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Antoinette Sterling
AND OTHER CELEBRITIES
BY
M. S. MACKINLAY, M.A.
_In demy 8vo, cloth gilt and gilt top, with =16= Illustrations and
interesting facsimiles in text, =16s.= net._
_Some Press Opinions_
"Mr Sterling MacKinlay has written a charming account of the great
contralto. He has written his book in a light and interesting vein, and
has so much to tell, so many good stories to repeat, that it is sure of
a large reading public."--_Daily Chronicle._
"Told with sympathy and moderation, enlivened by anecdote and
humour."--_Tribune._
"A delightful book of reminiscences."--_Daily Mail._
"Written with refreshing candour, well worth reading."--_Spectator._
"A delightful book. It is brightened with anecdotes of all kinds, while
the record of its principal subject is as impressive as it is
interesting."--_Truth._
"Interesting reading of the kind so entertaining, illustrated with good
portraits: brightly written: will doubtless find a wide circle of
admirers."--_Standard._
"The easy, chatty style of the book, the descriptive touches, the fund
of anecdote, the artless and spontaneous narrations of the great singer
herself, all contribute to make the volume attractive. Nowhere is there
anything heavy or dull."--_Birmingham Post._
"Exceedingly interesting, and lightened up by many a lively anecdote. It
is impossible to give anything like an adequate list of the notable
names that crop up; they include most of the great artists, actors,
singers, writers, and scientists of the present day."--_Glasgow Herald._
London: HUTCHINSON & CO., Paternoster Row
Garcia the Centenarian
And His Times
[Illustration: THE CENTENARY PORTRAIT OF MANUEL GARCIA BY JOHN S.
SARGENT.
SIGNED BY THE MAESTRO SIX WEEKS BEFORE HIS HUNDRED-AND-FIRST BIRTHDAY.
_Copyright, 1905 by Photographische Gesellschaft._
handwritten signatures of subject & artist included as well]
Garcia the Centenarian
And His Times
Being a Memoir of Manuel Garcia's
Life and Labours for the Advancement
of Music and Science
BY
M. STERLING MACKINLAY
M. A. OXON.
AUTHOR OF 'ANTOINETTE STERLING AND OTHER CELEBRITIES'
_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS_
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
MCMVIII
[Illustration: THEIR MAJESTIES THE KING AND QUEEN OF SPAIN.
(FROM A PHOTOGRAPH SPECIALLY FORWARDED TO THE AUTHOR BY HIS MAJESTY.)
_Franzen, Madrid._]
Dedicated
_TO_
_H. M. THE KING OF SPAIN_
_BY GRACIOUS PERMISSION_
PREFACE.
In presenting this Memoir of Don Manuel Garcia, I wish to thank those
friends and pupils of the Maestro who have assisted me with
reminiscences, photographs, and other material. But especially I would
thank Mrs Alec Tweedie for the kind way in which she read through the
MS., when it was still in a rough state, and made many invaluable
suggestions with regard to its arrangement and improvement generally.
M. S. M.
OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE MUSICAL CLUB,
LEICESTER SQUARE,
_March 1908_.
CONTENTS.
FIRST PERIOD. PREPARATION. (1805-1830.)
CHAP. PAGE
I. INTRODUCTORY 3
II. GARCIA'S CHILDHOOD IN SPAIN (1805-1814) 13
III. NAPLES (1814-1816) 25
IV. PARIS AND LONDON (1816-1825) 40
V. OPERA IN AMERICA (1825-1826) 57
VI. NEW YORK AND MEXICO (1826-1827) 73
VII. OPERATIC CAREER ABANDONED (1828-1830) 86
SECOND PERIOD. PARIS. (1830-1848.)
VIII. MARIA MALIBRAN'S TRIUMPHS (1830-1836) 105
IX. PAULINE VIARDOT-GARCIA (1837-1841) 125
X. JENNY LIND (1841-1842) 139
XI. SOME FAMOUS PUPILS (1842-1848) 156
XII. CLOSE OF PARIS CAREER (1848) 169
THIRD PERIOD. LONDON. (1848-1895.)
XIII. ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND (1848-1854) 183
XIV. THE LARYNGOSCOPE (1854-1857) 201
XV. CHARLES SANTLEY AND ANTOINETTE STERLING (1857-1873) 214
XVI. TWENTY YEARS OF MUSIC (1853-1873) 225
XVII. THREE-SCORE YEARS AND TEN (1874-1890) 237
XVIII. AN OCTOGENARIAN AUTHOR (1890-1895) 256
FOURTH PERIOD. RETIREMENT. (1895-1906.)
XIX. A NONAGENARIAN TEACHER (1895-1905) 277
XX. THE CENTENARY HONOURS (MARCH 17, 1905) 298
XXI. LAST DAYS (1905-1906) 318
INDEX 325
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
CENTENARY PORTRAIT OF MANUEL GARCIA _Frontispiece_
Painted by John S. Sargent.
