More chapters of opera; being historical and critical observations and records concerning the lyric drama in New York from 1908 to 1918

Front matter

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE

SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND

THE GIFT OF

Chapter I INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS PAGE

Why This Book Was Written— Effect of the World War upon Operatic Conditions — A New Era Predicted — Ten Years of Unparalleled Activity — The Incidents Marshaled— A Frivolous Attitude of the Newspapers Arraigned— New York Today and London Two Centuries Ago — The Cult of the Prima Donna — Criticism Defended— A Critic's Duty to Art, His Conscience, and His Time — Permanency in Artistic Principles

Chapter II OPERATIC CONDITIONS IN THE BEGINNING OF THE DECADE

State of Affairs at the Close of the Season 1907-08 — Review of the Preceding Period — Ideals Left by Maurice Grau — The Succession of Mr. Conried in the Management of the Metropolitan Opera House — His Promises and Failures — His Retirement — Engagement of Mr. Gatti-Casa^za and Mr. Dippel — Dreams of World Dominion— Death of Heinrich Conried — His Career — Mr. Gatti's Unfortunate Introduction — Wagner's Dramas in Italy — Mr. Gatti's Early Life — Controversy Between the Managers — Singers Intercede for Mr. Dippel — He Is Routed— The New Theater Built and Dedicated— A Beautiful Ideal — A List of the Founders .... 13

Chapter III THE FIRST SEASON OF THE DUAL ADMINISTRATION

The Season 1908-og — Emmy Destinn — A Patriotic Prima Donna — Changes Presaged by the War — Signor Toscanini ; His Qualities and Triumphs — Reflections on the Season — D'Albert's " Tiefland " — Inter-racialism Rampant— ^An American School of Composition — Bohemians Object to the Austrian National Hymn — " Le Villi," Puccini's First Opera — Five Generations of Puccinis— Catalani's " La Wally " — The Musical Revolution in Italy— Smetana's "Bartered Bride "—Madame Sembrich's Farewell to the Opera Stage— Ceremonies at the Opera House— A Complimentary Banquet— Mr. Henderson's Poem — A Versified Repertory — Retirement of Madame Eames — Her Record at the Metropolitan— Signor Caruso Temporarily Incapacitated . 36

Chapter IV RIVALRY BETWEEN THE MANHATTAN AND METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSES

An Opera-mad City — Over Two Millions of Dollars Spent on the Entertainment in Ten Months — Mr. Hammerstein's Policies — The Masses Against the Aristocrats — The Lure of French Opera — A House Built in Philadelphia— The Clash of Opposition There — Hammerstein Confesses Failure — Purchase of His Interests and Properties — Agrees to Retire from Opera for Ten Years — Reorganizations and Affiliations — Hammerstein Tries London — Failure There — Attempts to Enter the Field in New York — Builds a Theater in Lexington Avenue — Opera in English — Project of the City Club — Hammerstein Announces His Intention to Evade His Contract — Is Enjoined by the Courts — Mr. Stotesbury and His Loans — Death of Mr. Hammerstein ... 69

Chapter V LAST SEASONS AT THE MANHATTAN OPERA HOUSE

Mr. Hammerstein's Promises and Performances — Circus Advertising — Special Representations and Prices — Mile. Labia — Revival of " Samson et Dalila " — " Le Jongleur de Notre Dame" — Engagement of Lina Cavalieri — Miss Garden Resents Her Desire to Appear

/ in Thais-^Managers and Newspaper-men Come to Blows — Miss Garden Holds the Field — Production of " Salome "-^^History of the Opera in America — Opera Comique and Opera Bouffe— "-Princesse d'Auberge" — " Herodiade " — " Sapho "^ean de Reszke and Translations — " Tannhauser " in French — " Griselidis " — "Elektra" 94

Chapter VI / NEW YORK'S ANNUS MIRABILIS

0|)era in New York and European Capitals— A Study in r Contrasts — The Cost of Opera at the Metropolitan —

