Metropolitan Opera Archives

Note: After the quintet in Act III, a presentation honoring Anton Siedl briefly interrupted the performance. Seidl appeared on stage with the cast and was presented with gifts from admirers and gave a brief speech of thanks.

Review 1:

Review and account in The New York Times:

THE GERMAN OPERA

A TESTIMONIAL PRESENTED TO CONDUCTOR ANTON SIEDL

Last evening's performance at the Metropolitan Opera House was the final one this season, with the exception of this afternoon's presentation of "Rienzi," of the German Opera Company. The opera was Wagner's "Die Meistersinger," and a great crowd of people assembled to hear it. The orchestra chairs, the balconies, and the galleries were packed, the audience being distinctively German. The observance of Lent by several of the box owners and the absence from the city of others left several boxes vacant - the only places, by the way, that were vacant in the great house. The announced presentation to the conductor, Herr Anton Seidl, had very much to do with the presence of so large an audience.

The performance of "Die Meistersinger" was carried on by Herren Alvary, Fischer, and Basch, by Frau Seidl-Krauss, and by Fräulein Brandt, who filled, as heretofore, the principal roles in Wagner's opera. The representation was ended at a very late hour, although the intermissions were unusually brief. Notwithstanding this fact, and in spite of the comparative tediousness of the second act, the audience remained until the curtain fell upon the closing scene. At least one artist will be identified for many years with the local public's memories of "Die Meistersinger." Reference is made to Herr Fischer. whose Hans Sachs, as well as one of his minor efforts - his Sergeant Bombardon in Brüll's "Golden Cross" - will recall the rich voice and genial presence of the German basso even after the operas he has been seen in shall have dropped out of the répertoire. Herr Alvary's Walther, too, is to be cited as a picturesque and artistic representation, and Herr Basch's Beckmesser claims praise for uncommon originality and dramatic vividness. The performance last night differed in no material way from its forerunners.

When the curtain fell after the quintet in the third act the audience applauded long and heartily. The curtain rose and fell and rose again, and Herr Seidl was with the singers, and his appearance was the signal for the volume of applause to swell and grow into an appeal for something besides a bow from the spectacled and evening-dressed conductor. But the curtain fell. It rose again, however, for the audience caught a glimpse of two ushers bearing down the centre aisle two cases of polished mahogany. Then the group of singers were seen together, and Herr Alvary went to the footlights and received first the silver loving cup, already described in THE TIMES, which was presented to Herr Seidl by a number of his admirers, including H. T. Finck, Henry Clausen, M. Sterne, William Steinway, Oscar R. Weber. Joseph Pulitzer, George Ehret, E. W. Levey, Oswald Ottendorfer, Gustav Schirmer, Louis Raecke, Siegfried Gruner, Jacob Ruppert, Louis Geilfuss, William Hoffman, the Misses Steelman, F. Von Inten, E. R. A, Seligman, J. N. Seligman, John Von Glahn, P. G. Hubert, Jr., S. S. Sandford, Edward Schuberth, Robert Schroeder, L. M. Howland, Frank Ehret, H. Schmidt, H: Sohmer, John Weber, H. Kroeger, M. Reinert, H. E, Howland, N. Stetson, P. Mauer, S. Wollenberg. S. B. Mills, John Bayer, E. J. Witthaus, Duncan D. Parmly, and Henry Marquand. From other friends there was in the second case, which Herr Alvary also passed from the usher to the conductor, a handsomely bound volume of the score of "Tristan and Isolde." The conductor bowed his thanks, and the curtain fell. But the audience wanted a speech, and the conductor was called to the footlights and spoke a few words in German, a full translation of which follows:

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: From a full heart I thank you for the gracious and kind reception which I have met at your hands. I shall always remember with pleasure the two years of my New York sojourn and the splendid, appreciative, and inspiring public of New York. I thank you."

Then Herr Seidl bowed himself off the stage, resumed his place in the orchestra, and the opera went on to its conclusion without further incident.

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