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“The People's Prima Donna”: Emma Abbott and Opera for the People
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 January 2014
Abstract
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- Type
- Forum: Women and American Music, Three Stories
- Information
- The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 56 - 79
- Copyright
- Copyright © Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 2014
Footnotes
Editor's Note: This forum began with a session jointly sponsored by SHGAPE at the 2012 Society for American Music conference in Charlotte. The session, which had the vague and winding title, “Women Cultural Activists at the Turn of the Twentieth Century,” brought together historians and music scholars who had spent years researching and writing about three characters who illustrated different ways that women involved themselves with and become prominent in music between the Civil War and World War I: singer and entrepreneur Emma Abbott, clubwoman and impresario Laura Langford, and ethnographer Natalie Curtis Burlin. Each woman's relation to music as an art, business, and set of institutions was clearly Victorian or Gilded Age in character and yet a precursor to routes into music or stances adopted by women in music across the twentieth century. Curtis, a scholar and professional, adored music as a transporting art with the ardor one associates with late nineteenth-century youth. Langford, an institution builder, publicist, and philanthropist, repeatedly reshaped her identity and life story in a manner commonplace in the nineteenth-century United States. Abbott's carefully preserved image of Victorian respectability and evangelical piety was both sincerely felt and central to the public relations side of her enterprise, which depended on making opera accessible and acceptable to middle-class Americans.
References
1 I dealt with this issue in “‘The American Jenny Lind’ or an ‘Unfinished and Inartistic’ Singer?: The Perplexing Career of Emma Abbott,” a paper presented at the American Musicological Society, Indianapolis, Nov. 2010. Abbott is also the subject of a chapter, “Emma Abbott, the ‘People's Prima Donna,’” in my forthcoming book, Against the Grain: Prima Donna/Managers and English-Language Opera in Late Nineteenth-Century America.
2 See, for example, Elson, Louis C., The History of American Music (New York, 1904)Google Scholar, and Krehbiel, Henry C., Chapters of Opera; Being Historical and Critical Observations and Records Concerning the Lyric Drama in New York From Its Earliest Days to the Present Time (New York, 1908)Google Scholar. Abbott is mentioned once in each book, both times in lists of American singers. On music critics in this period, Grant, Mark N., Maestros of the Pen: A History of Classical Music Criticism in America (Boston, 1998).Google Scholar
3 About the Lumbards, McWhirter, Christian, Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War (Chapel Hill, 2012), 50–51Google Scholar, and Cropsey, Eugene H., Crosby's Opera House: Symbol of Chicago's Cultural Awakening (Madison, NJ, 1999)Google Scholar, 193. An advertisement in the Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, May 20, 1867, rather extravagantly describes the seventeen-year-old Abbott as “the great soprano and Queen of Song.”
4 Kellogg, Clara Louise, Memoirs of an American Prima Donna (New York, 1913), 271–75Google Scholar. Some biographical information about Abbott is from Martin, Sadie E., The Life and Professional Career of Emma Abbott (Minneapolis, 1891).Google Scholar
5 These teachers included Mathilde Marchesi (1821–1913), Enrico Delle Sedie (1822–1907), and Pierre François Wartel (1806–82).
6 Searches in digitized newspaper databases such as America's Historical Newspapers and Nineteenth-Century U.S. Newspapers clearly illustrate Abbott's understanding of the power of the print media for publicity.
7 London Daily News, May 4, 1876, and The Hour, May 2, 1876, both reprinted in Chicago Inter Ocean, May 18, 1876, 8.
8 Grace Greenwood, “Notes from Over the Sea,” New York Times, Sept. 17, 1876, 1. Greenwood was the nom-de-plume of the American writer and poet Mrs. Leander Lippincott, née Sara J. Clarke (1823–1904).
9 For critical reception, see the relevant issues, Sept.–Oct., 1876, of the Cork Examiner, Dublin Freedman's Journal, Manchester Guardian, Birmingham Daily Post, and Liverpool Mercury, British Library Newspaper Reading Room, London. Mapleson quoted in “Emma Abbott in Ireland,” Chicago Inter Ocean, Nov. 9, 1876.
