New-York tribune., 1910-01-03
RIVALS In OPERA
NO PLANS TO UNITE.
Both Manhattan and Metropol-
itan Interests Deny Rumors.

Both Oscar Hammerstein and a director
OF the Metropolitan Opera company denied
yesterday that negotiations were under way
to effect merger between the Manhattan
and the Metropolitan opera companies
While Mr.. Hammerstein said again that
such a merger would improve the conditions
now prevalent in the operate field he add
ed that he had conferred with no one in
authority at the Metropolitan Opera House
on the subject.
Mr.. Hammerstein gave out the following
statement:
For the last few days most of the dailies
have dwelt upon the possibilities and proba-
bilities OF a merger of my operatic inter
ests with those of the Metropolitan. One
somnambulist press statement even accuses
me Of having mischievously refused s1.00O.
600 to give up opera, and probably devote the
remainder of my life to artistic cannibalism
in the Fiji Islands. I have never suggested
or offered such a merger, nor have been
in communication with any one in author
ity in the Metropolitan Opera Company on
the subject.
I certainly favor and will gladly par
ticipate in any movement by which many
conditions detrimental to the interests of
both institutions could be abolished and
by which the public would derive many
benefits in an artistic sense. I have no
intention Of leaving the operatic field or
Of severing my connection with the great
artists surrounding me, of whose loyalty
I am ever so proud. I rather like my Job.
While it may not affiuently keep me in
bread and butter, it will certainly keep me
in hot water without the expense of fuel"
A director OF the Metropolitan Opera
House was emphatic in his deniel OF the
reported merger and authorized this state
ment:
ANY statement that negotiations are
under way between Mr.. Arthur Hammer
stein. representing the Manhattan Opera
Company, and the Metropolitan Opera
Company, looking to a merger between
these companies, is without foundation.
Any such agreement would be undesir-
able both from an artistic and financial
standpoint. STORIES circulated that the
Metropolitan Opera Company has offered
Mr.. Hammerstein compensation in order
to retire from the operatic field are like
wise without foundation and could only
have originated in the fertile brain Of the
person most interested.
1.-The aim of the Metropolitan Opera Com
pany and its allied interests is to give the
very best opera possible, not only in New
IOIh, DuL also III JnOSo ClLleS WnGrS Cn6re
is demand for operatic performances OF
q high order. The Metropolitan is not
looking TO the materialistic side of the
question, namely, whether opera pays or
whether it does not; and while it is true
that under present conditions it is we'll
nigh impossible TO place opera on a re-
munerative basis, this phase OF the situa-
tion does not ernbarrass the management
IN the slightest degree
1.-THE whole proposition is a very much
broader one than is generally supposed.
In fact, 1t is of national scope. By this I
mean that under the leadership of the
Metropolitan Opera Company it will not be
at all improbable that in time an operatic
basis may be esta ablished in every principal
city in the United States. In connection
with this, I have only to cite the recent
formation Of the Metropolitan Chicago
Opera Company. whereby Chicago is TO
have an operate season of twenty weeks,
beginning the coming fall This is the en-
tering wedge in the great West