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| Clara Butt, by Eleanor Holmes Rotary Photographic Co Ltd, 1903 Colourised by ChatGPT |
According to Michael Kennedy's Portrait of Elgar, at the premiere of Elgar's Sea Pictures on 5 October 1899 at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival, Clara Butt appeared dressed as a mermaid.
It's a good story, but the newspapers reports of the concert do not bear it out.
However, at the Philharmonic Society's concert at Queen's Hall on 10 May 1900, she did wear this costume. As was traditional at the time, the concert had a substantial programme conducted by Frederic Cowen, with Elgar conducting Sea Pictures.
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| Morning Post Tuesday, 1 May 1900 |
A review of the concert in the Weekly Dispatch on Sunday, 13 May 1900, provides us with the source of the story of Clara's costume:
The programme of the fourth Philharmonic concert on Thursday at Queen's Hall though void of novelty was none the less an interesting one, for it included Mendelssohn's ever-fresh overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan, as well as Brahms's lovely Symphony in D.
Signor Busoni appeared, and gave a splendid rendering of Liszt's pianoforte Concerto in A.
Miss Clara Butt sang Mr. Edward Elgar's beautiful song- cycle Sea Pictures, which the composer conducted in person, in her best style, and they suit her lovely voice perfectly. By the way, she had appropriately attired herself in a glittering, shimmering gown that gave her a sort of mermaid appearance.
The story was picked up by the Woodford Times on Friday, 25 May 1900:
Clara Butt, our foremost contralto, some time ago time ago astonished the spectators at a concert by coolly divesting herself of her hat during the opening symphony of her song. Last week she sang Elgar's delightful Sea Pictures at a Philharmonic Concert, attired in the garb and glittering green scales generally associated with the stage mermaid!
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