CONTENTS xi

PAGE

Artistic Doings in the Season of 1909-10 — A Season at the New Theater — The Russian Dancers Pavlova and Mordkin — A Large Roster of Singers — Unfulfilled Promises — The Season's Novelties — Lortzing's " Czar und Zimmermann " — Paer's " Le Maxtre de Chapelle " — Vicissitudes of Gluck's " Orfeo " — Military Operas — Franchetti's " Germania " — Bruneau's " L'Attaque du Moulin " — Russian Operas in America — " Pique Dame " — Tschaikowsky and Mozart 132

Chapter VII POPULAR OPERA AT THE CENTURY THEATER

Production of an English Opera — " The Pipe of Desire " — A Versatile Predecessor of This Author — Importance of Operatic Texts — ^A Fantastic Opera — ^Jumbling of Mythological and Folklore Elements — English Opera at the Metropolitan — A Prize Competition — " Mona " — Early History of " Natoma " — Agitation Following the Contest — ^Action by the City Club — Plans for Popular Opera at the Century Theater — A Disastrous Experiment— A Study of Financial Results — The Systems of the Metropolitan and Century Companies Compared — Operatic Translations — The Training Needed by Singers and Composers — National Schools of Music — Musical Idioms — Need of a Forward Man as an Exemplar— Early American Operas 164

Chapter VIII

THE FIRST SEASON UNDER MR. GATTI- CASAZZA ALONE

Opera at the Metropolitan in 1910-11 — Reduction of Forces — Failure of an Affiliation with Chicago and Boston — Illness of Signer Caruso — Death of M. Gilibert — Gluck's "Armide"— The Ballets of LuUy and Gluck— Rousseau's Sarcasm — Visits of Puccini and Humperdinck— Production of Their New Operas— "La FanciuUa del West " — How Mr. Belasco Trained the Singers to Act — A Failure and Its Cause— " Konigskinder " — A " Suffragette " Opera — " Ariane et Barbe-Bleue "—How a Satire was Construed as a Plea for Woman's Suffrage 193

Chapter IX

A. VISIT FROM THE CHICAGO-PHILADELPHIA COMPANY

PAGE

Influences of Hammerstein at the Metropolitan — The Decay of French Opera — Hammerstein's Chicago Scheme — Philadelphia Brings Novelties to New York — " Natoma " — Some of Its Predecessors — A Century of American Opera — ^The Librettist's Poetry — " II Segreto di Susanna " — A German Opera Sung in Italian — " Quo Vadis ? " — Nero the Singer in Opera and History — Story of the Opera, and Comments 224

Chapter X NOVELTIES OF A SEASON AND A PRIZE OPERA

The Interesting Features of 1911-12 — Some Excellent Additions to the Metropolitan Forces — Thuille's " Lobetanz " — Characteristics of Matinee Audiences — Use of Wagnerian Materials — ^Thuille and His Music — Out-ofdoors Operatic Festivals — ^Wolf -Ferrari's " Le Donne Curiose " — A Visit from the Composer — Divided Allegiances, Racially and Musically — "I Giojelli della Madonna " — Visit from the Philadelphia Company — Massenet's " Cendrillon "—Cinderella as an Operatic Heroine — Blech's " Versiegelt " — A Diverting Comedy with Brass Ornaments — Production of the Prize Opera " Mona " — Want of Operatic Suitability in a Strong and Beautiful Dramatic Poem — The Province of Music in a Drama — Obstacles Placed by the Poet to Sympathy for His Heroine — Professor Parker's Music — Earlier Achievements of the Composer — Characterization by Means of Tonality — Themes as Musical Symbols— Monteverde's " Orfeo " 242

Chapter XI AN INCREASE IN TICKET PRICES AND A SCANDAL

The Cost of Seats at the Metropolitan Opera House Advanced— Reason Given in Explanation — Speculation in Theater Tickets in New York — Relation Between Managers and Speculators — Attitude of the Metropolitan Management — Agents Hypothecate Tickets Belonging to Subscribers — Criminal Proceedings Against an

Agent— Why They Were Not Prosecuted— Cost of Giving Opera in New York — Some Comparative Tables 267

