1842
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2 January 1842 Great Britain agrees to evacuate Afghanistan.
4 January 1842 Samuel Sebastian Wesley (31) resigns as organist at Exeter Cathedral.
6 January 1842 16,000 British troops march out of Kabul making for India.
7 January 1842 The second version of Gioachino Rossini’s (49) Stabat mater is performed publicly for the first time, in the Théâtre-Italien, Paris to an enthusiastic response.
9 January 1842 Anton Rubinstein (12) gives his first performance in Vienna, playing music of Thalberg (30), JS Bach (†91), Liszt (30) and his own song Zuruf aus der Ferne, to words of Weiden, which he accompanies.
10 January 1842 The Second Section of the ecclesiastical consistory in St. Petersburg determines that Maria Petrovna Glinka’s marriage to Nikolay Nikolayevich Vasilchikov is not valid.
13 January 1842 Of the 16,000 British troops who evacuated Kabul a week ago, only one, a Dr. Bryan, reaches Jalalabad. The others have all been killed by Ghilzais or the Afghan winter.
16 January 1842 The Ottoman Empire divides Lebanon into a Christian north and Druze south.
19 January 1842 An advertisement for a new “Beethoven-Album” for piano by the Vienna music publisher Pietro Mechetti appears in the Wiener Zeitung. Intended to raise money for a monument to Beethoven (†14) in Bonn, Mechetti has secured contributions from many of the most important living composers: Nocturne in E flat op.647 by Carl Czerny (50), L’echo! Scherzo brillant by Frédéric Kalkbrenner (46), 17 Variations sérieuses op.54 by Felix Mendelssohn (32), Prélude in c sharp minor op.45 by Frédéric Chopin (31), Marche funèbre de la Symphonie héroique by Franz Liszt (30), Romance sans paroles op.41/1 by Sigismund Thalberg (30), Wiegenlied op.13/1 by Adolf von Henselt (27), as well as music by Theodor Döhler, Ignaz Moscheles and Wilhelm Taubert.
21 January 1842 In a London street, a would-be assassin desirous of killing Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, mistakenly shoots Peel’s private secretary, Edward Drummond, to death.
1 February 1842 Reverie et caprice for violin and orchestra by Hector Berlioz (38) is performed for the first time, in the Salle Vivienne, Paris before an audience which includes Franz Liszt (30), Marie d’Agoult and César Franck (19). Because of muscle spasms, Berlioz conducts most of the concert with his left hand.
4 February 1842 Luigi Cherubini (81) resigns as director of the Paris Conservatoire.
Le duc d’Olonne, an opéra comique by Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (60) to words of Scribe and Saintine, is performed for the first time, at the Théâtre Favart, Paris.
5 February 1842 Felix Mendelssohn (33) writes to Ferdinand David about the playing of Franz Liszt (30), “...he sacrificed a large part of my esteem by the foolish antics he plays not just with his audience (there is no harm in that) but with the music itself as well. He played Beethoven (†14), Bach (†91), Handel (†82) and Weber (†15) with such wretched shortcomings, so untidily and ignorantly, that I had much rather have heard them played by mediocre pianists.”
6 February 1842 Gioachino Rossini’s (49) mistress, Olympe Pélissier, sends a five-year description of Rossini’s illness compiled by his Bologna doctor to Hector Couvert, hoping that he will take the case to Parisian specialists of the urinary tract.
7 February 1842 Luigi Cherubini (81) is made a Commander of the Legion of Honor.
Pedro de Sousa Holstein, duque, marques e conde de Palmela replaces Joaquim António de Aguiar as Prime Minister of Portugal.
9 February 1842 António José de Sousa Manuel e Meneses Severim de Nornha, duque de Terceira, marques e conde de Vila-Flor replaces Pedro de Sousa Holstein, duque, marques e conde de Palmela as Prime Minister of Portugal.
