Year: 1872

There is NO subject in which the people Of
this city feel deeper interest than in the sue
cess of the opera and mono in which their OK
pectations have been 80 often disappointed.
Time and again operatic managers have
learned from experience that one prima donna
does not make successful season any more
than one swallow makes Summer. The di-
rector of the Academy of Music is learning it
over again this Autumn for nearly the hun
dredth time. He engaged Lucca, and gave
the promise of brilliant season. Heengaged
Janet, and we were satisfied that If Lucca was
supported by artists of Jamet's ability his
promise would be realized. But here he
stopped and turned from the right into the
wrong path. Vizzani, the tenor, has been
failure both as an actor and as q singer.
He makes the most ineffective Faust who
ever sung at the Academy and as Fra
Diavolo he is an exceedingly unromantic and
yet .unrealistic brigand Abrugnedo is bet
ter tenor than vizzani, but he broke down
completely in the part Of vasco di 0ama. in
Meyerbeefs LAfricains'' and barely sus-
tanned himself as smooth, cultivated singer
of limited power as Manrico. OF the baritones
Sparapani has no voice, and Noriama is
wandering and uncertain. Sei1orita Sanz, the
contraito, gives proof of considerable artistic
ability. but she is suffering from diphtheria
and is practically untitled for continuing her
engagement. Added to these are other singers
for subordinate parts who are too bad to be
nor a OhO vxI,ioh tho
adjective condemnatory fails fitly to describe.
Under such auspices it is impossible that q
musical season can be either o financial or ON
artistic success, and the present venture, like
many that have preceded it, must prove o
decided and complete failure.


The readers Of the HERALD are well aware
how strenuously and earnestly this journal has
advised directly opposite course from the
one which has been adopted. We have i'm
plored managers, both for their own interests
and the interests Of the public, to do what
ever they attempted with thoroughness and
efficiency. Only once-in the Nilsson season
Of last year-was our advice needed, and that
operatic venture was the only one in many
years which was a musical triumph and q
financial success. Under other conditions the
present season would have been equally tri-
umphant There was great eagerness to hear
Lucca if she could be heard with proper sur
roundings Long before the season began
every part of the house was taken, and the
eagerness manifested in the beginning would
have continued till the end had not the disap-
pointment been SO complete as to be over
powering. Now the enthusiasm has died
away, and the interest which still attaches to the
opera is due solely to the abilities Of Lucca and
janet. People go to the Academy deter
mined to endure everything else for the pleas
ure Of hearing the brave little prima donna.
and they meekly sit through the evening
showing a sullen contentment because MIR.
Maretzek has given them one artist who can
beguile them for their disappointment. This
is the star system in its worst form; for it
neither gives the prima donna fair opportu-
nifty nor provides the public with such an en-
tertainment as will make the season successful.


If this were the last disappointment of the
kind we could allow it to pass unnohced; but
it can only be the last by making opera in
New York impossible in the future Distin-
guished artists will hesitate about coming to
a country where other distinguished artists
have failed to reap the reward of their talents.
If the people Of this city were unwilling or un-
able to support the opera we could console
ourselves with whatever consolation there
might be in fact SO unpalatable; but the con-
trary is the truth. That New York is always
ready to sustain o meritorious combination
is apparent from the success of the Nilsson
season. Failure only follows from the want of
a meritorious combination. If 'L' Africaine'
had been presented with anything like cast
able to render it, the favorite opera Of "Faust"
would have proved an ovation. When
'.Faust'' gave us nothing but Gretchen and
Mephistopheles it was impossible that the
noisy music of Auber should satisfy. And
EZRA Diavolo' realized the old complaint, for
it was ''Hamlet" with Hamlet left out-"Fra
Diavolo'' with a stage ghost instead of sing
ing brigand. To all these failures must be
added the artistic failure Of 'Don Giovanni. !"
This is an opera which can be only o
musical success at best-an opera which sell
dom succeeds even in Paris, with the best
talent to make it effective. Without talent,
except in one or two parts, it necessarily fails
and helps to drag down with it the success Of
the season and the prospects of the future.


That the failure of the present season has
not been even more marked than it has been
is owing in great measure to the sublime
patience Of our people. If the demonstrative
part of an American audience were compelled
to stand up throughout the performance, as in
the Hof Theater at Munich the expressions of
censure would take wilder and fiercer form
and bad representation would become dan
gerous experiment. 1t does not follow, how
ever, that where financial disaster fails to teach
wisdom it will be learned from the disap-
,,robot;Ov, of a dicopro;ptad and iynro tiert II,