TO FACE PAGE
THEIR MAJESTIES THE KING AND QUEEN OF SPAIN _Dedication_
MANUEL GARCIA'S MOTHER 12
MANUEL GARCIA'S FATHER 24
MARIA MALIBRAN 106
PAULINE VIARDOT 124
JENNY LIND 138
MANUEL GARCIA 200
From a Drawing by Mme. Viardot.
CHARLES SANTLEY 216
ANTOINETTE STERLING 220
CHARLES HALLÉ AND MANUEL GARCIA 222
From a Drawing by Richard Doyle.
HERMANN KLEIN 238
MADAME MELBA 268
FACSIMILE LETTER WRITTEN BY MANUEL GARCIA AT 91 278
FACSIMILE LETTER WRITTEN AT 99 294
FACSIMILE LETTER WRITTEN AT 94 296
FACSIMILE PAGE OF MUSIC WRITTEN IN HIS HUNDREDTH YEAR 312
FACSIMILE LETTER WRITTEN IN HIS HUNDRED-AND-SECOND YEAR 322
LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED.
'Albion.' (An American weekly newspaper published from 1823-1826.)
Appleton's 'Cyclopedia of American Biography.'
'Athenæum' (1848).
Brewer's 'History of France.'
Burney's 'History of Music' (1776-1789).
Colletta's 'History of Naples' (1734-1825). Horner's translation.
'Diversions of a Music Lover.' By C. L. Graves.
Eitner's 'Quellen Lexikon.'
Elson's 'History of American Music.'
Fétis' 'Biographie Universelle des Musiciens.'
'Fitz-Greene Halleck's Memoirs.' By General James Grant Wilson.
Fuller-Maitland's revised edition of Grove's 'Dictionary of Music.'
'Harmonicon' Musical Magazine (1823-1833).
Haydn's 'Dictionary of Dates.'
'Jenny Lind's Memoirs.' By Holland and Rockstro.
'Le Guide Musical.'
'Londina Illustrata.' By Wilkinson. (1819-1825.)
'Madrid.' By a Resident Officer. (1833.)
Mapleson's 'Memoirs.'
'Marchesi and Music.'
Mendel's 'Musikalisches Conversations Lexikon.'
'Mexico.' By Maria Wright.
Morse-Stephens's 'European Revolution.'
'Musical Reminiscences of Earl of Mount-Edgcumbe' (1824).
'Paris.' By G. L. Craik. (1834).
'Recollections.' By Bessie Palmer.
Sir Felix Semon's 'Zum hundertsten Geburstage Manuel Garcia's.'
(Privately printed.)
'Sixty Years of Recollections.' By Ernest Legouvé.
'Student and Singer.' By Sir Charles Santley.
'Thirty Years of Musical Life.' By Hermann Klein.
Wyndham's 'History of Covent Garden.'
FIRST PERIOD
PREPARATION
(1805-1830)
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
MANUEL GARCIA, the Centenarian.
How much do those words imply!--words which it is impossible to pen
without a feeling of awe.
Garcia, a member of that family of Spanish musicians whose combined
brilliancy has probably never been equalled in the annals of the musical
world. The father and founder of the family, renowned as one of the
finest tenors of his day; as a prolific composer, and as a singing
teacher of distinguished ability, as well as conductor and impressario;
in fact, a fine vocalist and an equally fine musician, which in those
days was something of a _rara avis_.
The eldest daughter, Maria Malibran, a contralto whose brief career was
one series of triumphs, while her gifts as a composer were shared by her
sister, Pauline Viardot-Garcia, whose singing drew forth the praise and
admiration of all, and whose retirement from the stage and concert
platform brought with it fresh honours in the field of teaching, wherein
she showed herself a worthy exponent of the high ideals of the Garcias.
And what of Manuel himself? The subject of our Memoir has a triple
claim that his name should be inscribed on the roll of fame. As
professor of singing, he is acknowledged to have been the greatest of
his time. In the musical firmament he has been the centre of a solar
system of his own,--a sun round which revolved a group of planets, whose
names are familiar to all: Jenny Lind, Maria Malibran, Mathilde
Marchesi, Henriette Nissen, Charles Santley, Antoinette Sterling, Julius
Stockhausen, Pauline Viardot, and Johanna Wagner--these are but a few of
them.
Many, too, out of the number have themselves thrown off fresh
satellites, such as Calvè, Eames, Henschel, Melba, Scheidemantel, van
Rooy. One and all have owed a debt of eternal gratitude to Manuel Garcia
and his system.
