Louise Homer: prima donna contralto

              Figure

LOUISE HOMER AS 
ORFEO



TRIUMPHANT RETURN OF 
LOUISE HOMER

PRIMA DONNA CONTRALTO
 METROPOLITAN OPERA COMPANY JANUARY 25TH, 1912




CONCERT MANAGEMENT, WOLFSOHN MUSICAL BUREAU 1 WEST 34TH STREET, NEW YORK





PRESS TRIBUTES



THE NEW YORK PRESS
 Friday Morning, January 26, 1912.


Louise Homer's Return As Orfeo Is Greeted Warmly



Contralto Scores Remarkable Success After Short Retirement.




ARTIST GREATER THAN EVER




Before an audience distinguished by the presence of the Duchess of Connaught and Princess Patricia L  made a triumphal return to the lyri  age last night in the Metropolitan Opera House as Orpheus in Gluck's immortal 
Orfeo ed Euridice.
  This role has always revealed the American contralto's powers to the very greatest advantage.  But lofty as her achievements have been in the past, her achievement last night loomed even higher.




From every point of view, vocal and histrionic, her portrayal of the Hellenic bard, mourning for the loss of his spouse, pleading irresistibly for her life and rejoicing at her recovery, rose superior to her former interpretations, profoundly moving though they had invariably been.




The great audience which had come to welcome Mme. Homer back to familiar artistic haunts may have felt somewhat apprehensive in the intermission following the performance of Leo Blech's merry one act comedy, 
Versiegelt.
 used on this occasion as a sort of curtain-raiser to the classic masterpiece of Gluck.  Would the much-admired singer be as beautiful as when she had last appeared on the stage?  Would her voice have all its former glory?  These were questions in the minds of many.




But whatever doubts may have been felt were dispelled swiftly and effectively as soon as Louise Homer's voice soared out into the vast spaces of the auditorium.  Without the slightest evidences of effort, without the slightest forcing, her tones resounded through the auditorium rich, vibrant, expressive; beautifully even in quality; wonderfully pure and clear in their higher flights; full and opulent in their lower descents; soft and mellow in the middle register.




In a hasty record following a performance that ended at midnight it is impossible to touch upon all the points in Homer's inspiring performance which deserve attention.  But one of the most impressive features of the singer's impersonation, aside from its purely vocal delights, was the tenderness, the pathos, the convincing emotional fervor which she infused into her singing as well as into her acting.




In that beautiful voice, so much an instrument of the heart, though guided by fine intelligence and artistic taste, there were poignant accents, subtle shades of feeling, that it had never revealed before.  Such sorrow, such deeply affecting melancholy and pathos as the contralto expressed in the second verse of the 
Che faro
 aria, Mme. Homer surely had never voiced until last night.  During her temporary withdrawal from the stage, it is now quite clear, the American singer has accomplished far more than any one realized until yesterday.  She has grown to be a far greater singer, a far greater artist.




Many floral tributes of admiration were bestowed upon Mme. Homer when she appeared before the curtain after the first act.




(MAX SMITH)





THE NEW YORK TIMES
 Friday, January 26, 1912


MME. HOMER IN 
ORFEO



Her First Appearance at the Metropolitan Opera House This Season.




There was a special interest in the third performance of Gluck's 
Orfeo,
 which was given last evening at the Metropolitan Opera House, and that was the first appearance on the stage of Mme. Louise Homer since the domestic event that has prevented her singing during the first half of the operatic season.  Mem. Homer comes back to the stage quite as she left it last Spring in voice and figure.  Her Orfeo has been recognized as one of her most artistic impersonations, one in which she achieves her most beautiful singing, beautiful not only in voice but in the breadth and repose and distinction of style that are necessary for Gluck's music.  Mme. Homer likewise enacts the part most sympathetically, with grace and dignity, a measured cadence of movement, with expressive gesture and facial play, and at the same time with an abundant expression of the emotions that are the promptings of Orpheus's quest.




