The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-08-02

1 His first theatrical ventures were
 as the silent partner of Adolph Neuen- dorf, manager of the old Stadt Thea
 Ire, In the Bowery, for which he l wrote three plays. The two moved
 up to the Germania Theatre, in Four 1 teenth Street, which later became Tony Pastors, and here they brought over from Germany Heinrich Conried, | a young actor who was years after ward to become the director of the i Metropolitan Opera House and take
 away Hammerstein's tenors, while the 1 latter retaliated by outbidding for l sopranos in the merry opera war. | From this start Hammerstein built his music hall in Harlem, then turned
 his attention to Broadway. He was | the first to introduce to America l Yvette Guilbert with a collection of | racy songs. He put on living DIG | lures, which hovered in the twilight zone, and brought over Anna Held, who caused the crash at the Olympia when she left his production La | Poupee."
 The impresario faced much hos tility and skepticism when he opened
 his Manhattan Opera House in 19o6 | as rival to the great Metropolitan. | | 900; his competitors were S400,0OO.
 He had a hard fight the first season. i but New York finally warmed up to l him. Signor C1eofonte Campanini, I as conductor, and such stars of the opera as Bonci, Dalmores, Bassi. Re | maud, Sammarco, Ancona, Melba and Calve soon attracted the audiencs. | Renaud, in spite of his great reputa- 1 ton, opened for a house of S1,SOO, | but for his last four performances a i total of s35,0o0 was taken in. The | receipts for the season were S75O,ooo, which exceeded expenditures. With Hammerstein firmly in i trenched, a bitter war was waged with 1 the Metropolitan until the impresario was bought out for something like | s2.OO0,OOO in 1910.
 | E. T. Stotesbury and his ass soctates 1 in Philadelphia took over big 1 opera house the New York man had 1 built in the Quaker city. The Man | hattan Opera House was given over | to vaudeville and motion pictures. It was characteristic of the man that with this money at his disposal he at i.once sank it in a new opera venture which at the outset could have result ed in nothing but failure. London had never been able to support more than one opera house. Yet in face of all this MT. Hammerstein decided that he would cross the ocean. The result was inevitable. He began his cam paign with a great blaring of trum- pets and beating of drums. He would give to the British public for the first time in it's history real grand opera, but the British public did not responN In the end he was forced to quit, and his house was turned over to moving
 pictures.
 But his restless spirit could not re- main content with oblivion, and sud- denly he astonished his friends by an nouncing that he was about to build a new opera house to be devoted to popular opera in English. Soon, ow- ing to the establishment of the Gen. tury Opera Company, he decided to return to his old fight for high priced opera in opposition to the Metropoli- tan. For a time it looked as if he would succeed. An injunction put a stop to his activities. Beaten and broken-hearted. he retreated into his little room over the Victoria Theatre and the operatic world knew him no more.
 Oscar Hammerstetn was not with
 out his faults, which in a smaller
 man might have been unforg1vap1e.
 He was an intense egoist. domineer- ing. ruthless, interruptions when fore
 ed into a corner. But he was a man and genius. As a snowman, he knew his public, knew it with all it's strength and weakness and played upon 1t as a master musician plays upon his violin. The result was that he touched it's imagination and kindled its interest as few had done before him.
 He was a great snowman, and if there was in him a little of the char latan, this made his appeal only the more potent. In an age of advertise ment he realized the value or the press. He played to the ga1leris, but it was always with a color and an ori- ginality. His witty sayings. his cyn- icism, his utter fearlessness are known to all who came in contact with him. Whatever he was not, he was not uninteresting.
 His contribution to opera in Amer ica was considerable. By his per formances at the Manhattan Opera | House he gave to New York the works | of the modern French school, works l which but for him might never have l been heard here. He introduced De- | pussy and Charpentier. he widened l acquaintance with Massenet and | Straus.. Through him New York | came to know Maurice Renaud, Mary Garden, Luisa Tetrazzini. Didur. Bon | ci Zenatello, Jean Perrier, Jeanne | Gerville- Reache. Mccormack and a l host of other artists
 Lovers of music learned how | French opera ahould be given and l that all opera was not included in the 1 works which the Metropolitan had i vouchsafed. Then there were the l never r-to-be-forgotten nights when be- tween the acts Oscar himself would make a speech praising or criticising his audience. or when word arrived there was only half a house the artists formed a ring about their chief as he danced dance of unex- pursated joyl By those nights Ham merstein pulled grand opera in New York from tho marshes of routine and carried it into an atmosphere. vibrant and alive Those white nights'' brought Arturo Aoscanini to the Metropolitan and put to flight the