The managers of the conservatoire also give vocal concerts, and there are, besides, quartette soiries; so that there are few evenings without some attraction.The opera alternates with the theater two or three times a week.The singers are, perhaps, not known in Paris and London, but some of them are not unworthy to be.There is the baritone, Herr Kindermann, who now, at the age of sixty-five, has a superb voice and manner, and has had few superiors in his time on the German stage.There is Frau Dietz, at forty-five, the best of actresses, and with a still fresh and lovely voice.There is Herr Nachbar, a tenor, who has a future; Fraulein Stehle, a soprano, young and with an uncommon voice, who enjoys a large salary, and was the favorite until another soprano, the Malinger, came and turned the heads of king and opera habitues.The resources of the Academy are, however, tolerably large; and the practice of pensioning for life the singers enables them to keep always a tolerable company.This habit of pensioning officials, as well as musicians and poets, is very agreeable to the Germans.A gentleman the other day, who expressed great surprise at the smallness of the salary of our President, said, that, of course, Andrew Johnson would receive a pension when he retired from office.I could not explain to him how comical the idea was to me; but when I think of the American people pensioning Andrew Johnson,--well, like the fictitious Yankee in "Mugby Junction,""I laff, I du."
There is some fashion, in a fudgy, quaint way, here in Munich; but it is not exhibited in dress for the opera.People go--and it is presumed the music is the attraction in ordinary apparel.They save all their dress parade for the concerts; and the hall of the Odeon is as brilliant as provincial taste can make it in toilet.The ladies also go to operas and concerts unattended by gentlemen, and are brought, and fetched away, by their servants.There is a freedom and simplicity about this which I quite like; and, besides, it leaves their husbands and brothers at liberty to spend a congenial evening in the cafes, beer-gardens, and clubs.But there is always a heavy fringe of young officers and gallants both at opera and concert, standing in the outside passages.It is cheaper to stand, and one can hear quite as well, and see more.
LOOKING FOR WARM WEATHER
FROM MUNICH TO NAPLES
At all events, saith the best authority, "pray that your flight be not in winter;" and it might have added, don't go south if you desire warm weather.In January, 1869, I had a little experience of hunting after genial skies; and I will give you the benefit of it in some free running notes on my journey from Munich to Naples.
It was the middle of January, at eleven o'clock at night, that we left Munich, on a mixed railway train, choosing that time, and the slowest of slow trains, that we might make the famous Brenner Pass by daylight.It was no easy matter, at last, to pull up from the dear old city in which we had become so firmly planted, and to leave the German friends who made the place like home to us.One gets to love Germany and the Germans as he does no other country and people in Europe.There has been something so simple, honest, genuine, in our Munich life, that we look back to it with longing eyes from this land of fancy, of hand-organ music, and squalid splendor.I presume the streets are yet half the day hid in a mountain fog; but I know the superb military bands are still playing at noon in the old Marian Platz and in the Loggie by the Residenz; that at half-past six in the evening our friends are quietly stepping in to hear the opera at the Hof Theater, where everybody goes to hear the music, and nobody for display, and that they will be at home before half-past nine, and have dispatched the servant for the mugs of foaming beer; I know that they still hear every week the choice conservatoire orchestral concerts in the Odeon; and, alas that experience should force me to think of it! I have no doubt that they sip, every morning, coffee which is as much superior to that of Paris as that of Paris is to that of London; and that they eat the delicious rolls, in comparison with which those of Paris are tasteless.I wonder, in this land of wine,--and yet it must be so,--if the beer-gardens are still filled nightly; and if it could be that I should sit at a little table there, a comely lass would, before I could ask for what everybody is presumed to want, place before me a tall glass full of amber liquid, crowned with creamy foam.Are the handsome officers still sipping their coffee in the Caf? Maximilian; and, on sunny days, is the crowd of fashion still streaming down to the Isar, and the high, sightly walks and gardens beyond?
As I said, it was eleven o'clock of a clear and not very severe night; for Munich had had no snow on the ground since November.Adeputation of our friends were at the station to see us off, and the farewells between the gentlemen were in the hearty fashion of the country.I know there is a prejudice with us against kissing between men; but it is only a question of taste: and the experience of anybody will tell him that the theory that this sort of salutation must necessarily be desirable between opposite sexes is a delusion.
But I suppose it cannot be denied that kissing between men was invented in Germany before they wore full beards.Well, our goodbyes said, we climbed into our bare cars.There is no way of heating the German cars, except by tubes filled with hot water, which are placed under the feet, and are called foot-warmers.As we slowly moved out over the plain, we found it was cold; in an hour the foot-warmers, not hot to start with, were stone cold.You are going to sunny Italy, our friends had said: as soon as you pass the Brenner you will have sunshine and delightful weather.This thought consoled us, but did not warm our feet.The Germans, when they travel by rail, wrap themselves in furs and carry foot-sacks.