10 Martin, Life and Professional Career of Emma Abbott, 37.
11 On the middle-class audience for opera in antebellum America, Preston, Katherine K., Opera on the Road: Traveling Opera Troupes in the United States (Urbana, 1993)Google Scholar; on the middle-class opera audience in New York in the 1860s, Graziano, John, “An Opera for Every Taste: The New York Scene, 1862–1869” in European Music and Musicians in New York City, 1840–1890, ed. Graziano, John (Rochester, NY, 2006), 253–72.Google Scholar
12 For example, “Operatic Despotism,” Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, Dec. 11, 1873, and “Extractions of Operatic Singers,” San Francisco Evening Bulletin, Dec. 23, 1874.
13 I will deal extensively with the changed reception of opera by American audiences and with the surprising success of the Clara Louise Kellogg Grand English Opera Company in the 1870s in my forthcoming Against the Grain, ch. 3.
14 “Amusements. Miss Emma Abbott and Her Concert Troupe at the New Chicago,” Chicago Inter Ocean, Mar. 17, 1877, 7.
15 Susie Sweet, “Correspondence of the Citizen,” Lowell Daily Citizen, Oct. 31, 1879.
16 Martin, Life and Professional Career of Emma Abbott, 44.
17 Estimates of her wealth ranged from half a million to “several million” dollars. See, for example, Lahee, Charles Henry, Famous Singers of Today and Yesterday (Boston, 1898)Google Scholar, 197; and Mathews, W. S. B., A Hundred Years of Music in America (1889; New York, 1970)Google Scholar, 234. Many of her obituaries mention her wealth as in excess of $1 million. “Emma Abbott Dead,” Chicago Herald, Jan. 6, 1891, 9; “Emma Abbott Is Dead,” New York Herald, Jan. 6, 1891, 10. An estimate from the executor of her estate suggests that it was closer to $500,000; see “Emma Abbott's Will Probated,” New York Times, Jan. 13, 1891, 3.
18 “Dramatic and Musical,” Boston Daily Journal, Apr. 25, 1882, 4; “Emma Abbott in ‘Lucia,’” Washington Post, Feb. 28, 1889, 5; “Amusements,” Washington Post, Apr. 22, 1884, 4.
19 Dwight's Journal of Music 37 (May 12, 1877): 23.Google Scholar
20 Examples of critical commentary on her acting: “Amusements,” New York Sun, Jan. 18, 1881, 3; “The Performance Last Night,” Denver Tribune, Sept. 6, 1881, [1]; Loomis' Musical Journal 15 (Sept. 1881): 22; and “Emma Abbott,” Chicago Inter Ocean, Sept. 25, 1880, 6.
21 “Singing and Acting. An Interview with Eugene T. Wetherell, Manager of the Abbott Troupe,” Chicago Inter Ocean, Dec. 18, 1880, 12.
22 “Singing and Acting,” Chicago Inter Ocean, Dec. 18, 1880, 12. The comment about $3.00 vs. $1.50 tickets was a dig at Mapleson; both companies had recently performed in St. Louis but the Abbott troupe, with its lower prices, had attracted much larger audiences.
23 “Some Gotham Subjects,” Kansas City Star, Sept. 4, 1886, 2.
24 Characterizations of Abbot are from “Emma Abbott's Love,” Chicago Inter Ocean, Sept. 30, 1880, 8; “About Abbott,” Cincinnati Commercial, Nov. 29, 1881, 2; “Emma Abbott,” Kansas City Evening Star-Mail, Feb. 6, 1882, 1; and “Emma Abbott Abroad,” New York Herald, Aug. 12, 1889, 4.
25 Loomis' Musical and Masonic Journal 15 (Mar. 1882): 144.Google Scholar
26 See “Emma Abbott,” Brainard's Musical World 27 (Feb. 1891): 36–37Google Scholar; George Rockwood, “Stories from an Old Album,” unidentified publication, July 21, 1900, clipping file (Emma Abbott), New York Public Library.
