Word: damrosche
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...programs at Manhattan's Metropolitan Opera House were done in gold one night last week. On either side of the stage hung laurel wreaths topped by the dates 1885 and 1935. What happened there in 1885 has long been a matter of history: Dr. Leopold Damrosch was mortally ill with pneumonia and his 23-year-old son saved two performances by conducting for him. Last week Walter Damrosch was in the Metropolitan's pit once more, not to say farewell but to celebrate a golden jubilee...
...jubilee performance he chose to conduct excerpts from Fidelio and from Die Meistersinger, for which he made his own English translation. On a different occasion critics would have commented lengthily on Baritone Lawrence Tibbett who was stalwartly enacting his first Hans Sachs. But the evening was Walter Damrosch's and the time one for testimonials. Applause reached its peak after Mrs. August Belmont had spoken of his "unsurpassed influence in developing among the American people a love for great music." Excessively modest was the hero's reply: He felt like a beggar made king...
...emigration from Germany took place in 1871 when Son Walter was nine. His father was greatly respected as conductor of the Breslau Orchesterverein. As his friends and often as his guests the elder Damrosch had such great musicians as Liszt, Wagner, von Bulow, Joachim, Auer, Rubinstein. In Manhattan he quickly established himself as Wagner's most ardent champion. He founded the New York Oratorio Society, then the New York Symphony. In 1884 he gave the fashionable new Metropolitan its first taste of German opera. Death came before he could finish the season...
...played second violin in his father's orchestra. At 18 a Newark (N. J.) choral society engaged him as conductor. When his father died suddenly, young Walter, a little dazed, assumed all his responsibilities. Railroad accommodations were poor and a hazardous blizzard was raging but under Walter Damrosch the Metropolitan played its scheduled engagement in Chicago. Later in Boston he pacified angry orchestramen who threatened to strike because their passage back to Manhattan was booked on the Fall River steamship line...
Hard-working Walter Damrosch toured the U. S. for years thereafter, with nis own Damrosch Opera Company and with the New York Symphony which played in scores of towns where great orchestral music was completely unknown. While still in his 20's the young conductor learned the value of diplomacy, the power of a bouquet. He kept peace among his jealous singers. He made friends with Andrew Carnegie who built Manhattan's big concert hall. When visiting Carnegie in Scotland he met Maine's James G. Elaine and soon after married Elaine's Daughter Margaret...