Needless to say that Mme. Homer was heartily welcomed and that her impersonation won her much applause through the evening, which recalled her repeatedly before the curtain.




(RICHARD ALDRICH)





THE SUN
 Friday, January 26, 1912.


Last night Mme. Louise Homer. who has been absent from the stage because of pressing private engagements, returned to the scene of her former triumphs and to the role in which her highest artistic success had been achieved.

It is a matter for congratulation that Mme. Homer returned to the opera in excellent vocal condition.  Again her beautiful style in the delivery of the recitatives and airs of this score commanded warm admiration.  Her dignified and classic poses and gestures fitted perfectly into the exquisite series of pictures conceived by the poet and composer, adequately mounted by Mr. Gatti-Casazza and governed by the musical insight of Mr. Toscanini.



(W. J. HENDERSON)





NEW YORK HERALD


Mme. Homer Welcomed at Opera



It was a gala night at the Metropolitan, with the Duchess of Connaught and the Princess Patricia present and Mme. Homer making her first appearance of the season.  Mme. Homer appeared as Orfeo, 
Orfeo ed Euridice
 being part of a double bill, the other being 
Versiegelt.




After the first act Mme. Homer was made to feel that a huge audience was mighty glad to have her back.  They kept her trotting before the curtain a full dozen times.  On the early trips she carried off an armful of roses each time.  And she deserved it all, for she sang extremely well, with artistic care of phrasing and fine dramatic effect




(EDWARD ZIEGLER)





NEW YORK TRIBUNE
 January 26th, 1912


Mrs. Homer as Orfeo



Singer Returns to Metropolitan Stage in Gluck's Opera




Mrs. Louise Homer, whose domestic affairs have detained her from the operatic world during the present season, made her appearance at the Metropolitan Opera House last night.  Mrs. Homer chose for the occasion the character which perhaps marks the summit of her artistic achievement, Orfeo, in Gluck's 
Orfeo ed Euridice.
  It was a splendid audience that gave welcome to the popular contralto, an audience and a welcome that must have proved to her, had she still any doubt, the affection in which she is held by the American public.




The singer was in splendid voice and gave a performance that both vocally and dramatically was worthy of the highest praise.  The dignity of her bearing and the poetry with which she performed the character made her conception one of exquisite beauty.





THE EVENING POST
 New York, Friday, January 26, 1912


The main feature of the Gluck opera was the appearance of Louise Homer for the first time this season.  She had not sung ten bars before it was plain that she was at her best-an opinion which was fully borne out during the rest of the evening.  This greatest of American contraltos has always been at her best in 
Orfeo,
 and her impersonation last night had lost none of its grace, symmetry, and classic beauty.  Her voice had all its customary opulence, richness, warmth, and emotional color, and she sang the two great arias 
Divinités du Styx
 and 
Che faro senza Eurydice
 superbly, and the song n the Elysian fields in a beautiful 
mezzo voce
 that was a delight to hear.  After every curtain she was applauded and recalled as if she had been a popular tenor.


(HENRY T. FINCK)





THE EVENING SUN,
 Friday, January 26, 1912


Homer's Welcome Home



American 
Orpheus
 Ends Gala Day of Opera's Mid-Season




The Duchess of Connaught, the Princess's mother, and another group of guests joined the party in time to see the recalls and endless flowers that greeted Louise Homer's return in tragic 
Orfeo




The most popular American member of the Metropolitan opera ensemble made her first appearance last evening within a few hours of the season's half way point.




Mrs. Homer looked a picture of youth last evening.  She dressed the Greek god in rather the brief boyish tunic than the flowing toga virilis of the classic world.  Her voice rang out in the 
Divinités du Styx
 and the 
Che faro senza Euridice
 as if no thought of her long absence from the stage came to trouble the singer after the first momentary applause as the curtain rose.  A gala audience, put in jovial humor in the merry little 
Versiegelt
 just before, left not an instant's doubt of its welcome to the happy star.