Chapter XII ANOTHER EXPERIMENT WITH ENGLISH OPERA AND A GREAT RUSSIAN WORK

The Season of 1912-13 — Additions to the Metropolitan Company — Mabel Garrison, Melanie Kurt, Johannes Sembach, Luca Botta, and Arthur Middleton — Rostand's " Cyrano de Bergerac " Done Into an English Opera — Moussorgsky's " Boris Godounow " — A Visit from the Chicago CDpera Company Brings Novelties — Zandonai's " Conchita " and " Les Ranz . des Vaches," a German Version of Kienzl's " Kuhreigen " . . . 286

Chapter XIII A SEASON PROLIFIC IN INCIDENTS AND OPERAS

Operas Produced in 1913-14 — A Visit from the Chicago- Philadelphia Company — Death of Putnam Griswold — Strauss's " Der Rosenkavalier " — The Theatrical Value of Pruriency — Benelli's Poetical Drama " L'Amore dei tre Re " — Montemezzi's Music — Its Racial Character — Constructive Elements Borrowed from Russia — Signor Ferrari-Fontana — Lucrezia Bori — " Madeleine " — Light French Comedy and Heavy Music — " Don Quichotte " — Cervantes Travestied — Mary Garden and " Monna Vanna " — Charpentier's " Julien ''—An Abortive Sequel to " Louise " — A Comedy by Moliere Done Into a Delightful Opera— Wolf-Ferrari's "L'Amore Medico"— Death of Mme. Nordica 309

Chapter XIV THE YEARS OF THE NEUTRALITY OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE WAR

Reduction of Expenses Planned — Caruso and Farrar — Phenomenal Activity of the Company — New Singers and Their Debuts— The Season 1914-1S — New Operas— " Madame Sans-Gene "— " L'Oracolo " — " Euryanthe " — Weber and Wagner — The Latter's Debts to the Former — Departure of Alfred Hertz — His Record at the

Metropolitan — The Loss of Toscanini — Season of 191S- 16— Arrival of Mme. Barrientos — " Prince Igor " — " Goyescas " — Spanish Pianoforte Pieces Made Into an Opera — Fate of the Composer — A German Version of "The Taming of the Shrew "—1916-17— Unnatural Activity— " Les Pecheurs de Perles"— Its American History— Gluck's " Iphigenia auf Tauris "— " The Canterbury Pilgrims " — A Sporadic but Ideal Effort for American Art — The Society of American Singers — Mozart's " Bastien et Bastienne " and " The Impresario" . . 331

Chapter XV CONCERT MUSIC AND THE OPERA IN WAR-TIME

Gradual Change in Sentiment After the Outbreak of Hos- . tilities — Mr. Bodanzky — A Boycott Declared by Germany Against American Opera Houses — Engaging German Singers in the Olden Time — Draw-poker as an Emollient — First Demonstrations of Patriotic Feeling at the Metropolitan — The Question of Enemy Aliens in the Company — Hans Tauscher and His Wife Mme. Gadski — A Plea for Native Singers — Changes in the Concert-field — Foreign Artists — Kunwald and Muck Interned — A Tax on Entertainments — The Opera Prospectus for 1917-18 — Dismissal of German Singers — The Historical Narrative Resumed — A Visit from the Chicago Company — Its Novelties — " Isabeau " — " Azora " — "Le Sauteriot" — Mme. Galli-Curci — New Works at the Metropolitan — '" Marouf " — Saint Elizabeth " — "Lodoletta"— A Revival of " Le Prophete "— " Le Coq d'Or"—"Shanewis"— What of the Future? . . .376

