The Portland daily press., 1882-01-20
PATHS Mistake.

Editors Easy Chair in Harper's Magazine for
Februaryl
1t is not surprising that Patti should suppose
tha. she had returned to the America that she
left many years ago, nor that the career Of
Jenny Lind in this country should seem to her
the career which every great prima donna
might expect She knew that the excited
youth of New York, forty years ago, unhitched
the horses from Fanny Essler's carriage, and
drew her home in triumph from the old Park
Theatre. She knew-not knowing, perhaps,
his kiIship to the excellent manager OF Jenny
Linds concerts--that Genin had paid some
hundreds of dollars for the first choice Of seats
at Jenny Lind's first concert. She knew that
the Philharmonic concerts at that time were a
highly meritorious aspiration Of select circle,
but that they were not the delight of the great
public She knew also that Jenny Lind sang
only in concerts, in supposed Difference to the
great serious public sentiment of the coun-
try, which was not friendly to the theatre.
This was the America that Patti knew, and to
which she proposed to oreturn-she the acknowl-
edged dtUd Of the hour, who sang to applaud
ing Europe the songs that the elder diUa had
sung. Why In America should she not have
her own sweet way? Why not sing in concerts
and charge enormous prices, and bring tenor
and virtuoso or two, and witch the Western
World with her magical vocalization, and turn
the heads of the Sons and daughters OF Jenny
Lind's votaries, and embroider her vast silken
pockets with gold?
Why not indeed? If only the sun stood
still once more, and the river of time would
stopl Could Patti have come to the America
of Jenny Lind, she might-an Easy Chair 10y
al to the incompatible Swede cannot concede
more-she might have renewed Jenny Lind's
American career But even then she must
have had Jules Benedict and Belletti and ev-
cry artist must have been of the best. Jenny
Lind did not presume to conquer even the wild
hordes Of New York without adequate weap-
ons. She did not enter upon her victorious
campaign with a questionable tenor, and a
worthy but not surprising violinist. Even the
rude and primitive people to whom she sang
did not feel that they were contemned, II not
despised, and although the prices they paid
for their pleasure were large, they were paid
gladly, and with a satisfactory feeling that the
barter was fair.
But it was another America to which Patti
came. 1t was an America which had half
outgrown the italian opera, and which listened
with delight to the music of the future. 1t
was indeed the cultivated, intelligent, musical
ly developed America of which we spoke last
month, accustomed to hear the greatest works
of the greatest masters performed in manner
which would not discredit the Academic in
Berlin, the Gewandhaus in Leipsc, the Con-
servatoire in Paris. 1t was an America glad
to welcome once more the charming singer
whom it had heard at her girlish debut, and
who returned a primo donna dSsolatta. Yet
while she had been enchanting Europe she
had not known the marvellous growth OF the
land that she had left. Jenny Lind-evsn
Jenny Lind!-had become tuneful tradition
heard by the newest America not without
head-shakes and murmurs of incredulity, and
when in this year Of grace it was offered some
thing less than Jenny Lind's concerts for four
or five times the price, the amused incredulity
became SO excessive that the hall was left half
empty.
There is much money in New York, but there
is also some taste, some sense Of proportion,
some knowledge of the fitness of things. 1t is
not altogether miners camp upon the from
tier. 1t will pay generously for the good thing
that it desires But the queen of the Italian
lyric stage, wa5bling ballad at the piano
to-day, ought not to have expected to take
the place of Jenny Lind in the concert
room of thirty years ago. 1t was an error.
1t was presently repaired. 1t will not be re-
peated. But for a moment it seemed as II the
charming diyd were disposed to wrestle with a
continent, and TO insist that she would be
heard upon her own terms or not at all. But
diods, ike mere human beings, learn, and
sometimes by ungracious experience, that the
world listens only upon its own terms.