CHAPTER XV.

CHARLES SANTLEY AND ANTOINETTE STERLING.

(1857-1873.)

1841 became a memorable date in the earlier period of Manuel Garcia's career as a teacher, as bringing Jenny Lind to his studio in Paris. In the same way, 1857 stood out in the later portion, as bringing to him the first pupil in London who was to achieve a world-wide reputation, Sir Charles Santley. In making this statement I leave out of account Julius Stockhausen, since his lessons had been commenced in Paris.

The circumstances which brought about the advent of Santley are related in his 'Reminiscences':--

"One morning in the autumn of 1857 I received a message to go round to Chorley's house immediately, as he had something of importance to communicate. It was to the effect that Hullah was going to perform the 'Creation': he could not offer me any terms, but if I was satisfied with this opportunity of making an appearance in public, he would be pleased to accept my services to sing the part of Adam."

Santley accepted at once, having only a few weeks before returned from Italy, where he had been studying under Nava.

"I went to try over the duet with the lady who was to represent my _malheureuse cotelette_, and found someone seated in the drawing-room, who made me a distant bow on my entrance. After a few moments' hesitation I ventured to remark, 'Miss----, I presume.' 'No,' she replied, 'I am Miss Messent, and I understand I am to have the pleasure of singing the duets in the last part of the "Creation" with you. Miss---- was to have sung them, but for some unexplained reason has given up the engagement.'"

The reason the baritone only learned some years after. Miss---- had made a small reputation already, which she declined jeopardising by singing duets with a young man fresh from Italy.

"I dined with Chorley on the evening of the concert, and met Manuel Garcia, who accompanied us to St Martin's Hall.

"I succeeded better than I had dared to hope. When I walked home with Chorley and Garcia after the performance, the latter expressed himself as pleased, but pointed out certain defects to be overcome, at the same time offering to render me any assistance in his power."

It was an offer of which Santley promptly availed himself, and he commenced lessons forthwith, the maestro being at the time in his fifty-third year, his pupil a lad of twenty-three. The profit which was received during those lessons the baritone has never forgotten. As to his personal memories of the maestro,--"It would require a whole book to say what I should be bound to say," he wrote to me in a letter during the preparation of the present memoir.

The feelings with which the world-renowned baritone regards his old master may best be summed up in the words inscribed on the photograph which used to stand on the grand piano in Señor Garcia's home: "To the King of Masters." Moreover, I remember his remarking one day, while I was studying under the maestro, "You are learning from the greatest teacher the world has ever known." Nor is he less ardent in his admiration for Mme. Viardot-Garcia. "No woman in my day has ever approached her as a dramatic singer," he once said; "she was perfect, as far as it is possible to attain perfection, both as vocalist and actress."

Santley is himself remarkable as a man no less than as an artist. After having made a name which will ever be honoured and reverenced throughout the musical world for high ideals nobly sustained, he is, though over seventy, still able to make before the public occasional appearances, in which he shows how the old Italian method, coupled with a fine intellect and dramatic instinct, can triumph over mere weight of years. As one listens it seems impossible to believe that a man who sings to-day with all the fire, vigour, and passion of youth, can have been before the public for anything like so long a period as half a century. Up to the present time Sir Charles Santley remains unquestionably the greatest baritone this country has produced.

Shortly after Santley had commenced lessons under the renowned teacher, he received an invitation to a party at Chorley's to meet a pupil of Garcia, Gertrude Kemble, who was about to make her _début_ at St Martin's Hall in the Christmas performance of the "Messiah."

"I would have much preferred staying at home with a book," he writes. "I had made my first appearance at the Crystal Palace in the afternoon, and felt depressed with the poor impression I had made. The party, which had been arranged to give Miss Kemble an opportunity of singing before a small assembly previously to confronting the larger audience at St Martin's Hall, included the famous Adelaide Kemble, Virginia Gabriel, John Hullah, Mr and Mrs Henry Leslie, and others.

"I felt great sympathy for the poor trembling girl who was about to undergo an ordeal for which she was not physically prepared. I learned afterwards her voice had been much strained by an incompetent professor during her long residence in Hanover. Manuel Garcia had done wonders with it since her return to England, but she still had great difficulty in controlling the upper register, which naturally added considerably to her nervousness. Nevertheless she sang exceedingly well and with great intelligence.

