The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-01-15
METROPOLITAN HAS MOST SUCCESSFU LII YEAR IN HISTORY
By Associated Press


 New ork, January 14-Its light rhdimmed by the passing of it's great est luminary of recent years-E,nric Caruso-the Metropolitan opera has reached the height of what it's social and professional sponsors acclaim as the most successful season since the worlds eyes were focused on New verse.
 Not, officials of the opera said to- day. that a great gap has not been ieit Tn the ranks of the artists wh& have made it so famous. Caruso's place. they declare, cannot be filled Tn a few months. or even in a few years But his death has served to defect the interest of operagoers | from the brilliancy of the individual singer and to widen it to embrace the opera itself and the great, though less well known stars, who nightly are drawing multitudes to the historic
 Broadway auditorium
 1 Greatest changes have taken nlace in the opera as a social institution.
 they declare. The social side of the gatherings there season by season. has again taken on the aspect 1t wore
 a generation ago. Once more if is
 the brilliant show place 1t was in the
 Sos and 90s~ Nightly. regardless or the name of the tenor or the so- prsno who is to sing, boxes, stalls and
 chairs, from orchestra pit to peanut gallery are at a premium, and every
 foot of standing room in the shadowy
 horseshoe about the walls is solid | with the mass of music lovers who | would rather stand three and a half
 hours than mss the performance. | In widespread reaction from the fashions ot years before and during ! the war, the gentleman operagoers appears in evening dress, whether he | sits in a box or any other part or the house below the gallery And many who stand through the success sion of acts parade the lobbies and doff the shiniest of silk hats to ac- quaintances or when they ge to ex- change visits among the boxes filled with richly -gowned and jeweled women.
 Apace with the changing custom in dres and the etiquette of the rentract the public has mastered it's post-bellum aversion for German opera. manifested in 1919 by threats of violence that would ensue on their presentation.
 Twice this season the stately meas ures of Wagnerian opera have re- sounded in the ears of audiences that have taxed the capacity of the house, and Die Tote Stadt," new to Ameri- can devotees of the arts, was the ve- hicle upon which Mime. Marie Jeritza, a Viennese. took a cosmopolitan audi ence by storm at her debut.
 A few nights later the same im- posing daughter of the former enemy country tore and shook into disheveI- ment her coronet of shining golden hair through the passionate scenes of La Tosca"--a role long regarded as the exclusive property of the Ameri- can idol Geraldine Farrar--while an American audience dissolved into tears and interrupted the scene with an outburst of applause and 'bravos,' such as seldom mars the serenity of New York's blase first-ni ghters.
 As to the much -heralded successor of Caruso-the operatic maestros de- clare they are seeking none and hope to find none. After touring Europe most of last summer General Man ager Giulio Gatti-Casazza returned with many new singers added to his company and several new operas for his repertoire. But he announced that while Caruso's place in the hearts of his admirers must remain unified.