Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 60
60.—HOW TO SECURE A SUCCESSFUL DÉBUT.
We have spoken in another sketch of the incident where Madame Alboni discovered a rascally cabal and averted threatened confusion on the occasion of her début in an Italian city; and also of the efforts of friends to make a singer's first appearance a great success, or of her enemies to make it a fiasco. The Alboni incident was an illustration of the latter. We relate below an illustration of the opposite kind.
Christine Nilsson was introduced to the English people under the auspices of Colonel Mapleson, perhaps the best known of modern opera managers. At that time she was almost unknown, but Mapleson knew that he had secured a jewel, and determined that her English career should be launched with becoming enthusiasm.
He also knew that should the thing be poorly done, should the hired applause be given at a wrong time, or, as has sometimes been the case, before the singer has had time to utter a note, failure instead of success would follow his well-meant plans.
So Mapleson hired some twenty-five boatmen from the Thames and gave them tickets to various parts of the house, with the understanding that they were not to applaud Nilsson,—the lady wearing a pink dress and who appeared in the first act; but, moreover, they were promised a shilling apiece every time they, by their applause, caused the curtain to go up after the first act.
By this arrangement disaster was averted and the rivermen took care to earn five or six shillings apiece that night. Mapleson knew that if he could once get the songstress a fair hearing, her own abilities would carry her through and make her reputation. But if the public did not realize her great talents on the first night, or if, rather, the lack of trumpet blowing in advance of her coming lost her an enthusiastic reception, it would be up-hill work to have her merits appreciated thereafter. But from this he was saved by his wit and the boatmen's horny hands.