Year: 1872

a tlippant answer.


THE TWO ITALIAN OPERA COMPANIES.


Next week we are invited to take formal
leave of two Of the most successful opera
managers ever known in Newly On Mon
day evening Mr.. Strakosch brings the long
series of Nilsson triumphs to close, and
offers o farewell entertainment which Will, no
doubt, provoke an exuberant demonstration OF
popular feeling. On Tuesday MIR. Carl ROsas
great quartet make their final bow in SIM
liar festive performance, for which we antci-
pate an equally excitable audience; and on
Wednesday all the rival artists sail away
together in the Cuba. Tho ceremoniOus
termination of the two lyrical campaigns
simultaneously, provOkes an obvious comDari-
son between them. They have both been ex-
travagantly prosperous, and they have been
singulary in contrast Miss Nilsson has fas-
cinated every city that she has visited; and
dispute as we may about her possible denclen-
cies, or the legitimacy of the technical portiOnot
her art, she must certainly be granted place
among the famous singers of the age who
know how to captivate the popular heart
and rouse the popular feelings. For the
multitude during the Nilsson season, Nilsson
herself was all-suf1cient. Charmed by her
Marguerite and MignOn, they forgot to inquire
whether the rest was good or bad, and for the
sake of her Ophelia they smiled approval upon
"Hamletn without any Prince Of Denmark.
They crowded the benches, rent the air with
applause and looked with satisfaction upon
the most shocking mutilation of the great
composers, AMI the most prep0stersps solecisms
of the stage. Naturally the manager who has
guided stars around the world at an appalling
profit and is an adept in the art of mahiDga very
little opera go a very great way, gave the
people nothing but what they asked for. He
presented the lyric muse clad in golden
head dress and beggar's gown; and if the
populace was pleased, why should the critic
complains TO be sure, the art of opera CIV
ing under this system seemed to have gone
backward two or three generations, and when
the prima donna had cold the house must
perforce be closed; but managers are not
apostles of art; they ere hard-wOrking men of
business, and if they make a profit off shabby
genteel opera that is our fault, not theirs.


If the Nilsson season has been an illustra-
ton of the star system in its most exaggerated
form, the Rosa season which followed imme-
diately after it and not only sustained but
redoubed the fashionable enthusiasm for
operatc entertainments has been q very
happy combination of the star theory with its
opposite system. Mr.. Rosa was not satisfied
with one STAR but he gave us full set. His
prima donna is one of the great artists Of the
age his tenor is one of the most famous
now living; his baritone has no superior
in Iany opera house of Europe; and
his cOntraltO is true and noble singer of
whom this country has long been proud. In
some respects such a combination cannot be
paraleled elsewhere. But it might be imi
tated; and many times in past years New
York has heard quartets that would have done
credit to any opera house on the Continent.
It shows how much the cultivation of the
opera has degenerated in America that Mr..
Rosa's enterprise in giving us full
quartet should be cited with amaze
ment quito as much as commendation.
But he has not stopped here. He has
taken SO much pains with his chorus, his
orchestra, his wardrobe, his PROPERTY room, he
has prepared the performances with so much
care, he has been so Industrious and conscien-





topic of conversation in society and discussion
in the newspapers, and has excited as much
popular interest in the city as the choice
of the next President or the settlement
of the Alabama claims. 1t is not un-
reasonable to hope that his experience may
have permanently raised the standard of op-
cratic art in New-YOrk, and made impossible
for the future those incOngruOus representa-
tions which have vexed the critical temper SO
much in the past. The shabby -genteel in art
ought to have received its death blow this
Spring. and that theory of management
which makes an opera company consist of
one good prima donna, with a string of in
competents like bobs to her kite, ought to be
cassed henceforth with the vulgar delusiOn
prevalent in the regions of Hesterst. and
the Bowcry, that gentleman is well dressed
when he wears new satin cravat, with
muddy boots and "a soied shrt-coar.