~11~

Montreal (1875-78)

Lavallée arrived in Montreal on board the steamer Nova Scotia on the morning of 21 July 1875.1 Over the previous decade, the city had grown in size and diversity.2 New concert halls and theaters continued to open, replacing older ones (Figure 11.1). In the lower part of the city, there was now the Palais Musical on the Champs-de-Mars and the 2,000-seat Saint Patrick’s Hall on Victoria Square.3 As the uptown population grew, Sainte-Catherine Street attracted many shopping and entertainment establishments. The 1,100-seat Queen’s Theatre rose at the corner of Sainte-Catherine and University Streets at the beginning of the decade, and in November 1875 the opulent, 2,100-seat Academy of Music (Figure 11.2) opened at Victoria Street adjacent to the Crystal Palace.4 Over the past decade Augustin Lavallée had begun to specialise in violin making, and had opened a shop on the Côte Saint-Lambert just north-west of Place d’Armes (Figures 11.3 and 11.4).5 For the first few months Lavallée, his wife, and child all resided with his parents and siblings as he began a new phase of his career.6 As a free-lance musician 1 “Arrivée de Mr. Calixa Lavallée,” Le Canada musical 2.4 (Aug. 1875): 54. 2 By 1875, the population had surpassed 160,000. Montreal Directory, 1875-76: 33. Cities throughout North American had continued to grow rapidly. The ten largest cities in the United States at the time of the 1870 census were New York (1,478,103), Philadelphia (647,022), St. Louis (310,864), Chicago (298,977), Baltimore (267,354), Boston (250,526), Cincinnati (216,239), New Orleans (191,418), San Francisco (149,473), and Buffalo (117,714). Anderton, Population of the United States, 45. 3 The building that the Palais Musical occupied was originally the Gosford Street Protestant Church. As the Palais, it was first managed by a Monsieur Fortin (in 1872) but it frequently changed names and managers. 4 William Taft designed the Academy, constructing it of brick with a stone façade. It had four orchestra sections, four boxes and two balconies. The shipping magnate Sir Hugh Allan led the consortium that owned it. Property developers demolished the Academy in 1910 to make way for a department store. See Eugene Benson and L.W. Conolly, eds. The Oxford Companion to Canadian Theatre (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1989). 5 The shop had moved several times since 1865, each time to a different location on Côte Saint-Lambert (nos. 32, 43, 35, and finally to no. 35 1/2). By the mid-1870s the business had become a partnership with Augustin’s second son, Charles (1850-1924). Charles had become one of the city’s leading cornet players and bandleaders, while the third son, Joseph (1858-1913), worked as a trombonist and cellist. Occasionally all three brothers performed together. Their sister Cordélia (1847-ca. 1920) made her stage debut during this period. Information on the Lavallées is taken from the Montreal Directory. I am grateful to Marie Sauvé of the Musée Calixa-Lavallée for supplying the dates of birth for the family members. 6 With some 10 or 11 people all under one roof, it was probably rather crowded, and the

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he supported his family by teaching while devoting much of his time and energy to performing chamber music and staging operas.7

Concert seasons Montreal’s concert life had not changed substantially since Lavallée

had lived in there in the mid-1860s. Touring troupes of all types continued to visit and their performances were complemented by those of several large ensembles.8 Of these, only the Mendelssohn Choir performed regularly.9 Most local concerts were still charity events where a repertoire of songs, opera arias, fantasies, marches, and overtures continued to prevail. This would begin to change in the summer of 1875 with the return of four of the city’s most talented musicians. The young composer and conductor Guillaume Couture (1851-1915) arrived first, fresh from studies in Paris. Lavallée followed, and a month later the Belgian violinist Frantz Jehin-Prume (1839-1899) and his wife, the mezzo-soprano Rosita Del Vecchio (1846-1881), returned from a two-year stay in Europe.10 Later that year Couture wrote that the convergence of his colleagues at this time marked the beginning of a “new musical era” in Canada.11 As a group, they would attempt to cultivate the public’s appreciation for Classical music and a new repertoire of Romantic works.

entire family soon moved from 158 German St. to a larger flat next door, at number 170 (see Figure 11.1). 7 Lavallée’s work as an educator is the focus of Chapter 12. 8 Among the troupes appearing in Montreal during the mid-1870s was the Holman Comic Opera troupe (February 1876), a Strakosch ensemble (June 1877), Anna Granger Dow performing in English opera (December 1877 and January 1878), as well as Tom Thumb (October 1876), Barnum’s Circus (May 1877), Havery’s Minstrels (February 1878), and many others. 9 Joseph Gould (1833-1913) established the a cappella Mendelssohn Choir at the American Presbyterian Church in 1864. It performed there, at the Mechanics Hall (1876-81), Queen’s Hall (1881-90), and Windsor Hall (1890-94). See “Mendelssohn Choir,” Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, 1992 ed. 10 “Retour de M. de Madame F. Jehin-Prume,” Le Canada musical 2.4 (1 Aug. 1875): 54. 11 Guillaume Couture, “Chronique Musicale,” La Minerve, 14 Dec. 1875: 2. “Une nouvelle ère musicale s’annonce. L’arrivée de MM. Prume et Lavallée dechire enfin le voile, qui, pendant si longtemps a tenu le Canada dans l’obscurité.”

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Guillaume Couture Few of the leading Canadian musicians of the nineteenth century

rivalled Guillaume Couture for single-minded ambition or talent.12 He taught solfège at the École normale Jacques Cartier and conducted church choirs from the age of thirteen: first at his home parish of Sainte-Brigide and three years later at the much larger Église Saint-Jacques. With the help of Léon Sentenne (1851-1907), curé of the Église Saint-Jacques, Couture travelled to Paris in the spring of 1873 and enrolled at the Conservatoire, where he studied voice with Romain Bussine and composition with Théodore Dubois.13 Couture’s motet Memorare was sung at the Salle Pleyel in March 1875, and on May 15 Edouard Colonne conducted the première of an orchestral work entitled Rêverie at a Société National de Musique concert.14 Soon after, Couture returned to Montreal where he became the music critic at La Minerve and resumed his posts at Saint-Jacques and the École normale Jacques Cartier.

