The Melodeon (1839 - ca.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.
History edit
The 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 edit
1830s-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
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Melodeon (Boston).
- ^ "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