18 February 1842 Franz Liszt (30) is elected a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Arts.
21 February 1842 Queen Victoria inaugurates regular rail service between Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Frédéric Chopin (31) is the featured performer at the Salle Pleyel, Paris. He plays the Andante spianato, Ballade no.3, Nocturnes opp.48/2, 27/2 and 15/1, Prelude op.28/15, three etudes from op.25, the Impromptu op.51 and others. It is his last performance for six years.
24 February 1842 Arrigo Boito is born in Padua, the son of a painter of miniatures, and a Polish countess.
25 February 1842 After a concert by Clara Schumann (22) in Oldenburg, she is honored by a gathering at court, to which her husband Robert (31) is excluded. She decides to attend anyway.
2 March 1842 Franz Liszt (30) plays the last of 21 concerts in Berlin, at the Opera House.
3 March 1842 Bartolomeo Merelli, the producer of Verdi’s (28) Nabucco, insists on a medical examination of Giuseppina Strepponi, held today. The doctors find “Signora Strepponi to be affected with such laryngo-tracheal inflammation as will lead to consumption unless she at once ceases to exercise her profession and submits herself to similar careful treatment and an uninterruptedly tranquil way of life.” She will go on anyway.
After ten triumphant weeks in Berlin, Franz Liszt (30) takes leave of the city, in a coach drawn by six white horses, followed by a procession of thirty more coaches. Prussian students accompany them to the Brandenburg Gate, while the University of Berlin suspends classes. Thousands turn out to see him off.
Symphony no.3 “Scottish” by Felix Mendelssohn (33) is performed for the first time, in Leipzig under the direction of the composer.
6 March 1842 Constanze Weber Mozart Nissen dies in Salzburg at the age of 80.
7 March 1842 Friedrich Franz II replaces Friedrich Franz I as Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (37) appears before the consistory in St. Petersburg in the matter of his own divorce. He denies his wife’s charge that he threw her out. In fact, he left the apartment and gave 3,000 rubles per year for her maintenance. He produces 13 letters from his wife to her lover, Nikolay Nikolayevich Vasilchikov and reads sections of them into the record. He flatly refuses to live with her again.
9 March 1842 Nabucco, a dramma lirico by Giuseppe Verdi (28) to words of Solera after Cortesi after Anicet-Bourgeois and Cornue, is performed for the first time, in Teatro alla Scala, Milan. The work is an unrivalled triumph and secures Verdi’s reputation. The Gazzetta Privilegiata di Milano calls the production a “clamorous and total success.”
10 March 1842 Chinese troops attempt to recapture Ningpo from the British but are beaten back with heavy losses.
On the way from Milan to Bologna, Gaetano Donizetti (44), who has been silent during the trip, suddenly shouts, “Oh, that Nabucco! Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful!” to the amazement of his companions.
In Hamburg on his wife’s concert tour, Robert Schumann (31) leaves his “undignified situation” and returns to Leipzig. Clara Schumann (22) continues on to give performances in Copenhagen. According to her, this is “the most miserable day of our marriage up to now; we parted, and it seemed to me that I would never see him again.”
15 March 1842 Luigi Carlo Zanobi Salvadore Maria Cherubini dies in Paris, aged 81 years, six months and between one and seven days.
16 March 1842 Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (37) petitions the Director of Imperial Theatres in St. Petersburg to produce Ruslan and Lyudmilla. He forwards the music and promises the libretto soon. The director, Alyksandr Mikhailovich Gedeonov, immediately accepts and orders its production.
18 March 1842 Gioachino Rossini’s (50) Stabat mater is performed for the first time in Italy at the Archiginnassio in Bologna, directed by Gaetano Donizetti (44) in the presence of the composer. It is an unqualified triumph. After the last rehearsal, 500 people followed Rossini to his house shouting their approval.
19 March 1842 2,000 people, including many notables, attend the funeral mass for Luigi Cherubini at the Church of St. Roch, Paris at which his second Requiem is performed. Because he was a member of the Legion of Honor, his earthly remains are laid to rest in the Cemetery of Père La Chaise with full military honors. Among the pallbearers are Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (60) and Fromental Halévy (41).