Index 447

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

The Author Frontispiece

Frances Alda, in " Marouf " 400

Pasquale Amato, in "La Fanciulla del West" . . . 294

Pasquale Amato, as Cyrano de Bergerac 310

Maria Barrientos, as Lakm^ 350

Artur Bodansky, Conductor at the Metropolitan Opera

House 378

LUCREZIA BORI, IN "L'AmORE DEI TRE Re " 318

Sophie Braslau, as Shanewis 412

Charles Wakefield Cadman, Composer of " Shanewis " . 392

Enrico Caruso, as Julien 326

Enrico Caruso, in " Samson et Dalila " 330

Enrico Caruso, in " Les PficHEURS de Perles " . . . . 362

Giuseppe de Luca, in " Marouf " 400

Emmy Destinn 40

Emmy Desxinn, in "Die Verkaufte Braut" .... 40

Adamo Didur, in "Boris Godounow" 296

Andreas Dippel 32

Emma Eames, as Juliet 66

Florence Easton, in " Saint Elizabeth " 404

GeRALDINE FaRRAR, in " KONIGSKINDER " 214

Amelita Galli-Curci, of the Chicago Opera Company . 344

RosiNA Galli, in "Le Coq d'Or" 410

Giulio Gatti-Casazza, General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera Company 22

Madame Gerville-Reache, in "Elektra" 118

Charles Gilibert 196

Alma Gluck, as the Blessed Shade in " Orteo " . . .144

Oscar Hammerstein's London Opera House .... 82

XV xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACIHQ PAGE

Frieda Hempel, in "Der Rosenkavalier ' 310

William J. Henderson, LiBitETTiST of " Cyrano de Bergerac " 288

Louise Homer, in "Mona" . . 262

Otto H. Kahn, Managing Director of the Metropolitan

Melanie Kurt, in " Fidelio " 392

Madame Mazarin, in "Elektra" . 118

Italo Montemezzi, Composer of "L'Amore dei tre Re" . . 314 Roberto Moranzoni, Conductor at the Metropolitan Opera

Margarete Ober, in " Der Rosenkavalier " . . . . 310

Horatio W. Parker, Composer of " Mona " 256

GiACOMO Puccini .... 204

Henri Rabaud, Composer of " Marouf " 398

Rosa Raisa, of the Chicago Opera Company, as Aida . . 394

Leon Rothier, in " Boris Godounow " . ... 296

Clarence Whitehill, as Escamillo in " Carmen " . . . 140

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari 234

Chapter I Introductory Observations

WHY THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN— EFFECT OF THE WORLD WAR UPON OPERATIC CONDITIONS—A NEW ERA PREDICTED— TEN YEARS OF UNPARALLELED ACTIVITY— THE INCIDENTS MAR- SHALED—A FRIVOLOUS ATTITUDE OF THE NEWSPAPERS AR- RAIGNED—NEW YORK TODAY AND LONDON TWO CENTURIES AGO— THE CULT OF THE PRIMA DONNA— CRITICISM DE- FENDED—A CRITIC'S DUTY TO ART, HIS CONSCIENCE, AND HIS TIME— PERMANENCY IN ARTISTIC PRINCIPLES

When, in the winter months of 1910, I gathered together for book-binder's boards the " Chapters of Opera " which had been published in The Tribune during the preceding summer, I sought to justify my historical excursion by the Statement that the Metropolitan Opera House, having completed an existence of twenty-five years, was about to enter upon a new regime. The close of the operatic year 1917-18 witnessed no change in management in the institution, but more markedly than its predecessor of the decade before it closed a distinctive era and presaged a change of artistic policy. This change was due to causes vastly different from those which had conspired to bring about the earlier reform, if such it was. The United States had become embroiled in the European war. During three years of the awful conflict, the period of American neutrality, our opera pursued the even tenor of its way without grave concern or great alteration of its aims and methods. Neither did it suffer a loss of prosperity. Its patrons were affluent and their emotions had not been aroused, or if aroused had not been directed against any phase of artistic manifestation. No popular prejudice had been awakened against German

2 THE DAWN OF A NEW DISPENSATION

music or German musicians. The autumn of 1917, however, witnessed a sudden revolution in this complacent attitude. Incidents in which the Opera was but slightly concerned gave proof that the people who had begun the war had become hateful to the American people and with them their language and their art. To this hatred, which I can not condemn and shall not condone, the directors of the Opera had to give heed unless they wished to have their artistic institution come toppling about their heads. They proceeded gradually and somewhat grudgingly to prepare for a new operatic dispensation whose coming in the season of 1918-19 marked an era at once new and momentous. What it was to bring forth lay on the knees of the gods; but it was obvious to the student of our operatic activities in the past that the institution would have to deal with new forces, new predilections, and possibly be compelled to create new fashions, tastes, and ideals.

