Part 18 (1/2)
JNO. L. BURNS.
To this the following reply was returned:--
SALT-LAKE HOUSE, Aug. 15, 1871.
Messrs. WALKER, TILDEN, A.W. WHITE & CO., HOOPER, ELDRIDGE, & CO., AND OTHERS.
_Gentlemen_,--Your esteemed favor is before us; and, gratefully accepting your high compliment to our humble endeavors, we respectfully name Thursday, Aug. 17, as the time of the proposed benefit at the Salt-Lake Theatre.
Respectfully,
HYERS SISTERS.
While in St. Joseph, Mo., they elicited from ”The Daily Herald” of that city the following encomium:--
”Whoever of our readers failed to visit the Academy of Music last evening missed a rare musical treat. The concert of the Hyers sisters was absolutely the best, furnished those in attendance with the choicest music, which has been in St.
Joseph since we have resided here.
”The Hyers sisters are two colored ladies, or girls, aged respectively sixteen and seventeen years; but their singing is as mature and perfect as any we have ever listened to. We had read the most favorable reports of these sisters in the California papers, but confess that we were not prepared for such an exhibition of vocal powers as they gave us last night.
”Miss Anna Hyers, the eldest, is a musical phenomenon. When we tell musicians that she sings E flat above the staff as loud and clear as an organ, they will understand us when we say she is a prodigy. Jenny Lind was the recipient of world-wide fame and the most lavishly-bestowed encomiums from the most musical critics in the Old and New World simply because she sang that note in Vienna twenty years ago. Parepa Rosa, it is claimed, reached that vocal alt.i.tude last summer. But the sopranos who did it flit across this planet like angels. Several competent musicians listened to Anna Hyers last evening, and unanimously p.r.o.nounced her perfectly wonderful. With the greatest ease in the world, as naturally and gracefully as she breathes, she runs the scale from the low notes in the middle register to the highest notes ever reached by mortal singers. Her trills are as sweet and bird-like as those with which the 'Swedish Nightingale' once entranced the world. In Verdi's famous 'Traviata' there was not a note or modulation wrong: her rendition was faultless, her voice the most sweet and musical we ever listened to.
”In the duet, 'There's a sigh in the heart,' her voice was exhibited in wonderful range; and, in the tower-scene from 'Il Trovatore,' its great power was singularly and very agreeably apparent.
”We do not remember to have been more completely and agreeably surprised than we were last evening in the matchless excellence of the singing of the Hyers sisters.
They deserve a crowded house; and we predict that in Boston or New York, by the most severe critics, they will be p.r.o.nounced musical prodigies.”
In Chicago their success was none the less flattering. In this, styled by many the ”Queen City of the West,” the remarkable musical powers of these young ladies created intense excitement, especially among people of the highest musical culture. The extraordinarily high range of the voice of Anna Hyers quite astonished every one who heard her, and evoked the warmest praise of the critics. For the purpose of a.s.suring those who had not heard her sing, or who, although present, failed to exactly locate in the scale her greatest alt.i.tude, as well as to more pointedly mark this rare achievement in vocalism, a number of the best musicians of Chicago published a card in ”The Tribune,” in which they declared that ”Miss Anna Hyers sang at the concert last night the second G above the staff,--a note touched by no other singer since Jenny Lind.”
Still proceeding towards the East, they next appeared in Cleveland, O., where their delightful vocal powers were thus alluded to by ”The Daily Leader:”--
”On Sat.u.r.day evening last, we had the pleasure of listening to the Hyers sisters, who have, since their appearance in public, been the recipients of the most flattering testimonials; and are warranted in saying, not without the best claim to them, the exhibition they gave of their ability was most satisfactory. The soprano (Miss Anna) has an exceptionally pure, sweet voice, with ample power for all the demands of the concert-room. Her execution was admirable. The contralto (Miss Emma) possesses a voice of remarkable quality; and we do not hesitate to say that a richer or more evenly-conditioned contralto voice is rarely heard. Her execution was all that could be desired.”
Encouraged by the marked success which had thus far crowned their efforts, their father, with whom and under whose direction the Misses Hyers had travelled since leaving California, now determined to enlarge his troupe. This he did by engaging the services of Mr.
Wallace King of Camden, N.J., a gifted and accomplished tenor-singer; Mr. John Luca, widely and favorably known from his connection formerly with the celebrated ”Luca family,” and who sang baritone; while as accompanist he engaged the fine pianist, Mr. A.C. Taylor of New York.
An intelligent idea of the composition of Mr. Hyers's troupe can be formed by a perusal of the following, which was the preface given to the programme of his concerts:--
[Ill.u.s.tration:
THE GREATEST MUSICAL PHENOMENA OF THE AGE!
THE FAMOUS CALIFORNIA VOCALISTS,
THE
HYERS SISTERS!