Frantz Jehin-Prume and Rosita Del Vecchio The Belgian violinist Frantz Jehin-Prume had first made Montreal his

home in 1865. Like Lavallée, Prume came from a family of musicians, the most famous member being his uncle, the composer François Prume (1816-1849). After studies in Liège and Brussels, Prume performed in Europe from 1855 to 1864. He then travelled to Mexico for concerts in the capital, and then to New York. While there, his childhood friend and fellow violinist Jules Hone (1833-1913) invited him to Montreal for a holiday.15 Prume arrived in May, and later that month he and Hone took part in a soirée at the Collège Sainte-Marie. Prume then organised another concert, this one to raise money for a memorial to the victims of the Rebellions of 1837 and

12 See Pierre Quinneville, “Guillaume Couture (1851-1915),” Ph.D. diss., Université de Montréal, 1988. 13 No evidence has yet emerged showing that Lavallée and Couture were in contact with each other while in Paris. 14 See Le Canada musical 2.3 (Jul. 1875): 44. 15 See [Jules Prume], Une Vie d’artiste (Montreal: Constantineau, ca. 1898) 194, and “Frantz Jehin-Prume,” Le Passe-Temps V (10 June 1899): 153-154.

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1838.16 It was at this concert that Lavallée re-emerged after being assaulted in April.17 Prume then toured Canada through much of the summer, played a concert with the New York Philharmonic in November, and travelled to the South before returning to Canada in the spring of 1866.

One of the main reasons for Prume’s return to Montreal in March 1866 was Rosita Del Vecchio. Del Vecchio, who came from an affluent Montreal family, met Prume at a soirée hosted by Mayor Jean-Louis Beaudry (1809-86) in June 1865.18 According to their son, Jules, Prume heard the nineteen-year-old Del Vecchio sing “Mon Coeur Soupire” and was captivated by her.19 After taking part in a concert tour of the United States, Prume returned to Montreal where he and Del Vecchio were married in a lavish ceremony at Notre-Dame Basilica on 17 July 1866.

After a honeymoon trip to Niagara Falls, Prume’s concert schedule resumed, and the couple spent the early years of the marriage mostly on tour.20 In September 1866 Prume joined a concert company organised by Max Strakosch for a tour of the United States, Central and South America. After the opening concert, at New York’s Cooper Institute, the New York Clipper reported Prume to have been “the star of the evening.”21 When his

16 This Lavallée-Prume concert took place at Nordheimer’s Hall on 1 June 1865, and included performances by the Montagnards Canadiens, Marie Regnault, and many of the city’s other leading artists. In a review published on 5 June 1865, the critic for l’Ordre called the concert “the best of the season, artistically perfect.” “Ce concert, au dire de nos critiques appréciateurs, a été le meilleur de la saison, artistiquement parfait.” Gustave Smith reviewed “Le Concert de M. Jehin Prume,” L’Union nationale, 3 Jun. 1865: 2. 17 Lavallée performed his piano transcription of the Prière de Moïse. Lapierre wrote that Prume and Lavallée first met at this time, when Prume invited Lavallée to accompany him in a Vieuxtemps concerto at the first performance. Lapierre wrote that Lavallée surprised Prume by playing the violin part of the concerto for him, but did not perform at the concert. Lapierre seems to have been unaware of the mugging that Lavallée should have been recovering from in May 1865, or that the two did perform together on June 1, and again in the spring of 1873. See Lapierre, Calixa Lavallée (1966) 100-101. 18 Del Vecchio’s paternal grandfather was an Italian immigrant who owned an inn on the rue Saint-Paul. The building was passed on to her father, Pierre-Thomas Del Vecchio (ca. 1810-ca. 1897), but rented to other businesses. From 1864 to 1879, the Montreal Directory lists the family as residing at 64 rue Saint-Hubert. See Henry Leung, “The Del Vecchio House,” B. Architecture, McGill University, 1967. 19 See [Jules Prume] Jehin-Prume: Une Vie d'Artiste (Montreal: R. Constantineau, ca. 1899) 162. The author did not specify whether this was a French translation of Cherubino’s arietta (“Voi che sapete che cosa è amor,” from Act Two of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro), the romance “Mon cœur soupire des l’amoure” by Martin Pierre Dalvimar (1772-1839), or another work with the same title. 20 Del Vecchio is not known to have performed on this or other Strakosch tours. 21 “City Summary,” New York Clipper, 13 Oct. 1866: 214. The same note criticised the

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father became seriously ill, he quit the tour at Havana and travelled to Belgium with Del Vecchio. His father died in April 1867 and the couple remained in Europe until summer. Prume began another Strakosch tour in September 1869, when Carlotta Patti headed a company that performed 111 concerts in 59 cities.22 After spending the next year staging concerts in Montreal, the couple returned to Prume’s hometown of Spa in the summer of 1871.23 They did not return to Montreal until March 1873, when they began a concert series at the new Queen’s Hall. At this time, Lavallée was in town for a performance under his own name at the Mechanics’ Hall. He joined Prume at the final Queen’s Hall concert, on May 26, and the next night he skipped a scheduled performance as soloist with the Montreal Philharmonic Society to take part in a lecture-recital with Prume and the author Arthur Buies (1840-1901).24 By fall, Lavallée and Couture were in France and Prume and Del Vecchio were back in Belgium.

