April 8 Friday – In the evening at the Sala Filarmonica in Florence, Clara Clemens gave another performance of song. Sam was there and called the concert “a triumph.” Edward Caulfield in the Italian Gazette: “Miss Clemens possesses a very sympathetic contralto voce of considerable extension and of a remarkably sweet and touching quality” [ibid]. Clara would give another performance in the same venue on Apr. 15. Note: in his Apr. 12 to Rogers, Sam put the night of Livy’s attack to “two days after” Clara’s performance, or Apr. 10, but see his NB entry for Apr. 9.
William Lyon Phelps was in the audience at Clara’s performance. In his article, “Some Notes on Mark Twain. With Some Unpublished Letters” in The Independent, May 5, 1910, p.958:
On the 8th of April, 1904, I had the pleasure of hearing a song recital in Florence given by Miss Clara Clemens, now Gabrilowitsch. She has, as everybody knows, a splendid deep contralto voice, and that evening she sang beautifully. Mark Twain was in the audience, and, in spite of himself, was forced to hold an informal reception before the Italians and foreigners in the room would let him depart to his villa on the hill.
Phelps also wrote in his Autobiography with Letters (1939), ch. 44, “Literary Pilgrimage in Italy”:
Friday night 8 April we were present at the début of Clara Clemens as a concert singer; she sang from Semiramide with glorious tones. In the audience was her father Mark Twain. I spoke with him and he said in mock solemnity, “Yes, I am passing off the stage, and now my daughter is the famous member of the family.” I asked permission to call at his villa and he told me to come early on the following Thursday 14 April; so that we could talk together before his weekly reception of visitors, which began at four o’clock. [See Apr. 14 entry]. Note: Reminiscences some decades after the fact that include direct quotations or paraphrases of Mark Twain should be taken advisedly.
Sam’s notebook: “FORMALINE. / Clara’s concert / [Horiz. Line separator] / Wrote MacAlister to devote 3 Plasmon Founders shares (at L1000 to the Formaline scheme in the way proposed. (See his letter of April 3, 1904.) / [Horiz. Line separator] / Clara’s concert was a triumph. Livy woke up & sent for her to tell her all about it near midnight!” [NB 47 TS 9].
Frederick A. Duneka wrote to Sam, glad he liked the plan for the “Joan of Arc” article for the Christmas issue and he would “turn Pyle loose on it at once.” Also, “We shall keep watch over Mark Twain day at the St. Louis fair and get some advertising out of it.” On another matter, he wrote, “The love letters of Benjamin Constant and that prize beauty Madame de Stael ought to make a fine feature if—they really are love letters and not merely academic discussions of a rise in temperature superinduced by propinquity…I want however, to thank you very, very much for your zeal in the matter” [MTP].
Oliver Herford wrote from NYC to Sam giving him a letter of introduction for Mr. & Mrs. Kirke La Shelle, who would be in Florence shortly. LaShelle was a stage manager who successfully dramatized Owen Wister’s Virginian [MTP].
Carlo Hermann wrote from Florence to Sam, inviting him to an exhibit of the famous Francois vase, now in the Florentine Archeology Museum and soon to be sent to the St. Louis Fair [MTP].
George Gregory Smith wrote to Sam, enclosing a letter from the artist Edoardo Gelli; “he wishes to give you a sitting on Sunday and Monday in the afternoon. Will you please let me know if this will suit you” [MTP].