It appears, then, that the time was come when the history of opera in New York ought again to be brought down to date. The ten years which have elapsed since I subjected the doings at our local institutions to historical review and critical study were filled wth the most amazing incidents that the annals of the lyric drama have ever recorded in New York or any city of the world. Summing up the record of the preceding quarter of a century I wrote in the summer of 1908:

I have seen the failure of the artistic policy to promote which the magnificent theater was built ; the revolution of the stockholders under the leadership of Dr. Leopold Damrosch ; the progress of a German regime which did much to develop tastes and create ideals which, till its coming, were little known quantities in American art and life; the overthrow of that regime in obedience to the conmands of fashion ; the subsequent dawn and development of the liberal and comprehensive policy which marked the climax of the career of Maurice Grau as an operatic manager. I have witnessed since then many of the fruits of wise endeavor and astute management frittered away by managerial incapacity and greed, and fad

INCIDENTS IN METROPOLITAN HISTORY 3

and fashion come to rule again where, for a brief but eventful period, serious artistic interest and endeavor had been dominant.

In these words I can not but think there lay a formidable indictment of the Metropolitan management; but the artistic sins of commission and omission of the first twenty-five years were petty peccadillos compared with the follies and scandals which marked the beginning of the lustrum which followed ; while in the decade which has passed into history since were grouped such a series of incidents as is contained in no volume of operatic history ever written. There were things admirable and things deplorable in these new occurrences, and whether admirable or deplorable they deserve as much permanency of record as can be gained for them by incorporation in a book.

Among the most noteworthy incidents were the conclusion of the administration of Mr. Heinrich Conried, which was followed by disclosures that brought the business as well as the artistic management of the lessees of the Metropolitan Opera House under popular suspicion ; the death of Mr. Conried and the advent of Mr. Gatti-Casazza as General Manager of the opera company which had taken up the enterprise of the Maurice Grau Company; the conflict of authority between Mr. Gatti and Mr. Andreas Dippel, whom the directors of the new company had associated with him under the title of Administrative Manager; the rivalry between the Metropolitan Opera Company and Mr. Oscar Hammerstein, who on his personal responsibility had conducted an interesting and significant operatic venture during the two preceding seasons at the Manhattan Opera House in West Thirty-fourth Street; the ending of the absurd rivalry by the purchased retirement of Mr. Hammerstein and his abortive effort to violate the contract and renew the rivalry in a new theater in Lexington Avenue; the retirement from the operatic stage of Mme. Marcella Sembrich and the magnificent demonstrations made in her honor ; the

4 THE AUTHOR'S PURPOSE DEFINED

building of the New Theater as a kind of artistic annex to the Metropolitan Opera House; the failure of efforts to habilitate a high type of comic opera as well as grand opera in the vernacular in that beautiful establishment and its reversion to the uses of the modern commercialized drama against which it was conceived as a protest ; the competition instituted by the directors of the Metropolitan Opera Company for an original English opera which resulted in the production of Professor Parker's " Mona " ; the effect of the European war on the repertory and personnel of the Metropolitan Opera House, culminating in the banishment of the German language from its performances.

That the memory of occurrences of such moment ought to be preserved will scarcely be called into question, though the ability and the methods of the historian will offer a fair subject of controversy. I am aware that I shall not escape the accusation of being an idle, if not a malicious gossip, disposed to chronicle small beer if I set down the narrative of some of the things here catalogued and accompany it with critical comment on the doings of managers and artists as well as the operas which were added to the repertory during the period passing under review. Yet I shall adhere to my purpose for several reasons which I believe to be valid. The historical record is to be a continuation of that contained in the " Chapters of Opera " alluded to in the beginning of this introductory essay. It is therefore proper that in a general way at least the manner of those chapters should be followed. The pertinency of interspersed criticism I shall defend presently on the ground that it is essential to an understanding of the relationship between artistic strivings and achievements, between the protestations of managers and their acts. To an understanding also of the extent to which the managers pandered to tastes which the frivolous attitude of the newspapers encouraged, besides the hero-worship stimulated by managers, artists, and the

FRIVOLOUS ATTITUDE OF THE PRESS 5

press alike to such an extent that it worked an estoppal to the creation of a hberal and permanent repertory.

