Mary Adaline Cook, Prima Donna Soprano

Miss Mary Adaline Cook, Prima Donna Soprano,

Delights a Norwich Audience

Utica Saturday Globe - About 1900

 

 

Mary Adaline Cook

 

Norwich [Chenango Co., NY]:  When George E. Cook announced an evening concert introducing his sister, Miss Mary Adaline Cook, prima donna soprano, Norwich music lovers were on the qui vive.  Miss Cook recently returned to Norwich, her native town, after five years' study in Boston, London and Paris.  While in Boston she studied under such eminent instructors as Charles Adams and Mrs. Flora Barrett.  In London she was with Miss Emilia Wood under the instruction of Conductor Herbert Van Vleet.  In Paris she became in intimate friend of Madame Alice Estey, who made such a hit at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York last week.  Miss Cook sang at a musicale in which Miss Ellen B. Shaw, the highest soprano, also appeared.  In company with her brother, who has won fame as an artist among the nobility of England and France, Miss Cook will leave about January 1, for Spain to visit friends and thence to Italy to spend the winter in Rome.

 

On only one previous occasion, and that before her departure abroad, had she been heard in concert in Norwich and an enthusiastic reception awaited her appearance at Clark Opera House last Wednesday evening.  The program was arranged to show the great range, sweetness and vibrancy of her voice which appeared to advantage in all of the several numbers rendered.  The first was Well's Spring song which was brilliantly executed and followed by the Jewel song from Gounod's Faust, which charmed the listeners, taking the high notes with the same ease as the lower register and with bird like clearness.  Later she sang the Italian waltz song Nymphs and Fauns, by Bemberg, a most difficult selection to interpret, but so perfectly rendered that an encore was rapturously demanded and she sang the Last Rose of Summer with exquisite taste and intense feeling.  A brace of five songs opening with A May Morning and concluding with A Lesson with a Fan called for the widest variety of interpretation, but in each she seemed to excel her previous effort.

 

The artists assisting were Lionel Hayes tenor, John P. Scott baritone, Adrian P. Babcock pianist, and Miss Mary Lewis accompanist. The opening number was a piano selection by Mr. Babcock pianist, who held the eager interest of the audience through three classical numbers executed with the delicacy of only a skilled artist.  Mr. Scott's first number was Damrosch's Danny Deever, followed by Romanza from Faust and several ballads, all of the numbers eliciting hearty encores.  Mr. Hayes sang Cavatina from Faust, bringing forth the subtle points with great taste and effectiveness.  In another number he sang Mattel's Non Tomo.  On account of a severe cold he was obliged to decline all encores to the great disappointment of the audience. The closing number on the program was two duets by Miss Cook and Mr. Scott, in which their voices blended beautifully and rounded out the evening's entertainment replete with rich pleasure.  Miss Lewis, as accompanist, effectively assisted the artists in their successful efforts to please.