The Postcard
A postcard that was posted in West Kensington, London using a ½d. stamp on Wednesday the 3rd. October 1900. It was sent to:
Mrs. Thrale Perkins,
99, Sydney Place,
Bath.
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau was an international style flourishing between 1890 and 1910 that sought to modernize design, breaking from 19th.-century historical imitation.
It is characterized by sinuous, asymmetrical, and organic lines inspired by nature—plants, flowers, and vines—often incorporating a "whiplash" curve.
The movement aimed to unify fine and applied arts, heavily influencing architecture, graphic design, jewelry, and furniture.
The Casino Girl
The Casino Girl to which the sender refers was a popular 1900 American musical comedy, produced by George Lederer at New York's Casino Theatre, starring Mabelle Gilman.
It ran for 51 performances starting on the 19th. March 1900, and closing on the 9th. June 1900 before touring. Set in Cairo, the show featured music by Ludwig Engländer and a book by Harry B. Smith.
The Casino Girl later ran for 193 performances in London at the Shaftesbury Theatre from the 11th. July 1900, to the 22nd. January 1901.
Billed as the "twin sister" to The Belle of New York, the musical is a two-act comedy. Songs included "Slave Dealer's Song" and "My New York". The production had its initial run and a revival within the same year due to its popularity.
The Dream of Gerontius
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, the 3rd. October 1900 marked the disastrous premiere in Birmingham of the Dream of Gerontius.
The Dream of Gerontius, Op. 38, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman.
It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory.
Elgar disapproved of the use of the term oratorio for the work (and the term occurs nowhere in the score), although his wishes are not always followed.
An oratorio is a large-scale musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists, typically based upon a sacred or serious narrative. Unlike opera, it is performed without costumes, scenery, or acting, often in churches or concert halls. Examples include Handel's Messiah and Mendelssohn's Elijah.
The Dream of Gerontius is widely regarded as Elgar's finest choral work, and some consider it his masterpiece.
The work was composed for the Birmingham Music Festival of 1900, with the first performance taking place on the 3rd. October 1900, in Birmingham Town Hall.
-- The Disastrous Performance
The Dream of Gerontius was badly performed at the premiere, but later performances in Germany revealed its stature.
The Birmingham chorus, all amateurs, struggled to master Elgar's complex, demanding and somewhat revolutionary work. Matters were made worse by the sudden death of the chorus master Charles Swinnerton Heap. His elderly replacement, William Stockley, found the music beyond him.
The conductor of the premiere, Hans Richter, received a copy of the full score only on the eve of the first orchestral rehearsal.
The soloists at the Birmingham Festival on the 3rd. October 1900 were Marie Brema, Edward Lloyd and Harry Plunket Greene. The first performance was, famously, a near disaster.
The choir could not sing the music adequately, and two of the three soloists were in poor voice.
Edward Lloyd was certainly very nervous and, far from under-estimating the task, suffered great anxiety on this occasion, being near the end of his career and not in particularly good voice. The long and taxing nature of the role, and the frequent standing up to sing and sitting down again, had an unfortunate effect.
Elgar was deeply upset at the debacle, stating:
"I have allowed my heart to open once –
it is now shut against every religious
feeling & every soft, gentle impulse for
ever."
However, many of the critics could see past the imperfect realisation, and the work became established in Great Britain once it had had its first London performance on the 6th. June 1903, at the Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral.
In the first decade after its premiere, the Roman Catholic theology in Newman's poem caused difficulties in getting the work performed in Anglican cathedrals, and a revised text was used for performances at the Three Choirs Festival until 1910.
