The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-05-03
Tho Opera-Its Requirements aud iss Inc
nUence.

The short season of Italian Opera opened
very auspiciously on Monday evening, at the
Academy of Music. From the fashionable
throng that attended and the interest mani
tested we think we may predict that Signor
Abilities effort to supply the long desired luxury
will prove success, especially as the season
Is to be short one. This Is all very
well 50 far as 1t goes, but what q great
city like New York needs is the opera
established on firm and permanent basis.
Our cultivated classes can be- satisfied with
nothing less.
Every effort, therefore, looking to this end
will command our encouragement and sup
port. The arrangement that has been effected
with the directors of the Academy of Music
for the fall is a step in the right direction, but
1t is not enough. The terms of this arrange
ment, as we explained last Saturday, are that
the managers shall have the Academy rent
free for ten weeks and defray only one-half of
the expenses Of scenery and appointments, the
other half to be borne by the directors in con-
sideration of retaining their old privilege Of
free and choice seats. We say this is not
enough, though we are bound to give credit to
the directors for conceding even this
much, with view to giving some
encouragement to the impresarii. Every
thing that contributes to human happiness
involves trouble and expense. This, how
ever, is not the difficult point. If people
would only agree that certain thing would
tend to render them happy half the work Of
securing 1t would already be accomplished.
But, unhappily, there Is nothing SO useful or so
good but that 1t will experience opposition on
the ground that 1t Is neither one nor the other.
Literature, art and science have in turn been
opposed as more dangerous than useful.
Everybody is familiar with the speech which
Shakespeare puts into the mouth Of Jack Cade
when that parsonage orders the head of Lord
Say to be struck off:-s'Thou hast most
traitorously corrupted the youth Of the realm
in erecting grammar school, and whereas
before our forefathers had no other books but
the score and the tally, thou hast caused
printing to be used. 1t will be proved
to thy face that thou hast men about thee that
usually talk of noun and q verb, &c.
The great dramatist had good reason for
this. Is it any wonder, then, that the opera
should be opposed, or merely tolerated. Ac-
cordingly it has been opposed in every coun-
try, not excepting Italy lit has required the
persistent efforts Of the greatest minds to Sc
cure it q foothold even in the most enlightened
nations and, be 1t remembered, that nowhere
has it been permanently established without
the fostering aid of the government.
Now let us see what class of men have taken
most pains to cultivate the musical taste Of the
public by means Of the opera. Those who
examine the facts will find that they are pre-
cisely the same class that have proved the
most munificent patrons of literature and the
arts. For the last twenty years of his life the
great Cardinal Mazarin left no means untried
to render the opera popular In France. Time
after time he secured the best Italian COM
panies had the magnificent halls of the Louvre
decorated for their representations, and had
free tickets issued to thousands, but the
epigrams. A man of different calibre would
have been not only discouraged but fright
ened. Mazarin perfectly understood that the
opera exercises an educational influence of q
high ordcr-.hat it does not merely please the
mind and exhilarate the spirits, but elevates
and ref1nes the northumberland with this faith
In its power death alone could prevent him
from contributing in every possible way to
dispel the prejudices entertained against it by
the narrow-minded and thoughtless.
Although he did not live to see his efforts
crowned with success he took pride In saying
that the seed he had sown was already pro-
ducing its fruits. How true this was is now
we'll known: for the Cardinal was but few
years dead when Louis XIV. founded PAca-
demie Royale de Musique, appointed the Abbe
Perrin, both poet and musician, its director,
and granted large subsidy for its support.
The letters patent granted to the composer
Lulli, who succeeded the Able, are still
extant, and are highly interesting as showing
the important s'powers and privileges" which
he was to exercise and enjoy forever (fsrmd
ct stable d touyours) Seven years after the
granting of this patent, while in the meantime
the most enlightened and wealthy Of the
nobility zsalously co-operated with the King,
the opera might be said to have been
naturalized in Paris. Aud it was by similar
men and means that the opera was introduced
into Spain and Portugal as well as into all the
German States.
1t is a curious fact that if we inquire what
two men have been most instrumental in natu-
ralizing the opera in Germany we shall find
that they were the most illustrious friends Of
literature and literary men-namely, Frederick
the Great, and the scarcely less renowned
Duke Of SAKE Weimar, the patron Of Goethe,
Schiller, Wieland and Herder. Another re-
markable fact is that while in the Catholic
countries it was the cardinals and arohbishops
who introduced the opera, il was the most mn