Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-01-21
PATHS Mistake.

1t is not surprising that Patti should suppose
that 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
hcrses from Fanny Elsslers carriage, and drew
her home in triumph from the old Park Theater.
She knew-nOt knowing perhaps his knghip
to the excellent manager OF Jenny Lind's con-
certs-that Genin had paid some hundreds of
dollars for the first choice of seats at Jenny
Linds first concert. She knew that the Phil
harmonic 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 country.
which was not friendly to the theater. This
was the America that Patti knew and to when
she proposed to return-she the acknowledged
dacd of the hour, who sang to applauding Eu-
rope the songs that the elder dica had sung.
Why in America should she not have her own
sweet way? Why not sng in concerts and
charge enormous prices and bring tenor and
yirtuoso OF two, and witch the western world
with her magical vOcaliZatiOn, and turn the
heads of the sons and daughters of Jenny Lind's
votares. and embrOider her vast silken pockets
with gold?
Why not. indeed? II only the sun stood still
once more. and the river of time would stop!
Could Patti have come to the America of Jenny
Lind, she might-an Easy Chair loyal to the
incompatible Swede cannot cOncede lnOre-she
might have renewed Jenny Linds American
career. But even then she must have had Jules
Benedict and Belietti, and every artist must
have been of the best. Jenny Lind did not pre-
sumo to conquer even the wild hordes of New
York without adequate weapons. She did not
enter upon her victorious campaign with ques-
tionable tenor, and a worthy but not surprising
yiOlinist. Even the rude and primitive people
to whom she sang did not feel that they were
contemmed, if not despsed, and although the
prices they paid for their pleasure were large.
they were paid gladly and with satisfactory
feeling that the barter was fair.
But it was another America to which Patti
came. 1t was an America which had half out
grown the Italian opera. and which listened
with delight to the music Of the future. 1t was
indeed the cultivated. intelligent, muscally
developed America of which we spoke last
month"; accustomed to hear the greatest works
| OF the greatest masters performed in a manner
which would not discredit the Academic in
Berlin, the Gewandhaus in Leipsc, the Cen
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 re-
| turned prima donna assolutd. Yet while she
had been enchanting Europe she had not known
the marvellous growth of the land that she had
left. Jenny Lind-even Jenny Lind!-had be-
come tuneful tradition heard by the newest
America not without head-shakes and murmurs
of ncredulity, and when in this year of grace it
was offered something less than Jenny Lnds
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 frontier
twill pay generously for the good thing that it
| desires. But the queen of the Italian lyric
stage, warbling 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 re-
| paired. 1t will not be repeated. But for g
moment it seemed as If the charming dira were
| disposed to wrestle with q continent, and to in.
sist that she would be heard upon her OWL
terms or not at all. But dirds. like mere human
beings. learn, and sometimes by ungracious ex-
| perience, that the world listens only upon its
|