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Chapter Nine
Summary
On October 25, 1814 I attended a grand ballet at the Theater an der Wien: “Antonius und Cleopatra”, which was given by the French ballet-dancers in such a way, that the Viennese was beside himself, since he saw something there which he had never imagined. Since I will later mention another, and far more exquisite ballet, I will spare myself a closer consideration of the truly remarkable dancers. On the 26th I visited Barth, who had earlier studied in Prague, but who had entered the service of Prince Schwarzenberg. His extremely pleasant tenor voice and skill in reading music earned him a place as a singer in the K.K. Royal Chapel.
From there I went to see Georg Bayer, a flutist who at the time was one of the leading stars of virtuosity. He sought through acoustics to produce double tones on his instrument, and even managed to do so. In order to produce a thicker, indeed, a manlier sound, he came up with the idea of having a longer and thicker instrument made, which he called a Panaulon, which, however, in spite of the strong and fuller tone and a range reaching down to the g of the small octave was not accepted, probably due to its length and weight.
Bayer accompanied me to see the K.K. Kapellmeister Ritter von Seyfried, my former fellow student, whom I unfortunately found was not at home.
On the 27th I heard “Johann von Paris” by Boieldieu at the Theater an der Wien. Miss Buchwieser played the Princess of Navarra very well, but vocally she was not so lucky, since she was not infrequently out of tune. Forti acted and sang the Seneschal with distinction. Wild did not give the role of the Prince the proper dignity, but his singing, with an exceptionally beautiful voice, made a marvelous effect. Madame Forti as the page acted very well, but her high, screaming tones, combined with the horrible faces that she pulled, ruined the good impression she made with her acting. And in addition, her physique is not one with which she should be taking on male roles. Mayer played the innkeeper with sensitivity, but apparently due to advanced age his voice was no longer equal to the task. Miss Teumer as the innkeeper's daughter sang and acted very badly.
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- Wenzel Johann Tomaschek (1774–1850)Autobiography, pp. 85 - 106Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2017