Hermann Klein in Covent Garden - July, 1890
from Thirty Years of Musical Life in London, 1870-1900, page 291:
Notwithstanding its French origin and treatment, “Esmeralda” was in all essential matters an English opera, and as such the public knew and remembered it. Clothed in a foreign garb, it did not really appeal to connoisseurs, while the subscribers, as usual, gave infinitely more thought to the interpreters than to the work. That Goring Thomas's charming opera would have fared better— obtained an abiding-place in the active repertory— had it been presented in English by the same distinguished artists, is also a matter of doubt. Experience has proved that Covent Garden audiences do not care for opera in the vernacular, whether the work be of native or Continental origin; and it is the same, I believe, with the audiences of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Nor will the prejudice be overcome until the leading singers of the English-speaking countries are perfectly trained in the enunciation of their native tongue and can coax their compatriots into listening with pleasurable appreciation to first-rate native works rendered in the language “understanded of the people.”
<< lessHermann Klein, Thirty Years of Musical Life in London, 1870-1900 (New York City, 1903), p. 291. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1438444169457 accessed: 1 September, 2024
Listeners
Listening to
hide composers
Esmeralda
written by Arthur Goring Thomas |
performed by Jean Lassalle, Jean de Reszke, Nellie Melba |
Experience Information
Date/Time | July, 1890 |
Medium | live |
Listening Environment | in the company of others, indoors, in public |