Esther Singleton

“ It was as a conductor, however, that he gained his greatest celebrity. He possessed strong personal magnetism, united with power to impart his ideas, which made him an ideal conductor. His aim was always to produce the inner meaning and spirit of a composition. Through his gentle bearing and high culture he gained many warm friends. Never seeking for immediate fame or personal success, he found that high truth which he extended in his art. ”

“ Italian opera, which, through its “star” system and small repertory, had been losing its hold upon American audiences, received its death-blow in 1884 when Dr. Damrosch proposed German opera to the directors of the new Metropolitan opera-house. In one month, September, 1884, he engaged his company, and began the most remarkable series of operatic performances ever held in this country. The company comprised some of the greatest artists of the German opera-houses, and, in contrast with the hitherto prevailing mode, every part, even the smallest, was carefully presented. ”

“ Dr. Damrosch's first appearance as a conductor was at the Philharmonic concerts in Breslau in 1859, where he was highly successful, and conducted them for three years. In these concerts he gave a judicious mixture of popular and classic as well as modern pieces, and in 1862 founded a symphonic society in that city, with an orchestra of eighty performers, modelled after the Gewandhaus concerts of Leipsic. The fame of this society soon extended throughout Germany, and several of the performances were directed by Liszt. ”