Again, as a scientific investigator he has given us the Laryngoscope,
which Huxley placed among the most important inventions of the medical
world. Indeed, it is no figure of speech, but a statement of
demonstrable fact, that millions have been benefited by his work.
Thirdly, as a centenarian, he is without question the most remarkable of
modern times.
Of the men who have attained to that rare age, those who possess any
claim upon our interests beyond their mere weight of years are but a
comparative handful.
Of musicians one alone has approached him in longevity, Giacomo Bassevi
Cervetto, who died on January 14, 1783, within a few days of his 101st
birthday, but with little distinction beyond this fact. As to the rest
who go to make up the tale of the world's centenarians of recent years,
it has been generally a case of the survival of the unfittest--
"In second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."
How different Manuel Garcia when he celebrated his 100th birthday: in
the early morning, received by the King at Buckingham Palace; at noon,
entering the rooms of the Royal Medical Society with short, quick steps,
walking unaided to the dais, mounting it with agility and then sitting
for an hour, smiling and upright, while receiving honours and
congratulations from all parts of the globe. Which of those who were
present will ever forget how he attended the banquet that same evening,
in such full possession of his faculties and bodily strength as to make
his own reply to the hundreds assembled to celebrate the occasion? Could
anything have been finer than this sight of Grand Old Age?
Now the fame of each individual member of the Garcia family would seem
to demand that, in addition to the story of the Maestro's own career,
considerable details should be given regarding that of his father and
sisters. Surely the three last have claims to our attention beyond the
mere fact of being in the one case a parent who exercised a very
important influence upon Manuel Garcia's character and choice of career
in early days, and who was, moreover, the fountainhead from which flowed
the stream of musical talent that in the children broadened out into so
grand a river,--in the other case, the sisters, who were bound not only
by ties of kinship but by a debt of gratitude for the part which their
brother played in their vocal training.
This brings us to the first point, Señor Garcia's position as a teacher.
There is a trite proverb to the effect that the proof of the pudding is
in the eating. It is so in the present case. One can state the fact that
he has been a great master, one can lay down a general outline of his
teaching and applaud the soundness of his methods, but after all the
outer world will in such matters be apt to judge by results alone. Or
let us put it in another way. His knowledge is like the foundations of a
house: experts may examine it closely and admire good points, but to a
great extent the successes of his pupils are the bricks by which alone a
wide reputation is built up.
For this reason I propose to sketch briefly the career of the more
famous among those who studied under the old Spaniard, and in doing so I
trust that the above circumstances will be considered sufficient excuse
for the digressions which will be made at various points.
We now come to a second consideration.
The discovery of the laryngoscope, owing to its far-reaching results, is
of such importance that the chapter dealing with it is bound to contain
matter which will naturally appeal to the special rather than to the
general reader. The desire that the many may not suffer for the sake of
the few to a greater extent than is absolutely necessary has prompted me
to quote but briefly from the text of the important technical papers
which he presented to the Royal Society in 1854 and to the International
Medical Congress in 1881.
In the former of these he sets forth a detailed account of the results
which he himself obtained in connection with the human voice from the
use of the instrument; in the latter he has told the story of the
invention and given a full description of the laryngoscope.
Last of all, there is the question of his remarkable age. As a
centenarian, he passed through many great historical events, and
witnessed a number of changes not only in the musical world, but in the
general advance of civilisation. To mention but a few cases of the
former: his childhood in Spain was passed amid the scenes of the
Napoleonic invasion, followed by those of the Peninsular War, while his
boyhood in Naples caused him to witness the execution of the ex-king
Murat, a few months after the despotic brother-in-law's final overthrow
at Waterloo. His first visit to England was made when George III. was on
the throne; his nineteenth year saw the death of Louis XVIII.; while his
arrival in America to take part in the first season of Italian opera
ever given there was at a time when New York was a town of 150,000
inhabitants, and the United States were preparing to celebrate the
jubilee of the Declaration of Independence. In early manhood he joined
the French Expedition against Algiers, and on his return found himself
in the midst of the July Revolution, which resulted in the expulsion of
Charles X. from the capital and the placing of Louis Philippe on the
throne; while he spent his last months in Paris as a member of the
National Guard during another revolution, that of 1848, which ended in
the flight of Louis and the proclamation of the French Republic.
The first fifteen years of residence in London saw the English nation
throw down the glove to Russia, enter on the Crimean War, and bring it
to a successful close with the fall of Sebastopol, which was followed by
such events as the Indian Mutiny; the accession of William I. to the
throne of Prussia, with Prince Bismarck as his chief adviser; the
capture of Pekin; the American Civil War; the death of the Prince
Consort, and two years later the marriage of the heir to the throne of
England to the beautiful Princess of the Royal House of Denmark.