(W. B. CHASE)





NEW YORK EVENING MAIL
 January 26th, 1912


Brilliant Return of Louise Homer



The return of Louise Homer to the Metropolitan for the first time this season gave especial importance and interest to the third performance of 
Orfeo et Euridice,
 which contains one of the finest impersonations of the singer.  The enthusiasm which she brought forth was as well deserved as it was spontaneous.  The singer has never been in more brilliant voice and never has she presented Orfeo with more dignity.




Mrs. Homer is an artist of refinement and of enthusiasm, and to these characteristics, no less than to her voice, which is one of the most beautiful on any stage, she owes the steady strides which she makes almost from one performance to another.  The Orfeo of last night showed a marked growth of spirit, and it went far toward enhancing the Gluck Opera under Toscanini.




(EMILIE FRANCES BAUER)





TELEGRAM


Mme. Homer's Return as Orfeo in a Gala Performance



The rea!  treat followed-Gluck's 
Orfeo ed Euridice,
 with Mme. Louise Homer, as the God of Music, making her first appearance this season.  In superb voice she presented again an ideal performance, and the enthusiastic recalls were well merited.




NEW YORK EVENING WORLD


Louise Homer Welcomed Back as Orpheus



Louise Homer made the evening performance memorable by her resumption of the part of Orpheus, in Gluck's opera, her first appearance this season.  She was in lovely voice and her impersonation was more convincing than ever.  She could not have failed to be impressed by the manifest affection for her of the audience, which recalled her times too numerous to count.




(SYLVESTER RAWLING)




NEW YORK STAATSZEITUNG


In Gluck's opera there was an event:  Madame Homer, the great artist, after an absence from her long-devoted art, reappeared before the public in one of her best roles, that of Gluck's 
Orfeo
 and created a great success for herself.  It is not only generally acknowledged that the artist's vocal chords remained intact, but her tones became sweeter and even more luscious.  Her acting of the role was classic.  Mme. Homer was most enthusiastically applauded by the largely gathered audience.


(MAX HALPERSON)





NEW YORK EVENING JOURNAL
 January 26, 1912.


Louise Homer Gets Royal Greeting at the Metropolitan



Mrs. Louise Homer, whose personality has won for her the affections of Metropolitan audiences quite as securely as her art has won their admiration, made her reappearance with the company last night and had the distinction of being greeted by one of the largest of Thursday night gatherings since opera had its start in November.




One may indulge oneself in the obvious for once in a way by recording that it was a royal greeting in an unusual sense.  The Covent Garden tradition was transplanted to the Metropolitan for one night only, for the performance was witnessed by Her Grace, or perhaps it is her Royal Highness—it is a long time since the Almanach de Gotha has been consulted-the Duchess of Connaught and her daughter, the Princess Patricia as the guests of the Whitelaw Reids.




So much for what the society reporter might say at considerably greater length.  But the greeting to Mrs. Homer upon her return to activity upon the Metropolitan stage, was a royal one from quite another viewpoint.  She appeared as Orfeo in Gluck's masterpiece, 
Orfeo et Eurydice
 and after the first act, had to answer a half dozen enthusiastic recalls and to receive almost each time armfuls of flowers.




Mrs. Homer's impersonation of 
Orfeo
 has always been one of her finest achievements, and last night it was again notable for the features that have made it of such ingratiating quality.  It is conceived in the spirit of Gluck; there is no attempt to engraft upon the material of this genius of the eighteenth century any fiery quality of twentieth century passion or tumultuous grief.




Nevertheless there is genuineness in the expression of both the grief and sentiment of the Greek god, who seeks his beloved Euridice in the realm of Pluto and leads her forth when he finds her at last in the Elysian Fields.  Mrs. Homer sang with the necessary restraint and yet with emotional beauty of tone.




(IRVING WEIL)