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417. jokes here and there retouched which caused the "loud laugh" among few spectators.
On Saturday February 3d Josh Silsbee took a farewell benefit when he played his "Yankee in Time ; or The Cave of the Dell" his "Down East Didge" and "Enos Lamb." He also had a new theatrical piece called "The Beacon of Death"--Jack Junk Mr. Silsbee. This was nothing but the old melodrama of "The Floating Beacon" making the "English Tar" a "Yankee Tar" of Marblehead. He introduced into the piece the popular National song "A Yankee Ship and a Yankee Crew."
September 5th a new moral local drama was brought out dramatized from Mrs. Ann S. Stephens renowned novel of "Fashion and Famine" which proved highly successful in New York it being one of the most touching life pictures of modern social evils and the exposure of he childish innocence to the heartless corruptions of the wicked portions of the world. The infant strawberry Girl a feature of its dramatis personce was well represented by little Lavinia Bishop. This piece ran a week.
Monday September 12th Mr. C. W. couldock appeared a few evenings as a stellar light supported by Estelle Potter called "The Young American Artist." In this engagement Couldock gave us a few illustrations of the "divine bard's" principal characters. The illustrations of the Avon poet are there by rendered as common as wood cuts for every theatre in the Union have dozens of these illustrators.
February 14th was given the domestic play of "The Willow Copse"--Luke Fielding Mr. Couldock ; Rose Fielding Estella Potter ; Meg Mrs. J. P. Brelsford ; Fan Mrs. Griffiths ; not a bad cast of the female part of the cast. Mrs. Gertrude Dawes flourished as as a danseuse in the Cracovienue &c. and Mr. H. B. Macarthy as a buffo singer.
February 15th Mr. Couldock appeared as King Lear ; Mrs. E. Potter as Cordelia. The lady was one of ye subdues beauties of the Raphael Madonna cast. If no genius was visible there ever was much interest foreshadowed in her personations which often achieved victory at the expense of judgment. Of Mr. Couldock's tragic impersonations we have spoken heretofore. He may be deemed a sound actor of intellectual perceptions ; but we ever thought he should like the landscape gardener assist Natura in a degree by the insinuations of Art and give a space and perspective where none of those attributes exist. He is of the colloquial school very good when the medium is observed. We contend that bare nature won't do for stage effects. Exaggeration is the privilege of the sock and buskin but judicious judgment must intervene. "From the sublime to the ridiculous" is but a step and too many of the profession take that little step.
February 16th Mr. Couldock's benefit when was presented for the first time in this city the first act of the celebrated historical play written expressly for Mr. Couldock (so said) of "Louis XI." to which was added the play of "The Willow copse" with an interlude.
On the next evening Mr. Couldock (17th) repeated "Louis XI." and performed Stephen Plum in "All that Glitters is not Gold" --Estelle Potter playing Martha Gibbs. It is
needless to say that Mr. Couldock's Stephen Plum was an excellent performance ; his native graces told in the part. Nor did he lack in the transfusion of the spirit of Louis XI. into the strong points of the character of this odious compound of vice cruelty and superstition. Tyrant as he was history informs us that he was the author of many wise laws and wholesome public regulations.
February 19th the benefit and last night of Estelle Potter when she played Lucretia Borgia in the tragedy of that name. On this occasion Mr. Wayne Olwine made his first appearance at this theatre as Ruy Gomez in the petite comedy of "Faint Heart Never Won Fair Lady" in which Estelle Potter performed the Duchess de Torreneuva. "The Young Scamp" was the afterpiece. Mr. W. Olwine dressed Ruy to perfection ; he appeared the ne plus ultra of the dandy of any place ortime. The fop under every variety of slang name seems to have existed since the days of Noah.