20 March 1842 Clara Schumann (22) arrives in Copenhagen for a stay of almost a month. She will meet the Danish royal family, Hans Christian Andersen, Niels Gade and will give seven successful performances.
22 March 1842 Clara Schumann (22) meets Hans Christian Andersen for the first time, in Copenhagen. He will attend all seven of her concerts.
27 March 1842 Gaetano Donizetti (44) arrives in Vienna from Bologna.
28 March 1842 Maria Petrovna Glinka denies under oath that she ever married Nikolay Nikolayevich Vasilchikov and that she ever received letters from him. She says that her husband, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (37), bribed “the serf girl” to lie for him. She does not want a divorce.
30 March 1842 Dr. Crawford W. Long of Jefferson, Georgia removes two tumors from the neck of James Venable without pain after the administration of ether. It is the first surgical use of anesthesia.
31 March 1842 Stephen Foster (15), along with his brother William, makes the acquaintance of Charles Dickens during a triumphant visit of Dickens to Pittsburgh.
7 April 1842 After 30 months of economic destitution, Richard Wagner (28) and his wife Minna leave Paris for Dresden.
12 April 1842 A convention of the National Charter Association takes place in London.
Richard Wagner (28) and his wife arrive in Dresden where he will assist in rehearsals for Rienzi.
A meeting takes place to begin to organize the New York Philharmonic Society. It is chaired by Anthony Philip Heinrich (61).
13 April 1842 Incidental music to Sophocles’ play Antigone by Felix Mendelssohn (33) is performed publicly for the first time, in the Berlin Schauspielhaus. See 28 October 1841.
14 April 1842 Hector Berlioz’ (38) song Absence op.7/4 to words of Gautier is performed for the first time, in an amateur performance at the Paris home of Mortier de Fontaine. See 24 April 1842.
15 April 1842 Franz Liszt (30) arrives in St. Petersburg from Berlin where he will give four concerts.
16 April 1842 Franz Liszt (30) is presented to Tsar Nikolay I in St. Petersburg.
18 April 1842 As he passes through Leipzig, Richard Wagner (28) seeks out Robert Schumann (31) at his home. Wagner does most of the talking.
20 April 1842 Franz Liszt (30) gives his first performance in St. Petersburg before 3,000 people, the largest audience ever seen in Russia for such an event. The critic Stasov will later write, “After the concert, Serov and I were like madmen. We scarcely exchanged a word, but hurried home, each to write down his impressions, dreams and raptures. We both vowed to keep this anniversary sacred forever, and never, while life lasted, to forget a single instant of it.” Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (37) is also present and says that Liszt “played some things exceptionally well…but other things he played unbearably, with totally inappropriate expression…with often tasteless, worthless, vacuous ornamentation of his own.” It is the first time Glinka meets Vladimir Stasov.
22 April 1842 César Franck (19) withdraws from the Paris Conservatoire and departs with his father for Belgium.
23 April 1842 Franz Liszt’s (30) second concert in St. Petersburg is attended by Tsar Nikolay I. Composer and theorist Yuri Arnold will remember, “...I returned home more than merely moved; by such a music-hurricane, of which I had never before had the least presentiment, my whole being was dissolved. No sooner had I pulled off my coat than I flung myself on to the sofa and for a long time wept the bitterest and sweetest tears!”
24 April 1842 Absence, op.7/4 from Les Nuits d’été for voice and piano by Hector Berlioz (38) to words of Gautier, is performed publicly for the first time, in the Salle du Conservatoire, Paris. See 14 April 1842.
27 April 1842 Jacques-François-Fromental-Elie Halévy (42) marries Hannah Léonie Rodrigues-Henriques, daughter of wealthy bankers, in Paris.
