The Melodeon (1839 – c. 1870) was a concert hall and performance space in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts, located on Washington Street, near West Street. Musical concerts, lectures, sermons, conferences, visual displays, and popular entertainments occurred there.
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History
editThe Melodeon occupied the building of the former Lion Theatre (1836–1839) and Mechanics Institute (1839).[2]
Proprietors of the Melodeon included the Handel and Haydn Society (1839); Leander Rodney (1844); Boston Theatre Company (1852); E. Warden (1857; temporarily renamed The Melodeon Varieties); Charles Francis Adams (1859).[2][3]
Performances & events
edit1830s-1840s
edit- 1839
- Handel and Haydn Society.
- 1840
- "Soiree musicale. The celebrated Rainer Family, or Tyrolese minstrels."[4]
- 1842
- 1843
- 1844
- Concert by Ole Bull, assisted by Miss Stone, Mr. Herwig, Mr. Hayter, and a full orchestra.[4]
- Henry Phillips, assisted by Miss Stone.[4]
- William Charles Macready, Charlotte Cushman.[2]
- 1845
- Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association 13th triennial festival, 1st semi-centennial celebration.[4]
- Musical entertainment by Mr. Dempster.[4]
- 1846
- Haydn's The Creation, performed by the Handel and Haydn Society.[4]
- Hutchinson Family.[4]
- Concert by C. Sivori.[4]
- 1848
- Steyermarkische Musical Company.[4]
- 1849
- Madame Biscaccianti and Strakosch.[4]
- Services on the occasion of the decease of the late president, James K. Polk.[4]
- Sermon of the Spiritual Condition of Boston, preached by Theodore Parker.[6]
1850s
edit- 1850
- Annetta Stephani.[4]
- Handel's Jeptha, with Boston Musical Education Society.[4]
- "Optical wonders. Whipple's grand exhibition of dissolving views! Magnifiying daguerreotypes, kaleidoscope pictures, & pyramic fires."[4]
- 1852
- 1854
- 1855
- J. H. Siddons.[4]
- Josiah Perham's Ethiopian Troupe and Great Burlesque Company.[4]
- New England Anti-Slavery Convention.[9]
- William Makepeace Thackeray[3]
- 1857
- 1858
- 1859
- Melodeon Minstrels.[2]
1860s
edit- 1860
- Parlor operas, with Mr. & Mrs. Henri Drayton.[2]
- 1862
- French Zouaves.[2]
- Stereopticon.[4]
- M. Lizzie Bell, Agnes A. Kenney.[4]
- "Master Rentz's second annual subscription concert," with the Mendelssohn Quintette Club, Adeline S. Washburn.[4]
- Louis Moreau Gottschalk playing works by Chopin and Henselt.[10]
- 1864
- 1865
References
edit- ^ "Donetti's Monkey Troupe". Gleason's Pictorial. 3. Boston, Mass. 1852.
- ^ a b c d e f g Justin Winsor. The memorial history of Boston, v.4. J. R. Osgood and Co., 1881; p.371.
- ^ a b c Eugene Tompkins, Quincy Kilby. The history of the Boston Theatre, 1854-1901. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1908.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series 1
- ^ The Rover, v.2, no.10, 1843
- ^ Theodore Parker. Speeches, addresses, and occasional sermons, v.2. W. Crosby and H. P. Nichols, 1852; p.298.
- ^ "Professor Anderson". Gleason's Pictorial. 3. Boston, Mass. 1852.
- ^ Dwight's Journal of Music, June 5, 1852
- ^ New-England Anti-Slavery Convention; Fun in the Boston Melodeon. New York Times, June 1; p.2.
- ^ Life and Letters of Louis Moreau Gottschalk, 1870; p.109
- ^ Frederick Wagner. Eighty-Six Letters (1814-1882) of A. Bronson Alcott (Part Two). Studies in the American Renaissance, 1980; p.216-217
External links
edit
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Melodeon (Boston).
- Detail of 1861 map of Boston showing location of Melodeon, via Boston Public Library's Atlascope Boston tool.