The morning call., 1890-04-28
WAGNER AND THE ITALIANS.

Mr.. Henry Abbey announces that the
gross receipts of the italian opera troupe
which was lately in this city amounted to
over Il million dollars, What Mr.. Abbey
or for that matter W hat any theatrical man
ager-SayS about his receipts is not be dis
puted; it is a popularity of the business
that managers never eXaggerate. So we
may conclude that the people of five or six
American cities did really pay out million
dollars in current money to hear Patti, AL
bani, TamagnO, Nordica and the other sing
ers in operas which, with one or two excep-
lions, were unquestionable cheStnutS. The
fact is creditable to their taste, and elo-
quent as 10 their means. 1t is not easy to
extract a million dollars out of the pockets
of Englishmen or Frenchmen even with the
finest possible show. 1t would take good
many years for Mr.. Abbey, with the same
troupe, to collect a million out of the Ger
mans or Italians. Americans paid it out in
three months cheerfuIly and good humor-
edly. with feeling that they got the worth
Of their money
But a point Of view not less interesting
than this is the continued popularity OF
Italian opera. Among genuine music-lovers
it is an article Of faith that the days of ltal-
ian opera are over, and that no opera is wor-
thy the name which is not constructed in
accordance with the rules put in force in the
Ring des Nibelungen. The battle of the
two schools is generally assumed to be over,
aad victory has rested with the school which
was founded by Gluck and hro.ant to per-
fecti0T by Wagner. When a cultured must
clan of to-day speaks of opera he means ''Lo-
hengrin" or Taunhauser" or Parsifal."
He only consents to acknowledge the merits
80 h.o
scented to Wagnerize his music to suit the
public taste. He looks with seorn at operas
without dramatic sense, ana he yawns over
sweet melodies which shed no light on the
march of the tragedy which is enacted He
sneers at persons so devoid of true operatic
taste that they can sit for hours to listen to
string of pretty airs which appear to be
hung on preposterous thread, but in
reality have no connection with it whatever.
But now comes the proof Of the pudding,
in the shape of Mr.. Abbey's million.
The Metropolitan Opera Company, which
was most orthodox in its Magnetism, and
which produced several operas of the new
school In the best style in this city two or
three years ago, leads life of chronic
bankruptcy, with a few solvent intervals,
while the Italian Opera Company charges
81 a seat in such metropolitan cities as New
York and San Francisco and 81 seat in
Boston, and rakes in cool million in three
months. There must be some mistake
about the deeadence Of the old melodlc
operas and the triumph OF the new school
of dramatic opera. Either the critics are
off on wrong scent or the masses of the
public are not sufficiently educated to ap-
pTeciate high art.
The New York Herald declares that audi
enceS are weary of the ''tOo-prolonged or
deal Of the Teutonic torture of alleged
dramatic Wagneranism," and this we sus-
pect hits the mark mere closely than the
savage snarl of the Tribune, in which the
singers in Lucia" are said to squeak and
gibber and wave fieShleSS arms among the
pale shadows of a fieshleSs opera" Like
GlGck in his day, Wagner is ahead OF his
audience. There are persons not devoid Of
musical sense who cannot appreciate "Lo-
hengrin" till they have heard it two or
three times. To most people the delight of
music is in the "reminiscences it evOkes. 1t
is because we have all heard "Home, Sweet
Home" and "The Last Rose of Summer" so
often that we insist on Patti singing the
one or the other. And it is for the same
reason IN some degree that we pay any
price TO hear the great singer herself. We
know her voice, We enjoy her trillS and her
dOurishes and her vocal tricks, not so much
because they are delightful, but because
they are familiar. She is not what she
was. She is not young Her hair is dyed.
She is 10 longer sylphlike. She has lost
several upper notes But people are more
raven0Hs to hear her than ever because she
recalls sweet memories and touches chords
which she thrilled long ago. 1t is matter
of memory: When wise general leads his
troops into action he bids the bands strike
up the national air, not because he thinks
that the time is appropriate for a musical
interlude, but because he knows that the
old, familiar chords will stir the mems
blood and fire them to deeds of daring.