NEW YORK AS THE OPERATIC METROPOLIS BY HENRY T. FINCK

HETHER New York really is the rar and Caruso in the same opera, because W operatic center of the universe, as the fame of either alone fills the house. some critics and observers claim, is a ques­ Grau used to delight in arranging all-star tion worth considering. Doubtless the casts that took one's breath away. Once, Metropolitan has a larger number of great when he gave "Les Huguenots" with singers than any foreign opera-house; but Sembrich, Nordica, Jean and Edouard de it is also true that there have been years Reszke, besides Maurel, and Plangon, he when the number of first-class artists asked two dollars extra for parquet seats; gathered under its roof was greater than but often he provided casts nearly or quite it is now. This is particularly the case as remarkable without raising the prices. with the lowest voices. Among fourteen We recall, for instance, "Carmen," with mezzo-sopranos and contraltos, Louise Calve, Fames, Jean and Edouard de Homer alone upholds the high standards Reszke; "Tristan und Isolde" with Lilli of the past; and while Allen Hinckley, Lehmann (or Nordica), Schumann- Andrea de Segurola, and Herbert Wither- Heink, Jean and Edouard de Reszke, and spoon are good bas^s, they do not'rank Bispham (or Van Rooy). These cannot with Edouard de Reszke, Emil Fischer, be equaled to-day. Nevertheless, some of and Pol Plangon. Among the baritones, the present Metropolitan casts are not at however, there are no fewer than seven all to be sneered at. No foreign opera- great names—Pasquale Amato, Giuseppe house, for instance, will be able to produce Campanari, Dinh Gilly, Otto Goritz, "The Girl of the Golden West" with a Maurice Renaud, Antonio Scotti, and cast including five singers like Caruso, Des­ Walter Soomer; and when we turn to the tinn, Amato, Gilly, and Reiss; or "Konigs- tenors and sopranos we behold a galaxy kinder" with five artists equaling Farrar, of stars probably as brilliant as those wit­ Homer, Goritz, Reiss, and Jadlowker. nessed in the past. Any European opera- Without stars of the first magnitude it house would be proud to own any three is impossible to make opera successful at of our nine leading tenors, naming them the high prices charged in this country, in alphabetical order: Carl Burrian, En­ and any attempt to substitute ensembles rico Caruso, Florencio Constantino, Her­ of mediocrities for stars is sure to fail; as man Jadlowker, Carl Jorn, John Mc- soon as the public discovers that the goods Cormack, Riccardo Martin, Albert Reiss, are not of the first quality, it saves its Leo Slezak; while the list of sopranos is money for other luxuries. Opera-goers, no less striking, including as it does Bella moreover, are steadily becoming more fas­ Alten, Emmy Destinn, Geraldine Farrar, tidious. A quarter of a century ago, in Olive Fremstad, Johanna Gadski, Alma the days of Mapleson, one star like Patti, Gluck, Nellie Melba, Berta Morena, Nilsson, Gerster, or Lucca sufficed for an Alice Nielsen, Lucie Weidt. opera company. Grau taught Metropoli­ That the great artists in the company tan audiences to expect from two or three are as often combined into star casts as up to five or six stars in each opera. That in the days of Maurice Grau cannot be policy paid as long as there was an unlim­ maintained. The present management ited number of great singers to import. hardly ever brings together Geraldine Far­ When the supply was reduced, the public

