American Musical Life in Context and Practice to 1865 by James R. Heintze

Author:James R. Heintze [Heintze, James R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780429773341
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2018-12-07T00:00:00+00:00

Despite the pleasurable sight-seeing activities in which the travellers engaged, the principal focus of each tour was the performance of concerts by Wilson and Shirreff. Even so, the two singers apparently did not set up a definite performance-driven itinerary for either of their concert tours before leaving New York City. This was probably typical of concert tours mounted by vocal stars in the 1830s and 1840s. The schedules of both trips were somewhat flexible, so concerts could be repeated in towns where bad weather had interfered with a good turn-out, or when it looked as though a second performance might draw a large crowd. After their first concert appearance in Syracuse on 13 July 1839, for example, Shirreff noted in her diary that they had been “persuaded to return on Tuesday to give another [concert].”27 This lack of prior planning also had its drawbacks, for when the two singers arrived in Boston for a concert they had planned to give on 7 November, they were unable to secure a hall and had to leave the city without a performance.28

Sometimes the impromptu nature of concert giving by one or another touring troupe worked to the detriment of other travelling performers, for Shirreff and Wilson experienced competition from at least one other British concert-giving group. During the same summer months that Shirreff and Wilson were concertizing, the English bass Edward Seguin and his wife Anne (a soprano), along with W. H. Latham (a popular buffo singer) likewise took to the road.29 They performed in a number of the same cities as Shirreff and Wilson, sometimes within a week of their competitors’ concerts.30 The two concert troupes actually crossed paths in Quebec City on the last weekend in August, much to the consternation of Shirreff. When the Shirreff/Wilson party arrived in Quebec the morning of Friday, 30 August, the singers discovered that—without their permission—their scheduled concert had been postponed from Friday to Saturday because the Seguins (who were singing in the same hall) had changed their night from Thursday to Friday. Before they had left Montreal for Quebec, however, Shirreff and Wilson had scheduled a concert in the former city for Monday, 2 September; there was no transportation available between the two cities on Sunday, and as a consequence Shirreff and Wilson were forced to cancel their concert in Quebec and leave the city without having performed. The soprano was understandably miffed. She and Wilson ran into the Seguins in the hotel lobby on Saturday morning, and Anne Seguin “had the arrogance,” Shirreff recorded in her diary, “to speak to me as tho’ nothing had happened—bah! “31

Whether or not the singers’ itinerary was carefully arranged ahead of time, someone had to do a certain amount of advance work. In particular, a suitable hall had to be rented, a competent accompanist engaged, and the concert advertised. Wilson probably managed both tours; the older singer apparently regarded the soprano as his protégée or even his ward, for he looked after her interests and managed her affairs during their entire American visit.

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