"There was no coming and going of dandies and mouthpieces. All was
quiet, dignified, soft, slow and noiseless, as became the dedication of a
great temple of music." So said The New York Herald of the
opening night of the new Music Hall at the corner of 57th Street and
Seventh Avenue on May 5, 1891.
It was the first night of a five night festival celebrating the
inauguration of New York City's newest and finest music hall. The
concerts, which featured two giants of the composing and conducting
worlds—Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Walter Damrosch—attracted the great
and good of late nineteenth century New York society, with The New
York Herald listing the luminaries seated in the boxes and the
stalls.