New-York tribune., 1918-09-08
Those Were Exciting Days, With
Two Opera Houses Running
Full Tilt
By II. E. krehbiel
CHAPTER vi
Copyright. 1918. by II. f. Krehbicn

rNHC two seasons which fell between
the winter Of 1909 and the summer
Il Of 1911 were years of operatc mar
vcls in New York. though they were
more marvellous for their plethora OF in
cjdent. scandalous and otherwise, than for
artistic achievement. Within 500 days OF
his period the city was entertained with
nearly Geo representations OF opera, omit
tnr from the count the bastard spawn Of
the theatres called comic opera. Within 800
DAYS the public spent considerably over
100000 for tho qualification OF craze for
Metropolitan and Manhattan Opera houses.
The end Of the period was marked by the
collapse Of Oscar Hammerstein's career as
an operatic manager, though all the wind
Was not taken out OF his balloon until press
ure was applied to it three years later by
the law courts. The mania was not con-
fined to the managements and public; it was
shared in also by the newspapers. Through
ont the ferment which kept the redoubtablc
rival Of the Metropolitan company bobbing
and whirling on the surface Of the bubbling
and boiling, toiling and troubling social
caldron, the editors were Mr.. Hammer
STEMS willing snd active agents. He was a
fccund source Of news" His audacity, in
trepidity, inexhaustible energy and good
hunor won their admiration. They knew
bo ;p ;p%o
statements, pronouncements and proclama-
tons which the reporters brought into their
Offices He good copy" while the fight
was on, good copy" during the brief space
in which he troubled the operatic pools of
London, and still good copy" when, after
his return to New York, he attempted to es-
tablish new rivalry with the Metropolitan
company in defiance Of a solemn covenant to
keep out Of the American operatic field for
ten years. He became almost political
factor, for it was the period of the proe-
tartan combined industries, the wis
dom Of which is now undergoing trial and
purgaton in the war cruciblc. His cam
paign of publicity was so ingeniously con-
Quoted by himself and his press agent, Will
lam A. Guard, that the editors were urgent
their admiration, and only the irresistible
logic Of money turned the scales against
aim. He fell; but even in his fall am per
suaded he triumphed over his rivals when
he sold them his Philadelphia theatre and
all his operatic properties for sum which
enabled him TO pay his obligations here and
embark upon another Quixotic enterprise in
London. He escaped the financial ruiz.
~hich inevitably confronted him an
achievement which, though it cxcites no sd-
mration in so hopeless!y uncommercial a
person as myself, cannot be said to refec.
credit on the combination of astute busi-
hess men whom he fought single han 6ed.
The rivalry which ended in the circum-
stances which | have hrted at and must
now relate began in December. 1905. when
M. Hanmerstein opened the Manhattan
opera House, which he had built in West
lhirty-fourth Street. The enterprise, no
'ess chimercal at the height OK its succesa
than when it came TO an end, was flower
'0g of the old obsesslon that if one operate
establishment 1ourishes in community
there must be room for two. Managerial flesh
- Bourbonistic It never learns. U9op it
history and even individual experience is
wasted The theories upon which MI Ham
merstein based his hopes of success were
chiefly two, and neither Of them was in his
mTnd when Ae built the Manhattan Opera
House. for he originally designed it to be a
nome of spectacle and vaudeville. The first
theory was based on belief in proletarian-
lsn Of sort, conviction, or notion, that
oe could win the masses to the support Of
an institution consecrated to the classes:
democracy against aristocracy in art I'm
Hke q multitude Of managers before and
alter him, he did not confound popular
opera with cheap opera. II had learned
pe'tc1 IN theatres OF his own building in
eAfleT years. He knew that the popular in
'eiost IN opera OF which the newspapers
'"iKed much was largely an afectaton, and
mat aristocratic prices would help him
more than they would mar him. Not good
enough opera, but opera as good as the best
was MS promise He made no protcnce Of
scofhing the help Of what caNs itself So
c.e'y because he needed it TO fill the many
poAes wd.ch the architect had put in his
vast audience room He needed it TO meet
MS payroll SO he engaged as many high
class singers he could find and boldly
challenged his rivals on social as we'll as
artistic lines.