page_title: Agnes Huntington
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Agnes Huntington / Career
caption_attribution_description: Print; Prints/Ephemera
context_page_description: Agnes Huntington was an American operatic singer. For several years, she received private tutoring in Europe for music, languages, and drawing. She had a notable career in concert and opera as a prima donna contralto.
context_section_description: Huntington made her first public appearance in concert in Dresden, in January, 1884, and a few weeks later, sang at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig with the regular orchestra under direction of Carl Reinecke. Later appearances were in Stuttgart with Joseph Joachim (Hungarian violinist), then with Pablo de Sarasate (Spanish violinist), and Klintworth and his orchestra at the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin. She next appeared in a concert given by Alexandre Guilmant and Édouard Colonne and his Concerts Colonne orchestra at the Trocadéro in Paris. Later, she appeared in concerts in London in association with great musicians and conductors, including Sir Julius Benedict, Wilhelm Ganz, Alberto Randegger, Sir George Grove and others, which brought her much social attention. At this time, she received from the then Princess of Wales (later, the Dowager Queen Alexandra) a beautiful brooch of precious stones. She also sang in Paris. 
  In 1885, she made her American debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Theodore Thomas, who engaged her for the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra and other concerts, of which he was the conductor. She also sang with the Boston Symphony Orchestra with William Goricke, the Oratorio Society of New York with Walter Damrosch, and in many of the most important festivals under the greatest conductors in the U.S. and Canada. After making a tour of the principal cities, she joined the Boston Ideal Opera Company, and with that company, she sang successfully for several seasons. Next, she sang with the Bostonians, in which she visited the principal cities of the United States and Canada, appearing in the leading roles of the standard operas, for which her commanding presence and contralto voice eminently fitted her. With the Bostonians, she gained experience in acting, singing in Martha, Giralda, Fra Diavolo, Les Mousquetaires de la reine, The Bohemian Girl, Mignon, and others. 
  In 1889 she went to London, under the management of the Carl Rosa Opera Company, having signed for a season of concert, oratorio, and light opera. There, she created the title role in Paul Jones by Robert Planquette, in which she made a great hit. Originally put on for a short run, Paul Jones remained on the boards during 346 nights in the Prince of Wales Theatre, and at every performance the house was crowded. A dispute with her managers led her to leave the company, and she returned to the U.S.
  When Huntington's year in London was finished, she determined to become a star and produce her own operas. Under the management of Marcus Mayer she began her career as a star in Paul Jones in New York, and she could have selected no better production. She asserted that her short experience convinced her that the public had grown tired of coarse fun and vulgarity and would patronize opéra comique that was clean and pure, with a story to tell, a consistent plot to unfold, and ennobled with good music and well-concerted orchestration, and that her ventures were made upon this assumption.
  
  The ambition of Huntington as a caterer of operatic productions for the entertainment of the public led her to constant novelty and progressiveness, and as a result, she presented Planquette's work, Captain Therese. As Huntington personally superintended all of her own productions in every detail, the amount of labor which devolves upon her may be imagined, and her own description of her work in this respect was thus:—
  "In every production, the most careful regard must be paid to historical unity and accuracy. The time, the place, and the scene represented, as well as the costumes and properties, must all correspond in detail to produce a perfect combined effect. I select my scenic designs and costumes from plates and paintings of the scene and time represented. The properties are modelled after antiques. These are all preliminaries, however. The selection and rehearsal of a company are the most exacting demands, and when the company is a large one, aggregating upwards of sixty people, the task is the most trying one imaginable. I recall the hot su
caption: Agnes Huntington (1888)
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