de Roncevaux) at Anvers (I Martiri,  and now Leporello), in Algers in 1869 singing Mephistpheles, in Brest now as Marcel in Les Huguenots, in Nantes alongside Laura Harris, and on 27 April 1870 singing in Strasbourg in the Rossini Messe Solenelle.

I don't know quite where he went for the next years.  I see mentions of Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Cordova .. I spot him singing Samuel in Ballo in maschera and Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Oporto, and Don Pedro at the Verme in Milan in 1875 ... but in 1876 he was announced as the manager of a Parisian troupe for Rio...

After which I lose him. But, at least, now I know something about him.

I don't lose Anna WIDEMANN (née Marie Anna JUNG). Her death was noticed in a several Parisian press paragraphs. She died 24 February 1864, aged 49 years, and her funeral was led by 'her two sons'.

But I don't find her! Date and place of birth? Early life and education? Zilch. She comes to my notice only in 1838, when she is already engaged at the Paris Opéra. And a married lady. Her husband was by name Fritz Widemann.

I see her singing Donna Elvira at the Opéra in August 1838, at Mlle Dupont's concert ('magnificent contralto') of 8 April, at Douai (Ch Haas's 'L'Amazone'), at Salle Herz for Le Ménéstral and with artists such as Wartel and Burdini, at the Concerts du Conservatoire (Elwart's 'La Reine de Saba') and, doubtless, others of the ilk, but she was limited to secondary roles at the Opéra (yes, Elvira was regarded as such) and created the supporting role of Maria, behind Mme Nathan, in de Ruolz's opera La Vendetta ..

As Maria in La Vendetta

In August 1842 her time at the Académie Nationale came to an end, in favour of Mlle Méquillet, and for the next half-dozen years she played the provinces, to rapturous receptions in a small selection of favourite roles -- La Favorita, La Reine de Chypre, La Gazza Ladra, La Juive, Semiramide and above all, the role of Odette in Charles VI. In 1848 it was announced she would return to the Opéra ('she has re-become a contralto and put on weight') but it seems not to have happened, and she continued to play her way around France and Belgium -- I see her at Metz, Strasbourg, Liège ('fait fanatisme'), Lille, Cambrai, Limoges, Brussels until, in 1851, she took the engagement in New Orleans.

 She played her Charles VI and other vehicles with enormous success, sang concerts in between times, and, unlike Génibrel, at the end of her engagement, went home. Again, there were whispers of a return -- with the backing of Meyerbeer -- to the Opéra, but again, it didn't happen and she was welcomed back to Dijon, Bordeaux, Libourne and ... do I see her singing Azucena in Edinburgh in 1856?

Thereafter, she appeared here and there in concert, notably in Baden with Berlioz, before fading away ... sigh, more work to be done here, but this is a start.

Now it's nap time ...