Performances Lavallée waited until the Prumes had returned to Montreal before

giving a free concert for Derome and the others who sponsored his studies.25 Some four hundred invited guests packed into the small Cabinet de lecture on the rue Notre-Dame for the event on 9 September 1875. He performed a two-hour program that comprised Weber’s Konzertstück, op. 79, Beethoven’s

program for having “too many solos and too few concerted pieces.” The other members were Mlle Matilda Plodowski, soprano; Mlle Frida De Gebele, contralto; Sig. Giuseppe Limberti, tenor; Karl Formes, basso; Bernardus Boekelman, pianist; and Prof. S. Behrens, accompanist. 22 Other members of this company were Theodore Ritter, pianist; Giorgio Ronconi, ‘basso buffo’; and Theodore Habelmann, tenor. They performed two concerts at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music (29-30 October 1869) while Lavallée was musical director at Duprez and Benedict’s Opera House. 23 During this time Charles Gounod (1818-93) was vacationing in Spa with his mistress, Georgina Weldon (1837-1914), and was the subject of much gossip in the town. It is not known if the Prumes had any contact with Gounod during this time. 24 The title of the lecture-recital was “A Propos de Vous-Même.” See “Lecture and Concert,” Montreal Herald, 27 May 1873: 4; “F. Jehin Prume's Concert,” Montreal Herald, 27 May 1873: 4; and “Philharmonic Society,” Montreal Herald, 28 May 1873: 2. Buies was half Scottish, half French-Canadian; he was educated in Montreal, Dublin, and Paris. During the early part of his career his writings were highly critical of the Catholic Church. In 1873, he was promoting his Chroniques: Humeurs et caprices (Quebec City: Electeur, 1873). In 1933, Raymond Donville published La vie adventureuse d’Arthur Buies (Montreal: Lèvesques) in the same series as Lapierre’s Lavallée biography. 25 The identities of Lavallée’s other sponsors is not known.

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Sonata no. 14, in C# minor (“Moonlight”), and pieces by Mendelssohn and Chopin.26 Prume conducted a string quintet that accompanied Lavallée in the Konzertstück and performed La Mélancolie, the most famous of his uncle François Prume’s compositions.27 After concerts in Ottawa and Quebec City, Lavallée and Prume finally appeared before the general public of Montreal at the Mechanics’ Hall on December 9. 28 Lavallée performed an étude and ballade by Chopin, Mendelssohn’s Capriccio brillant in B minor, op. 22, Prudent’s Danse des fées, op. 41, and his own Le Papillon, op. 18. Prume performed his Fantasy on Themes from ‘Faust’ and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E, op. 64. A string quintet again took the place of an orchestra in both the Capriccio brillante and the violin concerto. This ensemble was augmented to a double string quartet for Beethoven’s Prometheus overture, op. 43, and Conradin Kreutzer’s overture to Das Nachtlager in Granada.29 The Montreal audience also had its first opportunity in more than two years to hear Rosita Del Vecchio, who sang Frederich Küchen’s “Le Voyage de l’amour et du temps,” and cavatinas from Gounod’s operas La Reine de Saba and Mireille.

Few concert reviews provided substantial commentaries on Lavallée’s performances. L’Opinion publique noted that “the hall was packed [on September 9]. Suffice it to say that the playing of Mr. Lavallée was completely transformed, and the methodical performance removed none of the spirit and feeling of the personal style of our artist.”30 An unnamed critic at the Canada musical wrote that “Lavallée’s execution today is characterised by a remarkable precision—by a sure technique, served by a brilliant and energetic style of playing, restrained of all excess—and by an interpretation

26 “Séance musicale de M. Calixa Lavallée,” Le Canada musical 2.6 (Oct. 1875): 86-87. 27 The quintet comprised Augustin Lavallée, B. Shea, A. Maffré, C. Bienvenu, and G. Leclère. Lavallée accompanied Prume in the performance of La Mélancolie. 28 Lavallée and Prume appeared in Ottawa on September 21, and in Quebec City on November 8. 29 Members of the quintet were Maffré, François Boucher, C. Bienvenu, Alex Wills, and G. Leclerc. Three more musicians (Shea, Stratton, and Augustin Lavallée) joined in the overtures. 30 “Concert,” L’Opinion publique, 16 Sept. 1875: 442. “La salle était comble. Disons de suite que le jeu de M. Lavallée s’est complètement transformé, et que l’exécution méthodique n’a rien enlevé du brio et du sentiment du style propre à notre artiste.”

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respectful of the composer’s intentions.”31 Only Couture and Joseph Marmette (1844-1895) described the concerts at length.32 Couture, writing in La Minerve, devoted more than two columns to the December 9 performance:

I was very happy to note that Mr. Lavallée has not only the bravura style we had heard. This manner of playing is quite trivial and demands only technique.

He has other things more precious. Technique speaks to the man; style speaks to the artist. Technique represents the body; style represents the soul. Technique may be acquired easily; style can live only with those whose heart is of extreme sensitivity and with those who are able to understand the beautiful ideal that one can only see with the eyes of the soul.

However, Mr. Lavallée is an artist, he has feeling, expression, and refinement. Moreover, a tireless worker, he searches continuously to perfect his art and succeeds so well that he has all that it requires.33

None of these commentaries precisely described how Lavallée’s style of playing had changed over the past two years. Where they agreed was that his interpretations were more refined or measured while still robust, and these points would be echoed in subsequent reviews (see further in this chapter and Chapter 15).

