Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 6
1835-04-08
A pleasant day. I finished the first Volume of Schiller’s Thirty Years War which is more interesting than any Novel. Then to the Office where I did not remain long for meeting with my Carpenter, Thomas Ayer, I took him right up with me to look at a house in Acorn 112Street which is for sale and which I had thoughts of buying. We examined it from top to bottom and I authorized him to attend the sale and bid to a certain limit for me. Thence to my house where I gave him some directions about repairs. I had only time enough left at the Office for Accounts and Diary. Walk which was but short. Wilhelm Meister.
Afternoon continued Marmontel but he becomes far less interesting when he goes into a historical sketch of the events of the Revolution than he was when giving an Account of the incidents in his private life. It is a little singular that I am reading de Grimm at the same time.
I went to the Theatre. The Marriage of Figaro. The Countess by Miss Cushman. This is her debut. She is a young girl just brought forward to try her chance. There is something interesting and yet painful in this kind of spectacle. The trial is no small one for it depends upon the most treacherous organ possible. On the whole she succeeded better than could be expected. Her voice is good though not firm in the middle notes. The high and the low which require exertion seem to develope her powers. She wants to get the tread of the Stage and the power of managing her voice in large spaces. Her singing is perhaps too artificial for a beginning. The first point is to understand the place. After this has become so familiar as to allow the voice full play, then any ornament can be added with effect.1 The music of the Opera was just performed well enough to see how beautiful much of it was, and how much better it might be done. I have seen the piece often but never with a strong cast.2 Met a gentleman who accosted me with a request for the House3 which it appears I have purchased. Home.
Inasmuch as Charlotte Cushman’s career in the theater would reach heights that were unprecedented for an American actress, this “first performance on any Stage,” has all the importance which CFA senses in it. Miss Cushman, a native of Boston and a direct descendant of Robert Cushman of Leyden and Plymouth, was brought to the professional stage by the poverty of her widowed mother, who had five children to support. Charlotte had studied singing for some years with James Paddon, an English organist and vocal teacher in Boston. She came to the attention of Mrs. Wood during one of that artist’s earlier engagements in Boston; through Mrs. Wood’s influence she became the pupil of James Gaspard Maeder, music director at the Tremont Theatre. The Boston newspapers gave Miss Cushman’s debut extensive coverage; the principal reviews are reprinted in Edward G. Fletcher’s “Charlotte Cushman’s Theatrical Debut” (Univ. of Texas Studies in English, 1940, p. 166–175).
Miss Cushman’s career as a vocalist was to be but of short duration. In less than a year she would turn to the spoken drama and almost instantaneous success in tragic roles. See below, note to entry for 15 Oct.; for her career in general, see
DAB
and
Notable American Women
.
The present performance at the Tremont Theatre had special deficiencies. There was a chorus for the concerted pieces, but apparently the only roles that were sung were those of the 113Countess and Susanna, played by Mrs. Maeder. The male roles seem to have been spoken; the role of Cherubino was omitted, apparently because Charlotte Watson, who sang it in all later performances, would not arrive until 13 April. (Columbian Centinel, 8 April, p. 3, col. 4; 11 April, p. 2, col. 4.)
On Acorn Street.