The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-30
AID OPERA HOUSE HAD TO BIZ,
wHErHER TIE NEW ONE RAS A
PLACE YET TO BE SEEN.

The new opera house built 70 divide the
..,ronape OF New Workers. did not come
NJ existence Just as the Metropolitan~did.
Tbsre was an urgent demand for thec coffee
aoIorad barracks on Broadway. Wealth
Snd fashion uttered the call. ThoSs sze
-oicss that must be needed, 20 there was q
nav orera house uptown even while Col
M.nleson's song birds we're trilling down
In Fourteenth street
For three seasons there was operatio
xar in New York. The gods OF war took
. higher place than the muses. while the
oombat ragged between Abbey, Schoefel
= Grau on one side and the veteran Col.
Mapleson on the other. The triple firm
AZ managers was bankrupt after one year.
Col. Mapleson held on for several seasons
longer. but the glory Of the Academy OF
Music as an opera house wal gone forever
and victory rested with the Metropolitan.
II has held its place without rivalry since
1855. Now Oscar Hammerstein has built
his new lyric temple and there Is rivalry
once more. =.
Yet the same conditions that brought
the Metropolitan into existence do not
srist to-day. The wealth and fashion that
we're CRYING for a new opera house could
not find boxes at the Academy Of Music.
The close corporation that owned these
bores did not want to let them to others,
Who we're entirely able to pay for any
Injury they wanted and considered that
an opera box was a very necessary luxury
"a them. New York's increase In wealth
had been 20 very great in the preceding
soore of years that many persons VIII
had come to have a recognized place in
aocietv had none in the opera house beyond
What their friends allowed them. This
mas. Of course, an intolerable state Of affairs
N men with millions to build a theatre OF
their own if they could not get into some
body else's.
The result was that those who had wanted
boxes for several years met and formed
the Metropolitan Opera and Real Estate
Company, which built the opera house
which was for 80 many years the only one
New York had. Every circumstance was
IN favor Of the social supremacy Of the
new building. Its acoustics were far SUI
perior TO those Of the old Academy. which
10 this day invertebrates like q violin to
every sound. Its greater accessibility to
the fashionable parts Of the city, the inevi-
table progress uptown Of all social New
York and the increased comfort Of the new
opera house, all these circumstances helped
to establish it firmly and hurry the Academy
to its inevitable doom as the home Of melo-
drama.
In the twenty-three years that have
elapsed since the Metropolitan was opened
10 the public there has never been any
need Of another opera house. The forty
ak p~arterre boxes have always proved
numerous enough to satisfy the applicants.
especially as the fashion OF taking a box
for one subscription night is sufficient to
enable a number Of persons to have sub
scription boxes. Some " . hire q box
for only one night every other week. Only
one among the list OF stockholders keeps
his box every night for his " use. This
fashion Of subletting q box enables a great
many persons to add their names to the
list opposite the numbers Of the stock
holders boxes.
The generosity Of the stockholders il not
Of course the result OF any desire on their
part to make it easy for persons who wan
to be in that sacred semicircle known as
the glded horseshoe. The boxes when
not occupied by their owners are let for
money. There is no fixed price for them.
Their desirability as to the view Of the
stage they offer, as to their social voisinage
and az TO the importance Of their owners,
all nave their share in determining the price
paid for the box. It is interesting that
the maximum rate for a parterre box for
one night a week in the opera season in
5000. More than that has never been
paid.
The s~tockhoIder who owns his box cannot
Iii "a - A.-.~. A{..A 49, DikNahKVH0
II be wants to, however large the Offer may
be. There is a committee Of three stock
holders and to them must be submitted
the names Of all applicants for the honor
Of sitting in a stockholders golden chairs.
The stockholders who desire to let their
boxes for any Of the four subscription
nights indicate that desire to Frank N.
Dodd, the secretary Of the Metropolitan
Opera and Real Estate Company. The
stockholder; Of course, fixes his wi price
for the box.
Passing this committee has come 10 be
something like a successful test for club
membership. OF course there are many
candidates who do not niece all the neces-
sary qualifications. On the other hand,
there are sometimes the most surprising
persons to be found in these seats Of the
mighty. II was very difficult to explain
for instance, the presence Of a Western
millionaire there with the young woman
he had recently married from the variety
stage after she had left the divorce courts
with a most ~unenviable record. They
retired from the parterre row after one
season because the chilling atmosphere
Of the Hobbies was too much for them. Fol
the second year they went up TO the grand
tier, which has no more distinctly socia
character than the family circle.
Another case that puzzled The occapanti
Of other stockholders' boxes was the pres
ence II one Of the prima donnas Of th'
opera in the parterre. Fol three season.
she was in one Of the parterre b oxes wheI
not on the stage. In at least n perform
ance she alternated between the stage anC
the parterre. All this was, Of course, new
70 the occupants Of the stockholders
boGesiwho delighted TO offavorite primi
donnas with invitations 10 their boxes
but we're not accustomed to having then
put themselves on their social level withou
being invited.
Although there are such exceptions
cases, the parterre row at the metropolitan
may be called representative Of New Yorl
socially. The COMMITTEES in charge Of tn