The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-06 00:00:00

RACLNG FIXTURES.

FEBRUARY.
Lincoln l6, 17 Nottingham Spring... 23, 24
Harrow lB, 19 Chelmsford 25, 26
Mansfield 18 Derby Spring 2b, 26
Pontefract lB, 19

MA
Liverpool Spring 2,3, 4
Shrewsbury spring 5, 6
Do wnpatrick 9
War wick 9, 10, 11
lien don l2, 13
West Somerset 15, 16
Northampton 16, 17

Off.

West Drayton lB, 19
Baldoyle First Spring 18, 19
Margate 20
Beverley 20
Durham 29, 30
Epsom 30, 3d.

Abergavenny l, 2
Bromley 1, 2
Aldershot l, 2
Catterick Bridge... l, 2
Thirsk .. 6, 7
B.ungerford 6, 7
Lichfield 6, 7
Cambridge 7 8
Croxton Park .. 8
Streatham B. 9

Newmarket Craven...l2, &c.
Knighton... l3, a
Ludlow 15, 16
Eastbourne l9
Lewes 20 21
Curragh ...20, 21, 22
Croydon 22, 23
Newmarket Ist Spring

16, .!so

THE FUIURE OF THE OPERAS.

Perhaps there was never a time of greater inte-
rest in regard to the destinies of the Opera than the
present. We make no exception for any period
during the past fifty years. The circle of events
reminds one of this same eventful time last year,
when gossip, with its innumerable tongues, was
busy with the operatic future over all the country.
It is now exactly a twelvemonth since that a mag-
nificent operatic speculation was given to the world
on paper in the form of a " United Limited Opera
Company," wills the usual apparatus of directors
and lofty promises, involving impossibilities to thoso
who are acquainted with the management of Opera
houses, to which boards and committees have al-
ways proved ruinous.

Tile public felt relief, and the friends of Opera
in this country rejoiced when this Stock-Exchange
scheme was relegated to that limbo to which all
ill-digested designs, sooner or later, revert. The
government of Opera is strictly monarchical. Di-
vided counsels never prosper with it. In thil
" United Opera" speculation, as there was no sin-
gle responsible head, the enterprise Must have
ended in contradictory objects, the attempt to
amalgamate which would very possibly have termi-
nated in the general upset.

But although the design on the whole could nob
prosperously be carried to market (to use the mer-
chantable figure), it does not at all follow that
there were not some very excellent ideas com-
prised in the scheme. Prominent in this regard.
is the fact that we should have secured the union
of all the operatic talent in one establishment.
A source of inevitable disappointment has been,
the fact that since the formation of a rival.
opera the great talents have been divided be-
tween the two houses, that the operatic stars
(as was natural under the circumstances), could
never be brought to shine in the same hemisphere,
or under the same cope or roof. For years and
years Her Majesty's Theatre and the Royal Italian.
Opera, Covent Garden, have been labouring to un-
dermine, and eventually to remove, the ground from
under each other's foundation—to speak the fact
mildly—not simply to pronounce the plain word—
destroy. Now, the question may be fairly asked, is it
really necessary that London should have two Opera
Houses?—that is, in rivalry. Lit indispensable that
nightafter night they should follow suit, merely outof
opposition, in playing the same operas? It ha
often happened, and it was conspicuously the case
during last season, that the same opera was being
played at both houses on the same evening, with
some special point at each of extraordinary attrac-
tion in which the other happened at the moment to
be notoriously deficient, and which was therefore
placed at a great disadvantage. Perhaps a greab
artiste was heard to-night in a particular character,
and the same night there would be an equally great
artiste to be heard at the opposite establishment.
One time a celebrated opera has been pre-
pared at enormous expense for one operatic esta.
blishment, which in the lapse of a very few days
has been offered at the other. Now amidst all this
dealing out of the self-same cards, and the staking
of the trumps—perhaps of equal value at the rival
establishment, the experienced operatic eye has dis-
tinctly seen that the real interest of " art" in its
totality is completely overlooked—that strife and
contest are robbing the opera of its possible single.
ness and completeness ; and that simply be•
taultaelrl
to
be.
s
utv
cause two great places are doing battle, that the
magnificent forces oa either side are being sacri-
ficedes oughta
ml
not na t y
dely
in alternatelygrnetaoht,antbeuettahasis
t u
outdone, charges. Now we speak in the interest
of
r arteiong ewhenrs
ewe say
there
is
should be persisted in any longer
soor,yst
rn
It would surely be better to conquer the publio
approbation under one flag than under two —with
one operatic company than two independent ones.
NOT what a splendid cast for any of those tran-
swcoernlcdlelnvtoummusbiceapol wssoibrkles
inw ht
hi cehhahnadvse
ofd etlhieghmtaendagthee.
went that could make the choice in filling-in with
the great names from both Operas. We can only
imagine the irrepressible eagerness of the crowds,
titled and untitled, who night after night wouid fill
the fortunate theatre where all the great Bingen!'
could be heard at once--each in his or her best
character, and in the Opera, and in the part, that
is the talk of the world. We can imagine, in the
public interest, what such a representation would!
be, and what an era would be created in the annals
of Opera.