Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-02-23
rHB pEGgNERAcY OF AN ART.

In the charming and restful easy chair
reflections which make one of our Ameri-
can magazines so justly popular, the &C.
complished editor records single thought
regarding the opera that is full of sugges.
ton. In the contest between operate
nightingales this winter he discov-
ers that Italian opera has passed
from the realm of art into that of society,
a conclusion which the evidences of the
day we believe justify, not only as to Ital-
ian opera, but largely as to other musical
performances for the public ear. In other
words, the operate audience is now the
fashionable more than the critical one. As
cur critic phrases 1t, cit has become
part OF mere social display. The
thing is not valued Tor itself, but as
stamp and sign of certain social stand.
ing" Aud it Is reeresful that this is true,
for that it is will scarcely be doubted, and
it is not needed that one be a denizen of
metropolis to Justify the observation that
the opera is an attraction "no more as
matter of art, but as pageant at which
appearance is sought, not for an interest in
art but for social intercourse and classif-
cation among the elite, or the exclusive,
or society, or fashion. These texts,
which indicate far deeper water than is
apparent, arise out of cause not difficult
of disclosure. It is the ambition to make
show OF wealth, and to set up worldly
possessions as the better standard of worth,
taste and culture. 1t is true that this
spectacular tendency has driven out of the
opera house very largely the old critical
audience, the pride of which is of quite as
fine temper as that of its richer and more
brilliantly robed successor, and which acts
as a check to the appearance of the
former in the midst of blaze OF
diamonds. That this is a very modern
result is found to be true if We re
call the history of Garcia's attempt with a
mere excuse for a company to plant
Italian opera in the United States in 1925.
At that time the exquisite voice Of Maria
Malibran, his daughter, alone snstched the
venture from ruin, for the operate audi
ence then found its interest in the artistic
alone. So, too, in the American engage
ment of Grisi and Mario in 1854, the men,
DRY of which clings to the old opera. goers
he of ID 80
sacredly kept garments The plaudits of
that day were the manifestations of love
for the development of music springing
from a single source. appreciation, intelli-
gible recognition Of one of the highest and
the most poetic form of expression. The
people who were moved to demonstrative
ecstaties of pleasure by the tragic dignity
and warmth of the lyric artist Theresa Ii
items were not the exclusively fashionable.
The sincerest tributes to her genius came
in mingled waves from dress circle, pit and
gallery. On the assumption that dress
parade is the chief motive with the operatic
audiences of the day, the conclusion is in
evitable that degeneracy in operate art
must follow. 1t is by no means to be con-
cluded, however, that brilliancy at the
opera is inconsistent with cultivated and
discriminating musical tastes on the con.
trary, the possession OF means to crafty
should insure, as it does with many men
OF wealth and sense, the cultivation OF the
tastes. And so it would generally, if the
world of modern society were not SO busy
with giving and receiving, with public
display and private entertainment, and
with dressing and adjoining. What the
world OF wealth owes to the world of cult
ure, if it will not qualify itself to judge of
the true in art, is st least to be led by the
critical taste and pay its homage at the
feet Of the cultivated musical understand
ing. For by the severity of critical tastes
in operate audiences alone can medi-
ocrity in music be prevented from
usurping the plscs of genius and
worth. When an opera season comes
to the pass that it depends for its
success upon "society" and fashion
alone, irrespective OF the frowns alike of
the rich and the poor in the ranks of the
lovers and judges of the symmetrical ex-
preston of the emotions in lofty harmo.