Youth in The Hague; Study and Marriage in Paris

Previous scholarship has misstated the place and date of de Vries's birth, now known to be The Hague, 12 April 1824.Footnote ⁴ It is no surprise that she was reported to be younger than her actual age—this is an old and widespread practice on the part of artists and their managers—but it remains a mystery as to why her birthplace was reported as Deventer. Perhaps once she became known outside the Netherlands, the soprano may have wanted to hide her poverty-stricken background, as she was born in a poor Jewish Ashkenazi community in The Hague, where both her younger sister and father died prematurely.Footnote ⁵ De Vries reportedly sang in local cafés as early as age thirteen, probably to supplement the income of her widowed mother and her two younger brothers.Footnote ⁶

The cellist and teacher J. van Gelder soon recognized her talent and took her under his wing, teaching her the rudiments of music. The next logical step would have been for her to enroll at the Royal Music School in The Hague, where van Gelder taught and where tuition was free for students from low-income families, although it cannot be confirmed that de Vries attended, as early school records do not include pupils’ names.Footnote ⁷ As a cellist at the Théâtre Français in The Hague, van Gelder, who predicted her fame one day, may have helped her become a paid choral member at this theater.

King William II (1792–1849) provided the first springboard to her career. William II, who enjoyed attending the French-language opera, financed both the Royal Theater and the Théâtre Français in The Hague until his death in 1849.Footnote ⁸ (The Hague prided itself on its international French climate, with the upper classes speaking French and following the latest French fashions.) With the King's financial backing, the Théâtre Français soon developed an excellent reputation, ranked artistically as third after Paris and St. Petersburg.Footnote ⁹ The King also financed talented musicians and composers so that they could study abroad, and among those selected was de Vries (then still van Os).Footnote ¹⁰ Baron Sirtema van Grovestins, the King's general director of the Royal Theater, drew up a contract for her to study for two years at the Paris Conservatoire, starting in October 1843.Footnote ¹¹ Because single women then were legal minors until age twenty-five, her widowed mother signed the contract, stipulating that her daughter was to sing with the Théâtre Français for two years following completion of her studies in Paris.

Paris was the music capital of Europe when de Vries, her mother, and her two younger brothers arrived. The young soprano's scholarship was likely the main financial support for the family; they lived close to the Conservatoire, where she studied with Fromental Halévy, Daniel Auber, and Marco Bordogni, a former Italian operatic tenor who had been appointed professor at the Conservatoire in 1820. Bordogni enjoyed an excellent reputation as a teacher; no doubt de Vries used his singing method and practiced his many sets of vocalises, which remained in use for over a century.Footnote ¹² Realizing that successful divas needed to be good actors, she wrote in 1844 to King William to request for funds to pay for acting lessons; her request was granted.Footnote ¹³ It was in Paris that she also met David Moses de Vries (1816–72), a Dutch man from Amsterdam—like Rosa, he was the eldest child of a Jewish family—who had been studying voice with Jean-Antoine Géraldy, a well-known professor of voice.Footnote ¹⁴ When the two were married de Vries was accorded official status as an adult.Footnote ¹⁵ By the time the young couple returned to the Netherlands in the fall of 1845, they had a young daughter.Footnote ¹⁶ That de Vries was able to combine a full-term pregnancy with a heavy workload characterized her career.

An Unpleasant Start

Soon after returning to The Hague, de Vries introduced herself by giving the traditional three debut performances. Her official debut took place on 11 December 1845 at the Royal Theater in The Hague, as Rachel in La Juive. The theater was full, everyone eager to witness for themselves this young native singer.Footnote ¹⁷ A week later, she sang at a special concert for the royal family, and the King expressed his satisfaction.Footnote ¹⁸ Her second debut was on 27 December as Alice in Meyerbeer's Robert le diable, and the third was on 31 January 1846 as Pauline in Donizetti's Les Martyrs. The press was positive, although reviewers felt she needed more experience.Footnote ¹⁹ In January she made a successful first appearance in Amsterdam at a concert at Felix Meritis, the leading Amsterdam music venue until the opening of the Concertgebouw in 1888.

De Vries's promising start in the Netherlands was soon marred, however. She was aware of her obligation to sing with the Théâtre Français for two years after her training in Paris, but to her dismay Baron van Sirtema Grovestins presented her a contract as an understudy, at an understudy's salary. She refused to sign, arguing that she was the sole source of income for her family and that the amount offered (4,000 francs per year) was insufficient. The baron, in response, took her to court. The case, filed in April 1846, was not settled until December, with the court handing down a mixed decision that the claims of both plaintiff and defendant were unsustainable. Both parties saved face, but de Vries's position as a young, upcoming opera star battling a powerful figure in The Hague had gained national attention, and the general impression was that the soprano had won the case. When the leading Dutch music periodical Caecilia referred to this court case many years later, it asserted that it had been decided in her favor.Footnote ²⁰

Meanwhile, rather than wait for the verdict, de Vries, her husband, and presumably their daughter had left the country at the end of April 1846, traveling on funds donated by an unknown benefactor. They went to Lyons, the second city of France, where she made her three debut appearances to enthusiastic audiences at the Grand Théâtre on 22, 24, and 30 June, respectively, as Rachel in La Juive, Alice in Robert le Diable, and Valentine in Les Huguenots. She signed a seasonal contract, reportedly for 9,600 francs, and appeared nineteen times in the title role of Rossini's Semiramide.Footnote ²¹ In retrospect, the court case may have been a blessing in disguise, as it had pushed her abroad.

