New-York tribune., 1912-01-14

hCSlbHtu lIC III 81 liCi
u ooAes-meaninglessl called the par
.erre tler-had in him power Of imag-
ihdtion commonly wanting to the archi-
lect' For he set himself to contrive
tnlng not merely admirable in itself but
admirable with reference to its purpose
and the use to be made of it,. I was
asked by an English friend in London
In what the Metropolitan was superior
TO Covent Garden. and l said
In everything, but in this most Of all,
that IN the Metropolitan we do not
pigeonhole our women as you do"
For in Covert Garden the stingy and
dingy little boxes are all inclosed; they
are just windows TO look out of, and
each group of women is partitoned off
so that you can see at the same time
that group and no other, and there Is no
general view at all except Of the chess
board kind. In the Metropolitan the
boxes have no visible divisions, save the
low, gilt ratings between each two, nor
do you see these ratings till you look for
them.
What you do see at the first glance
and all at once is that great horseshoe
sweep Of salons opening into each other;
and the eve takes in all those brill
liant groups together. 1t is one pict
ure. one company of beautiful women
beautifully dressed, dazzllngly jewelled.
Each woman sets off every other; each
gown, perfect in itself, borrows fresh
perfection from its neighbor and all the
jewels fash back from one to the other
the radiance each has of its own. Even
the loveliness of these delicate, high bred
faces is more lovely because they are
together. Indeed. you may call it a
parterre, If you like, though the parterre
proper is the orchestra stalls. For this
is true garden in which grow the rarest
and most exquisite. flowers.
Many a first night at the opera had
seen; never one TO compare with this.
l looked about for English friends whose
impressions / wanted, but there were
none. l wanted the impressions OF
stranger, since mine were those of one
to whom the scene had once been ia
miIar. Not only that. but | was meet
ing old friends. scores of them, who for
all this interval of years seemed 10 be
friends still. That was one enchantment
the more The personal element was
part of the spectacle. There were girls
whom I had known as girls. now mar
ried but still in the beautiful borderland
of girlhood and womanhood, with the
charm OF both. Not at the opera only
but everywhere, this America-New
York. Long Island. Tuxedo, Washington,
each was a Paradise Of Girls. One,
with her all the attractions which had
turned the heads OF gilded youth and
impenitent age in another capital; a lit
tie ripper. not less girlish with the same
sweetness and the same challenging au
thority of manner which would not be
denied.
other young wives there were, young
matrons who had grown younger as the
years passed and touched them not;
women OF an immortal youthfulness and
charm. Others, or OH other, still young,
whose hair was touched with silver and
had became a crown worn with an added
grace. Another, one of the most gifted
and certainly the least conventional
among all the ornaments OF New York
society, whose passion for reforming the
world has not quenched her passion for
melody. Still another saw her mar
ried, and the pair of them, she and her
husband, receiving their friends at
o'clock wedding breakfast on pleasant
| lawn, In a pillared pergola of roses; and
| to-day the roses are as fresh as ever.
IT was always a social function, this
| New York opera. You might always go
| from box TO box and pay one visit after
( another; remembering always in which
/ YOU may talk while the curtain is up and
those others where music siences the
! talk, and only between the acts may you
converse. | once offered 10 a director Of
| the Metropolitan a scheme for a new
opera to consist wholly of entr' actes;
but this he did not welcome. To Covent
Garden there is no social side. The
| boxes are too small for visits and have
! no vestibules; all its enthusiasms are
musical, unless, as of late, they are for
the dance. But remember a saying of
Mr.. Conried when he was musical di-
rector at the Metropolitan, and a strike
Of the orchestra was threatened. An
agitated director asked him what he was
going to do. He answered:
IF they. strike | shall put hand Or
gan in the wings, and no great member
of your smart boxhOlders will know the
difference"
| Mr.. Conrieds cynicism may pass.
suppose he sometimes heard voice from
the boxes while his artists were singing
and the social uses of the opera seemed
to him profane. But the music OF
pure voice is still music, whether sung
or spoken; nor do they clash. Nor would
the opera in New York be what 1t is II
YOU divorced 1t from society or from
social privileges. Strip 1t of its social
splendors and how long would 1t sur
vive? They detract nothing from its
musical or dramatic value and they lend
II the prestige without which, In its pres
ent form, II would cease TO exist
c. W. s.