A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Napoleon, Arthur

NAPOLEON, Arthur, son of Alexandre Napoleon, an Italian, and Doña Joaquina dos Santos, a Portuguese lady, was born at Oporto, March 6, 1843. He began to learn the piano at four years of age under the direction of his father, who was a professor of music in that city. At six years of age he played at the Philharmonic of Oporto. His extraordinary precocity at once excited attention in Portuguese musical circles. In 1850, 1851, and 1852 he gave successful concerts at Lisbon and Oporto, and was invited to the Court, where he played several times before the Queen, Doña Maria II. In 1852 he went to London, and, under the patronage of the Duchess of Somerset, gained the favourable notice of the English aristocracy. In 1853 he gave concerts in the Salle Herz, Paris, and played before the Emperor and Empress. Returning to London he played at the Musical Union. In Jan. 1854 he was engaged for 12 concerts at the Kroll Theatre, Berlin, and having been presented by Meyerbeer, played at the palace of Charlottenburg before the King of Prussia. He studied with Mr. Hallé at Manchester in the same year, and undertook tours in the United Kingdom and Ireland (where the Lord Mayor of Dublin presented him, in public, with a testimonial of silver plate worth £100). In 1856 he played in Germany and Poland, and made a tour in England in 1857 with Sivori and Piatti. In that year Arthur Napoleon went to the Brazils and was enthusiastically received by his countrymen. In the first four concerts he gave in Rio Janeiro he made a profit of over £3000. Having travelled through South America he returned to Portugal in 1858. From thence he went to the United States, making several long tours, and to the West Indies in 1860, where he played with Gottschalk in Havana, and resided for some time during 1860 and 1861 at Porto Rico. At this time the constant travelling and excitement of continued public playing proved prejudicial to that musical progress which was expected of one so gifted. His re-appearance in London at St. James's Hall in 1862, when he gave a concert with the sisters Marchisio, was not entirely satisfactory. He now perceived that serious study of the classical composers was essential to his artistic development and to the ultimate attainment of the position for which his natural talents fitted him. He, however, while not neglecting this discipline, continued his tours, going again to the Brazils and Portugal, where he was charged with the direction of the opening fête at the Exhibition at Oporto in 1865. His last tour was made in Portugal and Spain in 1866, when he played before Queen Isabella. Owing to circumstances entirely independent of art, Arthur Napoleon left off playing in public at a time when he might really have begun a distinguished career as one of the first pianists in Europe, for which he had all the requisites. In 1868 he established at Rio Janeiro a business in music and pianofortes that has become the first in South America, the present style of the firm being Arthur Napoleaõ & Miguez. He married a lady of Rio in 1871. He has not altogether abandoned music as an art, having written several successful pieces for piano and for orchestra. At the request of the Emperor of the Brazils he directed in 1876 the performance of Verdi's Requiem, and in 1880 undertook the direction of the Camoens tercentenary festival.

[ A. J. H. ]