Toulouse, then back to the Netherlands

After Lyons, de Vries went to Paris, where she was offered a contract as prima chanteuse forte at the opera house in Toulouse.Footnote ²² There she fulfilled the customary three debut performances, again as Valentine in Les Huguenots and Rachel in La Juive, and now in a new role, Léonore de Guzman in Donizetti's La Favorite. Her salary (20,000 francs plus a benefit for ten months) indicated her powerful position at the box office, with the local press noting that unfortunately she would probably soon leave, drawn by lucrative offers from Paris. In fact, at the end of her contract de Vries and her family did return to Paris, where opera stars commanded high fees and several theaters presented opera virtually all year round.

The political situation in Paris, however, did not lend itself to operatic production (in February 1848 King Louis-Philippe abdicated and a French Republic was established, but unrest was rampant), and by October 1848 the family returned to the Netherlands.Footnote ²³ In November, Rosa and David de Vries gave two concerts in Amsterdam, with additional appearances elsewhere during the following months.Footnote ²⁴ The critical response was telling: she continually earned superlative comments; his singing, in contrast, was described only as improved since his stay abroad.Footnote ²⁵ In spring 1849 the young family moved to Brussels, where their second child, Marcel, was born on 6 May 1849.Footnote ²⁶ In reporting this birth, David de Vries recorded his profession as “artiste dramatique”; he was identified on the birth certificate as “David de Vries van Os”—a combination of his and his wife's surnames, and perhaps an attempt to enhance his status. His wife's profession was not recorded.

An important turning point occurred the next month in Paris, where de Vries visited Giacomo Meyerbeer at his home, perhaps hoping for a recommendation. In his diary Meyerbeer recorded “Visit from a Dutch (Jewish) singer, Madame Devries. She has a strong, vibrant voice, but her intonation is uncertain, and her singing seemed only average to me”; a mere seven weeks after giving birth, de Vries had apparently not regained top form.Footnote ²⁷ Meyerbeer, however, reportedly advised her to accept a proposal to sing at the Théâtre d'Orléans in New Orleans for two seasons as prima donna assoluta. Pierre Davis, manager of this theater, was in Paris at the time to recruit singers for the 1849–50 season.Footnote ²⁸ De Vries must have realized that in New Orleans she could continue to perform the same leading French-language roles she had learned in France and the Netherlands; moreover, she would have an advantage as a European diva, since opera fans in the United States judged foreign singers as superior to Americans (the same prejudice as in the Netherlands).Footnote ²⁹ De Vries took Meyerbeer's advice, signed the contract, and entered a new and important phase of her career.

Setting Sail for the New World

In the fall of 1849, the couple and their two toddlers set sail for the New World, arriving in New Orleans on 5 November after a journey of some forty days on the ship Vesta out of Le Havre.Footnote ³⁰ Often described as the Paris of America, New Orleans could boast of the Théâtre d'Orléans, a fine venue seating about 1,300 that had introduced grand opera to the city. At the same time, New Orleans was obviously very different from Paris, not least because about a fifth of the city's 115,000 residents were slaves or free people of color.

De Vries arrived at the right moment. The prolonged economic depression in America was finally coming to an end and opera was booming in New Orleans.Footnote ³¹ Critic Louis Placide Canonge praised her debut on 12 November 1849 (as Léonore de Guzman in Donizetti's La Favorite), describing her as “a fine talent in all the meanings of the term.”Footnote ³² In January she undertook the role of Hélène in Jérusalem, her first Verdi opera. When she became ill in early February, the run of this opera was interrupted, but soon continued for a total of twelve performances. Three months later (1 April), de Vries appeared in her first mezzo role, as Fidès in the American premiere of Meyerbeer's Le Prophète (one year after its first performance at the Paris Opéra). With this opera Meyerbeer launched the role of mezzo as a principal female operatic character and also introduced the figure of the mother into opera plots.Footnote ³³ The libretto would have appealed to de Vries, with its setting in the Netherlands and her role as a loving mother.

In fact, de Vries was in the final stages of her third pregnancy and a scant thirty hours after her sixth performance as Fidès, on 22 April 1850, gave birth to another daughter, aptly named Fidès.Footnote ³⁴ A mere seventeen days after Fidès's birth, de Vries was back onstage, with Le Courrier announcing that her “indisposition” had not harmed her beautiful voice.Footnote ³⁵ Although the critic for Le Courrier believed that the role did not suit her voice, he nevertheless commended de Vries's performance of the famous aria “Ah, mon fils” for its “exquisite and profound sentiment which belong only to grand artists.”Footnote ³⁶

New York

After the opera season closed, de Vries left New Orleans for New York. She made her debut on 4 September 1850 in the title role of Norma in a benefit performance under Max Maretzek at Castle Garden, a performance space located on the southern tip of Manhattan that catered to an economically heterogeneous audience.Footnote ³⁷ The following month (8 and 14 October) she appeared at the Astor Place Opera House with a rather makeshift cast in a mixed bill consisting of parts of Norma, a scene from Verdi's I Lombardi, and the fourth act of La Favorite, again under Maretzek.Footnote ³⁸ Then in November she again appeared as Norma in a pick-up production staged by Maretzek, with her husband taking the role of Norma's husband Pollione. David was destined to fulfill the role of the “husband of the prima donna,” and was probably financially dependent on her. Such circumstances plainly deviated from accepted antebellum norms, when men worked outside the home and women were responsible for homemaking and raising the children.

