Year: 1872

Italian Opera In New York.


Every season of Italian opera in New York
brings complaints of bad management on the
one hand and the want Of resources and
facilities on the other. We hear of the i'm
possibility of organizing perfect chorus and
orchestra, Of the scarcity of great or even
passable singers and of the necessity Of sub
ventions. While it is plain that our operatic
seasons are generally failures, the excuses for
failure are mostly of no great merit. The talk
about subventions was always idle, because If
subventions are necessary to success opera in
New York is impossible. Our subventions are
in the subscriptions of the generous and Guilt
waited people of the city, and these are better
than larger sums of money poured into the
treasury of the opera house from the public
funds. Neither are the prices of admission SO
far below the prices in other cities as to excuse
a thoroughly bad chorus and orchestra and
but two or three meritorious artists for
whole operatic season. Nor does it follow
that if secured seat was sold at
five instead of four dollars the result
would be an overfowing treasury. In
London, where the price Of admission is a
guinea, operate enterprises have invariably
ended in disaster. In England, as in this
country, the reasons Of failure are deducible
from the same causes. Opera has no per-
manency either in London OF New York, and
both cities are victimized year after year by
glowing promises and unworthy performances.
Acting on the hypothesis that prima donna
is sufficient to insure the success of season,
managers have not cared to perfect the minor
details of the ensemble, and they have naturally
met the fate Of business men acting on un-
business-like principles. Operatic manage
ment is controlled by the laws which govern
every other business enterprise, and success
full managers must travel in the same pathway
that is trodden by successful merchants and
manufacturers.


Looking back over the history Of opera in
New York, we see little to give us hope for the
future. The past shows only disaster and dis
appointment, the triumphs of great artists
like Jenny Lind, Alboni, Sontag, Grisi and
Nilsson only adding to the general gloom.
Like the drive from the Central Park to the
High Bridge, it is a broad boulevard with
few splendid equipages, perfect in all things
as well as in speed, but strewn with the wrecks
Of hired carriages and made dangerous by the
racking steps Of unframed horses. Failure
has always come because, with the exception of
the prima donna, the chorus and orchestra
have been hastily gathered together and the
tenors selected with regard only to their cheap
ness. The latter are the unframed animals
which go galloping over the road, running
into the livery soaches and market wagons
that for want Of proper regard for the use Of
nouns in the English language are sometimes
called the orchestra and chorus of the grand
opera. We might forgive the one if the others
were not past forgiveness; but Mr.. Maretzek
and his champions, who write to the HERALD,
expect pardon for his shortcomings on hun
dred untenable and illogical grounds, and yet
are unwilling to confess the faults of which we
complain.


1t is not pleasant to contemplate the present
condition of Italian opera in New York. After
q quarter Of century We are no further ad-
vanced than when we began. We have had
great singers, it is true, but they left only
memories behind them. We have an excellent
opera house, but it has developed nothing be-
yond quack management and consequent dis
aster. For this there never was any excuse
but the customary excuses of quackery. New
York is a city full Of musical talent seeking
out ways to make itself felt. Amateur per-
formances of oratorio and the music of some
Of the most difficult operas are often success
fully attempted. The Philharmonic Society is
about giving its thirty-frst season of classical
concerts, and Mr.. Theodore Thomas has held
his orchestra together so many years that the
symphonies of Beethoven are to him no longer
difficult or doubtful undertaking. The in
telligence and care thus strikingly exhibited
in two different quarters would have given the
Academy of Music chorus and orchestra
unsurpassed by any opera house in
the world There is no good reason
why we should be behind Berlin even in this
respect. Until we get them in something like
perfection Italian opera will continue to be
failure. With them managers would not dare
put upon the stage tenors who would be out
rivalled by the singing sweeps in farmhouse
chimney. Opera would at last become both
permanent and excellent and the days Of dis
aster would be over. contributor to the
HERALD admitted this the other day
by implication in lamenting the annual
changes in both band and chorus, but he
failed to see in it any responsibility of
the managers With them the real response
bility rests. Like birds of passage, the man
ayers OF our opera house have come and gone,
and none of them ever went to work with the
settled purpose Of making operatic enterprises
the business Of life. Had this been their in
tention they would have begun with the chorus
and orchestra, and not have first hired expen-
sive prime donne to sing and act in Babel Of