In discussing his opera, “El Capitan,” which, when produced by De
Wolf Hopper several seasons ago, achieved such instantaneous success,
the composer remarked that it was the sixth opera he had written, the
others never reaching the dignity of a production.
As Sousa is preëminently a man of action, so his career and
characteristics are best outlined by incidents. One in connection
with his operatic composition strikingly illustrates his pluck and
determination. Before he attained any great degree of prominence in the
musical world, Sousa submitted an opera to Francis Wilson, offering to
sell it outright for one thousand five hundred dollars. Wilson liked
the opera, but the composer was not fortified by a great name, so he
declined to pay more than one thousand dollars for the piece. The
composer replied that he had spent the best part of a year on the work,
and felt that he could not take less than his original demand. Wilson
was obdurate, and Sousa ruefully put the manuscript back into his
portfolio.
Some time afterward a march which the bandmaster sent to a well-known
publishing house caught the public favor. The publishers demanded
another at once. The composer had none at hand, but suddenly thought of
the march in his discarded opera, and forwarded it without waiting to
select a name.
While he was pondering thoughtfully on the subject of a title, Sousa
and a friend one evening went to the Auditorium in Chicago, where
“America” was then being presented. When the mammoth drop curtain,
with the painted representation of the Liberty Bell was lowered, the
bandmaster’s companion said, with the suddenness of an inspiration:
“There is a name for your new march.” That night it was sent on to the
publishers.
Up to date, this one selection from the opera for which Francis
Wilson refused to pay fifteen hundred dollars has netted its composer
thirty-five thousand dollars.