#Giuseppe Kaschmann

[opera-ghosts]

January 24. 1835 the last Opera from Vincenzo Bellini „I Puritani“ premiered in Paris. Here we see a very rare original castlist from The Metropolitan Opera. Only one performance was given for the opening of the MET at October 29. 1883 and then the next performance was 35 years later at February 2. 1918. Very curios.

[lessthansix]

“Signor Kaschmann was apparently laboring under the idea that Don Giovanni was a tragic hero. There was none of the reckless dash and insouciance of the libertine about him. He was buried in a mood of unbroken gloom. His vocal work was correct and occasionally effective.” (x)  

[todayclassical]

February 11 in Music History

1708 Birth of Italian composer Egidio Romualdo Duni in Matera.

1744 Birth of tenor Giovanni Ansani in Rome. 

1785 FP of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in d, Mozart was soloist, in Vienna. 

1785 Franz Joseph Haydn joins the Freemasons.

1795 Death of Swedish composer Carl Mikael Bellman, at age 55, in Stockholm. 

1810 Birth of French composer and vocalist Loïsa Puget Lemoine in Paris. 

1819 Birth of American organist and composer Samuel Parker Tuckerman.

1826 Death of tenor Charles Incledon. 

1830 Birth of Danish composer Peter Arnold Heise in Copenhagen.

1830 Birth of German composer Hans Bronsart Von Schellendorf in Berlin.

1834 Birth of tenor Gustav Walter in Bilin, Bohemia.  

1840 FP of Donizetti's opera The Daughter of the Regiment in Paris, at the Opéra-Comqie in Paris.

1843 FP of Verdi's I Lombardi at La Scala, Milan. 

1847 Birth of American inventor Thomas A. Edison. 1879 Birth of German composer and conductor Jean Gilbert aka Max Winterfeld. 

1883 Birth of Danish conductor Paul von Klenau in Copenhagen.

1885 Birth of soprano Bella Fortner-Halbaerth in Bosnia. 

1887 Birth of American violinist, conductor Louis Persinger.

1888 Birth of tenor Antonio Melandri in Bologna.

1890 Birth of tenor Richard Kubla in Moravska, Ostrava. 

1892 FP of Rachmaninov’s Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G minor, for violin, cello, and piano. David Kreyn (violin), Anatoly Brandukov (cello), and the composer at the piano in Moscow.

1903 FP of Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 in Vienna. 

1907 FP in USAmerica of Puccini's Madama Butterfly conducted by Arturo Toscanini at the MET in NYC. Composer in the audience. 

1909 Birth of tenor Vasco Campagnano in Alexandria. 

1912 Birth of Czech-American pianist Rudolf Firkušný in Napajedla. 

1915 First American recital by Percy Grainger. 1916 FP by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Gustav Strube (1916-1930), cond. First municipal orchestra supported by taxpayers.

1922 Birth of Austrian-American pianist (Ruth) Hilde Somer in Vienna. 

1925 Death of baritone Giuseppe Kaschmann. 

1926 Birth of soprano Ursula Buckel in Lauscha. 

1926 Birth of Scottish conductor Sir Alexander Gibson. 

1927 Birth of tenor Michel Senechal in Paris. 

1927 Birth of Austrian pianist Ilse von Alpenheim in Innsbruck.

1929 Birth of composer Leonard Kastle.

1930 Birth of English organist and choral conductor Christopher Dearnley. 

1932 Birth of pianist and professor at Jerusalem Academy of Music, Jerome Lowenthal. 1935 Birth of Argentine violinist Alberto Lysy. 

1937 Birth of soprano Catherine Gayer in Los Angeles. 

1938 Birth of Swiss soprano Edith Mathis in Lucerne. 

1938 FP of Ernest Bloch's Evocations for orchestra, by the San Francisco Symphony, Pierre Monteux conducting. 

1939 Birth of soprano Nelia Lebedeva in Karsnoyarsk. 

1939 Death of Austrian composer Franz Schmidt, at age 72, in Perchtoldsdorf. 

1944 Birth of bass-baritone Roger Bryson in London. 

1945 Birth of baritone Lenus Carlson in Jamestown.

1946 Birth of soprano Magdalena Falewicz in Lublin, Poland. 

1949 Death of tenor Giovanni Zenatello. 

1949 FP of Igor Stravinsky's Orpheus. Boston Symphony. The staged ballet FP in NYC on 28 APR 1948. 

1951 Birth of baritone Jean-Philippe Lafont in Toulouse. 

1952 FP of Hugo Weisgall's opera The Tenor in Baltimore. 

1953 FP of Carlos Chávez' Symphony No. 4 Sinfonía Romantica by the Louisville Orchestra, Chavez conducting.

1956 Birth of French composer Michel Dalle Ave in Agen.

1958 Death of baritone Waldemar Staegemann. 

1957 Birth of soprano Gabriele Fontana in Innsbruck. 

1959 Birth of Scottish Mezzo-soprano Christine Cairns. 1971 FP of H. W. Henze's Compases para Preguntas ensimismandas in Basel, Switzerland.

1973 FP of Feldman's Voices and Instruments II in Buffalo, NY.

1981 Death of soprano Elisabeth Friedrich. 

1985 Death of composer Heinz Eric Roemheld. 

[opera-ghosts]

Eugenia Mantelli (1860- 3 March 1926) was an Italian opera singer who had a prolific career in Europe, the United States, and South America from the 1880s through the early part of the twentieth century. She possessed a flexible warm voice with a wide vocal range that, while focusing mostly within the mezzo-soprano repertoire, enabled her to sing roles normally associated with contraltos and sopranos. Indeed, during her lifetime she was often identified as either a mezzo-soprano or a contralto by music critics without much consistency. While she had an excellent vocal technique and an exceptionally beautiful tone quality, her gifts as an actress and interpreter were only mediocre. She entered the Milan Conservatory, graduating from there in 1877 with diplomas in both voice and piano. She made her professional opera debut at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon as Urbain in Giacomo Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots in 1883. That same year she sang the role of Kaled in Jules Massenet's Le roi de Lahore at the Teatro Sociale in Treviso. This was followed by a highly successful concert tour throughout Germany, Italy, Argentina, and Brazil with tenor Julián Gayarre. In November 1887 she sang the role of Adalgisa in Vincenzo Bellini's Norma at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. This was followed by several appearances at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, including the role of Eboli in Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlo with Adalgisa Gabbi, José Oxilia, Giuseppe Kaschmann, and Auguste Boudouresque. In 1889 she joined the opera company that inaugurated the Teatro Argentino de La Plata in Buenos Aires. She sang with the company both in that city and at the Teatro Solis in Montevideo, notably sharing the stage with Mattia Battistini in performances of La favorita, Amleto, La forza del destino, and Gli Ugonotti (the Italian version of Les Huguenots).  In 1894 Mantelli joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, making her first appearance there as Amneris in Verdi's Aida on 23 November. She remained a member of the company until the end of the 1899-1900 season. One of her most successful roles at the Met was Léonor in La favorite, which she also sang for her first performance at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1896. She left the Met in 1900 just before she married her husband. Although she returned to the Met briefly in 1903 and appeared in a few vaudeville productions during the early 1900s, she spent most of her remaining career performing at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos. After retiring from the stage, she remained in Lisbon where she taught singing for many years.