New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-11-28
MR. GRAU'S CHICAGO MISTAKE.
HE WENT THERE WITHOUT FIRST GETTING
CHARACTER FROM NETWORK.

Maurice ,rau has arisen and has smote Chicago
hip and thigh. He does not believe tnat thiee
weeks OF grand opera in that city will bring IN
more than 100000. and he does not see why ne
should go so far get little. He says tnat the
public is hard to please anyway. In New
York he says people complain because he brings
his company to town after II Is already tired with
singing In Chicago and elsewhere, and In chicago
people say that he merely brings the company there
for rehearsals He may be right about chicago
and he probably is, but he is wrong about new
York His own statement that New-York has al
ready subscribed $4,000 for the opera this year
proves that Does he mean that New-York Is pay
ing $40 GO0 and Is ready to pay more for an opera
company which 1t understands TO be )aded! 10
be sure, any opera company might be excused LOT
a little WEAKNESS and good deal OF smoke IN It's
throat after three weeks in Chicago, out Ne"-iorA
Is not thinking OF that
Mr. Grau is missing the whole purport OF the
situation Chicago. he says, has failed to pay FOR
It's opera three times running. True. The hrst
time the company went there crippled. There was
enough of II left to please NewYork II 1t had stayed
because New-York Is of the greatest, II not
the very greatest musical cities In the world, and IL
| likes things and accepts them because they are
| good: while Chicago. having no Judgment OF It's
own likes them because they celebrated, or, III
other words because New-York has already liked
| them. And so, when the company went there
without two Of the prime dome who had hgured
in IT in New-York. the Chicago people. not KNOW
ing that the performances still above reproach
or suspicion. simply colated the casts with the
New York casts and said: "rhey not the same;
| therefore this New-York company is swindhng us;
| we will have none Of It," The second year the
| wave Of prosperity had not quite yet flowed oacA
after the undertow that the war gave H. ana al
| thotgh New-York was big enough to stand up and
pay for its opera, In spite Of the slight hardness
of the times. Chicago was not. Chicago is small
| town and cannot buffet he shocks which leave
| New-York mistaken, and Mr.. Grau ought to recog-
| nze that.
| In New-York fine operate performance means
| fine opera finely sung acted and set; In chicago
It means a celebrated prima donna. That was
what 1t meant in New-York twenty years ago. IL
Is the timidity Of the Chicago people that Keeps
| their contributions to Mr. Graus treasury down
to the rigid limit of 100000 in three weeks ms
| sounds like a strange statement 1t is perfectly
! true Chicago peop.e think that they are brazen'
self-assertive energetic, tough and Whatever else
! they sum up In the term "hustling." III taking
| about themselves constitutes them hustlers, they
| are those" But In no other way. They are not
| INDEPENDENT They are as sensitive about what
| New York thinks of them as the new brakeman
| when he meets the president OF the road. suppose
| they should spend their money on Mr.. Graus opera
and say right out aloud that they liked N-thal II
was as fine they ever saw-that 1t was JUS.
| what they wanted And then suppose 1t should
| come to New-York and fail! What would New
| York think Of Chcago's taste? Would not New
Workers think that Chicagoans were provincials'
| ready TO go into ecstases over anything that came
| their way? No; New-York would never know ana
never care what Chicagos taste was at ALL but the
| Chicagoans would think 1t did. and would suner
| Just much.
But suppose Chicago refuses to pay Its money Tor
| the opera and lifts its nose high into the smoke
| at H. and then the opera comes to New-IorS
| and succeeds? Chicago will have missed its marx
again. but not so badly For It will have the dis
| tinction OF rejecting what New-York accepts linen
| New York can stand at gaze and sing:
II that's not good enough him. that's good enough
| for 49, -. -, u,.L .h,. .o-,
Why, what very cultivated sort Oh y0u'h 'N'S '''
OF youth must be!
| Only New-York will do nothing OF the kind New
| York holds the opera but the opera. 1t knows
when il Is pleased and It does not walt for CHI
cago or Paris or a London verdict. Mr.. Grau
| made his mistake In going to Chicago first New
! York does not mind rehearsals. NeW-forK does
| not mind performances with all the principals OUT
| as long as the subordinates are better thah the
! principals In short New-York does not 1ollo"
| fame. II makes it. Let Mr.. Grau start In New
| York next year. Let New-York have all the crude-
ness OF the company; It stand it; 1t can see
exceI nee through crudeness. Then, II he Is sue
cessfIl here let him go to Chicago and give exact
and servile copies Of the New-York performances,
and Chicago will not dare to let the receipts ran
below 100000 Let him seek fame where falne Is
TO be found and blind following where pllnd lol-
lowing is 10 be found