When the couple returned to New Orleans for the 1850–51 season, de Vries was sufficiently popular to hold her own against the vocal star with whom she had often been compared, Jenny Lind. Although Lind pulled in huge audiences to her concert performances at the St. Charles Theater, de Vries continued to attract crowds at the French theater.Footnote ³⁹ Lizzie Randall, a young woman visiting New Orleans, wrote to a friend in Connecticut, “Here we have heard the Opera constantly—with Mad Devries as Prima Donna—+ seen Meyerbeer's ‘Prophet’—Verdi's ‘Jerusalem’ + ‘The two Foscari’—Norma—beautiful incomparable Norma + ‘Robert Le Diable’—I have not time to tell you now of half the enjoyment these operas have given me.”Footnote ⁴⁰ The working class also admired her, as is illustrated by this comment: “Monday morning, Mme. Casimir or Mam'selle Victorine comes to sew all day like wild for seventy-five cents, and tells us how splendidly Rosa de Vries (the prima donna) sang ‘Robert, toi que j'aime’ last night. She always goes, ‘Oui, madame, toujours,’ to the opera Sunday.”Footnote ⁴¹

Sometime during her second season with the Théâtre d'Orléans, de Vries made a major decision to switch from French to the Italian opera repertory. By 1847 Italian opera had become the dominant style in the United States, and outside New Orleans there was virtually no audience in the United States for French-language opera.Footnote ⁴² If she wanted a career beyond this city, she needed to learn Italian. For the 1851–52 season, she returned to New York, joining Maretzek's huge Artists’ Union Company at Castle Garden. This engagement suggests her increased familiarity with the operatic world in the United States: not only was she was familiar with Maretzek, as she had sung under his direction the previous year, but she also knew members of the company, many of whom were Italians who had sung in New Orleans with the Havana Opera Company under Luigi Arditi.Footnote ⁴³ A critique of her portrayal of Norma during this engagement gives a sense of her style: “When she commences one of the chain-lightening roulades of hers, she attacks the note from which she starts with a precision and accuracy that are truly marvelous.”Footnote ⁴⁴ The London Musical World, comparing her to Jenny Lind, noted, “the lower register, unlike Miss Lind's, is rich in contralto quality.” Her Norma, the critic continued, was “one of the most spirited and impressive we remember to have witnessed in this city.”Footnote ⁴⁵ Although openly sarcastic, comments by George Templeton Strong, a New York lawyer who posthumously became famous for his richly descriptive diary, illustrate her powerful voice. “The louder this lady screamed,” he wrote in his diary, “the more uproariously they applauded, and her solitary windpipe was a fair match for the vociferous bravos of her 5,000 admirers.” Strong also described audience's delight with de Vries's potent characterization of Norma's denunciation of Pollione for his betrayal of her for the younger Adalgisa: “In the grand explosion scene of the second act, where that unhappy man Pollione has to be bullied and repudiated by the two ladies together, Norma holloed [sic] so, and fell foul of her recreant lover in such desperate earnest, and so made the fur fly, that the exaltation of the audience knew no bounds, and the triumph of the Signora became a fixed fact.”Footnote ⁴⁶

In 1851–52 Maretzek mounted productions both at Astor Place in New York and in Philadelphia, where they were billed as the Max Maretzek Italian Opera Company at the National Theatre.Footnote ⁴⁷ On 7 October 1851, de Vries starred in Norma in Philadelphia, with tenor Geremia Bettini as Pollione under conductor Luigi Arditi. The next evening she sang Leonora di Gusman in La Favorite, and the following Sunday she appeared in this role twice, at four o'clock and again at eight o'clock, with the New York Times reporting that she had a “triumphant night,” singing “far better” than her Norma.Footnote ⁴⁸ Maretzek and part of his cast then continued on to Baltimore, where de Vries again sang the title role of Norma at the Holliday Street Theatre.Footnote ⁴⁹

A Short-lived Opera Company

By December 1851 de Vries and other Maretzek singers had arrived in Savannah, Georgia, where they performed for two weeks with Arditi as conductor. According to Strong, the manager's failure to make arrangements for their trip back to New York was the proverbial straw to break the camel's back. De Vries, Arditi, and a number of other singers decided to set up a rival company back at Niblo's Theater, calling themselves the “Artists’ Union Italian Opera Company” (AUIO). The AUIO first staged Norma at Niblo's on 14 January 1852 with de Vries in the title role, and shortly after she sang the title role in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia and Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni.Footnote ⁵⁰ Competition between the AUIO and Maretzek's company, both with European-trained casts, was fierce, reducing ticket prices to a mere 50 cents. Maretzek complained bitterly: “Their object evidently was to cut my operatic throat with the expenditure of the cash which I had paid them,” and both companies were soon financially ruined.Footnote ⁵¹ Members of AUIO, including de Vries, had to scout around for work and went up to Boston to sing Rossini's Stabat Mater at a sacred concert on 29 February, where they were assisted by excellent musicians from the Germania Musical Society.Footnote ⁵² On 2 March de Vries also starred at Germania's nineteenth subscription concert in Boston.

