New-York tribune., 1879-12-21
GOING Up WITH THE TIDE.

away from its customers and will soon follow
them up town. For many years it has been
laying by money for a building fund. IL has
obtained desirable piece of ground, and In
short time we hope to see this excellent and
vigorous society comfortably and commodi-
ously lodged. with ample space for its increas-
ing treasures and pleasant rocms for the
readers The building in Astor-place will then
be for SALE and commerce viii absorb the last
relic Of once fashionable and brilliant
quarter.
The change is inevitable, but New-Yorkers
who can remember the aspect OF the city
thirty OF forty years ago, and the excitemenfs
which agitated society at that remote period,
will lament the disappearance of building
so filed as the Astor Place Opera House still
is with interesting and curious associations.
The iuted columns which now divide the al
coves of the library once surrounded the audi
torium OF one of the prettiest temples OF
music ever erected in America, and at the
other end of the building, where the voice OF
the auctioneer resounds, the handsome tenor,
Benedict, pet of the public and plague OF
all managers. used to fill the stage with his
imposing presence. When the project of an
opera house in Astor-place was first broached
many people regarded it as hazardous. not TO
say chimerical cit is quite doubtful" wrote
a well-knOwn journalist and critic, whether
"the public will support an establishment so
=" far from the centre of things" Audiences
found it convenient TO throng Castle Garden,
or Palmo's Opera House in Chambers-st., OPP
posite the City Hall, or the Park Theatre, OPP
posite the present Post Office. All those es-
Establishments were then used for Italian Opera,
and the scheme of going so far up town as
Astor-place was hardly less daring than would
be n proposal now to remove the Academy of
Music to the neighbOrh0Od of the Lenox Ii
brlry. The house was built by a stock COM
pany, the shareholders (of whom we believe
there were 150) having certain rights
of free admission, less extensive, how
ever, than those enjoyed at the exist
ing Academy. The house opened
on the 22d OF November, 1S47, under the
management of Signor Patti father of Ia dira
Adelna; with him was associated as partner
a Sigaor Sanquirico. who was then probably the
best known of the local spectators in music.
The maestro and conductor was Antonio Ba-
ril, stepson of SignOr Patti and, until quite
lately, popular musc-teacher i'll this city.
The work chosen for the Inauguration was
" Ernani." OF all the artists concerned in the
representation, only the prima donna, Signora
Trufii, has left n reputation. There was
a famous quarrel then raging, both in the
newspapers and in the Court of Chancery,
between the managers and the tenor, Bene-
detti. and it was late in not very prosperous
season before the popular favorite was brought
upon the boards. To tell the truth, the ord-
nary performances of opera in New-fork at
this date were but make-shift affairs credita-
BILE neither to the impresariO nor to the pub
lie. The dissensions of the green-room were
dispayed before the curtain with freedom
which would now be thought astonishing.
Managers, travelling about with incompetent
troupes, visited New-York. Boston and Phila-
delphia impartaly, and found in the
unsophstcated and inartistic public of
all three cities what William II. Fry,
in THE TRIBUNE, called ''the most
cranky verdant of live pastures" No
musical season was thought to be complete
without a row. The manager who succeeded
Patti had sensational dispute with his artists
while in Philadelphia, and carried it upon the
stage, where a delighted audience contributed
literally to the upr0ar. The interchange of
abusive letters between managers and jour
nalists was an ordinary incident of operate
diseords, both parties perhaps regarding it as
n good advertisement. Unfriendly critics were
frequently excluded by force from the theatre,
and the courts were over and over again
required to decide whether man who had paid
for ticket could lawfully be turned out of
the house for not liking the performance.
A critic who condemned the playing of ST.
vori was forbidden to enter the concert
room. Another having found fault with
Powerss Greek Slave, nearly all the leading
artists of New-York united in public state
ment that they considered the criticism to
be inspired by ignorance and malice. The
jeaousies and intrigues of singers were taken
ND by the audiences, and factions were formed
on both sides of the footlights. We thought
that the publicity given to certain operatic
disagreements during the last season was
scapdalous enough, but it was nothing to the
disturbances of thirty years ago. when the So
ciety of New-York was much like that of a ges-
slipping and scandal-loving village. 1t was q
rankly verdant live pasture indeed. When
the new opera house opened, it was thought
proper to advertise that no lady would be adj
mitted unaccompanied by gentleman.
Strange to say, however, although the meth
ods of management were primitive, there was
no lack of good artists. Jenny Lind was
closely followed by Alboni, by Bosio and by
Steffanone. Henri Herr was here with Sivori.
Expensive companies engaged for Havana
visited New-York for few weeks ON then way
from Europe, and what they lost here they re-
covered in Cuba. Arditi, who came with some
of these troupes. was much employed and
highly popular in New-York, in the triple char
acter Of composer. conductor, and violinist. In
Gnd nnficn of ho