The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-08-29
Theatrical and Musical Climpses.

Theatrical and Musical GIimpses.
Mr.. Mapleson has leased the Academy of
Music, and we are to see the great experiment
OF Italian opera tried once rAore. Some names
have been given, by authority, perhaps, as in
dicating the character of tie company. It
sometimes happens that the mere mention Of
the names of the artists assures the success Of
a proposed season; but the names we hear in
connection with Mr. Maplesons adventure are
not the ones from which we expect that mira
Gle. Tietjens, for instance, is an artist well
past her prime, and she takes an important place
in the list. Opera, to succeed here, must stand
on its merts-not on the fashionable fact that
it is opera, nor yet on the tradition of names.
We have very little of the society that will go to
the opera simply because every one else goes.
Our people go for the music and will go con-
stantly if the voices are of the first class but
if these are Indifferent they will stay away very
handsomely after one or two nights.
With voices of Indifferent quality Mr.. Maple
son cannot surmount the difficulties he will
find in his way. The first and greatest of his
the stockholders that has proved so ruinous to
many former attempts to make opera pay in
the Academy. BY the system of securing to
themselves ell the best places in the house the
stockholders from the first step put the man
ager and the company in a false posi-
ton before the public; for they seem
through this arrangement to deprecate
the very presence of the people by putting
them in out Of the way corners and never Civ
ng them chance for a front seat on any
terms. This system originated in the vanity
and folly of people who wanted to make them
selves exclusive centres of fashionable society
People who want to be supreme in the pitiful
rvalries of fashionable life are very apt to
fancy there can be no better way Of proving
superiority than by looking down on their
neighbors from the best places at the theatre.
1t was to secure this triumph, so inexpensive of
brains and so cheap even in money point of
view, that there was set up On aristocracy of
the front seats. In London the opera is the
scene of aristocratic display, so it is in Paris,
so it is in st. Petersburg; therefore, says your
fumbler of shoddy, If we are always seen in
the best seats at the opera we shall be the
best people. The very attempt in this drec-
lion has been an incubus on the Academy from
the commencement 1t is the mass that pays.
Managers must count upon the people in
country where aristocratc distinctions are
simply laughable nonsense.
Nv. No ,i,,kr. h;nta
subject from an unfortunate manager who
labored strenuously in the Academy, but is
now, thanks to the stockholders, endeavoring
to establish Black Hawk opera somewhere out
West-in Omaha, perhaps. Maretzek was the
best manager they ever had in the Academy
He understood the people here reasonably
well-certainly better than Mapleson can; but
the stockholders brought him to prairie opera
and other horrors that we scarcely dare dwell
upon, the least of which may be Sioux prima
Sioux prima donna and tenor of the Chcy-
ennes, but he was not equal to the glorious
company of the stockholders, every one holding
up the tickets for his little list of front seats
We only hint that this former manager may
tell Mapleson how real and great is this first
difficulty.
Another important point in the case is the
lively opposition Of other entertainments.
Mapleson will have to take the field against
great odds in managers experienced in the
ways and whims Of the metropolitan public.
Grau is the greatest of these, and Bateman is
scarcely less active and sagacious. Pike looms
behind all, man of indomitable energy, but
as yet without history indicating other quail
ties. 1t is not to be supposed that these man
egers having the field and understanding it,
will leave many lapses for Mapleson. They
will keep the public eye filed and the public
fancy busy. Men who gave us last year such
attractive entertainments as the Ristori series
and the op6ra 6ou6e have other pleasures in
store, and Mapleson will be wonder indeed if
he can revivify Italian opera in the city.