De Vries's whereabouts between March and December 1852 are now unknown, but her fourth child, Maurice, was probably born in this period.Footnote ⁵³ In December she was in New York City, where she and other unemployed AUIO members were hired by William Fry to sing for his well-known series of subscription lecture-concerts at the cavernous Metropolitan Hall.Footnote ⁵⁴ She participated in five of these concerts, with the Courier and Enquirer reporting that at her first appearance she offered “a brilliant performance of the Rondo from Verdi's I Lombardi.”Footnote ⁵⁵ On 8 February 1853 Fry scheduled an extra lecture-concert, free for subscribers, with de Vries heading a huge cast in the Finale of the first act of Fry's grand opera Leonora. The Tribune described the Finale as “a bravura of unsurpassed difficulty in 3/4 time, unaccompanied” and that “Madame de Vries had to return and give it again, which she did with brilliancy and accuracy.”Footnote ⁵⁶ A mere two days later, de Vries assisted the internationally renowned pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829–69) in his American debut on 10 February 1853, with a “most refined” audience that included former president Martin Van Buren.Footnote ⁵⁷ She also appeared with Gottschalk at his second concert at Niblo's on 17 February. Among those present this time was the phenomenal German soprano Henriette Sontag (1806–54); perhaps the basis for future cooperation was born that evening between de Vries and Sontag, who had also studied with Bordogni in Paris.

At a benefit concert for William Fry at Metropolitan Hall on 1 March 1853, soloists included de Vries and Sontag's bass singer Luigi Rocco, plus tenor John Frazer. After this last appearance with Fry, de Vries headed to Philadelphia to appear again as supporting artist for Gottschalk, singing “Leise, leise, fromme Weise” from Weber's Freischütz at the recently enlarged Musical Fund Hall.Footnote ⁵⁸ According to a contemporary Dutch source, Marietta Alboni (c.1824–94), a talented Italian contralto who had arrived in New York in June 1852, heard de Vries sing at this concert and invited her to give some concerts together; they performed Arditi's showy duet, “Una notte d'amore.”

Figure 1. Title page of Una notte d'amore by Luigi Arditti [sic], “sung by Madame Marietta Alboni and Sig. Antonio Sangiovanni and also by Madame Rose De Vries and Signora Vietti.” New York: William Hall & Son, 1852.

After Maretzek returned to New York from an adventurous Mexican tour, he gathered remnants of his opera company, including de Vries, for new productions. On 22 April 1853 she appeared in the title role of his lavish Lucrezia Borgia, together with Alboni and the unreliable tenor Lorenzo Salvi (1810–79).Footnote ⁵⁹ The Musical World reported “overflowing houses” for this opera, that had “never been given in this country with half so extraordinary vocal resources, and with such overpowering effect. Fancy Alboni, Rose De Vries, Salvi, Beneventano, Rosi, and San Giovanni leading off a chorus!—the volume of tone is prodigious.”Footnote ⁶⁰ The season's final Maretzek production was Mozart's Don Giovanni, with de Vries reaping compliments for her Donna Anna.

The Arditi–De Vries Company

That year New York saw de Vries's last appearance on 26 May 1853 at a benefit concert for Arditi at the Metropolitan Hall. Participants also bid farewell to Alboni, who was returning to Europe.Footnote ⁶¹ De Vries then teamed up with Arditi to become joint impresarios of an itinerant opera company on a strenuous North American tour lasting from June 1853 to August 1854.Footnote ⁶² Theirs was one of the many self-sufficient Italian companies to operate in America in the 1850s.Footnote ⁶³ The troupe, remarkably large, consisted of some forty members, including six principals, a chorus, and an orchestra. Their heavy schedule—feasible thanks to the many newly constructed rail lines—consisted of at least twenty-nine cities, including six visited a second time.Footnote ⁶⁴ According to Thomas Kaufman's detailed chronology of this fifteen-month tour, the troupe began with two weeks in Montreal, followed by Toronto, where de Vries performed the title role in Norma at the Royal Lyceum Theatre on 8 July 1853.Footnote ⁶⁵ In Toronto they rounded off their stay with Rossini's Stabat Mater, a custom, which according to critic George Upton, lent touring troupes “a certain odor of sanctity.”Footnote ⁶⁶

