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PROFESSOR GREGORIO CURTO.
Professor Gregorio Curto is, we believe, the oldest teacher of musical composition and singing now living in New Orleans, where he arrived in 1830, and where he has resided uninterruptedly ever since.
Mr. Curto is a native of Spain, but received his musical education in Paris, where he was admitted at a very early age into the celebrated Singing School of Choron, and had for his fellow pupils Dupuy, Monpou, Scudo, Marie, Rosina Stoltz, and a host of other musical and artistic celebrities. In one of his most charming feuilletons, published about fifteen years ago, Scudo relates a visit paid by Choron to the Minister of the Household (under whose superintendence all artistic and operatic matters were then placed), in company with three of his favorite pupils, his object being to give to that official a practical domonstratian of the efficiency and success of his method of teaching. The Duke Be Larochefoucauld, the then Minister, was a man of taste and artistic accomplishments, and so well pleased was he with the performances of Choroids pupils that he forthwith granted a liberal appropriation for the support of the school. Young Curto was one of the scholars who figured upon the occasion, Dupuy and Scudo completing the trio.
Before he had completed his fourteenth year, Mr. Curto received the appointment of organist of the Cathedral of Soissons, which he relinquished one year later to resume the study of musical composition with his old teacher, Choron, acting at the same time as " Maitre de Chapelle" at the church, of the " Sorbonne," then a favorite place of worship for the Parisian beau monde.
In 1830, Mr. Curto made a highly successful debut at the Italian Opera in Rossini's " Gazza Ladra," and shortly after was engaged as primo basso cantante by Mr. Davis, then manager of the Orleans Theatre. In this capacity Mr. Curto remained here for two seasons, performing with great success in " La Dame Blanche," " L'ltaliana in Algieri," " Anna Bolina," the u Huguenots/ and also acting occasionally in Racine and Corneille's classical pieces, in connection with the distinguished tragedienne, Madame Close!, whom he subsequently married.
In 1883, Mr. Curto left the stage to devote himself entirely to teaching and musical composition. Of his very great success as a teacher of vocal music no better proof is needed than the fact that two of his pupils, Mile. Minnie Hauck and Mine. Fleury Urban have already achieved a European reputation, and that another one, Mme. Durand Hitchcock, bids fair to obtain very soon a no less enviable position as a lyrical artist.

As a composer, Mr. Curto has written many operas and oratorios, several of which have been performed with great success in this country and in Europe. Among the latter may be cited "Le.nouvel Ermite," three acts, performed in 1832; " Amour et Folie," three acts (1834); " Sardanapale," two acts and three tableaux (1838); " L'Heritiere," two acts; " La Mort de Jeanne D'Arc," two acts ; " Le Lepreup," a dramatic scene, the words by Placide Canonge, and " La Mort d'Abel," oratorio, composed in 1866.
We would exceed the limits of this sketch were we to enumerate Mr. Curto's church music, in which we find three Stabats, one intended exclusively for female voices, over fifty Masses, ten of which have been published, and more than two hundred motets solos, duetts, trios, quintettes, etc. His Stabat No. 1 was lately performed with great success at the church of St. Eustache in Paris, and his grand Mass of the Immaculate Conception, with full orchestra, was repeated three times in the same church.
Professor Curto is the organist of St. Anne's Church, on St. Philip street, and still devotes a portion of his time to a select class of pupils who have prevailed upon him to give them the benefit of his invaluable services as a teacher of vocal music. As a master of this art, Mr. Curto occupies a very high rank in this country, and as far as this city is concerned, there is no one, with the single exception of Mr. Eugene Prevost, who can dispute the palm with him as a professor and composer.