The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1908-11-21
NEW STAR SHINES
At OPENING OF
GALA AFFAIR
EMMY pEsTlNN, BEAUTIFUL 6ER-
LIN SINGER, WINS ALL HEARTS
az HER ART-cARUso TAKES
HOUSE BY STORM.

NEW YORK, Nov. 2l.-Emmy Des'
tim, Enrico Caruso, Arthur Toscanini
Aida" These were surely names
to conjure with so far as concerned
music lovers and the music lovers
curiosity TO hear world renowned new
corners and old favorites. But, after
all. they could hardly account for the
thousands who were present al the
opening of the Metropolitan Opera
house IL was as well society event
and the best-foot-forward OF the new
regime at the Broadway shrine OF
opera, where everything Is TO be de-
voted TO art-and society--without re-
gard to expense.
The question of expense cut no ig.
ure. II another person could have
been crowded into the house, the
casual observer saw. no place where
he could stand. Every available inch
OF room was filed, and TO move In
the throng behind the railing which
protects the orchestra seats was an
impossibility.
Long before o'clock Broadway
from Thirty-ninth TO Fortieth-sts. was
thronged, as were the Hobbies or the
opera house; and still II was long
after o'clock before the horseshoe
ring that contained society, its gowns
and its diamonds, was filed. Filled at
last IL was. however-to repletion.
Recalls After Every Curtain.
There was apparently no more room
left In the boxes than there was in
the standing space. Il was bril-
liant" audience In every sense Of the
word. and II was also appreciative.
The fall OF every curtain was the
signal for recall after recall. After
the first act came Miss Destinn again
and again, for she had hit the pop
ular pulse as she did In Berlin. After
the second act more was insisted
upon, and the audience was not sat
isfed until Sig. Gatti-Casazxa. Herr
Dippel and Sig Toscanini. as well as
the singers, had come forward and
bowed their acknowledgements.
There were two more curtains"
and there was the same enthusiasm
after each. the audience remaining at
the end until II had expressed its ap-
probation to Its hearts content.
Appreciation Of the entertainment
provided was not. however, the only
the hearts Of many real lovers OF
opera; perhaps the most appreciative,
unsteady, of all who attended. Away
up in the top gallery. the family cir
Gle. sit many hundreds who are for
gotten or ignored by the denizens OF
the boxes and orchestra stalls, TO
whom the word brilliant" Is not ap
piled and who are not ordinarily
reckoned upon when the crowded con
dition of the house Is reported.
Elevators to the "sky."
prise last night, when they discover
ed that the new management had pro
vided for them two large elevators
with which to reach the sky to
which they had heretofore been forced
laboriously to climb. And there, too
they found newly built platforms
where holders OF admission tickets
might also stand and see and hear
Thus did the new managers fulfill
| physically, as far as they were able
their promise to make the Metropol
| itan temple Of art for arts sake,
without regard for financial return.
For the accommodation OF patrons
everything was arranged perfectly, the
police regulations were strictly en-
forced, and carriages and automobiles
came In throngs, deposited their occu
pants and departed without a hitch OF
complaint Altogether, II was a
night Of triumph for managers. par
Elephants and society. and of pleasure
| for patrons.