1 May 1842 The leaders of the indigenous Marquesas Islanders cede their lands to France.
5 May 1842 01:00 Fire breaks out in Hamburg and rapidly spreads fed by strong winds. It burns for four days, destroying over 1,700 buildings in a 12-15 hectare area of the city. 51 people are killed and 20,000 left homeless. 20% of the city is leveled. A change of wind saves the home and family of musician Johann Jakob Brahms, including his son, Johannes (8).
6 May 1842 Frédéric Chopin (32) and George Sand arrive back at Nohant from Paris, where he will complete the Mazurkas op.50. He is looking for some peace two weeks after the death of his friend Jan Matuszynski.
10 May 1842 After a very successful production of Les Huguenots in Stockholm, Giacomo Meyerbeer (50) is created a Knight of the Order of the North Star by King Oscar I of Sweden.
12 May 1842 01:00 Jules Emile Frédéric Massenet is born in Montaud, a suburb of St. Étienne, 58 km southwest of Lyon, the fourth and last child born to Alexis Pierre Michel Nicolas Massenet, a master founder and owner of a scythe factory, and Eléonore Adélaïde Royer de Marancour, daughter of a military commissary. This is the father’s second marriage. He has eight children by his first wife.
13 May 1842 Arthur Seymour Sullivan is born in Lambeth, London, the second of two children born to Thomas Sullivan, clarinetist at the Royal Surrey Theatre, and Mary Clementina Coghlan, a teacher.
14 May 1842 The Illustrated London News begins publication. It is the first newspaper to regularly illustrate news stories with woodcuts, photographs and drawings.
Poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson is published. It includes verses such as Le morte d’Arthur and Ulysses.
19 May 1842 Linda di Chamounix, a melodramma semiserio by Gaetano Donizetti (44) to words of Rossi after D’Ennery and Lemoine, is performed for the first time, in the Vienna Kärntnertortheater, directed by the composer. At the end, Donizetti is called out 17 times.
20 May 1842 By command of the new King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, Les Huguenots by Giacomo Meyerbeer (50) is given in Berlin.
Anton Rubinstein (12) gives his first important performance in London, at the Hanover Rooms. In attendance is the very popular Felix Mendelssohn (33).
23 May 1842 John Bennet Lawes takes out a British patent on a method for producing superphosphates. By adding sulfuric acid to crushed bones, he creates the first chemical fertilizers.
25 May 1842 Austrian physicist Christian Johann Doppler reads his work "On the coloured light of double stars and certain other stars of the heaven" to a meeting of the Royal Bohemian Society in Prague. For the first time he describes the effect which bears his name.
28 May 1842 Gaetano Donizetti (44) is invited to become an honorary member of the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde.
29 May 1842 At the invitation of William Sterndale Bennett, Felix Mendelssohn (33) arrives in London for the seventh time, bringing his new Symphony no.3. For the first time, he is accompanied by his wife.
31 May 1842 Giacomo Meyerbeer (50) is made a knight of the Order of Merit for the Sciences and Arts, of the Peace Class. It is conferred upon him by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia.
8 June 1842 Clara Schumann (22) offers her song Liebeszauber to her husband Robert on the occasion of his 32nd birthday.
9 June 1842 The first scientific expedition funded by the United States government returns to New York harbor. After four years and 150,000 km, the expedition, led by Charles Wilkes, brings massive amounts of scientific data. Only two of the original six ships complete the voyage.
11 June 1842 Giacomo Meyerbeer (50) is installed as the Prussian Generalmusikdirektor, a post he gained through the efforts of Alexander von Humboldt. He will oversee secular music.
14 June 1842 Felix Mendelssohn (33) meets with Prince Albert at Buckingham Palace carrying a letter of introduction from King Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
16 June 1842 At the Prince Consort’s request, Felix Mendelssohn (33) performs before Victoria and Albert at Buckingham Palace. He plays some songs without words and then asking for two themes he improvises on Rule Britannia and the Austrian national anthem simultaneously. (There is some discrepancy about the date. This appears as 16 June in Victoria’s diary, but it is 20 June according to Mendelssohn).
