The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1875-01-01
NEW YORK.
Fashionable Follies in Dress and Persona
Ornamentation---Savings Banks
The Sunday Question.
The Opera SeasOn-It has not Paid the
Manager.
THE ITALIAN OPERA SEASON.

opera season is over for the present, and |
the Academy of Music will be deserted
until Miss Kellogg takes possession with
her English Opera Company Mr..
Strakosch has not met with the encour-
agement that his efforts deserve, and
is not unnatural that he should feel dis
couraged. Last year he barely paid his
expenses, and this year he lost $40, 900.
The people go to the opera for one or
two nights and then stop. That sort of
patronage is not going to pay man
ager. Then they want new opera
every night. They will go to the same
play week after week, but when it comes
to the opera that is anotherthing. Now,
1T is three times more expensive to mount
an opera than play. Very often Grip
Van Winkle'' has a run of two months
at Booths Theater, and, aside from Mr..
Jefferson, costs but trifle. None of
the actors are stars, with one exception,
and all the manager has to do Is to take
In the money. At the Academy of
Music it is very different. In the
first place, aida" and "Lohen-
grim cost Mr.. Strakosch $40, 600 each to
the regular troupe, the orchestra and
chorus are largely increased, there are
four solo comets on the stage, besides
horses, and other smaller things too
numerous to mention. Mr.. Strakosch
provided Nilsson's dresses in this opera,
and still holds them in his possession.
Mile. AIbani did not wish to wear the
same garments that had become familiar
to New York audiences on Missions tall
and slender figure, and her agent wrote
Mr.. Strakosch to that effect. Mr.. Stra-
kosch replied that he thought it hardly
fair that he should go to the expense OF
new costumes when the old had been
worn but a few times. But, with his
usual liberality. he offered to pay for
the making If Mile. Albani would buy
the material. The prima donna ac-
cepted this offer, and appeared in beau
tiful new robes ON Wednesday last.
The cost of the goods alone for these
new dresses was $500. People hold up
their hands in amazement at the large
pay of operatic stars, but they forget
that their expenses are very large also.
A prima donna, as rule, finds her own
dresses, the cost of which, judging by
the above figures, must make quite q
hole in her receipts.
There is one thing very certain, and
that is that the public will growl at
whatever manager does for them. They
would like Patti, Lucca, Wachtel and
SantIey for the quartette, Thomas or
chestra, and the Boston Handel and
HAYDN Society as chorus, with reserved
seats at 81, children half price, and min
listers and doctors free. They seem to
forget that all this costs a manager
something. It takes a fortune to bring
an opera troupe to this country. In
England the singers do not get more
than half what they ask to come to
America, and the other expenses are
much less and the price of admission
much higher Five dollars is the least
you can get seat for In Convent Garden
or Drury Lane.
It is extremely doubtful whether Mr.,
Strakosch viii take his troupe on a
Western tour. He will be In Philadel-
phia for two weeks and in Boston for
three. After his Boston engagement he
Will probably take Albani and the rest
of his troupe to Havana and finish out
the season there.
THE REVIVAL OF LOHESGRN.
The most important and most inter-
esting opera announced by Mr.. Stra-
kosch was postponed until the last week
of the season, and then only sung twice.
/ refer, of course, to Lohengr1n. "
The town was on the tip-toe of expecta--
ton to hear Nile. Albani In the role OF
Elsa, and the Academy was packed on
both nights of the performance. Nilsson
made such profound impression IN
this role that comparison, though
usually odious, was in this case most
natural. Mile. AIbani learned her role
in very short time, and Carpi the same.
She certainly sang it well, beautifully,
III fact; but We missed the ideal estab-
hshed by Nilsson. The truth Is, that
Nilsson looked and acted Elsa as Wei
as she sang the music of the part LII
was Just suited to her peculiar northern,
not to say unnatural, beauty. Mile.
AIbani's assumption of the role was
thoroughly artistic; it is hard to md
any fault with it, but it has not the IN
spiration of Nilsson's personatlon. sig
nor Carpi as Lohengrin, sang the music
of his part with taste and some fre, out
he acted very poorly, or rather ne old
not act at all.
It was no small matter 70 learn sucn
diffic41It parta as Elsa and Lohengrln IN
the abort time allotted to Mile. Albani
and Sicnor Carpi, and it is to their
credit that they performed them as well
as they did. Campanini had made
reputation In this opera before he came
to this country, and therefore felt per-
fectly at home In his part. To Carpi it
wae all new, and he is not to be blamed
for feeling little awkward.
PAINT, POWDER, ETC.
Since the early days of paint, powder
and court-plaster patches, the lsdles
have not disguised their natural COM
pIeXlOnS as COmplete1y AS bnSy arc uo-
ing at the present time. Not long ago,
one could tell lady the moment he
saw her; now it is impossible TO tell
Murray Hill belle from one of the
0enai-nsossde. Your own cousin, per-
haps your sister too, blacks her eyes
and paints her face after the fashion
whicn we used to think belonged to an
entirely different class of society.
am utterly surprised when looking
around me at the theatre or opera, to
see persons whom I know to be ladies,
painted like the ballet girls. One is
utterly bewildered at the matinees.
The young ladies who follow the fash
ions appear with their faces painted,
and often enameled, their eyes
hIacked, and sometimes with the lids
T,ainted red, after peculiar
french style, and their hair brought
down low on the forehead and plastered
in regular scollops, an inch above their
carefully corked eyebrows. Then their
Inns are so heavily loaded with salve-
ike preparation that talking becomes
an impossibility, and kissing utter
IL ont of the question. Over this con-
1870, +I,au wear q thin veil of the