Recital tour: Mme. Charlotte Maconda, prima donna soprano

              RECITAL TOUR
Figure


Mme. CHARLOTTE MACONDA


Prima Donna Soprano




Direction CHARLES L. WAGNER Steinway Hall, Chicago.





MADAME CHARLOTTE MACONDA



T
HIS SUPERB ARTIST needs no introduction to the music-loving public, as she has appeared in all the leading cities in concerts, recitals, and oratorio, besides filling engagements with all the prominent Spring Musical Festivals, both in the East and West.




With a vocal organ of richest quality and remarkable range, a beautiful, charming personality and that undefinable something called magnetism, this great artist charms her hearers and has won the praise of the public everywhere.  The press notices that we give amply testify to the warm welcome which her every appearance secures for this most brilliant artist.




She has had appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Theodore Thomas Orchestra, the New York Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Festival Orchestra, and at the Metropolitan Opera House with the Metropolitan Orchestra.




Unlike some singers of her rank, Madame Maconda has never resorted to any sensational methods to secure free advertising.  Her career has been as honorable as it has been brilliant.  No press agent has ever been engaged to send out silly tales about eccentricities as a herald to announce the opening of a new season, but every year the great public looks forward to the appearance of this beautiful singer.




It may be necessary to state that Madame Maconda is something more than a coloratura soprano.  She sings the popular coloratura arias to be sure, but the quality of her voice has enabled her to sing dramatic music like 
Aida,
 in which she was especially successful last year, when that opera was presented in concert form en tour with the Theodore Thomas Orchestra.




One of her most recent appearances was in Chicago, Jan. 6, of this year, under the auspices of the Amateur Musical Club.  In speaking of that concert, the critic of 
The Musical Leader and Concert-Goer
 writes as follows:

An artist comparatively unknown to recital audiences in Chicago is Madame Maconda, one of the most accomplished American sopranos now before the public.  She is a rare example of the old-school coloratura in a young woman, so much so that it is not unusual to call her 'The American Sembrich.'  In style, in careful musicianship, in phrasing and in brilliancy, she is extremely remindful of the great Polish singer at her best, only that Madame Maconda has the advantage of a fresh, youthful voice.  Of all audiences, the Amateur Musical Club of Chicago is the most difficult, and it is frequently said by artists that they are more fearful of the Chicago Amateur Club audiences than any other, but on this occasion the club was well satisfied to give chic, dainty Charlotte Maconda a reception worthy her delightful work.  Her voice is beautifully and skilfully produced; it is of great range, depth, power, dramatic and lyric, and there would seem to be nothing she cannot achieve, if the program she gave be any criterion, for it contained sufficient variety of vocal interpretation to run the gamut of emotion.  It was one of the most enjoyable recitals ever heard at the Amateur Club.


Figure
MADAME CHARLOTTE MACONDA




MISS GEORGIA KOBER



M
ISS GEORGIA KOBER, pianist and accompanist, has been engaged for this tour.  Miss Kober needs no introduction to the musical public.  She has appeared in nearly all the large cities from the Atlantic seaboard to as far west as Omaha, where she played the Grieg Concerto with the Thomas Orchestra.  Her repertoire embraces the most prominent concertos and standard musical literature.  In regard to her performance of them the press comments speak amply.




PRESS NOTICES



PROVIDENCE, R. I.
—The chief composition on the program was Rossini's 
Stabat Mater,
 which is so familiar as to require no praise at this time.  In this grand work the vocal skill of Madame Maconda was demonstrated in a manner that showed her an artist of the truest type.—


Telegram.




GALESBURG, ILL.
—One of the most genuinely enjoyable numbers of the matinee was the one given by Georgia Kober, pianist.  The soloist, who has a very attractive presence, was a favorite with the audience from her first appearance, and her playing subsequently but strengthened the feeling.  The Concertstuck, by Chaminade, was played with a perfection of technique and magnetic temperament that completely won her hearers.  With the brilliancy of tone was ever present a rich, sympathetic quality that continually added a charm to the presentation.—


Evening Mail.