Lavallée’s repertoire gave listeners tangible evidence of his studies. The 1875 concerts illustrated a conspicuous change in the music he performed. During the 1860s he had relied to a great extent on his own

31 “Séance Musicale de M. Calixa Lavallée,” Le Canada musical 2.6 (Oct. 1875): 86. “L’exécution de M. Lavallée est aujourd'hui caractérisée par une netteté remarquable—par une technique sûre, servie par un jeu brillant et énergique, bien que sobre de tout excès—et par l'interprétation fidèle de son auteur.” 32 Marmette was a writer of historical novels, such as Charles et Éva (Montreal: Les Éditions Lumen, 1867), and La Fiancée du rebelle: épisode de la guerre des Bostonnais, 1775 (Montreal, 1875). His commentaries give no evidence that he had any musical training although they do convey his great enthusiasm: “Listening to Lavallée revive the great passionate soul of Chopin, I find myself suddenly at Majorca.” “Chonique de Québec: Prume et Lavallée,” L’Opinion publique, 18 Nov. 1875: 542. 33 Couture, La Minerve, 14 Dec. 1875: 2. “J’ai été très heureux de constater que M. Lavallée n’a pas pour qualité unique, le style-bravoure, ainsi qu’on l’a donné à entendre. Ce genre est très secondaire et ne demande que du méchanisme. Il y a autre chose chez lui de bien plus précieux. La méchanisme s’adresse à l’homme; le style s’adresse à l’artiste. Le méchanisme réprésente le corps; le style réprésente l’âme. Le méchanisme peut être acquis par le premier venu, le style ne peut résider que chez celui dont le cœur, d’une sensibilité extrême, est susceptible de comprendre le beau idéal, qu’on ne peut voir qu’avec les yeux de l’âme. Or, M. Lavallée est artiste, il a du sentiment, de l’expression et du fini. De plus, travailleur infatigable, il cherche sans cesse à se perfectionner et y réussit d’autant plus qu’il a tout ce qu’il faut pour cela.”

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compositions, and on his transcriptions and fantasies based on opera themes. He continued to perform his own music from time to time, but much less often than previously. From this point, Lavallée and Prume occasionally performed the works of Baroque and Classical composers and focused especially on those of the Romantics. They did not purge their concert programs entirely of display pieces, but turned from a largely Franco-Italian repertoire to Austrian and German music. Instrumental forms of Weber, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven replaced the fantasies drawn from the operas of Bellini and Donizetti. Opinion on this change was divided. After the December 9 performance, the unnamed critic of the Canada musical wrote: “never … has a more interesting program been presented to our musical public.”34 Couture noted the public’s resistance to some Romantic composers and congratulated Lavallée, “particularly on his Chopin étude,” and advised him to “continue to perform his great works, although the public receives them coldly; it is only a question of time.”35 Couture’s supportive comments hint at what must have been the public’s resistance to a repertoire that, although increasingly heard in New York and Boston, was still largely unfamiliar to most Montreal concert goers.

Couture remained on the edge of Lavallée’s circle, but he too played a significant part in the ‘new era.’ On December 28, all four of these artists performed a concert under Couture’s name. The program was a curious mix of the secular and the sacred, reflecting Couture’s work as a church musician. He directed the choir of the Église Saint-Jacques in his Memorare and Ave Maria; Del Vecchio reprised “Le Voyage de l’amour et du temps.” Prume played Vieuxtemps’s Appassionata fantasy, a Bach Prelude, a Raff Cavatina, and a Rondo of his own composition. Lavallée performed Weber’s Konzertstück and Mendelssohn’s Romance and Presto. The Canada musical

34 “Premier Concert Prume-Lavallée à Montréal,” Le Canada musical 2.9 (Jan. 1876): 134. “Jamais, c’est ici le cas de le dire, programme plus interessant n’a été présenté à notre public musical.” 35 Couture, La Minerve, 14 Dec. 1875: 2. “Nous le felicitons d’une manière toute spéciale sur son étude de Chopin, et lui conseillons de continuer à nous faire entendre ses grandes œuvres, quoiquie le public les reçoive assez froidement; ce ne sera qu’une question de temps.”

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reported the concert to have been an artistically “brilliant success,” and expressed hope that the full hall produced “abundant receipts.”36

Through the early months of 1876 and into the summer, Lavallée and the Prumes performed several times a month. They appeared at everything from soirees to orchestral and choral concerts.37 During April and May they staged their first series of chamber concerts at Association Hall. The un-named critic at the Star noted that the room was “nearly filled with admirers of high class music” for the first concert, and commended the performers’ efforts:

The concert, from an artistic point of view, was a gigantic success, and Messrs. Prume and Lavallée deserve the highest praise for raising the public’s taste up to their own standard, instead of lowering art by pandering to what we might term popular support, and giving music which has only the effect of vitiating the taste of those who listen to it.38

During the early summer months, they followed the Montreal concert series with another in Quebec City, concluding with a performance at the Salle Victoria on July 6 supported by the lieutenant-governor Luc Letellier.39

Despite their critical successes, both Couture and the Prumes planned to return to Europe in the summer of 1876. Earnings had perhaps been meagre but Couture was most disenchanted with the attitudes of the city’s musicians. He had no doubt irritated many in the musical community with his demanding and confrontational character, and especially with his frank and sometimes personal concert reviews. He was already bitter about the situation on April 25, when he published an article in which he scoffed at the

36 “Concert de M. Couture,” Le Canada musical 2.9 (Jan. 1876): 135. 37 On 12 January 1876, Lavallée, Prume, and Del Vecchio performed at the Longueuil home of the renowned photographer William Notman (1826-1891). The Notman Photographic Collection at the McCord Museum of Canadian History, in Montreal, contains a photograph of Lavallée dating from this time. For information on Notman, see Stanley Triggs, Notman's Studio: the Canadian Picture (Montreal: McCord Museum of Canadian History, 1992); and Roger Hall, The World of William Notman: the Nineteenth Century Through a Master Lens (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1993). 38 “Prume and Lavallée’s Concert,” Montreal Star, 19 Apr. 1876: 3. The writer of this review may have been Couture. This newspaper later began publishing reviews under his name. 39 This concert was re-scheduled from June 12, after a fire destroyed a large part of Quebec City. After Lavallée’s rendering of the Weber Konzertstück, the Canada musical’s correspondent wrote: “What fiery execution. What clarity! What broad, effortless and precise phrasing.” “Troisième Concert de Prume et Lavallée,” Le Canada musical 3.4 (Aug. 1876): 58. “Quel feu d'exécution! quelle netteté! quel phrasé large, aisé et précis!”