The troupe continued (chronologically) on to Buffalo, Cincinnati, Louisville, Cincinnati, Saint Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, Charleston, Savannah, Columbia (?), Augusta, Mobile, New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis, Nashville, Louisville, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Buffalo, Syracuse (?), Toronto, and Rochester.Footnote ⁶⁷ The first to stage opera in several cities, including Cleveland, and Buffalo, the troupe was also “the earliest to present Italian opera (in Italian)” in other cities.Footnote ⁶⁸ In a punishing timetable de Vries sang a total of eleven leading roles, including the mezzo role of Amina in Bellini's La Sonnambula. In St. Louis they presented ten operas, with de Vries singing Maria for the first time in Donizetti's La figlia del reggimento, new to their repertoire. In Louisville she sang eleven principal roles, and in Cincinnati another ten, each within a three-week period. This punishing schedule, brutal by today's standards, was typical for itinerant opera companies of the period. The troupe performed on average every other day, and de Vries alternated with the second soprano, Elise Siedenburg, a German whom she may have gotten to know through the Germania Musical Society in Boston. On occasion they extended their stay in a city when the demand warranted it; they quickly arranged a second performance of Donizetti's Belisario in Richmond and gave an extra concert at Metropolitan Hall with Rossini's Stabat Mater and part of his Moses in Egypt.Footnote ⁶⁹

The production costs for such a large troupe were high, and if possible, subscriptions were used to secure their finances. Noting that some of the artists commanded “salaries as high as from $500 to $800 per month,” their agent H. D. Palmer explained that “The number of subscribers required for the five nights is three hundred, and out of our population if there is not that many who are willing to encourage this, the highest class of musical entertainments, we will be sadly disappointed.”Footnote ⁷⁰ Despite such talk of “the highest class of musical entertainments,” newspaper ads for the Arditi–De Vries troupe were placed under the entertainment column, next to announcements for acrobatics, melodrama, farce, minstrels, and the like. Nor was attendance limited to the elite, and audiences featured patrons of different classes and races. Some cities offered cheaper, segregated seating sections called the “Quadroon Gallery” and the even less expensive “Colored Gallery.”Footnote ⁷¹ The troupe often had to mount productions in ill-equipped theaters. After staging four operas in December 1853 at Risley's Varieties in Washington, the last two performances were held at the National Theatre because the “inefficiency of place [Risley's] . . . prevented their doing justice either to themselves or the public.”Footnote ⁷² At the same time, opera was regarded by some as an art form that could elevate moral character by touching the soul with beauty.Footnote ⁷³ A Richmond review noted, “It is really gratifying to witness the growing taste for music, and particularly for operatic performances in our city, among all classes. Its effect upon morale is most happy, while it will increase the desire among parents to give their children musical educations, and see them become proficient in a science which adds so largely to other accomplishments.”Footnote ⁷⁴

David de Vries, who accompanied his wife on this lengthy tour, was involved in various organizational tasks. At some point he seems to have acted as joint impresario with Luigi Arditi, with the above-cited notification of their move to the National Theatre in Washington signed, “Messrs. Arditi & DeVries, Directors of the Italian Opera Company.” Similar to other touring groups, the Arditi–De Vries troupe often appeared under various names. In Washington, the Daily Evening Star even identified David de Vries as head of the troupe: “Signor De Vries’ Italian Opera.”Footnote ⁷⁵

American reception of de Vries on tour was, on the whole, positive. A short write-up after her first appearance in Pittsburgh noted that in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor, she “achieved a splendid triumph” before “a brilliant and crowded audience.”Footnote ⁷⁶ A Richmond critic wrote: “Madame De Vries excelled all her past efforts here. Her Norma was indeed a superb performance. She acted the character with great spirit and fidelity.”Footnote ⁷⁷ Although little of the tour is known, there was apparently one exceptionally nasty experience after a performance in Detroit. Thugs armed with clubs, apparently hired by the theater manager, had stormed into the ladies' dressing rooms at the end of the evening, demanding more money than agreed upon in their contract. Faced with the threat of violence, they had to pay up.Footnote ⁷⁸

Interlude: Henriette Sontag

Towards the end of February 1854, Henriette Sontag, who was in New Orleans, presumably contacted de Vries. Subsequently, Sontag, her assistants, and impresario Bernard Ullman joined the troupe in Mobile, Alabama.Footnote ⁷⁹ After three concerts and four operas in Mobile, everyone headed to New Orleans for more joint performances, with Sontag engaging the entire troupe with its orchestra.Footnote ⁸⁰ Shortly before their first scheduled appearance on 6 March at the Théâtre d'Orléans, the upstairs galleries collapsed, resulting in deaths and injuries among the audience. The performance was rescheduled at the St. Charles Theatre.

De Vries now had to play second fiddle to the more famous Sontag, who starred in most of the principal soprano roles, but on 10 March de Vries sang Norma, and on 31 March she appeared as Elvira in Ernani. On 22 and 27 March the divas appeared together in Mozart's Don Giovanni, with de Vries as Donna Anna and Sontag as Zerlina. They also shared the stage at the Odd Fellows Hall on 23 March in Rossini's Stabat Mater. The two women may have gotten on well together, as Sontag also asked de Vries to go to Mexico with her, reportedly offering her a hefty monthly salary of $2,500. De Vries turned her down, and later in Louisville de Vries received a message that Sontag had died of cholera in Mexico City on 17 June 1854, aged forty-eight.Footnote ⁸¹

After Sontag had left for Mexico, taking with her several of the best Italian singers, the Arditi–De Vries troupe carried on in New Orleans as best they could. De Vries now had to compete with performances at the recently restored Théâtre d'Orléans, where she had launched her American career in 1849. The troupe's success was limited, so they continued on, making seven more stops on their way to Toronto for a second time.