17 June 1842 José Ramón Rodil y Gallosa, marqués of Rodil replaces Antonio González y González as Prime Minister of Spain.
19 June 1842 British forces capture Shanghai.
22 June 1842 Le guérillero, an opéra by Ambroise Thomas (30) to words of Anne, is performed for the first time, in the Paris Opéra.
1 July 1842 Queen Victoria gives royal assent to the Copyright Act. Copyrights of books, serial publications, and dramatic works are extended to the life of the author or proprietor plus seven years, and in no case less than 42 years.
6 July 1842 Antonín Dvorák (0) is rescued by his father from a fire that destroys the family inn at Nelahozeves, near Kralupy, 20 km north of Prague.
9 July 1842 “A Report on an Enquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain” is presented to the Home Secretary, Sir James Graham. It comes from the Poor Law Commissioners but the driving force behind it is their secretary, Edwin Chadwick. It is a withering description of the filth, squalor, disease and early death suffered by poor British subjects. More than anything else, it rouses Her Majesty’s government to action to alleviate the conditions.
Conservatives win a majority in French legislative elections.
Felix Mendelssohn (33) makes a second visit to Buckingham Palace at the request of Prince Albert. The royal couple sing sections of St. Paul to his organ accompaniment. When the Queen ably sings Mendelssohn’s Italien op.8/3, he tells her that it was written by his sister, Fanny (36).
13 July 1842 The Duc d’Orléans, eldest son of King Louis-Philippe and heir apparent to the French throne, falls to his death when his horses bolt near the Porte Maillot. He was the most popular member of the royal family.
Gaetano Donizetti (44) receives notification, in Milan, that he is appointed Hofkapellmeister to the Emperor of Austria.
17 July 1842 British ships begin bombarding Chinkiang.
18 July 1842 Sporadic strikes and protests in Britain against wage cuts and other grievances coalesce today in continuous striking starting with coal miners in Hanley, Staffordshire.
Franz Liszt attends the unveiling of the memorial to Grétry (†28) in Liège. King Leopold awards him the Order of the Lion of Belgium.
21 July 1842 British troops assault and capture Chinkiang.
29 July 1842 Dr. James Braid reads his paper “Practical Essay on the Curative Agency of Neuro-Hypnotism” to a meeting of the British Association in Manchester. It is the first use of the term “hypnosis.” There is considerable opposition to his findings.
5 August 1842 A British forces fighting their way up the Yangtze reach Nanking.
8 August 1842 After three weeks of growing strikes, workers in Stalybridge and Ashton for a “Great National turn-out.” They begin marching, “turning out” workers along the way
9 August 1842 20,000 workers march peacefully in Manchester in support of higher wages and the Charter. Within a few hours, every factory within 80 km of Manchester is shut down. Because the workers pulled the plugs on the factories’ boilers, this becomes known as the Plug Plot.
The Webster-Ashburton Treaty is signed in Washington, fixing the border between the United States and Canada.
10 August 1842 The British Mines Act is passed, preventing women and children under ten years of age from working underground.
13 August 1842 The British government sends troops and artillery to Lancashire. Queen Victoria declares the strikes illegal and posts a bounty of £50 for anyone who turns in a striker.
14 August 1842 War between the United States and Seminole Indians ends with the forced removal of Seminoles to west of the Mississippi.
15 August 1842 Delegates from local trade groups meet in Manchester for the Great Delegate Conference. They endorse the Charter and call for a return to the wages of 1840.
16 August 1842 Troops fire into strikers in several English cities, killing eight. Authorities begin to arrest strike leaders.
The National Charter Association formally endorses the Manchester strikes.
21 August 1842 I was glad when they said unto me, an anthem by Lowell Mason (50) to words of the Psalms, is performed for the first time, in the Bowdoin Street Church, Boston, directed by the composer.
