Hervé's _Chilpéric_ is hailed in 1870 as a welcome substitute for the tyranny of Schneider and Offenbach; as for _Tannhäuser_, _Punch_ was apparently very much of the same way of thinking as the members of the Jockey Club in Paris, who received it with whistles and cat-calls in 1861:--
A Solo by Mr. Crusty, after hearing a Selection from the Opera of _Tannhäuser_
"The music of the future," eh? Well, some may think it pleasant! But when such trash again they play, I'll for the future hope I may Not be among the present!
Mario's farewell benefit, on July 19, 1871, when he played Fernando in _La Favorita_ for the last time in London, was a scene of "roaring and wreaths" described with mingled humour and emotion by _Punch_, who hailed the retiring idol as the Prince of Lyric Artists:--
Though lost to ear To memory dear I ne'er shall look upon his like again!
[Illustration: TO ARTISTS, COMEDIANS, AND OTHERS
Anyone who wishes to study the true dramatic expression of the Tragic Muse in the act of drinking the last bitter cup of despair to the very dregs, should watch a young mother teaching the elements of music to her first-born.]
Concert music between 1841 and 1857 began and ended, so far as _Punch_ was concerned, with Jullien. To what we have written in the previous volume of Jullien's disasters and death, it may here be added that _Punch_ bade him God-speed on the grand tour in 1858 which was to restore his fortunes, and when the end came was active in canvassing for funds to support his widow and family, who were left totally unprovided for. Also, that he repeated his tribute to Jullien's great services as an educator of the "shilling-paying public." The taste of the musical million was still a matter of concern to _Punch_. His detestation of street bands, Ethiopians, Germans, Tyrolese, and Italians--principally emissaries of Verdi, his pet aversion--amounted almost to an obsession. The names of the popular songs in 1858--"Jim Crow" and "Keemo Kimo" were certainly not romantic. At a concert held in St. James's Hall in June, 1858, a negro song was sung with the delectable refrain: "Flip up in de scidimadinc, jube up in de jubin jube." _Punch_ found some solace, however, in the concerts at Sydenham, where _morceaux_ of Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Handel, served up by Costa, took the sickly taste of _Traviata_ out of his mouth. _Punch's_ own education was advancing, but he had not yet learnt to spell Liszt's name properly. The extravagances of Liszt worship, which certainly reached a pitch never surpassed in the annals of musical idolatry, are burlesqued in a series of paragraphs aimed at Wagner as well as his son-in-law to be. Writing of Liszt's "fearful engagement" in Dresden, in 1859, he facetiously asserts that "Not less than two pianos were killed under him, and upwards of two dozen music-stools severely wounded." The "encore nuisance" had already found in _Punch_ a strenuous critic; and a tumultuous scene at the Surrey Hall, when Sims Reeves had withstood the demands of a rowdy section of the audience for half an hour, provoked an indignant fulmination against the brutal exigencies of concert goers. Sydenham was in the main a centre of musical culture, but there was a slight lapse from grace at the end of this year when the "Calliope" or "Steam Orchestra" was imported from America. It was in reality only a big barrel organ, which gave out more steam than harmony. But the Crystal Palace redeemed itself in the following year by the performance of the _Elijah_, at a Mendelssohn commemoration, by 3,000 performers before an audience numbering 18,000. Sims Reeves, Miss Dolby, and Madame Parepa were the soloists; and _Punch_ could think of no better praise of the last-named singer than to say that she reminded him of his Clara. For there was a Clara in those days, too: Clara Novello, the friend of Charles Lamb, all unmusical though he was, who had won the praise of Schumann at the outset of her distinguished career as a very great and noble oratorio singer. _Punch_ went to hear her last farewell at the Crystal Palace in the autumn of 1860; "went, heard, and for the thousandth time was conquered."