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 746 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE discovered the short-comings of the Grau There has been much ado about the fact system, especially in the scenery, stage that these two operas had their very first management, and tout ensemble^ or gen­ performances in New York, and that the eral working together of all the operatic composers came over to help launch them. factors. Conried gave an illustration of This is certainly significant; and the fact what could be done in this direction by that Debussy, after hearing our Metro­ his magnificent production of "Parsifal," politan Company in Paris last spring, and this set a new standard for his suc­ promptly offered it the premiere of his cessors to live up to. next opera, further emphasizes the truth In Grau's day many operas were virtu­ that European composers look on New ally pitchforked upon the stage, with little York as the operatic metropolis. They or no rehearsing, with costumes and come to us not only because we have scenery of the most motley and often in­ the best singers and conductors, but be­ appropriate aspect, and without serious at­ cause we now bestow attention on en­ tempts to make the happenings on the semble and scenery, and have changed stage harmonize with the orchestral music. our attitude toward novelties, welcoming Poor Anton Seidl, whom Wagner had them now, instead of looking at them particularly taught the details and the askance, as in the days of Mapleson and importance of this cooperation of all the Grau. factors, was not consulted; he was even The situation is full of promise for the snubbed when he made suggestions. A future of operatic art in this country. good orchestra he had, though not so good Even if we can hardly hope that European a one as Toscanini and Hertz have now; composers will come and live with us, but his chorus was bad, singing out of helping to create an American school of tune' half the time and making only feeble opera, as the Italians Lully, Cherubini, attempts to act. It was not till Dippel and Spontini, and the Germans Gluck, brought out "Lohengrin" and "Die Meis- Meyerbeer, and Offenbach went to Paris tersinger," and Gatti-Cassazza "Aida," and helped create French schools of opera, that patrons of the Metropolitan were there is cheer for us in what has happened enabled to feel the full grandeur of the and is likely to happen. The American choral music of Wagner and Verdi. composer has been encouraged by a prize Equall}' great is the improvement in of $10,000 for a good opera, and for matters of scenery and stage-management. young singers the Metropolitan is the best Were Seidl living to-day, how eagerly he school. The "old Italian method" con­ would be consulted regarding the Wag­ sisted largely in listening to and trying to nerian traditions! When Puccini's "Girl imitate great voices. For this our opera- of the Golden West" was being rehearsed house offers unequaled facilities. The last December, David Belasco helped him chorus singers have, or should have, oppor­ and Toscanini in establishing traditions tunity to hear these voices daily. They can for that opera, converting Italian and Bo­ then go abroad to acquire experience in the hemian singers into actors imbued with numerous theaters of Germany and Italy, the real California spirit. Humperdinck's returning, if they are successful, as stars "Konigskinder," a few weeks later, was to the Metropolitan. treated in the same artistic manner. One More and more the public clamors for remembers some of the scenes in it as one dramatic opera. The Metropolitan may recalls great paintings in a gallery; nota­ serve as a school for acting as well as for bly the realistic Alpine glow in the first singing. We have traveled far away from act; the vision of the royal goose-girl with the time when Italian opera audiences her flock and the flowery background as supped and played cards during a perform­ the gate opens at the stroke of twelve; and ance, listening only to the arias—the time the final scene, when the fast-falling snow when so little attention was usually paid covers the royal children with a shroud as to the acting that once a voice called out they lie side by side under the bare tree from the gallery: "Great heavens, the before the witch's hut. tenor is murdering the soprano!"

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APTAIN RAYNOR turned his lean, Once, a dozen j'ears back, when his sloop C weather-carved face to the little win­ got into Eastern Breakers, he had a good dow of the oyster shanty and looked over excuse to die. It sure needed a whole man the moon-swept channel. The tide, well and a big fight to get out of that. Three on in its six-hours' mystery of flood, swirled times we tried to get the life-boat to him, no more. It moved smoothly, not like sea, and three times we was smashed back so." but like a great thing swimming. He flipped a match across the room. "But "Tide 's slacking," said the ba5rman, Hank Massey he made his fight, and he softly. He nodded toward an inner room. come out alive, no man helping him. And "He 's come through the middle of the yet I know right well he ain't wanted to flood, so he '11 likely last for two hours live since; I '11 show you the date when yet." he stopped wanting to live. Why did n't Professor Bourne tiptoed to the cham­ he let himself go that time in the Eastern ber. The little glass lamp that he carried Breakers ? Mebbe there 's a big diff'rence shone on an old man, very worn, very between not wanting to live and daring gaunt, whose features, evidently suffi­ to die. What do j^ou think. Professor?" ciently formidable in health, were sharp­ Bourne opened his lips and stopped ened now into that formidable greatness short. From the dying man's bed sounded that is of death. a voice weak, low, wild like the wail of a "He is all but gone now," he whispered, wandering gust. "The ranges!" it cried. returning. "The ranges!" The bayman shook his head slightly. "I They ran in. The old man lay still, don't pretend to know why 't is, but now breathing fitfully, but on the set face that he 's come through the young flood, there was no sign of the dread that had he 's likely to stay till the tide has stood at rung in the voice. Beckoning to Bourne, full and turns to ebb. There are things the bayman led the way outside, and like that, though they tell me they ain't in stopped by the toppled flagstaff that lay books." half across the little pier. The captain Professor Bourne of the United States pointed to a place near the splintered base. Fish Commission glanced incredulously at Plain to see in the white, bright night the man, who repeated simply: " I 've seen were letters deeply branded : 'em more 'n once, specially old men that has followed the water long. They hang "SLOOP PHANTOM, AUGUST 17, 1880." on till the tide turns ebb. Then they go out with it. It 's a nice way to go," he "That 's the day he stopped wanting to ended peacefully. live," said Raynor, touching,the inscrip­ "Well," said Bourne, "two minutes or tion with a curiously gentle touch. "It 's two hours, he ,'s not suffering, anyway. thirty years ago; I was twenty then, and He must have been unconscious ever since all them years there ain't been a nightfall it fell on him. There 's nothing we can that Hank Massey did n't come along this do except wait." channel looking and looking, and crying Captain Raynor nodded again. "I 'm out what he did just now." right sure he in there would n't want to He gazed over the channel's span. The live if he could. For more 'n thirty years tide, drawn by a moon in perigee was big now he ain't been really wanting to live. with water, drowning marsh and bar. But it 's a funny thing about us creatures. Overhead a night heron lamented. Then

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