• Estates Theatre orchestra: participating orchestra
• TAUWITZ, Eduard: director of ensemble, conductor

 The Dalibor 10/4/1859 announcement included no further details about this concert stated to be taking place on 28/4/1859 in aid of this Society, specifying neither the general participants, the venue, nor the programme, but noting that in it would be appearing ‘Mr Schönbruck (Vukovič) from the court theatre of Vienna, who in Graz gained a magnificent success.’ News published later by Dalibor 10//1859 stated that a benefit concert in aid of the ‘Society against Cruelty to Animals’ took place on 7/5/1859. However, from pre-concert reports appearing in Bohemia 28/4/1859 and Prager Morgenpost 29/4/1859, as well as the detailed reviews of the event that were published by Bohemia and Prager Morgenpost 30/4/1859, and the Tageskalender published by Bohemia 29/4/1859 this benefit production actually took place on 29/4/1859. A brief review of the event also appeared in Prager Zeitung 4/5/1859. From these later reports we can ascertain that Schönbruck did not actually appear in this concert. The Society against Cruelty to Animals was reported by the various reviews as being under the protectorate of Leopold, Count von Thun-Hohenstein.

Programme details were published prior to the event in Prager Morgenpost 29/4/1859. These form the basis of the programme listed herein, incorporating additional details and changes evident from the following day’s reviews. Besides Trockne Blumen Bukovic was originally to have sung Meyerbeer’s song Komm! du schöne Fischermadchen, but this was evidently replaced by the song by Netzer. The Czech song that Bukovic gave following the two German works only identified by title in the Bohemia 30/4/1859 review. The aria from Rigoletto cannot be identified. Although the orchestra was not named by any of the periodical reports, the ensemble was almost certainly that of the Estates Theatre, partly because the director was named as Eduard Tauwitz, then the theatre’s second conductor, and also because the Estates Theatre orchestra was usually the engaged ensemble in these substantial concert productions at this time. 

The concert also included two declamations, a poem Barry, der St. Gotthardshund by C. Victor Hausgirg, which was according to Morgenpost 29/4/1859 to have been performed by after the aria from Rigoletto but the subsequent review noted was given after the Cherubini Overture. The performer was Frau Burggraf. The second declamation, a ‘Bagatelle’ entitled Die Thierschutzvereine was performed by Mrs Adele Allram-Lechner before Schubert’s Erlkönig.