Memories of a Musician: Reminiscences of Seventy years of Musical Life

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

294-6

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Another memorable charity concert took place at Covent Garden Theatre on February 22nd, 1900, in aid of the widows and families of the officers who fell in the Boer War. The concert was organised by the Marchioness of Lansdowne, whose husband was then the Secretary for War. Mr. Alfred de Rothschild took an active part in the arrangements, and asked Madame Patti to give her services, which she at once did. He consulted with me about everything, and, as we wanted a good operatic tenor, and there was none available, he suggested that I should go to Paris and see if I could obtain the help of M. Alvarez. I accordingly went to Paris the following morning, and in the evening went to the opera, where Faust was being performed, and was shown into the director's box, where I met M. Gailhard and M. Capoul, whom I had known from meeting them in London. M. Jean de Reszke, whom I knew well, was also in the box. During the interval I spoke about Alvarez, and M. Gailhard said he had no objection to his singing, and I had better telegraph him to New York, where he was then singing. I accordingly sent Alvarez a long wire asking him to appear in a scene from Romeo et Juliette with Madame Patti, and asked his terms. The same evening I received a wire from him in which he said he would be most happy to sing without any fee, as the English public had always been very kind to him. Next day I showed the wire to M. Gailhard, who, however, made some objection to Alvarez singing in London, as the Parisian public wanted him first when he returned from America. I wrote to Mr. Alfred de Rothschild telling him the difficulty, and when I saw him in London on my return he said he would send a confidential clerk to "kidnap " Alvarez and bring him over to London, which he succeeded in accomplishing ! I had engaged a very good orchestra, which I conducted. The scene from Romeo et Juliette with the "Alouette" duet, was the clou of the evening, and everything went off well. The con- cert was a huge success ; all the tickets were sold and the boxes fetched as much as a hundred guineas, and the stalls ten guineas. The sum- total was 11,000 : such a large amount has never been collected through any other single concert.

excerpt from 'Memories of a Musician: Reminiscences of Seventy years of Musical Life' pp. 294-6 (406 words)

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