The Gilded Stage: A Social History of Opera by Daniel Snowman

Author:Daniel Snowman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781848874367
Publisher: Atlantic Books, Ltd

A dinner held in honour of Gatti-Casazza and Toscanini at the Hotel St Regis, New York on 22 November 1908.

If Hammerstein’s bold venture failed, it was not for want of trying. Nellie Melba, the most celestial of the stars he attracted, gives a (doubtless richly embellished) idea of how persuasive Hammerstein could be. Melba was staying in Paris when she received a visit from ‘a determined man of Jewish persuasion, shortish, thin and dark, with piercing black eyes’. At the time, Melba was trying to reduce her workload and, in particular, avoid New York for a season or two. Hammerstein explained to Melba that he was building the biggest and finest opera house in the world, ‘And I can’t do it without you.’ Melba explained she had no intention of going to New York the following year:

OH: I shall give you fifteen hundred dollars a night.

NM: Please don’t discuss terms, Mr Hammerstein, because I assure you that is useless.

OH: Oh, you’ll come all right (pause). What do you say to two thousand?

NM: If you offer me twenty thousand I shall still say the same thing.

OH: It’ll be the biggest thing you have done yet. Oscar Hammerstein says so.

NM: And Nellie Melba says “No”. I have no intention of going. Good morning, Mr Hammerstein.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.