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state of music criticism in Canada: “Always, the following day, one reads an account such as: ‘The concert of Mr.…was given last night to a crowded hall.’—Or better: ‘Despite the bad weather last night, a select audience went to the concert of Mr.…, wishing to show the high esteem they have for him.’”40 Unlike the journalists who normally wrote about concerts, he was well qualified as a music critic. Local musicians, however, were unprepared for his sometimes harsh comments.41 Perhaps out of frustration, he returned temporarily to Paris, where he directed the choir at the Église Sainte-Clotilde, where César Franck was organist. Prume had also planned to leave. His motives are not known, but his earning potential as both teacher and performer would have certainly been higher in Europe. He reconsidered the move after Lavallée held a highly successful concert for him on July 3.

Lavallée and Prume gave only a short season of concerts in 1876-77.42 Their first concert took place at the Mechanics’ Hall on December 5, with the French cellist Gustave Jacquard added to their ensemble. He appeared with Lavallée and Prume several times that winter, allowing them to present such works as Beethoven’s Trio in C minor, op. 1, and Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in C minor, op. 66. The cellist’s playing appealed very much to the critic of the Canada musical who wrote: “Mr. Jacquard returned to us, manoeuvring his bow with all the charm of the past. With the brio and skill with which we are accustomed from him, this distinguished cellist now adds the assurance of maturity to his talent.”43 At this performance, Jacquard was

40 Guillaume Couture, “Chronique Musicale,” La Minerve, 25 Apr. 1876: 2. “Toujours, le lendemain, vous verrez un compte rendu conçu en ces termes: Le concert de M. … a fait hier soir, salle comble. —Ou bien: Malgé le mauvais temps d’hier soir, une société choisie s’était rendue au concert de M.…, voulant part la lui temoigner la haute estime qu’elle lui port.” 41 Couture’s greatest battle was with Mdm. Petipas, a local voice teacher with whom he maintained a public feud. 42 Among the other attractions that season were performances by Tom Thumb’s troupe and later a company of wrestlers (billed as ‘gladiators’) at the Theatre Royal, dramas such as Under the Gaslight and Streets of New York at the Academy of Music, Barnum’s Circus at the Lacross Club Field, and a several vocal concerts at various venues. 43 Le Canada musical 3.9 (Jan. 1877); 139. “M. Jacquard a reparu au milieu de nous maniant son archet avec tout le charme d’autrefois. Au brio et à l’habilité auxquels ce violoncelliste distingué nous avait habitué, vient maintenant se joindre l’assurance du talent muri. M. Jacquard, dans sa charmante Fantaisie de concert, de Servais, a littéralement enlevé son auditoire qui ne lui a pas du reste marchandé ses chaleureux applaudissements.” These comments imply that Jacquard had been in Montreal at some point prior to 1876, but no biographical information on him has been located.

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said to have “literally elevated his listeners” with his interpretation of Adrien-François Servais’ Fantaisie de concert.44 Lavallée and Prume cut the season short to begin preparing a production of Gounod’s lyric drama Jeanne d’Arc. They held their final performance at the Mechanics’ Hall on 2 March 1877 as a benefit to raise funds for a production.45

Jeanne d’Arc The details of how Lavallée came to direct Jeanne d’Arc remain

uncertain. After Couture left Montreal Lavallée took over the post of choir director at the Église Saint-Jacques. He resigned from the position in March, after Bishop Ignace Bourget (1799-1885) passed a decree forbidding the use of mixed choruses in diocesan churches.46 According to Eugène Lapierre, curé Sentenne proposed staging an opera as a means of maintaining the choir, and recommended Jeanne d’Arc.47 Although its première at the Théâtre de la Gaîté in Paris on 8 November 1873 had not been a success, it was a natural choice for performance in Quebec.48 The Gounod-Barbier adaptation was familiar to many people in Montreal.49 Gounod scored much of the

44 Ibid. Adrien-François Servais (1807-1866) was a composer primarily of cello music. 45 Among the compositions on the program were chamber works: Schumann’s Quintet, op. 44 (the Canadian première), and Boccherini’s Minuet; opera selections from Gounod, Bellini and Felicien David, sung by Del Vecchio and M. Lamothe. Prume performed his fantasy on themes from Faust and Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto, op. 26; and Lavallée played the Weber Konzertstück and several shorter pieces. See “Grand Concert,” Montreal Star, 3 Mar. 1877: 3. Le Nouveau monde of March 3 called the event a “brilliant success,” performed before the community’s “elite,” but it also noted the “unfavourable weather,” which may have implied that that it did not draw a large audience. See “Notes Locales,” Le Nouveau monde, 3 Mar. 1877: 3. 46 See Marie-Thérèse Lefevre, “The Role of the Church in the History of Musical Life in Quebec,” trans. by Beverley Diamond, in Canadian Music: Issues of Hegemony and Identity (Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press, 1994) 70-71. J.A. Finn replaced Lavallée. See Le Canada musical 3.12 (Apr. 1877): 188. 47 Lapierre, Calixa Lavallée (1966) 128-130. Lapierre used what could only have been an invented dialogue to describe the scene in which Sentenne proposed the production of Jeanne d’Arc. Given the date of the first production it is possible that Lavallée attended a performance. 48 Gounod had composed the music for Barbier’s drama while living with his mistress Georgina Weldon and her husband at Tavistock House, a former home of Charles Dickens in London. He dedicated the score to the Weldons. Both Georgina Weldon and Gounod’s wife, Anna Gounod, attended the première, causing a minor scandal. Critics wrote more about this event than they did about Gounod’s music, which they dismissed as little more than a “bundle of reminiscences.” See James Harding, Gounod (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1973) 179. Sarah Bernhardt revived the work in Paris in the 1880s. 49 L’Opinion publique published a substantial discussion of the work on 4 December 1873 (see