"This party," he concludes, "which I would willingly have shirked, proved a very important event for me,--in less than eighteen months Miss Kemble became my wife."

The year 1859 was memorable for the fine work of Garcia's two pupils--Pauline Viardot and Battaille. The former revived Orphée, and achieved so great a success in the part that it stood out afterwards as one of her most famous _rôles_. The latter brought out a book on singing which reflected the greatest credit not only on himself but on the maestro from whom he had received inspiration and knowledge.

The next year, which saw the capture of Pekin in far-off China, brought with it a strange coincidence. As we have seen, some improvements in the laryngoscope had followed its invention, due to the labours of Türck and the experimental skill and acumen of Czermak, and in due course questions of priority became a bone of contention, as they had done nearly two decades previously in connection with Señor Garcia's 'Mémoire sur la Voix humaine.'

For the annual prize awarded in 1860 by the Paris Academy of Sciences, under the Montyon foundation, Türck and Czermak submitted contributions on the art of laryngoscopy. But nice points of priority were brushed aside by the Academy, and to each there was awarded a "mention honorable," accompanied by a gift of money.

This action seems to have prompted Garcia to put forward a claim for the prize in Experimental Physiology to be awarded for the year 1861. Accordingly he presented a memoir, in which he recapitulated his pioneer work, and expressed the hope that the favours meted out to the before-mentioned authors might be extended to himself. The matter does not, however, appear to have gone any further.

In this year another of his famous pupils, Mathilde Marchesi, brought out a book on singing, 'L'École du Chant,' founded on her master's teaching, and with it achieved notable success.

With 1862 there came the first tardy recognition which Manuel Garcia received from the medical world for the inestimable boon which he had conferred on them by his invention: the diploma of Doctor of Medicine, _honoris causa_, was bestowed on him by the University of Königsberg. But as the year brought in its train this pleasure, so, too, it had its compensating sorrow, for on the 10th of May, at Saint-Josse-ten-Noode in Belgium, his mother passed away at the ripe old age of eighty-four.

1868, in which Disraeli assumed the helm of State as Prime Minister, saw the advent of Antoinette Sterling, who came on to Garcia from Cologne, where she had been studying under Mathilde Marchesi.

The letter which the maestro sent to Signor Marchesi, after hearing the contralto, I am able to quote:--

_Translation._

LONDON, _July_ 17, 1864.

_To_ SIGNOR S. DE C. MARCHESI, Professor at the Conservatoire of Music, Cologne.

MOST ESTEEMED SIGNOR MARCHESI,--Miss Sterling, whom I have already heard several times, possesses a beautiful voice, but she is still a beginner. In every way I will do what little I can to continue the very excellent direction given to the studies of the young lady by your wife, to whom I beg you to present my most distinguished salutations. Pray accept the same yourself from your sincere friend,

MANUEL GARCIA.

I am very grateful for the recommendation. Farewell.

Antoinette Sterling ever regarded Señor Garcia with the greatest affection and esteem, and used to delight in recalling the following memories of the days when she had studied with him. I have set them down before in the little memoir of her career already published.

When Miss Sterling, as she then was, went to the maestro for lessons, he was so carried away with the voice of his new pupil that he could not bring himself to keep her to exercises, as was his custom in the case of others. Almost at once he began taking her through all the Italian operatic _rôles_. One day she was struggling to execute a particularly difficult phrase, and at last burst out crying, "You ought not to give me these songs until I have mastered the exercises properly." "You're quite right," he answered, and took her back to the exercises once more.

Until Antoinette Sterling commenced her training under him she used the full extent of her voice, singing from the D below middle C to the top soprano C sharp--a range of three octaves. She sang all the contralto arias from opera and oratorio, and at the same time felt equally at home with the soprano _rôles_.

