The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-18
OPERA SEASON REVIEWED.
WRAT WE GOT FOR $4,000 WEEK
MORE.
ElOauenoe Of tho Dollar Marks in MIR. Con-
reds Report to HIS DirectOrs-Things
Maurice Grau Did Not Know About
How TO Make Opera Expensive.

How to mako UperS EApenSi'O'
The conclusion Of the opera season ap-
mara to be an event Of sublime importance
IN the minds of those to whom opera sing
ing and singer worship are the highest
form of art. Now come the sad fading
away Of the captains and the shouting.
No more shall the strong legged and strong
hinged bravi stand behind the orchestra
rail and split the heavens with their glorif-
cation of Caruso. The road, the dim dark
rANion out beyond the rivers and the Jersey
fats. swallows up the curled darlings Of
the public, and they shall carol amid the
festive echoes Of Broadway no more until
the yellow leaves Of another autumn have
fallen before the ruthless advance Of the
next dog show.
The end Of an opera season leaves a
ohasm in the activities Of this conventional
town, and leaves a large number Of persons
at o loss as to what they may do with them
eelvee. 1t is not an ingenious populace.
It goes the old rounds year after year,
and never dreams Of carving out new paths.
It's opera Is Its winter nights tale. In
some wholesome parts OF the world families
st around glowing red firesides, and there
are happy times of snapdragon and hot
toddy and nuts and other winter cheer,
mingled with good talk Of the summer days
gone by.
A cosmopolitan city has no Preside. 1t
almost has no homes. 1t is just a huge
gathering place, where men and women
drift together, jostle one another in the
overcrowded streets, curse one another
az they hurry along In the biting weather,
curse one another as they fight for seats
In the crowded cars, curse one another as
they struggle with one another in the
shops, and curse one another as they
wrestle for places behind the orchestra
rail that they may hear Caruso. "A city
without faith, hope or charity Balzac said
II was. He lied for the sake of an epigram,
but be was not altogether incorrect.
A city Of fats, apartment hotels and pri-
vate palaces, with a few homes lost in the
great confusion. A city Of glitter and CAB
bic and show, with q few friendships buried
under the sweating surface. A city Of
dSoollete gowns and white kid gloves, with
q few plain garments and high thoughts
shrinking away from the general contem pit
prepared for such plebeian things. That
% New York. A place to make money in
to get fame in, to be great in; but a show
place after all.
The opera is as vain and shallow as the
rest. In fact the opera is thec entraliza-
ton Of all that is superficial, inartistic, in
sincere, worthless and ostentatious in the
life of the town. Is it any wonder, then,
that in the hands Of Heinrich Conried, who
has over and over again demonstrated that
he Is utterly and hopelessly incapable OF
pc receiving anything but the dollar part
Of it, the opera has become more eK-
pensive and less artistic han it ever was
before?
Dollars, dollars, dollarsi Has any one
ever heard the present manager Of the
opera talk about anything else? His re-
port to his directors was made public a
few days ago and the sum and substance
Of it was a boast that Mr.. Conried had
found put how to make opera cost $40, 900
q week more than it ever did under MIR.
Grau, That is indeed something to be
proud of, is it not2
But what does the public get in return?
1t gets just exactly what 1t wishes. Let
there be no self deception on this point.
Mr.. Conried gives the public Caruso, and
that is all the public desires. 1t may give
pain to other singers in the company to
state an ~indisputable fact, but his is the
place where facts Of that sort are found on
record. The fact now to be recorded is
that the public has gone to the opera In
the season just ended almost solely for the
purpose OF hearing Enrico Caruso. The
public has not cared q brass farthing who
else was in the cast. 1t has not cared q
rap what opera was sung. The invariable
request proffered at the box office has
L.--. uN.A r~,, lak naa hoya aaata for
Oaruso's next appearance2"
There have been audiences on other
nights, have there not? oh, yes, of course.
There was a good subscription for the
entire season, for it is perfectly true that
next to Caruso the public desires opera,
not any particular opera, but some opera,
any opera, as long as it is opera. But mark
this, II Caruso does not sing, then there
must be a good cast. There must be a
combination of several capable artists
Mr.. Caruso can draw a house all by himself.
Announce any combination whatever with
"Pagliaoci' In 1t, and before the curtain
goes up the police will stop the sale OF tickets,
and the law as TO the occupation OF stand
ing room will be ~fagrantly violated, as it
has frequently been in the season just
closed. Announce any combination not
including Caruso and the house will not be
sold out. Put on any other one singer in
the company as a single star, and there will
be owe Of empty seats.
That is the present status of affairs at
the Metropolitan. Mr.. Caruso receives
81, 100 for each performance. Usually the
operas in which he appears are Of small cast
and call for the services of no other star
except Nine. Sembrich. When Mr.. Caruso
sings the receipts seldom fall below sll 900.
Yet, in spite Of these facts, Mr.. Conried
boasts that he has found e way to make
opera cost 10000 a week more than it did
under Maurice Grau, who in order to get
such houses as Caruso draws was COM
PEELED to put on Jean and Edouard de
Reszke, Melba, Lasalle and Plancon or
some such combination.
Mr.. Conried points with pride to the vast
sums expended on the betterrnents OF the
stage. But, again, what does the public
get7 1t sees things going at skies and
sevens, just as they did under Grau. The
stage management, which was to be so
admirable, has been execrable. All the
Wagner dramas were UNNECESSARILY better
done in the old days under Stanton. They