Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1852-12-16
High Priced Concerts.

High Priced Concerts.
Arthur's Philadelphia Home Gazette has
the following, which win probably be reserved
Dy our readers as excellent common sense:
1t IS, about time the public demurred to.
the high prices which popular singers and
grasping agents have of late been exacting;
and in promoting and sustaining which the
press has lent its efficient aid. Since the
Jenny Lind Juror, which was created through
the exceeding adroit management of that
prince of all managers, .Barnum, a similar
excitement has been attempted with each sue
rceedlng star, and, in some cases, not without
a good measure of success. That tie public
have submitted to the thing so long, is not a
little remarkable.
''Why must popular singer claim thou
sand dollars night for singing four or five
pieces, when hundred would be most lib
eral compensation? The thing is preposte-
rous! When amusements and recreations
are taxed in this way, they become burden
some-are rather evil than good. A man,
with his wife and two or three daughters, if
he would hear Sontag or AlbOni, must pay as
much for good seats in the concert-room, du
ring single evening as would provision his
family for week, or buy fuel enough to keep
/
whole winter.
The thing is entirely wrong, and we hope
right thinking and sensible people will give
it a little reflection In all conscience, dol
lar for single admission to any concert is
enough. From fourteen hundred to two
thousand dollars in the house ought to com
pensate every one concerned literally, and
leaves wide margin for the prima donna.
Rpvopd &c oil
bility so much lost to justice and benevolence.
The man who expends from five to twenty
dollars on single concert Will be apt to con-
slider himself little poor for week after
ward; and feel, { in justice to his family
pledged to close dealing with the market wo-
man and day laborer, and be utterly insensi-
BILE to all appeals to generous humanity.
Those who are perfectly able to pay
these high prices do not make up the bulk Of
the large audience that sit for weary hours
in close and crowded concert rooms, until all
sense of enjoyment is blunted the larger
number, either from passion for music that
will seek qualification at any cost, or from
weak devotion to the mere popular and fash
ionable. attend by sort of constraint, but can
not really afford these exhorbitaut charges !"
But we have an objection (says the
New York Evening Post) to col certs which
strikes even deeper than anything here
urged They are quite unsatisfactory in
themselves, being the mere fragments and
debris of operas. Complete and perfect per-
formances of the master pieces of music are
what the public wants, aud with these alone
it should be contented. Nothing can be
more tantalzing TO well instructed musical
ear than the habit which concert givers have
of exciting the fancy by some delicious bit
from Norma or Puritani, and then, as soon
as the whole mind is attuned to the due con-
diton, breaking in upon it wit some horrible
Carnival of Venice or other! Let us have
the whole thing or none at all.
AS for those classes Of the community,
whose moral sense is SO delicate that they
will not attend an opera, though they rush
to the concerts when it is given piece meal,
and without the harmonies of dress and scenic
effect, we would suggest that oratorios be
given once year i'll the Tabernacle for their
especial benefit.