11
MUSICAL COURIER
March 15, 1923
EXTRAORDINARY SUCCESS OF
Charles Hackett
The American Tenor
/vr THE
TEATRO LICEO, BARCELONA, SPAIN
--------------JANUARY, 1923-------------------
Hackett’s Debut in Tosca
In his debut as Gavaradossi in Tosca, Charles Hackett kept the promises that have been made in advance for him. His voice is of beautiful quality and handled with splendid mastery, obtaining most admirable effects. Both the arias had to be repeated.and there was equal applause for him in the duets and after the torture scene, as well as numberless recalls at the end of each act. —El Liberal.
The public at the Teatro Liceo confirmed the judgment which has been passed elsewhere on Charles Hackett when he made his debut in Tosca. He possesses an excellent voice, fresh and extremely agreeable. He sings with the highest art, without resorting to those tricks which are intended solely to catch the applause of the public and he captivated the audience. In fact the triumph obtained by Hackett at the Liceo was really epochal. He is the only tenor who has ever been called upon to repeat not only the aria of the first act, but that of the third. The applause took the form of a genuine ovation.—La Prensa.
We have great admiration for singers like Charles Hackett who stand for style and musicianship in singing, in contrast to those others who are looking only for effects. There is no doubt that Hackett is an artist-tenor and not a tenor with the mere appearance of being an artist; and this determination to stick to good singing and honest straightforward interpretation of the composer’s wishes costs him nothing in popularity for the applause was tremendous. There was a series of real ovations from the first act to the final fall of the curtain.—La Tribuna.
Charles Hackett came here preceded by a reputation won on both sides of the Atlantic. He is the possessor of a sympathetic voice of agreeable timbre, even throughout, which he is able to modulate at will, obtaining exquisite elegance and delicacy when he wishes, as he proved in the romance of the first act. The best proof that his vocal medium and artistic talent are most unusual lies in the fact that this aria—which he sang marvelously and had to repeat in answer to a delirious ovation—generally passes quite unnoticed by the audience. He was also called upon to repeat the Lucevan le Stelle, which he sang with great beauty of expression.—Diario Mercantil, Jan. 20.
performance a great crowd waited for him and with demonstrations of continued approval, insisted on following his carriage to the door of the Grand Hotel, attracting a throng of passersby and disturbing traffic for some time.—Diario Mercantil.
The Barber of Seville—
It is only justice to say that chief honors of the performance went to Charles Hackett as the Count Almaviva. He even exceeded the expectations which had been aroused by his success in Tosca. He showed again that he is a great singer, of notable vocal resources, with a rich voice of long range and that it possesses the necessary flexibility to overcome superlatively well the unusual difficulties of the part. Especially praiseworthy was his conscientious attention to the wishes of Rossini in his vocal interpretation of the role. He made a fine figure too and his acting was always spontaneous and effective. It is needless to say that at every opportunity there was prolonged and boisterous applause. He presented an exquisite and interesting Almaviva, celebrating again a new triumph both as singer and actor.—Diario Mercantil, Barcelona, January 25.
Charles Hackett, in singing the Count of Almaviva, gave us a pleasant surprise for he is one of the few tenors who sing the part as the composer wrote it, note for note, never having the bad taste to change the composer’s wishes for the sake of making effects that win applause for himself. He sang the serenade of the first act marvelously and kept on singing that way throughout the evening. The great public that filled the theater tendered repeated ovations.—Prensa, Barcelona, Jan. 26.
The Second Performance of Tosca—
The second performance of Tosca was one of the bright lights of the season. Hackett confirmed the impression which he made in his debut. He was obliged to repeat the aria of the third act. The public, in fact, clamored for it a third time. At the close of the performance a great throng from the audience gathered about the stage door, where he was the object of renewed ovations.— El Dia Grafico.
At the second performance of Tosca there was just as much enthusiasm for Charles Hackett as at his debut. At the end of the performance when the celebrated tenor left the theater for his hotel, a numerous group of admirers, who had patiently waited for him despite the coldness of the night, followed him with spontaneous demonstrations of admiration on his way home, something almost without precedent in the theater life of Bar-celona.—El Correo Catalan.
Charles Hackett was a Cavaradossi such as is only too rare in the theater today. He won a genuine triumph—one of those triumphs that go down in the annals of the theater—for the public passed from one enthusiastic demonstration to another, according him well deserved ovations after the aria of the first act, that he had to repeat, and the aria of the third, which he sang marvelously, as we have not heard it sung in many years. The public, throughout the whole theater, upstairs and down, demanded its repetition, which was graciously conceded and part of the audience tried to force him to sing it a third time. After the
RETURNING TO AMERICA FOR CONCERT TOUR, SEASON 192324־
Manager: CHARLES L. WAGNER D. F. McSweeney, Associate Manager
511 FTftr! Avenue, New York