Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-02-29
Conried Says the Game
Is Not Worth the Candle

Conried, who lately resigned the di-
rectorship of the Metropolitan Opera
house in New York, INDUCED in a
reminiscent chat with the New York
| Herald in the course of which ne said
The game is not worth the candle
| He did not say this in a spirit of re-
| greet, but it was uttered as by a man
| who was taking inventory Of his days
and nights spent IN the tolls of his du-
| ties.
(which means queried a Herald
| reporter that If you had to do 1t
all over again you would not be per-
| suaded into accepting the position of
| director of this big opera institution
II certainly would not. 1t is a post
| that is ruthless in the demands of its
| eXactlng duties. No one-saVc he who
| has been unfortunate enough to try
| To fill it-can know what its demands
| are. a..
The public FOR instance, reads the
| repertoire of n week of opera at this
institution and it quickly approves the
operas and their casts or ii criticizes
them. This is done i'm flash, without
ever dreaming what days of toll are
necessary before such a list can be
made up. The public does not know
that the stockholders of the Metopoli-
tan Opera and Real Estate company
,, who lease the building to an opera di-
rector-demand that at least two art
lists of a certain list which they select
shall appear at each subscription per-
Torrance, that each one of the prom
inent singers must be given a specified
number of appearances each month,
that tine artists cannot reasonably be
asked to sing on two consecutive
fnla a1I gl,at
peat an opera on any given subscrip-
ton evening
"All these circumstances must hc
devastated and the fit must be ac-
curate before single weeks repertoire
can be arranged. And then, after il
is all arranged and just as | am about
to heaVe a sigh OF relief it may be all
upset, for ] may get a message that
one artist or another assigned i'm the
weeks program Is indisposed. There
go the weeks plans, Knocked into
cooked hat
This very thing occurred quite re-
Gently after the repertoire had been al
drawn up, and | assure you that | sat
at this desk for four hours trying 10
puzzle out the Encouragement or cast,
the difficulty of "a substitution, and
then l cried out for help and with my
executives sat for another couple OF
hours until we had found way out
Of the situation. The public knows
nothing of all this. and there is no
reason why it should bother its head
about H. But that does not change
the fact that the worry exists for tho
manager"
But it's not all bother is IL? isn't
there the satisfaction from what you
achieve, what You have achieved IN
your term of management"
We'll answered the director, II
have done great deal Of hard work
and the Metropolitan Opera house IA
today probably the leading institution
of its kind In the world. Where else
do you find a house giving operas I'm
three languages ANA presenting such
an array of singers as We have here
ana performing such a repertoire ~
operas?
What particular production OF opera
do you believe 10 have been your best
achievement"
~ hardly know how TO answer that,
for | had many ideals I'm mind AMI
strove for perfection IN many depart