Italo Campanini - English Summers, American Winters

English Summers, American Winters

In the winter of 1878-79 Mapleson undertook a major opera tour of the United States, in which Campanini was his principal tenor. The company also included such well known singers as Etelka Gerster, Minnie Hauk, Trebelli, Valleria, Galassi and Del Puente. Luigi Arditi was the conductor. It visited Washington, D.C., Boston, Chicago, St Louis, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati and New York. Campanini sang opposite Gerster in Il talismano and La traviata, and with Marie Roze in La favorita, and a very wide range of operas was presented including Faust, Il flauto magico, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Ruy Blas, Robert le Diable and Der Freischütz, in addition to much of the repertoire already mentioned. The series culminated with a benefit concert in New York for flood victims at Szegedin in Hungary (Gerster's birthplace).

Some surprises were, however, held in store for New York in the following year. The London 1879 season had added Minnie Hauk, and Clara Louise Kellogg to the female company (still led by Nilsson, Trebelli and Gerster), and Campanini was supported by the tenors Giuseppe Fancelli, Frapolli and Brignoli. Fancelli was infuriated by Campanini assuming the title 'Primo Tenore Assoluto'. The October 1879 tour season, in which Maria Marimon was among the party, visited New York, and went on to Philadelphia, Chicago, St Louis, Detroit, Cleveland and elsewhere. Campanini conquered New York. On 23 October at the Academy they gave the American premiere of Carmen, with Minnie Hauk, Clarice Sinico (Micaela), Ernesto del Puente, and Campanini in his now famous role of Don José. On December 3 he appeared as Elvino in La sonnambula, with Marimon, del Puente and Mme Lablache, and on December 12 was Corentino in Meyerbeer's Dinorah, again with Marimon. Later in the season, when Mdlle Marimon was unable to complete a performance of Dinorah at Philadelphia, Campanini (in the audience) and Annie Louise Cary stepped in to sing the last acts of Il trovatore instead, and Campanini's rendition of "Di quella pira" brought the house down and saved the box-office.

The London Her Majesty's season of 1880, with Nilsson and Gerster, saw presentations of Faust, La sonnambula, Carmen and Aida under Michael Costa, and also a Lohengrin conducted for Mapleson by Hans Richter. But the major new event of the season, in July, was Boito's Mefistofele, with Nilsson, Trebelli and Nannetti, and with Campanini as Faust. Costa conducted it 'in his old, resolute and vigilant manner', and the production 'lent a special distinction to the season.' This then went on tour to New York (under Arditi, as usual), where Campanini led the cast for the American premiere at the Academy of Music with Annie Louise Cary, Alwina Valleria and Franco Novara. The same venue saw Mapleson's production of a revised form of Les vêpres siciliennes headed by Campanini and Cary with del Puente and Galassi in support. Campanini performed, too, in La favorita.

Mapleson had by now recruited Luigi Ravelli to relieve the burden on Campanini, who had become his only principal tenor. During the tour, which this time also took in Pittsburgh and Indianapolis, Mapleson inaugurated 'Sunday evening concerts', the first half of which was usually a performance of Rossini's Stabat Mater given by Valleria, Cary, Campanini, Galassi and Novara.

The London season of 1881 resumed the run of Mefistofele, and the October tour in New York saw Camapanini perform in Lohengrin (with Minnie Hauk, Anna de Belocci, Galessi and Novara) and in Carmen (Hauk, Valleria and del Puente, the original line-up.) In February 1882, the company was at the second great Cincinnati Opera Festival, where Campanini appeared again as Don José (opposite Hauk, del Puente and Louise Dotti). The company also staged Les Huguenots, Faust, Fidelio, Magic Flute, William Tell and Lohengrin. Meanwhile, the company also rehearsed, and then presented, Meyerbeer's L'Africaine, in which Campanini played Vasco da Gama opposite Hauk and Galassi; and in the spring 1882 Ernani, Don Giovanni and Les Huguenots were produced at the New York Academy of Music.