27 The “Italian” repertory, of course, also included works originally in German, French, and even English.
28 Cone, John Frederick, First Rival of the Metropolitan Opera (New York, 1983)Google Scholar, append. 2: Mapleson's Casts and Performances, 192–227.
29 “Amusements,” Denver Republican, Mar. 8, 1887, 4.
30 On Richings and her adaption of The Daughter of the Regiment, see my forthcoming, Against the Grain, ch. 2.
31 The Daughter of the Regiment (Philadelphia, 1867)Google Scholar. The libretto and bound volumes of orchestral parts (labeled “Richings Opera Company”) are in the Tams-Witmark Collection, Mills Music Library, University of Wisconsin–Madison.
32 For an example of an Italian version published in the United States, see La Figlia del Reggimento, published for the Academy of Music (Philadelphia, 1857). An online version is available at http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/22457923.html (accessed June 27, 2013).
33 See Massé, Victor, Paul et Virginie (Paris: Théodore Michaelis, [1878])Google Scholar, deuxième edition, Tams-Witmark Collection. “Prompt score No. 2” and “Emma Abbott” are written on the front cover of this piano-vocal score.
34 Critical praise for the change is in “Dramatic and Musical,” Philadelphia North American, Nov. 29, 1879. A heavily annotated copy of the opera, Gounod, Roméo et Juliette. Opera en 5 Actes, (Paris, [1878])Google Scholar, clearly marked “Abbott Opera Co.” throughout, is in the Tams-Witmark Collection. See also “The Emma Abbott Libretto and Parlor Pianist, Romeo and Juliet” (New York, n.d), copy in Huntington Library, Los Angeles.
35 See Poriss, Hilary, Changing the Score. Arias, Prima Donnas, and the Authority of Performance (Oxford, 2009)Google Scholar, 9, 6.
36 Rockwood, “Stories from an Old Album.”
37 “Honest Little Emma,” New York Times, May 30, 1886, 6.
38 “Emma Abbott, The New Era of Abbott English Opera Coming,” Cincinnati Commercial, Sept. 21, 1890, 12.
39 “Plucky Emma Abbott,” New York Times, Oct. 10, 1887, 5; “Miss Abbott Talks,” Nashville American, Oct. 10, 1887, repr. in Chicago Inter Ocean, Oct. 12, 1887, 10. Martin, Life and Professional Career of Emma Abbott, 71–73.
40 See, for example, “Strange Scene in Church. Miss Emma Abbott Bravely Defends the Stage Denounced by the Pastor,” New York Herald, Oct. 10, 1887; “Plucky Emma Abbott,” New York Times, Oct. 10, 1887; “Emma Abbott. She Boldly Meets a Preacher's Charge against Actors,” San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, Oct. 10, 1887, 4; “Down South. Emma Abbott Makes a Sensation in Church,” Springfield (MA) Republican, Oct. 10, 1887, 4; “A Scene in Church,” Dallas Morning News, Oct. 11, 1887, 1; “A Protest from the Pews,” Macon Telegraph, Oct. 11, 1887, 1.
41 “Important Trifles,” Washington Post, May 8, 1887, 4.
42 “Emma Abbott is Dying,” Chicago Inter Ocean, Jan. 4, 1891; “Emma Abbott is Dead,” New York Herald, Jan. 6, 1891, 10; “Her Voice is Stilled” Chicago Inter Ocean, Jan. 6, 1891, 1; “Emma Abbott's Last Hours,” New York Times, Jan. 6, 1891, 2; “Honors to the Dead,” Chicago Inter Ocean, Jan. 10, 1891, 8; “Emma Abbott,” New Orleans Daily Picayune, Jan. 6, 1891, 2.
43 “Obituary,” Philadelphia Times, quoted in “In Memoriam,” Chicago Sunday Inter Ocean, Jan. 11, 1891, 12.