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music for chorus rather than soloists, the subject would appeal to Francophone nationalists, and the Catholic Church would be hard pressed to condemn it as immoral.50

Even with a work that would interest a large segment of the public, Lavallée and Prume faced several obstacles. Travelling opera troupes had been visiting Canada since the 1840s, but local productions were extremely rare.51 Funding presented a challenge. In early April, the Canadian Illustrated News reported that “the outlay for costumes, scenery, and other accessories [amounted] to more than $2,000.”52 To succeed financially, Jeanne d’Arc would need to attract an audience from both of Montreal’s linguistic communities. Lavallée and Prume could expect the support of the French-speaking population, and possibly for this reason they chose to stage the work at the Academy of Music, in the largely Anglophone area of the city.53 The new theater was heated, electrically lit, and slightly larger than the Theatre Royal. Casting presented no less of a problem than funding. The absence of a conservatory in Montreal meant that Lavallée’s chorus and orchestra comprised mostly amateurs, and there were few experienced string players. The Canadian Illustrated News reported that Lavallée and Prume had organised an orchestra of “80 instruments,” and that 239 persons where involved in the production in some way. The article reported that the cast comprised “34 active parts, 10 silent parts and 40 figurants,” and a chorus of 80 voices, culled mostly from the Saint-Jacques choir.54 In the lead roles were Clorinde Gauthier as Saint-Catherine, Charles Labelle as King Charles VII, and Rosita Del Vecchio making her stage début as Jeanne d’Arc.55

pp. 580-81). 50 See Jules Barbier and Charles Gounod, Jeanne d’Arc, drame en cinq actes (Paris: Choudens, 1873). 51 An 1867 staging of Les Filles de Regiment at the Crystal Palace remained one of the few local productions. See Barrière, “La Société Canadienne-française,” 317-322. 52 “’Jeanne d’Arc’ at AOM,” Canadian Illustrated News, 7 Apr. 1877: 214. No conclusive evidence has yet emerged as to how this money was raised. Some of the funding might have come from Lavallée’s patron, Léon Derome, and others in the business community. 53 Much like New York’s Grand Opera House, the Academy suffered from a location that many considered to be too far from middle-class neighbourhoods. See “The Academy of Music,” Canadian Illustrated News, 27 Nov. 1875: 339. 54 Ibid. We can not be sure how many musicians played these “80 instruments,” but assembling an orchestra of more than 50 would have been formidable task. 55 The full cast list that appeared in the libretto provided only surnames of most of the

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Del Vecchio’s reputation in Canada had grown slowly, due to her travels with Prume. She made her professional début at Montreal’s St. Patrick’s Hall in November 1868, but performed infrequently. In November 1875 Joseph Marmette hailed her Quebec City début a triumph, writing that: “the soft, pure and pleasing voice of Madame Prume captivates, moves and ravishes by the extreme charm of its diction and phrasing.”56 Her performances in Montreal had garnered similar praise, and she had expanded her repertoire to include such demanding arias as that of the Queen of Night, from Mozart’s Magic Flute. Her abilities as an actress were as yet untried.

After three months of preparation, Jeanne d’Arc opened on May 14 to large and receptive audiences. Most of the reviews were very favourable.57 The Canadian Illustrated News published some of the more judicious observations:

Barring a few reservations, which we will not be so ungracious as to enumerate, it may be said generally that the representation was equal to that of many theatrical companies which we have had here, and superior to several others. The consequence was a brilliant artistic as well as financial success, upon which we congratulate the enterprising managers, Messrs. Prume and Lavallée.

With such a conductor as M. Lavallée at the head of a large and well-balanced orchestra, and such an artist as M. Prume as chef d’attaque, it was to be presumed that something like a genuine interpretation would be secured. And it was secured.58

Del Vecchio received much of the credit for the production’s success: “After the experience of last week, we think that Messrs. Lavallée and Prume, with their efficient stage manager, M. Genot, should form a regular company, ...the soprano is toute trouvé in Madame Prume.”59 No further comments were published on the financial success of the production.

performers. There were three Lavallées in minor female roles, one identified only by the surname, the others with initials I. and C. They may have been Lavallée’s sisters: Cordélia, Ida and Catherine. See Jules Barbier and Charles Gounod, Jeanne d’Arc, opéra lyrique en cinq actes, libretto (n.p.: n.p., 1877). 56 Joseph Marmette, “Chronique de Québec; Prume et Lavallée,” L’Opinion publique, 18 Nov. 1875: 541. “La voix douce, pure et sympathique de Madame Prume captive, remue, ravit par le charme extrême de sa diction et de sa phrase.” 57 See “Jeanne d’Arc,” La Minerve, 15 May 1877: 2. 58 “Before the Footlights,” Canadian Illustrated News, 26 May 1877: 326. 59 Canadian Illustrated News, 26 May 1877: 326. The stage manager was Achille Génot.

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After the effort involved in staging Jeanne d’Arc, the late spring and early months of summer were relatively quiet. At the end of May Lavallée and Prume assisted the organist and conductor P.R. MacLagan in a three-day music festival that was modelled on similar events in the United States.60 MacLagan rented the Victoria Rink, erected a pipe organ, and expanded the ranks of the Philharmonic Society with musicians from the United States. Lavallée and the Prumes returned to the Victoria Rink on June 25, when they presented portions of Jeanne d’Arc in concert as part of the Saint-Jean Baptiste celebrations.

