The San Francisco call., 1898-04-17

By this time next week every oper- atic and theatrical entrepreneur with i've ear to his business will have heard If the thousands of Golden Westerners who paid their little S7, $6, $5 and $4 and so forth to acquaint themselves with the musical personality of Melba. And this should do us deal of good; strengthen the legend of San Fran cisco's appreciation of expensive enter tainments (especially her practical, pe- cuniary appreciation with few i'm mediate facts, and generally boom our reputation in the little offices on Broad way, where now our past prodigality is almost forgot and we are held in none too excellent affection. As one whose business and pleasure is considerably mingled with the theatrical and musi- cal interests of San Francisco, l am hoping heavily on this visit of Melba's. Not that it, individually, is likely to give us anything Strenuously artistic n either opera or ensemble-that could hardly be hoped for in the performance of operas whose attractions are. at this o'clock in the development of dramatic music, dependent almost solely on the magic of a voice and the glamour of a name-but Its financial success will advertise to the world and to ourselves the possibilities of San Francisco as market for high-priced entertainments. We need the ad.
 For a long time now indifferent shows indifferently patronized at the higher priced theaters have attracted attention to the bigger business accom- plished by the cheaper ones. These cheaper theaters, the only ones that kept up with whatever idea the public has of their standards are, as a matter of course, patroniZed; while the East ern managers who bring vaudeville and tenderloin farces, one after an- other, to what many persons still re- member as our one serious theater, profit but slimly. if at all, and go away with the idea that this is "a cheap show town" never taking iI , account the fact that many of the old Baldwin patrons who care only occasionally for vaudeville (and never at all when it has the tenderloin twist to it) have been compelled to give up playgoing altogether, because they do not know where to look for the sort of drama that pleases them.
 I think it rankly unfair that San Francisco should accumulate an unen- viable reputation for cheapness merely because sLe consistently ree" ;es to ac- cept as steady diet class of theatri- cal entertainment that bears as little relationship to sane drama as an un- derground dancehall does to contempo- rary social commerce.
 And while a one-star performance of Verdi's "Traviata," even with the great est fioritura singer in the world to as- sist fOrgetfulneSS of the absurd absence of dramatic allusion, may not be as mo- ble a cause for extravaganza as is, say, the regular symphony season or the single performance of Beethovens Ninth Symphony at Fritz Scheers ben eft, it certainly is the legitimate occa- sion for a great deal of excitement in a city where opera is preciously loved, where anything but ordinary singing is the rare exception, and where Melba, the acknowledged empress of her sphere, has never sung before. The Cal ifornia Theater is practically sold out for the three nights, I am told by the management, and an extra perform ance, made up of single acts of other operas, is under consideration. The re- ceipts for the four nights would be nothing short of $3O,OOO-a pret+v com fortable showing for comparatively small and one-star organization.
 Then there is the opera house ques- tion, which comes up every time opera is mentioned in San Francisco. Every body knows that if we had had an au- ditorium sufficiently large to house a grand-opera audience the best Melba seats would have sold for about half of $7 with equal profit to the promo ters; that long before now we would have had not only Melba, but the De Reszkes, Calve, Flames, Placon, Bish- pam and all the big stars who parti- cipated in the high-salary crime at the Metropolitan. I used to read those burning editorials on the evils of high salaries and the inartisticness of stellar glorifcation written by the satiated opera experts of the New York news papers and gasp with envy.
 At that time New York had the pick of the operatic world Nothing was too