New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-10-02
TIE MUSIC OF THE SEASON.

THE MUSIC OF lille 6EADON.
We cannot recall the opening of a musical
season in New-York which offered fairer prom
ises, or indicated more healthy condition Of
the public taste, than that which il to be cele-
brated at the Academy of Music this evening.
Our columns have displayed already be-
widering variety of announcements and In all
the bulletins of musical entertainments 10 come
there is hardly anything which does not pre-
sent strong claims to the consideration OF Gull
tivated listeners. There have been brief pc
RODS of lyric glory, to be sure, in former years
as when Sontag, and Salyi, and Bosio,
and Badiali woke the echoes of Castle
Garden; when Grisi and Mario sang in
the then new Academy to an audience not
yet educated to appreciate them; when La
Grange was in her prime, and Brignoi
fresh favorite, and Trovatore" o novelty;
or when Adelina Patti burst in all her girlish
beauty upon an amazed public; but remem-
boring all these, We can still say that no
former season has promised so much that is
excellent and 80 little that is bad as the
season upon which we are just entering. OF
the most refined and most costly style of
musical performance-tho Opera-we are GER
tain to have an abundance We are very
likely also to have it Of better quality than
we are used to,-with better choruses, dressaa,
scenery, and orchestra, and with casts which
would not disgrace the best opera houses Of
Europe. Both the rival managers, Rosa and
Strakosch, who are to divide the season
between them, are well supplied with capital,
and fired with the spirit of emulation.
It will be strange if they do not present
our chief fashionable amusement, therefore,
with that care for detail and completeness Of
equipment which the fastdious taste of New
York now imperatively demands. How richly
they are supplied with leading artists our
readers already know. There is to he a little
of the foOlishness Of opera bouife, which will
please at least as many people as can crowd
into the little theater chosen for that trifle;
and the judicious critic who shakes his head
mournfully over this pestilent and persistent
fooling, which dies in disgrace every Winter
and rises again every Fall, may find cOnsola-
ton in the simultaneous revival of OratOrio
which is to be heard twice during the
present month,-frst with Parepa, and
then with Santley. The relish for orchestral
music which Theodore Thomas has cultivated
80 extensively at his Garden will be kept
alive by the Sunday entertainments of DR..
ary and gives us q week full Of symphonies,
Overturcs, and marches. The Philharmonic
Society will attract as usual the best class of
connoisseurs and enthusiasts, and the
chorus of the Church Music Association will
probably be as fashionable as ever. There
are few announcements thus far of the mis-
cellaneous concerts which are such WEAKNESS
and vexation of spirit to the profess
sional critic; but there is promise of I'M
usual interest in the appearance of the
Dolby troupe of English ballad singers,
and in tho formal debut of Mrs.
Moulton. whose fame as an amateur
has long been exalted on both sides Of tho
Atlantic We have, therefore. with other ex-
cellent artists, five of the most eminent of
living singers-Parepa, Nilsson, Wachtel, Ca
poul, and Santley. We have an assurance that
there shall be no more hap-hazard opera, no
more managerial shutting and lying, no more
sudden failures in the middle of the season.
We have a rich programme of the severer
kinds of classical music. And, most cheering
sign of all, the familiar old charlatans whose
grand testimonial concerts" and 80 on have
afflicted us season after season ever since wo
can remember, are prudently keeping out of
the way.
Can we bear all the good fortune in store
for us There is perhaps more music pre-
pared than NewYork can pay for, and before
the end of Winter we may hear the walls of
the wrecked. But If the table is overloaded
with dainties, let US taste here and there, and
remember that we have been long fasting,
and such feasts are not spread for us every
day 1t may be long before we are embar-
raised with riches again. But for the disas-
tiers of France, which have driven 80 many
artists out of the Paris theaters as to over
crowd the stage of nearly every great capital
in the world, we should hardly have this
gathering of bright stars in New-York, and
we are not likely soon to have such another.
Transient, however, though the good fortune
may be, it will leave o permanent effect. The
relish for true art grows constantly by indul-
gence. Every season Of good music goes to
make bad music Improbable; and any mana
ger who may perchance this Winter be ruined
ip consequence of the excellence of his enter
tainment. win have ~" satisfaction Of know