Jeanne d’Arc reprised and La Dame blanche premièred Late in the summer of 1877, another illness in the family forced the

Prumes to return to Belgium. Prume’s mother died in October but the couple decided to remain in Europe rather than to return to Canada. Prume performed in Belgium and France before beginning a tour of Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and the South of France.61 Del Vecchio began studies with Charles Wicart, a tenor at the Grand Opéra de Bruxelles, and with M. Vercken at the Conservatoire de Liège, and made her European début early in 1878.62 The Prumes’ European hiatus left Lavallée with a number of problems. The success of Jeanne d’Arc had created momentum, and there appeared to be an opportunity to create a permanent Canadian opera company. The absence of Lavallée’s partner and the star performer, however, presented a challenge.

60 Boston hosted numerous festivals, such as Gilmore’s peace jubilees (1869, 1872) and the triennial festivals of the Handel and Haydn Society (from 1867). May festivals were held in Cincinnati (first in 1849, and then in 1873, 1875, and 1878), and later in Chicago and other cities. 61 See Prume, Une Vie d’artiste, 245-246. 62 Montreal newspapers reported on Del Vecchio’s début in February: “It was Wednesday in fact that Madame Jehin appeared, for the first time on the European continent, and we feel, having heard her under these conditions, able to tell our co-citizens, the intimate and delicate satisfaction of the astronomer when his eye falls upon a newly discovered diamond in the Celestial River. (Fortunately, nothing of Wagner was heard).” “C'était mercredi en effet que Mme. Jehin se produisait, pour la première fois, sur le continent européan, et nous éprouvons, à l'avoir entendue dans ces conditions, à pouvoir en parler à nos concitoyens, la satisfaction intime et délicate de l'astronome dont l'oeil vient de découvrir un nouveau diamant dans la Rivière Céleste! (Rien du Wagner, bien entendu).” Published in l'Union, of Verviers, Belgium, and reproduced in “Madame F. Jehin Prume,” La Minerve, 7 Feb. 1878: 2.

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Lavallée had planned to begin by re-staging Jeanne d’Arc, but now had to search for Del Vecchio’s replacement. On short notice he hired Theresa Newcomb, a member of the stock company at Montreal’s Academy of Music, and rented the Theatre Royal, where the drama reopened on 19 November 1877 for a six-night run. While French-Canadian critics might have regretted the absence of Del Vecchio they received Newcomb warmly. La Minerve wrote that the public was curious to see how Newcomb would perform in a role that she accepted at the last minute and that was in her second language. After the opening night the newspaper concluded that she could not make one forget Madame Prume entirely but “filled one with admiration”: “Her diction is perfect, her intonation rich and varied, her poise and taste artistic; she is, in a word, an enchanting actress.”63 The Star noted simply that “too much praise cannot be given her.”64 The public appears to have agreed, as Lavallée added six performances to the run that closed on December 1.

Through the fall and winter months, Lavallée took part in very few performances. Jeanne d’Arc had no sooner closed than he began preparations for a new production. Again, it was an obvious choice for the time and place: François Boïeldieu’s 1825 opéra-comique La Dame blanche. The work’s religious themes would attract a Catholic and Francophone audience; the Scottish setting (adapted from Scott’s novels The Monastery and Guy Mannering) would help to draw the city’s British and British-Canadian citizens. Ernest Lavigne (1851-1909) published a bilingual libretto, but the story was probably known to many.65 In 1862 the opera had had its 1,000th performance at the Opéra Comique in Paris. It remained popular in France in the 1870s and was familiar to many French-Canadians. The first act had

63 “Jeanne d’Arc,” La Minerve, 20 Nov. 1877: 2. “Le public était anxieux de savoir comment elle s’acquitterait d’un rôle si difficile, écrit dans une langue qui n’était pas la sienne et accepté au dernier moment. Elle est sortie de l’épreuve d’une force victorieuse et sans noms faire complètement oublier Mme. Prume, est parfaite, son intonation riche et variée, sa pose et goût artistique; c’est en un mot une actrice ensorceleuse.” Later that winter Newcomb appeared in the title role of the Troupe Dramatique Français’s production of Jules Perrot’s Marie-Jeanne at the Theatre Royal, so it appears that French was not a problem for her. 64 “Theatre Royal,” Montreal Star, 20 Nov. 1877: 2. 65 See Eugène Scribe and François-Adrien Boiëldieu, La Dame blanche, opéra comique en trois actes, libretto (Montreal: Ernest Lavigne, 1878).

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been staged in Quebec City in 1850 and in 1875 the Canada musical printed an article about it, by French composer and critic Adolphe Adam (1803-56).66

The Prumes’ absence again forced Lavallée to manage the details and to find a new soprano. Had there been a qualified singer in Canada he would presumably have known, but in March the public learned that he had signed Marietta Hassani of the Vienna Grand Opera for the leading role.67 She arrived in Montreal on April 10 and took a room at the Richelieu Hotel, as the crew prepared the sets and costumes. Lavallée again completed the cast with amateurs and semi-professionals. The tenor, Tancrède Trudel, played the role of Georges Brown, with Octavie Desmarais-Filiatreault, Charles Labelle, and Cordélia Lavallée in supporting roles.68 Lavallée engaged the fifty-voice Montagnards Ecossais as the chorus, and assembled an orchestra of thirty musicians. He broadened the show’s appeal by adding Octave Feuillet’s one-act comedy, Le Cheveu Blanc!, with the soprano Anna Granger.69

The cost of the production may have surpassed that of Jeanne d’Arc. Lavallée appears to have devoted greater attention and more money to the mise en scène. M. Garant created the sets and his Château d’Avenel in particular attracted considerable attention.70 J. Chrétien designed the costumes, which were made by the tailor shop of Boisseau & Frère, on the rue Saint-Laurent. In exchange for at least part of their services, Lavallée provided the shop with advertisements in the published libretto.71

