New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-11-26
THE LATEST r.ASByoy IN MUSIC.


THE LATEST rASHION IN MUSIC.
Two years ago, when half the town ran
mauiy D. ter her rollicking Highness Oh 0eror
gu, and clapped their hands for JOY tnat ~
the new French Apollo they had greater goo
than any of the old Italians whose lays had
charmed us before, few sober people VINO
had not been caught by the prevailing mania
cried out that the musical art had got ITS death
blow, and we were all rushing to moral and
aesthetic destruction. And it seemed, indeed,
for while as if they might be right. From
the Grand Duchess to the Fair Helen was only
one STEP and from Troy to Brabant was
another While the revels of Offenbach
ragged fast and furious at one end
of Fourteenth ST.. the faces OF musicians
grew sad and anxious at the other. Art
lists raised their voices in vain amid the soil
tudes of the Academy while shapely women
were Haunting their skirts and saying naughty
things on the boards of the French Theater.
So the doors of the opera house were locked
one day, the cotton covers were drawn over
the gilded boxes, and dust was left to settle
on the great stage until such time as the
world should get through with its frollc ana
recover its senses. Mr.. Grant White and others
might we'll believe that art was departing for
ever from the stage, and mere nonsense and
frivolity coming to permanently take its
place. At last, however, the frolc be-
came so daring that innocent eyes were
opened to its real significance, and ladies
found out that the Fair Helen and the
unhappy Genevieve were not very good COM
pany for them and then the reaction began.
So much money was lost in opera boufe, and
such marked change took place in the char
acter of its patrons, that after the second
season not vestige of that style of entertain
ment was to be found in the whole city.
1t was O serious question at first, however,
whether the true art and the false had not both
been overthrow. Very few supposed that mu-
steal taste would revive without at least
year or two Of depression, But Fashion is as
tickle in music as she is in skirts and bonnets,
and goes back as readily to discarded com
poser az she does to an abandoned petticoat.
We dare say the great Jubilee at Boston has
had its effect in turning tho public
away from their false gods, and
convincing them that they can worship with
quite as much pleasure and quite as much style
at the feet of Rossni as at the calves of Tos-
tee. Be this as it may, Fashion has set vio-
lently and suddenly towards the legitimate In
the art of music A seat at the Philharmonic
Concert is an unpurchasable luxury for which
a New. York belle would sacrifice the best ball
of the season. The centenary of Beethoven
IL to be celebrated here with grandeur which
will make Boston blush with modification and
howl with envy. One English opera company
has sung for us and gone away with
full pockets, and another follows it with
the same success. And finally, Italian
opera, thought TO be the most hopelessly
PROSTATE of all lyric enterprises, baSks IN
such q sunshine of favor that manager and
singers must be amazed at their own prosper
ity. All these successes are well deserved, bat
they are not the less remarkable for all that.
A good performance of William Telr' is a
blessing which descends upon America only
once in decade or so and performance
with such an ArnoldO az the new tenor who
has now fred the town would mark an epoch
in the musical history of any city; yet music
il 80 seldom rewarded as 1t should be that
there il perhaps more reason to be surprised
at the fashionable enthusiasm than If it wasted
itself upon the dyed locks and stuffed anatomy
of the ladies of the ballet Frankly, we must say
that Fashion has shown degree Of sense for
which we were quito unprepared. Let us take
the good the gods provide and be thankful.
Taste will grow from experience The fair
danes and polished cavaliers who go to the
opera now because some mysterious, awful,
unseen autocrat has decreed that the opera
shall be patronized; because the boxes are
well arranged for Irritation, and the balconies
are unriyaled for the exhibition of silks and
pearl-powderi; will learn to go pretty soon for
love of art itself, to keep silence during the
soft music. to pat their hands and cry bisi
bic ! in the right place, and to remember with
O sort of shame the barbarous days when an
opera season could be made by an accident
and ruined by within.