The first thing her new master did on hearing her was to make the remark, "If you continue as you have been doing, do you know what will happen? Look at this piece of elastic. I take it firmly at the two ends and stretch it. What is the result? It becomes thin in the middle. If I were to continue to do this constantly, it would get weaker and weaker, until finally it would break. It is thus with the human voice. Cultivate an extended range, and keep on singing big notes at both extremes, and the same thing will occur which we have seen with the elastic. Your voice will gradually weaken in the middle. If you persist in this course long enough, it will break, and the organ be rendered useless." For this reason he strongly advised her to abandon the higher notes, confining herself to genuine contralto music. Moreover, with the reduced range, he told her strictly to avoid practising on the extremes, to use them as little as possible, and build up her voice by exercising the middle portion of it. It is an invaluable hint for all singers. His pupil realised the wisdom of what he said, and from that time onwards ceased to use the top half octave of her voice.

After a return to America, during which she was engaged to sing at Dr Ward Beecher's church, she came over to England again to make her _début_. Señor Garcia heard of the forthcoming appearance of his old pupil, and tried to find out her address. She in her turn had lost that of the maestro. In consequence of this they did not have an opportunity of meeting again till the eventful evening had passed, and all London was ringing with the new contralto's praises. He had, of course, been present at Covent Garden, and at the end of her first song went round to the door of the artist's room to congratulate her. The attendant met him with the stereotyped reply, "We cannot let any one in." "But I insist--I _must_ see her. She is my pupil." The request, however, was met with stolid indifference, and he was obliged to return to his seat.

When, finally, they did meet again, she at once recommenced her lessons, and these were continued, as regularly as engagements would permit, until seven years after her _début_.

On July 5, 1869, Manuel Garcia was elected a member of the Committee of Management at the Royal Academy of Music, with which he had now been connected for twenty years.

Twelve months later he was brought to a sudden realisation of the catastrophe that shook Europe, for July saw the commencement of the Franco-Prussian War, all the French being ordered to leave German territory. In consequence of this edict Mme. Viardot was obliged to move from Baden-Baden, where she had been teaching; and, like many others, she made her way to England. On her arrival there with her husband she settled down in London near her brother, till the march of events rendered it possible for her to return to the Continent.

Of this period Mme. Noufflard, daughter of Lady Hallé, has given some recollections.

"While Mme. Viardot was taking refuge in London, her house was the rendezvous of every talent; and I well remember one evening, when serious music had given way to fun, Saint-Saëns sitting at the pianoforte to improvise the 'rising of the sun in a mountainous country.' In the twinkling of an eye Manuel Garcia cut out a large halo from a newspaper, and was seen slowly emerging from behind a high-backed chair, his full face, with its paper decoration, disclosing itself at the top, as the last triumphant chord was struck.

"I recollect him also as the talented and patient teacher, always full of interest even in those whose efforts were feeble. To his musical talents was added the charm of courtly manner, never-failing wit, and love of fun. The last he gave a fresh proof of but two or three years ago, when in answer to the pleasure shown by some friend, who had not seen him for some little time, in meeting him again at a _soirée_, he replied with the characteristic foreign shrug of the shoulders, 'Que voulez-vous? Je suis trop occupé pour avoir le temps de mourir.'"

Mme. Noufflard also tells how the maestro used to visit her parents at Greenhays in Manchester:--

"I was too young at the time to remember any details of those very interesting days; but my earliest recollections of Signor Garcia are those of the delight with which we children always greeted him, as he was ever ready to enter into our pursuits and to enjoy a romp. I remember, as quite a child, having undertaken to teach him German, and the solemnity with which he took his so-called lesson each day, although the teacher knew far less of the language than did the pupil. As we grew older he would often take us to his rooms near Manchester Square, and explain the invention and uses of his laryngoscope with as much care and precision as if we were the whole College of Surgeons listening to him."

What need to recapitulate the events which followed on the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War? In less than three months Paris was besieged, a calamity followed in October by the pitiful surrender of Metz.

With the January of 1871 came the capitulation of Paris, followed by the conclusion of peace in February, the revolt of the Commune, and the second siege of the capital in March.

Señor Garcia must have been glad indeed that he had come to England nearly a quarter of a century before, and was thus able quietly to pursue his work as a teacher, instead of remaining in Paris to be upset once more, as he had been with the Revolution of '48.