CLINTON, IA.—
Madame Maconda not only pleased, she enraptured and charmed.  Her perfect tones showed to the full the splendid training she had.  Every note was perfect, the intonation was perfect.  Her highest notes came clear, true and pure as the song of a bird and with equally as natural an outburst.  In response to repeated applause after 
Louise,
 Madame Maconda sang 
Frühlingslaufen,
 
Voices of Spring,
 one of the Strauss waltzes, and a great favorite with Sembrich.  It was given with a delicacy of touch and abandon that was charming.  In the 
Jewel Song
 and the 
Prison Scene
 Maconda was magnificent.—


Herald.




CEDAR RAPIDS, IA.
—At Iowa City Miss Kober scored a veritable ovation, double encores being demanded and the highest enthusiasm aroused in the audience.  The applause was so spontaneous and prolonged as to be entirely gratifying even to one of such habitual success.  Miss Kober's piano playing was very much appreciated.  She exhibited a combination of natural talent and technical accomplishment that made the rendition of her work of a high order.—


Daily Republican.




TORONTO, CANADA.
—The principal soloist was Madame Maconda, the well known soprano, who sang the polonaise from Ambroise Thomas' 
Mignon,
 Mierch's 
Since We Parted,
 Dr. Arne's 
The Lass With the Delicate Air,
 the brilliant air from 
Perle du Bresil,
 substituted for Handel's 
Farfaletta,
 and the 
Bell Song,
 from Delibe's 
Lakme.
  Madame Maconda rendered the display bravoura numbers with much brilliancy and surety of execution.  Her voice seems to have gained both in fullness and sweetness since she first appeared in this city.  A lullaby that she gave as an encore was a charming piece of delicate, subdued and expressive singing.—


Globe.




NEW YORK.
—Miss Kober's playing was brilliant in the extreme.  Her phrasing was very artistic and her pedaling the perfection of the art.—


Musical Courier.

Figure
MISS GEORGIA KOBER



MORE PRESS NOTICES



ANN ARBOR, MICH.
—Charlotte Maconda and Giuseppe Campanari carried off the honors of last evening's concert, carried them with an easy grace which showed the experience to be very much a matter of course to them.  * * * Overture from the 
Magic Flute,
 Mozart, followed, and then came Maconda, a picture in white, sparkling with gold.  Her progress on the stage was somewhat interrupted by a crowded condition of musicians, instruments and chairs, but the soprano took the delay with a smile and finally arrived at her destination—and sang.  
Queen of the Night,
 aria, from 
Magic Flute,
 Mozart, is of extreme difficulty and calls for extraordinary range and technic.  All requirements were met in the soprano of last night.  Brilliant and beautiful both in voice and personality, Madame Maconda won the audience.  And come back she must, no allowance being made by the imperative audience for the amount of disturbing chairs in the way, so she came with smiles and pretty, taking gestures, and the dainty Strauss waltz given with a bewitching rhythm.  In her second number of the program, recitative and aria, 
Ah! fors' e lui,
 Verdi, Madame Maconda seemed to reach perfection in tone and execution.  Soft, sweet and bird-like, her voice sounded, clear as a bell and heard in every inch of University Hall.  The enthusiastic people didn't want to let her go and would not until she sang again, repeating the latter part of the selection.—


Argus.




CHICAGO.
—Amongst the many talented pianists in America, it is doubtful if there is any who can equal Miss Georgia Kober.  She is a born musician and has studied under the best masters.  Her technique is such that she is able to interpret any music.  Miss Kober has given many concerts here, and last summer had the honor of being soloist with the Thomas Orchestra at Omaha, where the critics had nothing but praise for the young artist.—


Der Westen.




DUBUQUE, IA.
—The next selection, an aria from 
Traviata,
 was one of the rare treats of an evening filled to overflowing with good things for the true lover of music.  Madame Maconda is a soprano of magnificent range and capabilities, her rendition of the difficult selection being notable for the power of suppressed emotion, and the idea of reserve force which it convyed.  Her voice is of an intense sweetness, and the soft, liquid notes seemed to roll forth as freely as from the joyous songster in the copses of the wildwood, glorifying in the very intoxication of living.  The demonstration of appreciation which was accorded to Madame Maconda amounted to an ovation, and her frequent gracious acknowledgment seemed only to lend volume to the enthusiasm which would not be appeased until she responded to an encore.—


Times.




GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.
—The soloists also rank among the best artists that have ever assisted at the Schubert Club concerts.  Madame Maconda is an artist.  She has a pure, beautiful, high soprano, the quality of which is brilliant, sweet and flexible, possessing also an admirable resonance.  Her head tones were particularly clear.  Madame Maconda has an excellent method of voice placement, while her style is finished and artistic.  A change was made in last night's program, and she sang, instead of the Mozart aria, the polonaise from 
Mignon.
 Later in the program she sang a delightful group of songs—
Solverg's Lied,
 by Grieg, with beautiful tone effects, although possibly it lacked something in breadth of dramatic expression.  The Strauss serenade was full of color and beauty.  The 
Chanson de Juliet,
 by Godard, also showed to excellent advantage the beautiful colorature of Madame Maconda's voice.—


Herald.




LINCOLN, NEB.
—In a Mozart aria Madame Maconda showed herself mistress of the art of vocalization in its most difficult phases, but in her second number, an aria from the opera, 
Louise,
 the beauty and power of her tones were more apparent.  As an encore to the Mozart aria, she sang a waltz song by Strauss, but though she was recalled twice after her second aria, she did not grant another number.—


State Journal.




GRINNELL, IA.
—Miss Georgia Kober, pianist, scored the triumph of the evening in Grieg's tremendous Concerto in A minor, which is so familiar to Grinnell music lovers.  Miss Kober gave a remarkable performance.  She surmounted the technical difficulties of this tremendous composition with evident ease and gave it a strong and satisfying interpretation.  To a hearty encore she responded with a delicate, tuneful waltz unfamiliar to Grinnell ears, but which bore all the ear marks of one of the Moszkowski waltzes.  Miss Kober appeared here with the Redpath company four years ago.  It would be a great pleasure to hear her here in a recital program.—


Herald.




MAINE.
—Then followed the feature of the concert, Maconda in her rendition of the 
Mad Scene,
 from the 
Hamlet
 of Ambroise Thomas, an air which, like the 
Jewel Song
 in 
Faust,
 is an epitome of the composer's genius, and a tour de force of colorature vocalization.  Madame Maconda has established herself as a favorite with our Festival audiences, and she was given a welcome that fully testified to that fact.  She sang the aria in beautiful style.  Her flexible voice rang true through all the intricacies of the song and she infused something of the dramatic quality of the mad Ophelia that was illuminating and thoroughly artistic.  The orchestra did full justice to the airy accompaniment, and the whole rendition elicited prolonged applause, to which Madame maconda responded with a Strauss waltz, in which she disported with graceful ease, rippling out the gliding waltz rhythms in great form.  The chorus did full justice to Pinsuti's delightful 
Spring Song,
 and the Neidlinger 
Serenade,
 by Madame Maconda, and chorus proved to be one of the fetching numbers of the program.  Madame Maconda sang the solo with exquisite tenderness of sentiment, outlining it in fine lines of tone, as it were, against the murmurous humming of the chorus.  The whole effect was delightfully poetic, laden with tender sentiment and enwrapped in summer atmosphere.—


Daily Eastern Argus.




TROY, N. Y.
—Maconda is no real stranger to Trojans, although the superb voice she displayed was.  It is several years since she appeared in this city, and time has wrought wonderful improvement in her voice and her art.  The former has developed power and opulence and the latter has attained a maturity to a degree that places her above the plane of the ordinary concert singer.  She demonstrated her ability to fill the large auditorium, and the purity, the absolute neatness of articulation and the charm of her delivery commanded instant attention.  Grieg's 
Sunshine Song
 was given with daintiness of accent, beauty of tone, and the difficult Strauss Serenade was so well sung that the singer was recalled and sang Delibes' 
Maids of Cadiz.
  Later in Gounod's 
Mignon
 and the aria by David, Maconda showed that she had mastered brilliancy of execution.  She possesses a voice which must have been naturally pliable and sympathetic, and these essential qualities are reinforced by technical training that disarms criticism.  The voice is fine, the method is fine, and there are heart and brains behind them.—


Record.





MANZ ENGRAVING COMPANY THE HOLLISTER PRESS CHICAGO