On Without Arditi

After performances in Rochester in August 1854, de Vries and Arditi seem to have split up. Their fifteen-month collaboration had been arduous. In his Reminiscences, Arditi claims prime responsibility as impresario and does not mention David de Vries. He writes that after accompanying Alboni for eight months in 1852, he “became joint Impresario with Madame Devries, an epoch I cannot look back upon with anything like pleasure or satisfaction. The position itself involves a terrible responsibility. Apart from the loss of money, and of one's normal allowance of good temper, an Impresario is compelled to make enormous sacrifices (sous entendu to the complete exclusion of his own interests) in order to bring about a satisfactory issue to his efforts.”Footnote ⁸² Apparently, although Arditi named de Vries as a “joint impresario,” most of the managerial work and responsibilities had fallen on his shoulders.

While Arditi toured with soprano Giulia Grisi (1811–69) and tenor Giovanni Mario (1810–83), de Vries continued on a tour of her own. In fall 1854, she teamed up with the Belgian pianist Martin Lazare (1829–97), staging a benefit concert at the Old Cathedral in Saint Louis. Her rendering of “Inflammatus” and the duet “Quis est homo” from Rossini's Stabat Mater, accompanied by Lazare on organ, reportedly brought tears to everyone's eyes and raised a considerable sum.Footnote ⁸³ She then appeared at Chicago's new Metropolitan Hall on 3 November.Footnote ⁸⁴ The following month (8 December), “this great artist and her troupe” gave a concert at the Odd Fellows’ Hall in Nashville.Footnote ⁸⁵ Besides Lazare, assisting artists were baritone Morini, whom she had met via the Havana Opera Company, and violinist Pasarelli (or Pazarelli). Her program well demonstrates the vocal concerts offered by lead singers at the time. She opened with the famed “Casta Diva” aria from Bellini's Norma, and also sang the showy “Echo Song” by Carl Eckert, a virtuoso work popular on both sides of the Atlantic, originally written for Sontag and sung by many leading sopranos, including Lind and Adelina Patti.Footnote ⁸⁶ By now she had added a popular favorite to her repertory, “Home, Sweet Home,” demonstrating her confidence in singing in English. “A large and fashionable audience welcomed Madame De Vries again to Nashville,” a critic noted, continuing, “We can do nothing but praise [her] singing . . . and if there was any doubt last night dispersed it, that she is indeed, one of the best singers who has ever visited this country.”Footnote ⁸⁷

The beginning of 1855 brought de Vries to the east coast, in venues such as Carusi's Saloon in Washington on 6 February. The previous day, the Evening Star cited de Vries as a role model: “her face and figure are so particularly fine. . . . Her robust health is an example worth imitation, and the rich, full music of her middle notes is so suggestive of sound lungs, that I wish every woman could look at, and listen to her . . . she looks like a queen and sings like an angel, and I have been in love with her over head and ears ever since I heard her Norma.”Footnote ⁸⁸ Such an accolade was valuable, for it portrayed de Vries as a healthy and vigorous woman, in stark contrast with other foreign prima donnas, many of whom capriciously cancelled performances because of real or feigned illness. De Vries, her husband, pianist Lazare, and her two supporting artists then went to Richmond, where she appeared at the National Theatre with selections from popular operas. The Daily Dispatch, comparing her favorably to Jenny Lind, announced she would soon be returning to Europe.Footnote ⁸⁹

Perhaps she and her husband first had to pick up their children in New Orleans, where they arrived in early March 1855. Le Courrier announced two final concerts on 9 and 16 March, both at the Odd Fellows Hall. Then on 5 May “Madam DeVries’ Opera Company” performed at the Metropolitan Hall in Chicago.Footnote ⁹⁰ By June they were back in New York, where on 25 June she was to sing Donna Anna in an Italian performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni with the LaGrange Troupe under Arditi at the spacious, recently opened Academy of Music.Footnote ⁹¹ Because the French coloratura soprano Anna de la Grange, who was to perform as Zerlina, suddenly became ill, this performance was postponed until 27 June. Critics praised the singers but were less positive about Arditi's conducting.Footnote ⁹²

Plans to return to Europe were probably thwarted by another pregnancy and the birth of their fifth child, Herman.Footnote ⁹³ In fact, for almost a year de Vries's whereabouts are again unknown. By the spring of 1856, tensions were fast rising between the North and South, and her career had reached a turning point similar to that of 1848, when European political turmoil had driven her to America.