23 August 1842 Oratorio serioso disharmonico W.13 for vocal trio and piano by Peter Cornelius (17) to his own words is performed for the first time, for his mother’s birthday, in Wiesbaden.
24 August 1842 A revolutionary plot is uncovered in Braga, Portugal. The ringleaders are arrested.
29 August 1842 After the British occupy Chou-shan Island, Ningpo, Chapu and Wusung and sail up the Yangtze to Nanking, a peace treaty is concluded at Nanking. Britain receives Hong Kong, an indemnity of $21,000,000 in silver and the opening of five Chinese ports to trade.
Several English factories attempt to reopen in the midst of the strikes but worker attendance is minimal. The strikes continue through most of September, with workers at least preventing wage cuts.
Incidental music to Schmidt’s play Uranias Festmorgen by Albert Lortzing (40) is performed for the first time, in Berlin. The work celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Urania amateur theatrical company. Lortzing’s parents were founding members.
3 September 1842 Mehmed Emin Rauf Pasha replaces Izzet Mehmed Pasha as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.
6 September 1842 Gaetano Donizetti (44) leaves Naples for Paris.
8 September 1842 Prince Mihailo Obrenovic III of Serbia is forced into exile.
11 September 1842 Invading Mexican troops capture San Antonio, Texas.
12 September 1842 The “serf girl” in the divorce case of Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (38) testifies that she took letters from Nikolay Nikolayevich Vasilchikov to Maria Petrovna Glinka from Mrs. Glinka’s dresser. See 28 March 1842.
13 September 1842 Robert Schumann presents the manuscript of the three op.41 string quartets to his wife Clara on her 23rd birthday.
14 September 1842 Aleksandar Karadjordjevic replaces the absent Mihailo Obrenovic III as Prince of Serbia.
The Imperial Censor approves Ruslan and Lyudmilla by Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (38) for public performance.
16 September 1842 British forces evacuating Afghanistan take Kabul and destroy the great bazar.
18 September 1842 Hastily assembled Texas volunteers defeat invading Mexicans at Salado Creek.
19 September 1842 Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka’s (38) opera A Life for the Tsar is given its first Moscow performance. It has been produced in St. Petersburg for six years.
20 September 1842 After leaving a note for his wife, Harriet Smithson, Hector Berlioz (38) leaves Paris with his lover, the singer Marie Recio, to go to Brussels to concertize.
26 September 1842 Hector Berlioz (38) gives his first concert outside France, in Brussels.
28 September 1842 Frédéric Chopin (32) and George Sand move into separate but nearby apartments on the Square d’Orleans, Paris.
5 October 1842 Hector Berlioz (38) is presented to Leopold I, King of the Belgians in Brussels. He offers the king a manuscript copy of the Marche des pèlerins.
9 October 1842 L'église Sainte-Marie-Madeleine in Paris, known informally as La Madeleine, is consecrated as a church. Various governments have tried to build a church on the site since 1763.
12 October 1842 British forces complete their evacuation of Kabul and Afghanistan.
Hector Berlioz (38) and Marie Recio depart Brussels for Frankfurt.
15 October 1842 The first issue of The Nation appears in Dublin. It will become an important force in Irish nationalism.
16 October 1842 Determined to leave his royal appointment, Felix Mendelssohn (33) meets with King Friedrich Wilhelm in Berlin. The king does not agree. He needs Mendelssohn to be part of his reorganization of the musical culture of the city.
20 October 1842 Richard Wagner’s (29) grosse tragische Oper Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen WWV 49 to his own words after Bulwer Lytton is performed for the first time, in the Dresden Hoftheater. The work is a great success and is very enthusiastically received.
Believing war to have broken out, Commodore Thomas Jones USN sails into Monterrey harbor and demands the town’s surrender from defenseless officials. They comply and Jones claims California for the United States.