Mr. S. E. Harris produced on March 19th a novelty in the famed subject of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress in four volumes fifteen parts the whole representing a beautiful allegory of that morally instructive story never before presented on the stage and now adapted to dramatic representation by mr. J. B. Howe displaying the trials dangers and temptations of the wanderer through the dream of life. These scenes were all illustrated in beautiful scenic views and a galaxy of dramatic talent musical and Terpsichorean. The artistic gorgeous scenery was from the pencils of Messrs. Almy and Grain. Characters in the allegory :--MORTALS--Graceless afterward Christian (the Pilgrim) Mr. S. E. Harris ; Faithful (his friend and companion) Mr. Edwards ; Timorous (a simple shepherd) Mr. Mestayer ; Formalist Hypocrisy Slothful Simple Obstinate Worldly Wiseman Hategood Lovenothing Knownothing (all men of the world and hardened sinners) Messrs. Macarthy May Hennessy Morrow Stone Edwards Jackson Glenroy &c. ; Harlequin Mons. Szollosy ; Clown Mr. B. Coney ; Pantaloon Mr. Coney Jr. ; Columbine Miss E. Warren ; Folly Mad'lle Viola ; Christiana Mrs. Bannister ; Mrs. Inconsiderate Mrs. Griffiths ; Mrs. Batseyes Mrs. Lingard. There were allegorical personages as Celestials by the lady corps de ballet. Infernals (the enemies of mankind) by Messrs. Coney Webb Jackson Glenroy &c.
"Deivls white and devils black Devils gray and devils brown Devils red and devils blue Devils in fact of every hue."
This was a very novel drama and we think it was without any of the objections generally aleged to the Faust pieces or the Don Juan diableries so usually employed in opera plots &c.
C. Mueller's music was excellent many of the various church choirs being engaged to give it the full effects. It was magnificent and did honor to the last days of "Old Drury;" but it was all in vain. The imperative decree had gone forth delenda est Carthago and in six weeks after the house lay in scattered ruins.
S. E. Harris strenuous exertions deserved a better fate. He in despondency retired from the old throne of Warren & Wood &c. and was succeeded in April by C. H. Griffiths and
J. Wayne Olwine as sole lessees and managers.
Poor "Old Drury" that had commenced its glorious career at one dollar a ticket to boxes now closed at twenty-five cents admission ; gallery twelve and a half cents.
"To what base uses may we not return."
C. H. Griffiths and J. Wayne Olwine the new lessees continued the operations of the Harris company being the last managers of this time-honored dramatic temple. They may be deemed of importance in our stage annals and thus worthy of mention. The reign of the new management was brief but not merry. Mr. Mueller continued chief of the orchestra ; Mr. J. Toy the treasurer. The company was considerably curtailed. Mr. and Mrs. E. S. Conner now appeared as stars for about a fortnight doing their usual characters. Also Mr. S. W. Glenn a great native delineator of German character known as "Mynheer Von Glenn" was also put forth as an object.
April 14th the historical play of "Wallace" was played--Wallace E. S. Conner ; Allan Ramsey H. Lewis ; Helen Mar Mrs. E. S. Conner. The interlude of "The Dutchman in Love"--Bonafon S. W. Glenn ; Stumpy G. H. Griffiths. Concluding with the drama of "La Tour de Nesle"--Buridan Mr. E. S. Conner ; Margaret of Burgundy Mrs. E. S. Conner.
April 18th Mr. Glenn's benefit when Mr. Conner volunteered. First night of Miss Julia Daly. Miss Lilly Graham in a popular character. Conner as Long Tom Coffin in "The Pilot." Glenn in "The Persecuted Dutchman." Julia Daly as Jack Sheppard. From this period until the close of the house in May they did only petite pieces farces and interludes of singing and dancing &c.
Mr. G. H. Griffiths seemed to us a very good actor and a gentlemanly man quite useful and au fait in all lines of business of good personal appearance. He had been lessee of the Richmond Theatre Virginia wherein he had been unsuccessful and was destined to close the old Chestnut as one of its last managers.
Mr. Isaac Wayne Olwine was a native of Pennsylvania and died in December 1862 at the Continental Hotel in this city of consumption a malady which had early in life afflicted him and which he bore for a great length of time with uncommon animal spirits pursuing with indomitable energies while thus afflicted the business of agency for his wife and managers. He accompanied Miss Julia Daly on her English tour but the climate of England proving so inimical to his health he returned to America immediately. He was about 35 years of age of good address. A dashing dressy appearance of cultivated mind with genial manners constituted his characteristics. Of great goodness of heart and blandness of disposition he was a most agreeable man and friend. Olwine was a graduate of our High School. After leaving this Academy he embraced the profession of the law and became an active politician of the Native American school both of which pursuits he soon abandoned for the tragic and comic muses in whose mimic vocations he became an ardent disciple. As an actor we think he had more merit than the public awarded. But he was not ambitious of acting. The absence of such an impulse is almost a fault in an actor's life. The fact that Griffiths
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418. and Olwine were the last managers of the Chesnut Street Theatre identified their names with its final dissolution.
