The Washington herald., 1913-08-10

pentier, Gounod. Massenet. Balfe. Doni-
zetti, Humperdinck. Bizet. Thomas. Flo
tow, D'Albert, Mascagni, Leoncavallo,
Delibes, Strauss, and Meyerbeer will be
sung.
The initial Offering, verdfs Aida" will
be given eight performances in English
during the opening week. and will be re-
peated In italian ON Monday night Of the
second week. All otner operas will have
their first performance on Tuesday night.
running In English up to Saturday night.
AMI will have one performance in the
o. .ginal language Of the opera, French.
German. or Italian, on the following Mon
day night. By this system. La
Gioconda," :" the second Offering, will have
seven presentations in English. beginning
Tuesday night. September 81 and will end
its run in Italian Monday night, Sep
tember 9. The same E-hedule applies to
other selections announced through the
list for thirty-five weeks.
The Century Opera Company being the
first institution of its kind In America
an organization to present opera for
the people," subsidized by stockholders
Of recognized standing and serious pur-
pose-has been considered an experiment.
|, and various views have been expressed
by different authorities as to its prospects
for success. The only important question
in this relation was whether such an in
stitution was needed and would be well
coined in New York City. This question
has been eliminated by the quick. sub
stantial response Of music lovers of
Greater New York. who have made up
the large subscription list. The Century
management state that the amount Of
subscriptions received is more than twice
the amount they expected to have re-
corded up to this time, and the orders
are coming in with increasing rapidity.
The encouraging feature Is that the de-
mand is not confined to any one class.
Reservations are equally numerous in the
cheaper and more expensive seats, DEM
onstrating interest among all classes.
In laying out the repertoire for the
Century season. the directors have en-
deavored to vary it as widely as possible
hoping to please opera lovers of all tastes
and preferences. Verdrs Aida and
Ponchiellis La Gioconda." the selection
for the hrst two weeks. respectively. will
be followed by offenbachs opera comique
THE Tales of Hoffman," a work widely
different, for the third week, and from
this 1t is a far leap to Wagner's "Lohen-
grim" the offering for the fourth week.
The fifth week will bring the first novelty
of the season in Wolf-Ferraris The
Jewels of the Madonna" Puccini's
Madam Butterfly" the selection for the
sixth week, though a modern MASTER
piece, has been given so often with cumu-
lative vogue that it has become a stanu-
ard number in the grand opera repertoire
as is also the same composers La
Tosca." which will come two weeks later
Saint-Saen's less familiar Samson and
Delilah," of the modern French school,
will occupy the week between the two
Puccini works. The same degree of va
riety is apparent in the arrangement OF
later weekly changes. including Char
pentier's Louise Verdps I'll Trova-
tore" Gounod's Romeo and Juliet" and
Massenets "Thais'' in the order named.
TEi- policy will be maintained through.
out the season. Humperdinck's 'Hansef
and Greter' will be given at most Of the
holiday matinees. Outside OF "Lohen-
grin" and Tannhauser," which will be
given early, the Wagnerian operas are
reserved for the spring, when Tristan
and Isolde and the entire Nibelungen
Ring will be given.
The usual repertoire plan Of giving
operas in a miscellaneous routine of one
performance each is improved upon. ac-
cording to the statements of general
managers Aborn, who say their ex-
perience has taught them that the artis-
tic value is increased by giving one opera
for an entire week of eight consecutive
performa noes. This gives the entire cast.
chorus, orchestra, technical and artistic
STATS a chance to concentrate their at
tention on one opera at a time for seven
days, the result being a more perfect per-
Torrance throughout.