21 October 1842 Commodore Thomas Jones USN learns that war has not broken out between Mexico and the United States. He lowers his flag and sails away. The US will apologize to Mexico.
26 October 1842 Felix Mendelssohn (33) meets with King Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia for a second time in Potsdam to tell him that he feels his appointment is a failure and that he wishes to leave Berlin. Rather than be angry, the king negotiates a more reasonable set of responsibilities for Mendelssohn. He will create a new court chapel which Mendelssohn will conduct and compose for. Before it is established, he is free to travel.
28 October 1842 Eight days after the enormous success of Rienzi, the Dresden Kapellmeister dies. All eyes turn to Wagner (29).
Giacomo Meyerbeer (51) is accepted into Freemasonry at a lodge in Paris.
31 October 1842 Franz Liszt (31) accepts the title of Kapellmeister in Weimar with a contract clearly delineating the provinces of Kapellmeister and the director of the court theatre. It will be made public on 2 November.
2 November 1842 Grand Duke Carl Friedrich of Weimar officially names Franz Liszt (31) as his “Kapellmeister Extraordinary.”
Charles Gounod’s (24) Messe de Requiem is performed for the first time, in Vienna.
13 November 1842 Felix Mendelssohn (33) meets with King Friedrich August II in Dresden. He turns down an appointment as Kapellmeister but urges the king to found a conservatory in Leipzig.
16 November 1842 Progressives and republicans in Barcelona, having successfully chased troops from the city, set up a Provisional Governing Popular Council.
21 November 1842 King Friedrich August II of Saxony informs Felix Mendelssohn (33) that he will use the estate of Heinrich Blümner to fund a conservatory in Leipzig.
22 November 1842 The agreement between Felix Mendelssohn (33) and King Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia of 26 October is formalized in a Supreme Cabinet Order naming Mendelssohn Generalmusikdirektor for church music.
3 December 1842 The Regent Espartero orders the bombardment of Barcelona. In twelve hours, over 1,000 projectiles hit the city destroying almost 500 buildings. Citizens surrender the what is left.
7 December 1842 The New York Philharmonic Orchestra performs for the first time, in the Apollo Rooms on Broadway.
9 December 1842 Ruslan and Lyudmilla, an opera by Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (38) to words of the composer, Kukolnik, Shirkov, Markevich and Gedeonov after Pushkin is performed for the first time, in the Bolshoy Theatre, St. Petersburg. The production is flawed from the start with bad sets, some inadequate singers and an undramatic libretto. The audience reception includes both loud applause and hissing.
12 December 1842 Hector Berlioz (39) and Marie Recio leave Paris, once again for Brussels, but with intentions of an extended tour of Germany.
19 December 1842 The United States recognizes the independence of Hawaii.
23 December 1842 The elite of artistic Paris gather at the Hôtel L’Empire to bid farewell to Giacomo Meyerbeer (51) the night before he departs for Berlin. Among those present are Frédéric Chopin (32), Gaetano Donizetti (45), Adolphe Adam and Heinrich Heine. Those sending messages include George Sand, Eugéne Scribe and Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (60).
24 December 1842 Giacomo Meyerbeer departs Paris for Berlin to take up duties as Generalmusikdirektor.
25 December 1842 A battle in Mier, Mexico between Texan raiders and Mexican defenders costs the lives of 600 Mexicans and 30 Texans. Unaware of the relative losses, the Texans surrender.
29 December 1842 Hector Berlioz’ (39) ballade La belle voyageuse for mezzo-soprano and orchestra to words of Moore translated by Gounet is performed for the first time, in Stuttgart directed by the composer.
31 December 1842 Der Wildschütz, oder Die Stimme der Natur, a komische Oper by Albert Lortzing (41) to his own words after Kotzebue, is performed for the first time, in Leipzig Stadttheater. It is wildly successful.
©2004-2012 Paul Scharfenberger
10 July 2012
Last Updated (Tuesday, 10 July 2012 04:53)