The production opened on April 22 for what would be a successful run of seven performances at the Theatre Royal. Hassani took much of the credit for the full houses. Only Couture, who had returned from Paris in

66 “La Dame Blanche,” Le Canada musical 2.5 (Sept. 1875): 73-76. 67 Newspapers appear to provide no insights into how Lavallée came to hire Hassani, and her name appears in none of the standard reference works. 68 The libretto lists only eight cast members. Filiatreault was the wife of the publisher Aristide Filiatreault. See Scribe and Boiëldieu, La Dame blanche. 69 Anna Granger appeared in a production of Balfe’s The Bohemian Girl that opened at the Academy of Music on 1 February 1877. La Minerve, 19 Dec. 1877: 2. Little more is known about her. 70 See “Causerie Musicale,” La Minerve, 30 Apr. 1878: 2. 71 Boisseau & Frère appear to have provided the service at least partly in exchange for advertising. The introduction to the libretto devotes a paragraph to urging the public to go and compare their prices and quality.

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December 1877 and resumed work as music critic at La Minerve, offered serious discussion of Hassani’s abilities and contribution to the production. He described her performance as “very intelligent and very competent,” but added that “her movements and gestures are too solemn for opéra-comique. Her shortcomings no doubt result from the fact that Mlle. Hassani sings nothing but grand opera.”72 Without mentioning him by name, Couture dismissed Trudel’s contribution as Georges Brown: “What is missing in the performance that would make La Dame Blanche really good? A first class tenor. A rare bird; not always found even on first-rate stages.”73

More generally, Couture was pleased by the progress made during his absence. He praised the quality of Lavallée’s chorus and orchestra, noting the unusually fine playing of the cello section. With one caveat, he attributed much of the success to Lavallée’s direction and conducting:

He conducts his personnel with great assurance. We can only reproach him for one thing: to have slowed almost all the movements, altering in this way the character of many pieces. Knowing the score thoroughly, he has his eyes on the singer or instrumentalist for every entry; all the nuances and accents are marked by his bow. His gestures connote an artist of the most discrete style, the error he rarely commits. He is a genuine conductor. The first we have possessed.74 On May 7 the entire cast travelled by steamer to Quebec City for three

performances at the Salle de Musique.75 Critics reported the performances to have been superb, giving Lavallée much of the credit.76 L’Événement described the orchestra’s performance as “a bit too loud sometimes,” but

72 Guillaume Couture, “Chronique musicale; La Dame blanche,” La Minerve, 2 May 1878: 2. “Sa démarche, son attitude et son geste sont trop solennels, trop graves pour l'opéra-comique. Ces défauts sont sans doute motivés par l'habitude de Mlle. Hassani de ne chanter que grand opéra.” 73 La Minerve, 2 May 1878: 2. “Que manquait-il à l’exécution de la ‘Dame Blanche,’ pour être vraiment bien? Un premier ténor. L’oiseau rare; introvable même parfois sur les scènes de premier ordre.” 74 Couture, “Chronique musical: La dame blanche,” 2. “Il conduit son personnel avec une très grande sûriété. Nous ne lui ferons qu'un reproche: c’est d'avoir trop ralenti presque tous les mouvements, dénaturant par là même le caractère de plusieurs morceaux. Possédant très-bien sa partition, pas une entrée ne se fait qu’il n’ait les yeux sur le chanteur et l'instrumentiste; toutes les nuances et les accents sont marqués par son archet. Son geste indique à l’artiste, de la manière la plus discrète, l’erreur qu’il a pu commettre. C'est un véritable chef-d’orchestre. Le premier que nous possédons.” 75 L’Événement reported the total number of company members making the trip to be sixty-seven. See “La Dame blanche,” L’Événement, 7 May 1878: 2. 76 Joseph Marmette called the production a “beautiful success” “L’Art Musical au Canada,” L’Opinion publique, 23 May, 1878: 241.

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reported that “a foreigner, attending yesterday’s performance would never have believed that the orchestra comprised mostly amateurs.”77 Newspapers reported large audiences each evening, but Lavallée did not extend the engagement. Instead, he reopened the show in Montreal, giving six performances at the Academy of Music, beginning on Friday, May 12.

These final evenings were, in a sense, Lavallée’s farewell performances for Montreal. Over the three years since his return to Canada, he had appeared at numerous concerts and other performances (see Appendices A and D). His critical successes might have provided a model for the city’s English-speaking musical community,78 but the shortage of professionally trained singers and musicians hampered most efforts. L’Événement reported that Lavallée planned to follow La Dame blanche with a production of Fra Diavolo in Montreal, but this did not happen.79 Instead, he moved to Quebec City to lobby the government to support a conservatory.

77 “La Dame blanche,” L’Événement, 8 May 1878: 2. “L’accompagnement, un peu trop fort quelquefois, a néanmoins bien marché du commencement à la fin. Et certainement, un étranger, assistant à la représentation d’hier, n’aurait jamais voulu croire que l’orchestre était composé d’amateurs, pour une bonne partie.” 78 Neither MacLagan’s Beethoven Quartet Club nor his Philharmonic Society attracted strong community support. After a December 1877 Philharmonic performance, the Montreal Star praised the ensemble for its efforts, and admonished the audience for being “cold, unsympathetic and very reserved in its applause.” “The Philharmonic Concert,” Montreal Star, 18 Dec. 1877: 2. MacLagan’s Montreal Operatic Society proved much more successful with its first production, H.M.S. Pinafore, in November 1879. In January 1880, the Canada musical reported that Pinafore had drawn a total of $1,600 in receipts, which left its producers with a $600 profit. In the spring of 1880, MacLagan staged Planquette’s 1877 operetta Les Cloches de Cornville, and by June, he was reported to have composed an operetta his own, The Queen’s Shilling. 79 “La Dame blanche,” L’Événement, 8 May 1878: 2.