London, Valencia, Turin, Milan, and Barcelona

De Vries was not the only artist to leave America in the approach of the Civil War. Many musicians, including Italian singers with whom she had worked, such as tenors Lorenzo Salvi and Geremia Bettini (1822?–65), and soprano Angiolina Bosio (1830–59), also returned to Europe. While in the United States, de Vries may have exchanged information with colleagues, perhaps learning that in London the pay was good. Her debut there with the Royal Italian Opera Company at the Lyceum Theatre in Mozart's Don Giovanni in June 1856 was not particularly successful, however. The Spectator stated, “We never before saw Mozart's masterpiece so lamely performed.” De Vries was described as “a stout matronly lady, as unlike the heroine as can be imagined,” although the critic allowed that, “she has a good voice, and sings like an artist.”Footnote ⁹⁴ Henry Chorley was less convinced: “The fine voice of the lady could not give the slightest interest to her performances.”Footnote ⁹⁵ On 1 August 1856, de Vries sang at the final concert of a new series at the gigantic Crystal Palace, which could hold some 6,000 people. The list of vocalists is impressive, including Giulia Grisi, Mario Matteo, and the bass Carl Formes (whom de Vries had replaced when he had fallen ill for an Amsterdam concert in 1849).Footnote ⁹⁶ De Vries's contribution to the lengthy program was limited to Eckert's ever-popular “Swiss Echo Song.”

In fall 1856 she headed to Spain, where she performed at least fourteen times in Valencia at the Teatro Principal, singing at least three new roles: Norina in Donizetti's Don Pasquale, Gila in Verdi's Rigoletto, and Abigail in his Nabucco.Footnote ⁹⁷ In November a number of singers who had performed in Valencia went to Turin, where de Vries is reported to have had a season's contract at the Reggio Theater.Footnote ⁹⁸ A Turin periodical commented on her role Abigail: “your high tones . . . went so smoothly, so clearly, and so relaxed, that it would have been impossible to listen to you and not cheer with enthusiasm.”Footnote ⁹⁹ The summer of 1857 she returned to London for more performances with the Royal Italian Opera Company and then headed to Milan, where on 28 December 1857 she made her La Scala debut in Verdi's Nabucodonosor.Footnote ¹⁰⁰ Directly after she went to Barcelona, where according to a Dutch newspaper, she made her debut on 8 April 1858 in Giovanna d'arco, probably at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.Footnote ¹⁰¹ De Vries then returned to her native country, where she had last performed before leaving for the United States some ten years earlier.

A Star Back Home; Further Travels Abroad

During the 1850s the Netherlands enjoyed a period of economic growth; cultural life thrived. When de Vries arrived back in September 1859, she was welcomed as a star, enjoying honors comparable to Sontag and Lind. This time national pride was a key element in her success. Her performances, according to reviews, were greeted with exuberant applause, with bouquets and wreaths repeatedly thrown onstage and men tossing their hats into the air; often the brass section honored her with fanfares from the orchestral pit. Other gifts followed, befitting her status as a national star: theater directors and royalty alike presented her with diamonds, pearls, and silver.Footnote ¹⁰²

De Vries's stature in the Netherlands may also be measured by the musicians with whom she appeared. In February 1860 she assisted Clara Schumann at her Rotterdam concert, while in March she appeared with Alfred Jaell, and at a special concert by Hans von Bülow.Footnote ¹⁰³ Dutch merchandisers capitalized on her renown, producing a special “Rosa de Vries” liquor with her portrait on the label, and a bingo game with cards portraying her in nine leading roles.Footnote ¹⁰⁴ Sheet music for the Dutch national anthem was reissued “as sung by Mrs. Rosa de Vries.”Footnote ¹⁰⁵ For those who could afford it, two lithograph portraits were available, including one by the well-reputed Frederik Weissenbruch.

Figure 2. Rosa de Vries, prima donna of the Hollandsche Opera in Amsterdam, lithograph by F. H. Weissenbruch (1828–87), based on a drawing by Joseph Schubert (1816–86).

In spring 1860, de Vries made a farewell tour throughout the Netherlands, giving at least twenty concerts, among them a fundraiser in The Hague to benefit the widows and orphans of fishermen drowned at sea.Footnote ¹⁰⁶ After one season in the Netherlands, de Vries departed for Berlin, where she made her local debut as Norma.Footnote ¹⁰⁷ Although de Vries was scheduled until mid-March 1861 at Berlin's newly built Victoria Theater as first donna soprano assoluta d'oblige with Achille Lorini's Italian opera company (and with a reported contract for 50,000 francsFootnote ¹⁰⁸), for some reason her agreement fell through and she litigated against Lorini. She won her court case, reportedly receiving 10,000 francs from him.Footnote ¹⁰⁹ Her farewell to the Netherlands turned out to be premature, and in January 1861 she was back with the Amsterdam Italian Opera Company. Once again she created Norma evening upon evening to rapturous applause. Rossini's Semiramide and eight Italian performances of Meyerbeer's Roberto il diavolo followed; in the latter she switched to the original French for the famous aria, “Robert, toi que j'aime.”

