the best I have.

[Illustration:

Susan Kingsbury
Olive M. Covell
Hattie Everett
Clara Bickner
Mrs. Alvin Fisher
Louisa Adams
Mary Bullard
Mrs. Olive Daniell
Mrs. Draper
Louisa Taft
Helen Bates
Mary Boyd
Mrs. Margaret Blake-Alverson
Hattie Guild
May Guild
Mrs. Williams
Henrietta Adams

WOMEN SINGERS, DEDHAM, MASS., 1861

Congregational Church Choir]

Before I leave my Eastern subject I wish to recall some of the
celebrated singers and organists whom I had an opportunity to hear, at
their best, and with many of whom I passed happy hours musically and
in pleasant companionship. Most of the singers of my time were
American singers, even in the Italian opera:

1859.

Mrs. Jennie Kempton, _contralto_
Mrs. Washburn, _soprano_
Isabelle Hinkley, _soprano_
Abbie Plummer, _contralto_
Miss Louisa Adams, _coloratura soprano_
Mrs. Margaret Blake, _mezzo-contralto_
B.F. Gilbert, _tenor_
C.E. Pickett, _tenor_
I.P. Draper, _bass_
Mr. Wadleigh, _bass_
Mr. Emerson, _tenor_
Henry Clay Barnabee, _tenor_

1860.

Prof. B.J. Lang, _pianist_
Howard M. Dow, _organist_
Adolph Baumbach, _pianist_
Carl Zerrahn, _conductor_
Mlle. Carlotta Patti
Madam Colson
Adelaide Phillips
Anna Louisa Carey
Carl Formes, _basso profundo_

1861.

PROGRAMMES.

Martha
Lucia Di Lammermoor
Un Ballo in Maschera
La Juive
Il Giuramento
The Messiah
Moses in Egitto
David

I have placed these programmes here so as to show what singers were
considered the first and best fifty years ago. My impressions received
at that time left their imprint for excellence and a pattern for those
who aspire to real worth to follow.

The unfortunate training of the voices in our time has given us many
inferior singers who come and go and are forgotten. The great singers
of before are engraved forever in the hearts of those who were
fortunate enough to enjoy the exquisite rendering of their work. We
call this an age of progress. We may be wiser in some directions, but
as for the best music the past will have to chronicle the superior
singer. Carlotta Patti was a more beautiful singer than her sister
Adelina. On account of her lameness she could not travel as an opera
singer. I have heard both singers and Carlotta was my choice. Adelina
was the most advertised, for she was a money-maker and demanded just
so much notoriety when she engaged and signed her contracts. Her power
was supreme and no one dared to say her nay. Woe be to the poor prima