New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-10-06
TT1LLlN md GERMAN OPERA

The success which seems TO nave crowned
| Dr. Damrosch's endcavOTs to secure German
opera company for the Metropolitan Opera
| House quets the appIchenSlOns when had
| begun to be felt that New York was to be lett
| without performances Of grand opera during
| fine amusement season now dawning. There
would have been nothing very awful IN the fact
| if we had been called upon to get along without
| opera this wear we have done it in the past and
| managed to survive the deprivation. II is
much more anomalous and worthy Of comment
| that the managers If the largest opera house IN
| the world should turn to German opera rs
last resort only after wasting half u year in
| frutless efforts to secure an Italian company.
| WIZ this consuming desire to give Italian
opera
I'm London last season German opera wa
made to alternate with Italian. Both enter
prises came to grief financially, but the loss was
| les. i'm the German than in the Italian venture.
! The experiment had its origin IN the theory
| that Italian opera was mOiibund in England.
| That theory is IA old i'm London rs Italian
! opera itsclf When il was struggling for habI-
itation there, Addison thought the spectacle 80
amusing that he wrote an essay IN which he
pictured the anazcmcnt OF the then coming
generation on learning that IN his day English
men aud women had sat out entire evenings
listening 10 IN entertainment ~ foreign
| tongue Aud he said many other excellent
things the truth and force of which are npprccI-
| ntcd better now than they were then, orevcn two
decades ago. But Addison died. many genera
| tons came and went. aud still Coycnt Garden
had its Italian season.
The consciousness of the absurdty of Italian
opcra TRANSPORTED to England and America has.
| however, been constant with the Anglo-SaXon
peoples or this a legion of managerial wrecks
strcwed along the shores from Handel to
| Abbey bear witness Bankers and nOblemen
| have come To the rescue of ambitious managers
| only to 90 down i'll the common disaster. Mr..
| Delafeld wrot his name high among his fellows
across the water by losing half million of
dollars in a single season, a feat which no one
egualled until Mr. Abbey came. Another
manager got himself into the Kings Bench
| Prison as the outcome of his venture someness,
and once there found consolation in philos
Ophy which, according to his own confession,
taught him that OF all places in the world the
properest one for all opera manager was
prison. for no man rash enough to embark in
an operate enterprise ought to be left at large
and, besides, the prison walls were kind pro &.
lection against the opportunities and complaints
of his singers.
| When one attempts to explain why il is that
managers follow this will-o'-thc -wisp INTO
financial quagmres year after year, he quickly
| bee ONES involved in a labyrinth of contra
/ dictions Time was when the popular taste
found entire satisfaction in the anguishing
melodies of the Italian composers. That is
| changed Time was when the desire for novel
ties in the field of opera could only be satisfied
by imporations from Italy. That, too, is
changed. Italy, once the acknowledged "land
Of song" is now rs sterile as Germany and
| France Verdi is growing old and writes
little; he has revamped some of his earlier
works, but has produced nothing new since
Aida" Boitu finds working after foreign
models difficult and prefers to devote himself
to essays and brettos for others; his Norone"
! like Vetdi's Iago," seems to be slumbrling
unfinished in his desk ponchel has not
succeeded in getting u hearing for alylhing
aince "Giocondn," though " / lfomossi Spu.i
was pnpc underlined iuf performance IN Enr.
lish. we believe. Expectations were inispd
recently touching ~ opein entitled Dpinnipn,"
! by rnialah who IL yol u stranger outside ~
| Iisly, bat II IA unlikely that II viii ntni rfnsa
| iiin border, Tho Thousand and QUO ptndnpis 1T
the petty compoaola at Italy ln nol concern u.s.
The nllmrliyrnuss Ot The old hnriy gnrdy
ieporlory having been reduced Ia minimum,
what remains 10 justify Italian opera In Italian 7
80 long ~ patu lives and sings hel voice Il
fine best answer. II was Italian singing which
established Italian opera IN foreign countries,
AMI Nine. PATTI, ~ the most shining c1cmplar
of the famous old art, has for years been tho
strongest prop of tho institution In Europe.
" hen she passes away 1t will be extremely
difficult TO tell why we should listen to lyric
drama in language which is uninteligible
when the pro- ress of the art has carried Us past
the aesthetic stage represented by that drama.
We d. not wish to be- understood rs bclittling
the compositions bi Rossini, Brlln and Doni-
zctt. or yet as crticising the judgment of those
who love thcm. II Ia not question OF senti'