A history of opera during the last ten years would serve little purpose if it did not truthfully set forth the things which shall enable the readers of today, and haply of a future day, to visualize a picture of the social and artistic conditions which prevailed in New York at the end of the first decade of the twentieth century. The picture is presented, though in a diffused state, in those contemporaneous chronicles of the times, the newspapers; and these are in nothing more truthful than in their reflection of the frivolity and folly which obtained then and have endured ever since. This I say with a heavy heart and without the slightest desire to extenuate or defend the profession to which I belong. During the period of which I am writing, even in journals of dignity and scholarly repute the gossip of the foyer and the dressing-rooms of the chorus and ballet stood in higher esteem with the news editors than the comments of conscientious critics. The picture of a comic opera woman or a dancing doll whose sole charm centered in a pretty face or a shapely leg was given more prominence than the judicious discussion by a trained and scholarly critic of the performance of an artist who was one in a hundred thousand; and the chatter of a Mary Garden or Geraldine Farrar about her religion or irreligion, the antithesis of marriage and the artistic temperament, or her taste in dress or undress was editorially viewed as of more consequence than a critical discussion of the new score of a world-renowned composer. And so it came about that no matter how sternly their critics held themselves aloof from the intrigues of the theaters, no matter how punctiliously the reviews confined themselves to the artistic side of the performances and eschewed the internal and private affairs of the managers, the newspapers in their editorial and news columns discoursed upon the wisdom and unwisdom of contracts made or not made, of the bestowal or withholding of

6 THE NEWSPAPERS AND THE PUBLIC

roles from singers whose press agents kept them in e public eye, of honoraria alleged to be paid and remuneration alleged to be deserved. In one case there was a quarrel between two singers for the exclusive privilege of appearing in a role whose chief attraction was the chance which it offered for the woman to appear in a costume approaching nearer than any in the operatic wardrobe to that worn by Eve before the fall or Phryne before the court of the heliasts. Here editorial championship went so far that it provoked fisticuffs between journalists and managers not only in the public highway but within the dignified precincts of a court of justice.

And all for nothing.

For Hecuba!

What was Thais to the pressmen or they to Thais, that they should have fought for her ?

I am familiar with the journalistic axiom that a newspaper is what the public want it to be. The axiom at the best is little better than a half-truth. In politics, civic morals, literature, and every form of art, except that associated with the theater, newspapers strive to impress their conceptions of right and beauty upon their readers. They do not enter the lists in behalf of bad painters or devote columns of description to their daubs; they do not encourage men to spoil good marble or bronze when they might be carving decent gateposts; they do not seek out illiterate rhymsters and fill columns with their verses. But they play the role of stage-door Johnnies to the thousand and one " movie " actresses and comic opera chorus girls who keep publicity agents in their employ. If in this they reflect the taste of their readers, it is a taste which they have instilled and cultivated, for it did not exist before the days of photo-engraving, illustrated supplements, and press agents. Popular interest of an acute and incomprehensible kind we know has always followed the great people of the