He was in his sixty-first year when Lord Palmerston died; as for the
Franco-Prussian War and the Siege of Paris, they were looked on by him
in his old age as things of but yesterday; while at various periods of
his life he resided in Madrid, Naples, Paris, New York, Mexico, and
London.
Again, in his work as a teacher, there came for lessons not merely the
children of old pupils, but many even whose parents and grandparents had
studied under him; while before his life was brought to a close England
had been ruled by five successive sovereigns.
His father, whom we shall refer to in this Memoir as the elder Garcia,
was born at Seville on January 22, 1775--over a hundred and thirty years
ago. At the time of his birth Seville could not boast a single piano.
Such a thing seems hardly credible to us who live in the twentieth
century, when it is the exception rather than the rule to come across a
house that does not boast an instrument, which is at any rate
sufficiently recognisable from its general contour for one to feel
justified in saying, "Let it pass for a piano."
Whence the elder Garcia obtained his musical talent it is impossible to
learn. Whatever the previous generations may have been, there is no
record of their having made any mark among the musicians of their time.
Garcia is a fairly common Spanish name, and we find mention of several
musicians of the eighteenth century, and even earlier, who bore that
cognomen; none of these, however, can possibly have had any direct
relationship to the family in which we are interested, and for an
obvious reason. "Garcia" was only a _nom de guerre_ which had been taken
by the founder of the family when he entered upon a musical career, his
baptismal name having been Manuel Vicente del Popolo Rodriguez. The fame
of the new name, however, soon eclipsed the old, and hence in due course
it came to be adopted by him and his descendants as their regular
surname.
In the spring of 1781 the "elder" Garcia, being now six years old,
became a chorister in the cathedral of his native town. Here he quickly
began to display an extraordinary talent and precocity, his first
musical training being received at the hands of Antonio Ripa, and
continued under Juan Almarcha, who succeeded Ripa as Maestro di Cappella
at the cathedral. These two men were considered the first teachers in
Seville, and under their able tuition his powers developed so rapidly,
that even in his early teens he was already acquiring a reputation in
his town not only as singer, but as composer and _chef d'orchestre_.
During the years which Garcia was thus spending in patient study, the
neighbouring kingdom of France was approaching nearer and nearer to that
vast upheaval which was to bring such fatal consequences. The populace
had long been smouldering with discontent against the hated aristocrats,
and at last in 1789 the country flamed up in that terrible revolution
which culminated in that wonderful episode, the storming of the Bastille
on July 14.
When this historical event took place the elder Garcia was in his
fifteenth year. Two years later he made his _début_ at the theatre of
Cadiz in a "tonadilla" into which a number of his own compositions had
been introduced. Not long after this he made his first appearance at
Madrid in an oratorio, while his earliest opera was performed there
under the title of "Il Preso." Such was his success in the Spanish
capital that he was quickly recognised as one of the greatest tenors his
country had ever produced.
The following year, 1792, found France overtaken by a succession of
catastrophes: the invasion by Austria and Prussia, the storming of the
Tuileries, the September massacre, and that tragic end of the French
Monarchy, for the time being, with the execution of Louis XVI.
The last years of the eighteenth century were spent by the elder Garcia
in building up an ever-increasing reputation throughout Spain; while
during this period European history continued to raise fresh landmarks
for future generations to bear in wondering memory, for when he was
nineteen there came the execution of Robespierre, and the splendid
victory of Lord Howe over the French fleet, followed in 1789 by another
glorious naval achievement in the Battle of the Nile.
The first years of the new century brought with them the close of the
elder Garcia's bachelor life with his romantic marriage to Joaquina
Sitchès. The story of the meeting and courtship is one of singular
charm.
Joaquina, who was Spanish by birth, was gifted with a somewhat mystical
temperament, and early declared her wish to pass her life in a convent.
Her parents raised no objection to her taking the veil, and she
forthwith commenced her novitiate.
In due course the time arrived when, according to custom, she must go
out into the world again for a while, in order to prove whether her
desire for the religious life was genuine. Accordingly the beautiful
young novice went much into society, making her appearance at balls,
parties, theatres, and the other gaieties of the capital.
One evening she was taken for the first time to hear Garcia sing. He
made a deep impression upon her, and an introduction followed, which led
to her falling violently in love with the singer. He on his side became
no less completely a victim to her charms, and lost no time in declaring
his passion, and that was the end, or should one not perhaps say, the
beginning? Joaquina paid a last visit to the convent to bid good-bye to
the mother-superior, and soon afterwards the lovers were united.
Señorita Sitchès was possessed of great natural gifts as a singer, and
after her marriage became desirous of associating herself with his
career. She therefore determined to put her musical talents to use and
went on the stage, where she soon became a worthy second to her husband.
And so we come to the year 1805, which brings with it the birth of a
son, the subject of this Memoir.
[Illustration: MANUEL GARCIA'S MOTHER.]