But I will make a few memoranda at
least of the best one I knew.
For the elderly New Yorker of to-day, perhaps, nothing were more
likely to start up memories of his early manhood than the mention of
the Bowery and the elder Booth, At the date given, the more stylish
and select theatre (prices, 50 cents pit, $1 boxes) was "The Park,"
a large and well-appointed house on Park Row, opposite the present
Post-office. English opera and the old comedies were often given in
capital style; the principal foreign stars appear'd here, with Italian
opera at wide intervals. The Park held a large part in my boyhood's
and young manhood's life. Here I heard the English actor, Anderson, in
"Charles de Moor," and in the fine part of "Gisippus." Here I heard
Fanny Kemble, Charlotte Cushman, the Seguins, Daddy Rice, Hackett
as Falstaff, Nimrod Wildfire, Rip Van Winkle, and in his Yankee
characters. (See pages 19, 20, "Specimen Days.") It was here (some
years later than the date in the headline) I also heard Mario many
times, and at his best. In such parts as Gennaro, in "Lucrezia
Borgia," he was inimitable--the sweetest of voices, a pure tenor, of
considerable compass and respectable power. His wife, Grisi, was with
him, no longer first-class or young--a fine Norma, though, to the
last.
Perhaps my dearest amusement reminiscences are those musical ones. I
doubt if ever the senses and emotions of the future will be thrill'd
as were the auditors of a generation ago by the deep passion of
Alboni's contralto (at the Broadway Theatre, south side, near Pearl
street)--or by the trumpet notes of Badiali's baritone, or Bettini's
pensive and incomparable tenor in Fernando in "Favorita," or Marini's
bass in "Faliero," among the Havana troupe, Castle Garden.
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