The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1870-08-08
Grlnnell than the ono he has JUST vacated, and
he enters upon It's duties with the hearty good
wishes of the mercantile community Of this city.


Italian Opera-Its Revival.
The advent Of the beautiful Christine Nilsson,
the Swedish songstress to this country, where
she is to appear on the 10th Of next month,
will open new era in Italian opera, which is
much to be desired after the long lapse of
dulness in that branch of art through which
our musical public have suffered. Since the
early times of operate enterprise in New York,
twenty five or thirty years ago, in the palmy
days of poor old Palmo, and the fowery days
Of Castle Garden Opera House, the public
have been treated to little above mediocrity in
the lyric art, with q few brilliant exceptions.
Managers seemed to have lost the pride Of
their profession, and to have dwindled into
mere money getters hence talent of very
poor order has been often pretensiously forced
upon us, which we were compelled to accept
for want of better. In some cases the mana
gers made money on their poor material, but
very often they came to grief. as they deserved
bad singing, bad appointments and bad houses
bringing them to ruin.
The New York public, and we might say
the American public generally, never yet
failed to support in munifcent manner all
foreign artists whose merits had claims upon
their judgment 1t is not merely European
reputation, got up sometimes in mysterious
and ingenious ways, that wins upon US. We
judge for ourselves. We reserve that demo-
cratic privilege-that good old Protestant
right of private judgment in matters of art,
vyho in tha or IF
Cecilia, modernized into opera by Mozart and
Meyerbeer, Donizett Bellini and Beethoven,
Weber and Auber, Verdi, Gounod and Halevy,
or whether it appeals to US from the canvas of
the true artist in the picture gallery. Singers
have been brought here from time to time
from abroad with great flourish Of trampets,
and little else to recommend them but these
importations, enjoyed q brief time, indeed, Of
popular favor, because the good sense and
taste of the public ignored their pfetensions.
This has always been the fate of foreign
mediocrity with us. We have raised native
talent of the first order on the Italian stage.
We have encouraged it at home, and sent it
abroad to maintain its laurels successfully on
foreign boards. While we can boast Of
Van Zandt and Kellogg, McCu.loch and others
''to the manner born" second rate foreign
artists have naturally no place here.
But to learn how literally, how enthusiastic
cally, genius has been patronized in this coun-
try it is only necessary to run over the list Of
tho last forty years, beginning with the i'm
mortal Malibran, who, in the year 1926, as the
p'1mG donna of her fathers celebrated Garcia
operate corps, electrified American hearts as
they never were thrilled before nor since.
Following in her wake came the gorgeous
Grisi, and we all remember what an ovation
awaited her. No European triumph excelled
her American reception. Sontag, Alboni,
Jenny Lind, Anna Bishop, Piccolomini, Cathe-
rine Hayes, La Grange Gazzaniga, Parepa
and others, all in turn, received the fullest re-
cognition of their genius. All were submitted
to the critical judgment of our people, and
they received the full measure of applause and
support to which their merits as representa-.
tives of the Italian operate stage entitled
them. The visit of Jenny Lind, the Swedish
Nightingale, was the subject of more
than an ovation. 1t was dexterously
transformed into sensation; but the public
went heartily with it, and surely never was
there such sensation, springing from such
cause, in people more easily carried away by
furious political excitement than by the gentler
incentives of art But that was twenty years
ago. The amenities of life and social manners
have grown more into the metropolitan char
acter since then. Now that we are about to
welcome the second Swedish Nightingale to
our shores-Christine Nilsson, the favorite of
all the musical communities of the Old World,
the young, the beautiful, whose fresh voice and
exquisite acting have charmed the most refined
circles in Europe-we will not receive her with
sensational demonstrations, but with that ap-
preciative enthusiasm which every sensitive
artist of true genius comprehends. We think
that it is not rash to predict the immense sue
cess of her engagement here, second only to
that of her great prototype, Lind, who took
the whole country by storm ''twenty golden
years ago"
The st. Thomas Treaty.
The friends of the treaty for the cession of
st. Thomas to the United States are still hope