CHAPTER CXXXVI. An operatic edpisode and the last--The last days of the Chesnut Street Theatre-- The last performance May 1, 1855--Ree's address--A retrospect--A historical sketch of theatrical affairs in Philadelphia from 1749 to 1855--The conclusion.
Before we take up the thread of our narrtive in our last chapter being an account of the last days of "Old Drury" we ask leave to introduce upon the authority of the maxim :Better late than never" some matter which was excluded by want of room at the time when it should have been printed and which has been in type ever since. It relates to the opera seasons of 1852-'53. Without further remark we introduce it as follows :
We shall close up the opera season of 1852 with some account of the great contralto singer Alboni who first appeared at the Metropolitan Hall New York in June of that year. The excitement she created was immense.
Alboni's concerts here commenced in September 1852 at the Musical Fund Hall. She gave three very successful ones and her last on October 4th was closely followed by Sontag. Her tenor Signor Sangiovanni who sang with her in Spain &c. seemed a finely educated vocalist but he lacked power and warmth. Colletti Revere Vietti and Barilli were artistes and may be said to have been good lyrical performers. She did not appear here in Opera until 1853 at the Walnut Street Theatre. This we have referred to elsewhere.
Signora Marietta Alboni was born at Cesena in the vicinity of Rome in the year 1826. This would have made her twenty-six years of age when here. We think with all due deference to our authority on this subject from European sources that her age is rather curtailed. Her personal appearance did not seem to confirm this estimate while her longestablished reputation would augur more lengthened years. Alboni was a very large fat woman with full round pleasing and regular features and a face of beautiful cast with all the Italian tinted expression. She seemed about the height and stoutness of the late Mrs. Rush with whom we have seen her walking in Chesnut street--stouter than that lady patroness of the arts but not quite so tall. At her concerts we always saw her appear in black--a color which takes from huge rotundity. Her toilet was generally arranged with infinite taste ; and the careful absence of unnecessary jewelry except a few appropriate gems of apparent great value made the ensemble of a chaste costume with its ornaments to match.
She achieved her musical fame at an early age. Her father was a captain in the Papal army. This lady was also a Countess having married Count Peppoli a Venitian the son of an eminent poet of that name who always accompanied her. Her precocious singing powers were elicited at six years of age being taken to an opera for the first time ; the next day she astonished everybody with a repetition of the principal airs which she had heard the evening before. After this wonderful development of her vocal powers she became
an object of solicitude and culture and received immediate instruction from competent teachers not a difficult thing to be found in that "fairy land of song" as Bulwer calls it. A teacher was found in the eminent Bagioli. Under his instructions she remained two years. In her thirteenth year she was transferred to the tuition of Rossini in the Conservatory of Music at Bologna. The great master was so struck with her remarkable powers and genius for the musical art that he selected her for his chef pupil his protege and hence devoted much time to the cultivation of her peculiar talent. In her fifteenth year she received an engagement at the Theatre Bologna through the influence of Rossini making her debut in Pincini's opera of "Sappho." The success here led to an engagement at Milan and there her European reputation was established. From this time a furore attended her professional movements throughout the continent quite equaling that of any preceding prima donna with the exception perhaps of Jenny Lind. From Milan she passed with great eclat the judgments of the audiences of Vienna Berlin St. Petersburg and London. In 1847 she appeared in Paris with the most enthusiastic approbation and on several occcasions sang with Grisi and bore away the palm from her. Thus she continued for three years singing alternately at the French opera or the Les Italiens. It would seem that her starring in the proinces did not yield much profit from bad management. She then engaged as her manager the clever Mr. Roux ; the speculation succeeded most admirably as she cleared two hundred thousand francs in a tour of a few months. With a portion of these proceeds she purchased a splendid mansion in the Camp Elysees in Paris. Alboni sang with immense eclat at Madrid and returning to Paris sang in the opera of the "Prophete" during its run in 1851 till she retired. Alboni possesses a contralto voice of infinite sweetness with a most extensive compass finished in the highest state of culture strong and deep of tone but its delicacy never approaches the masculine sense. A most impassionate singer ; as a lyrical actress she is praised but in our humble judgment in the usual acceptation of that meaning Alboni is not an actress. But as she has been so recently seen by our public it is superfluous in us to descant upon her merits. She bears the crest of the well-bred lady and the unaffected graces of the amiable woman.