Upon completing her engagements in the Netherlands, de Vries spent the next few years performing to great acclaim in Italy and Portugal. In Naples she appeared as prima di soprano assoluta at the Teatro di San Carlo in Verdi's Il Trovatore. Regarding her 26 November 1861 appearance in Nabucco, Il Corriere de’ Teatri wrote, “With her perfect accent, sonorous voice, with her unsurpassed acting, masterly in even the smallest details, she electrifies her listeners.”Footnote ¹¹⁰ The following spring she created the title role in the world premiere of Ernesto Viceconte's Luisa Strozzi at the same theater.Footnote ¹¹¹ By winter 1862 she was back at La Scala, where she had made her debut five years earlier, singing Teodora in Mercadante's Il bravo; instead of Teodora's first aria, she inserted an aria from Mercadante's Emma d'Antiochia in the three performances of this opera.Footnote ¹¹² The custom of insertion arias, mainly practiced by women, also benefited the opera house, as Hilary Poriss explains: “The better they sang, after all, the more likely they were to attract large audiences to the box office.”Footnote ¹¹³ In January 1863, de Vries appeared as the doomed female lead in La Scala's last opera of the season, Verdi's Macbeth.Footnote ¹¹⁴ Her next stop was Lisbon, where she appeared at the Teatro de São Carlos in autumn 1863.Footnote ¹¹⁵

Back to the Netherlands; The End of a Career

To honor her mentor, van Gelder, on 25 January 1864 de Vries took part in a concert celebrating his fiftieth anniversary as a cellist. The elderly man was particularly touched to have her at his side.Footnote ¹¹⁶ During the coming months she performed in French-language productions with her first employer, the Théâtre Français in The Hague. Her schedule in The Hague and other Dutch cities was heavy, but with roles she knew well: Fidès in Meyerbeer's Le Prophète, the title role in Norma, Léonore in Le Trouvère, Valentine in Les Huguenots, Rachel in La Juive, and the title role in Lucrèce Borgia. Even as her career came to a close in the Netherlands, operagoers remained electrified by her, with reviews embodying what Karen Ahlquist has identified as “the nineteenth-century ideal of emotional-religious reverence.”Footnote ¹¹⁷ She was especially impressive in the first Dutch creation of Lady Macbeth, when the aria “La luce langue” “caused the entire startled audience to shudder.”Footnote ¹¹⁸ In a pivotal scene in Le Prophète, when Fidès's son is killed in front of her eyes and de Vries painfully dragged herself towards his body, one critic declared, “This was Fidès, the betrayed mother, this was truth.”Footnote ¹¹⁹

By 1865 Rosa de Vries's operatic career was drawing to a close. Spanning twenty years, it was filled with extensive and exhausting travel as well as crowd-pleasing performances in the leading roles of some twenty-five operas. She had also borne and taken care of five children during this period of great artistic productivity. But although at forty-one she was still able to move audiences with her performances, her health was no longer so robust and, as veteran performer, she was increasingly confronted with competition by younger stars such as Adelina Patti. Consequently, she withdrew from public life and on 25 March gave a farewell concert at Park Hall in Amsterdam with the young German baritone Max Stägemann and pianist Henri Litolff.Footnote ¹²⁰

Now that operatic performances no longer monopolized her time, de Vries could turn her full attention to the musical education of her five children: Jeanne (probably 19 or 20 at the time), Marcel (16), Fidès (14), Maurice (11), and Herman (7).Footnote ¹²¹ All of the de Vries children, and one grandson, would become successful performers on the operatic stage, thus continuing the family tradition for the rest of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. The two daughters, Jeanne and Fidès, sang exclusively in Europe. Both were sopranos, and each of them went to Paris for further vocal training and subsequently enjoyed careers centered in Paris, Brussels, and other European cities. Fidès was the more successful of the two sisters; she created the role of Chimène in Massenet's Le Cid, and appeared as Salomé and as Elsa in the first Parisian performances of Herodiade (Massenet) and Lohengrin respectively.Footnote ¹²²

Neither Maurice (baritone) nor Herman (bass) attained operatic stardom, but both had successful careers in Europe and the United States. After performing in Amsterdam, Paris, Milan, and Rome, Maurice moved to New York City, where he sang with the Metropolitan from 1895 to 1897. Three years later Herman also traded a successful career in Paris for a chance to sing in Manhattan; he performed with the Metropolitan from 1898 to 1900 and later toured with the Savage Opera Company, singing opera in English. At the Metropolitan, both brothers sang (under the directorship of Maurice Grau) in New York and on tour; after retiring from the stage both eventually settled in Chicago. The career of the second-oldest child, Marcel (tenor), is the least known to historians, but he performed operatic roles for some years in the Netherlands and France, and eventually settled in Paris. His son David (1881–1934), however, contributed greatly to the family reputation in the world of opera. He performed first at the Opéra-Comique in Paris and subsequently followed in the footsteps of two uncles and his grandparents by traveling to the United States and appearing successfully at Oscar Hammerstein's Manhattan Opera House. The activities of her children must have filled Rosa de Vries with pride, for by the time she died in Rome in 1889, it was clear that she and her husband had created a significant operatic dynasty.

The Dutch opera singer Rosa de Vries was both exceptional and typical. She accomplished more in her career than most, but a nomadic existence, grueling travel schedule, and a broad repertoire was de rigeur for successful opera singers active on both sides of the Atlantic in the mid-nineteenth century. Few women of her time maintained such a busy performing career while raising a large (and musically accomplished) family and supporting a husband, but all faced similar prejudices and restrictive societal norms. The story of Rosa de Vries thus deserves our attention not only because it brings to light an extraordinary life and career, but also because it reveals a great deal about the power and appeal of opera at mid-century as well as the cultural connections between two continents, separated by an ocean but linked through music.