POPULAR INTEREST IN STAGE PERFORMERS 7

lyric stage ; but never as now (assuming that the newspapers are faithful mirrors) the groundlings. Popular infatuation with stage-people of all kinds is probably as old as the stage itself. No doubt the people of ancient Rome split themselves into parties and quarreled about the merits of gladiators, singers, flautists, kitharists, and dancers two thousand years ago. The phenomenon, inasmuch as it marked the operatic history of the decade of which I am writing, more_ emphatically than any period within a generation is deserving of study. There can be no opera without prima donnas and, it would seem, no prima donnas without jealousies, squabbles, and rancor. An entertaining and diverting chapter illustrating the truism may be extracted from the history of Italian opera in London. The coming of the prima donna (the Italian lady, of course) had to wait upon the introduction of Italian opera, and so none of the great singers of the seventeenth century who were identified with the first hundred years of the lyric drama were heard in England. Scarcely had the first of the tuneful tribe appeared across the Channel, however, before there arose the rivalries and scandals which have made up a large part of the prima donna's history ever since. The first of record was Margarita de I'Epine ; but she sang only in Italian and in concerts and did not get an opportunity in opera until Buononcini's " Almahide " came and provided Addison with a chance to air his delightful wit at the expense of the new style of entertainment and the public that aflfected to like it. By that time, too, the lady already had an English rival in Mrs. Tofts, whose early success disclosed the innate character of operatic partisans — for her champions hooted and hissed the Italian woman when she sang in Drury Lane in 1740. Knights of the quill, who in that age delighted in satire, carried the warfare into the public prints, and we have preserved for us specimens of the gentle art of satirists who, when they were unable to find fault with the singing of their victims, did not hesitate to descant upon their real

8 PRAISE AND ABUSE OF PRIMA DONNAS

or supposed moral imperfections. It was Swift who in his " Journal to Stella " spoke of the Italian lady as " Margarita and her sister and another drab, and a parcel of fiddlers at Windsor " ; while an unnamed scribbler, addressing Mrs. Tofts, wrote:

So bright is thy beauty, so charming thy song.

That it draws both the beasts and their Orpheus along;

But such is thy av'rice and such is thy pride,

That the beasts must have starved and the poet have died.

If one were disposed to look a bit curiously into the rivalries between prima donnas in the eighteenth century and the social feuds to which they gave rise, it would not be very difficult, I fancy, to trace many parallels between London then and New York in 1909. There was a party two centuries ago that espoused the cause of the native English singer against the foreigner and rebuked the public for affecting to like foreign art and foreign artists simply because they were foreign. There was such a party eighty - five years ago in New York (I am writing in the summer of 1918), when the first Italian opera house was built, and there is such a party now. When the great Cuzzoni and Faustina came to London to dispute the popularity of such English singers as Mrs. Tofts, Anastasia Robinson, and Lavinia Fenton, Henry Carey, comparing the second of the English ladies with Cuzzoni, wrote :

With better voice and fifty times her skill, Poor Robinson is always treated ill; But such is the good nature of the town 'Tis now the mode to cry the English down.

Did we not hear something in like key in 1914 when Mme. Fremstad failed to get a re-engagement at the Metropolitan and it was rumored that Miss Farrar was also going? Dire disaster threatened our opera then in the imagination of some fanatical admirers of these two ladies,

HOW POPULAR FAVORITES COME AND GO 5

but four seasons in some of which the former singer remained wholly and the latter partly away have passed since then and not a brick was displaced in the edifice of homely exterior in upper Broadway. Catastrophes are always impending but never befall. Since I was honored by the invitation which made me a member of the editorial staff of The New York Tribune toward the end of 1880, 1 have seen singers come and go in New York and watched the opera as it weathered many a crisis. I never inquired into the motives of a manager in engaging or neglecting to engage a singer. It was none of my business. I have observed the departure of scores of popular favorites and the coming of as many more artists to take their places. Patti and Nilsson and Gerster went, but Sembrich and Melba came. Nordica and Eames were followed by Farrar and Fremstad and other idols. Materna went, but Lehmann more then took her place. The echoes of Brignoli's silver tones had scarcely died away before Campanini's magnificent voice rang through the old Academy of Music. Jean de Reszke went from us and deep gloom settled upon the Metropolitan, but only to be dispelled by the sun of Caruso. The opera did not collapse when twice Caruso departed from New York before the end of the season. Loss and compensation; — it is Nature's law.

It has been disclosed that criticism will have a part in the historical account which is to follow. The reasons for this have also been set forth. Chastisement will not be its purpose, but, if possible, enlightenment. Should it be said that criticism is ephemeral and therefore valueless I shall not be disturbed in mind. It may at least help to an understanding of the picture which I shall strive to present in the narrative. To the objection constantly urged against musical criticism that progress in the art has uniformly disclosed its fallacy, since one generation of men frequently accepts what a preceding generation has rejected, I reply that no man has a right to an opinion in a question of art who is