In October 1853 Madame Sontag at the National Theatre in Chesnut street near Ninth with all her operatic corps sang for the girls of the public schools who so loaded her with bouquets that four large clothesbaskets were sent from the hotel to carry them in. She would not permit one to be left behind and was herself as much delighted as the children. The house was so full that the stage was crowded with them : Sontag herself went among them to lift them into good places. She also went to Girard College to sing for the orphans ; and Count Rossi (her husband) said to A. G. Emerick (their business agent) that the acoustic properties of the edifice were so fine that he had never heard Madame sing so sweetly and brilliantly.
The dissolving elements of Sontag's life with her husband and her troupe are melancholy and we willingly drop the curtain on this last act of her life with appalled feelings.
She died in Mexico soon after this flowery festival in our city not we believe without the orphan's tear to lament her loss. She fell a victim to the cholera. Scandal's busy trumpet alleged foul poison as the cause but cholera no doubt did its work on this fair form of genius. Her tenor Pozzolini and Rossi the basso followed her in death. The body of this queen of song was embalmed to be sent to Europe for final interment and the corpse was conveyed to Vera Cruz for shipment but was with anti-Christian feeling refused a shelter for a night in one of its holy temples of worship. The reason assigned was the danger of contagion. It is a pity that charitable deeds are not more "contagious" among Christians.
We new take up the melancholy story of the winding up of the history of the Chesnut Street Theatre :
On the first day of May 1855 the last performances were offered in the Chesnut Street Theatre and the curtain fell forever on its hallowed boards. We felt it as sensibly as parting from a dying friend. The scenes of our boyhood associations flitted freely before us in vivid spectres arousing deep reflections of happy times past and forever gone. In truth the writer was the only one of all the personaes left that "The Farewell Address" poetically pictured (excepting the late Wm. B. Wood then living.) The circumstances left an impression that language however glowingly descriptive cannot express.
We give the last bill of the Chesnut Street Theatre in full. The national affairs were praiseworthy and in good taste :
CHESTNUT STREET THEATRE.
Sole Lessees and Managers G. H. Griffiths and Wayne Olwine.
FAREWELL TO OLD DRURY1
Tuesday evening May 1st 1855 the last performance will be given upon the stage hallowed by the days of "Auld Lang Syne." The proceeds of the performance will be devoted to the relief of the poor.
Order of exercises for the closing of Old Drury :
Professor Charles Mueller's "National Overture" by the Orchestra to be followed by the musical burletta of "The Loan of a Lover"--Gertrude (with songs) Miss Julia Daly : Ernestine Mrs. Griffiths; Peter Spyke Mr. H. Lewis ; Captain Amersfort Mr. Wayne Olwine ; Delve Mr. Glenroy ; Swyzel Mr. G. H. Griffiths. To which will be added the elegant comedy entitled "Faint Heart Never Won Fair Lady"--Ruy Gomez Mr. Wayne Olwine ; Marquis de Santa Cruz Mr. G. H. Griffiths ; Pedro Mr. Morrow ; Guzman Mr. Jones ; Donna Leonora Mrs. Mueller ; King Charles Miss Lilly Graham ; Duchess Miss Annie Graham. Overture to "Masaniello" by Orchestra ; after which will be added the petite comedy of "Perfection"--Sir Laurence Paragon Mr. S. W. Glenn ; Charles Paragon Mr. Wayne Olwine ; Sam Mr. Henry Lewis ; Susan Mrs. Griffiths ; Kate O'Brien (with songs) Miss Julia Daly. After which the laughable farce of "A Model of a Wife"--Bonafon Mr. S. W. Glenn ; Mr. Stumpy Mr. G. H. Griffiths ; Tom Mr. H. Lewis ; Clara Mrs. Griffiths ; Mrs. Stumpy Mrs. Monell. After the farce the national air of "The Star-Spangled Banner" will be sung by Miss Julia Daly and the corps dramatique.
The formal closing of the home of the drama in the city of Penn will be consummated by the reading of an appropriate farewell address by Mr. Wayne Olwine written by the distinguished dramatic critic "Colley Cibber" entitled "The Last Night of Old Drury."
Committee of Arrangements--Col. James Page Washington Page Esq. John Swift Esq. Joseph Cowperthwaite Esq.
The following was the poetic address :
THE LAST NIGHT OF OLD DRURY. BY JAMES REES ESQ.
Roll up the curtain of Time's honor'd age When genius tutor of the classic stage.
