Chapters of Opera Being historical and critical observations and records concerning the lyric drama in New York from its earliest days down to the present time

The prospectus which Mr. Hammerstein published for his second season was magnificently grandiloquent in its promises, but the season itself marvelous in its achievements. Eight...

A visit from Engelbert Humperdinck to attend the first German performance of his "Hänsel und Gretel" on November 25th, a strike of the chorus which lasted three days, a revival...

In marshaling, in the preceding chapter, the chief incidents of the period with which I am now concerned I set down the restoration of German performances at the Metropolitan Op...

There now remained four years of Mr. Grau's administration at the Metropolitan Opera House. They were years of great activity, during which the fortunes of the manager and the i...

For the reasons set forth at the close of the last chapter there was no opera at the Metropolitan Opera House in the season of 1892-93, but the fall of the latter year witnessed...

In this chapter I purpose to tell the story of a period of three years, from 1887 to 1890, and in order to cover the ground I shall leave out what appertains to the repetition o...

The incidents of the early history of the Metropolitan Opera House come to me in such multitude that I find it difficult to apportion seasons and chapters in this record. Later,...

Twenty-five years ago there was no opera in the current repertory comparable in popularity with "Faust." If I am told that neither is there to-day I shall neither gainsay my inf...

After German opera began at the Metropolitan Opera House it endured seven years. It was only at the outset that it had the opposition of what had been the established régime of...

"His wit was not so sharp as his chin, and so his career was not so long as his nose," says Richard Grant White of the impresario who, ten years after the failure of the Italian...

The season of 1890-91 was full of incidents, some exciting, some amusing, but they were all dwarfed by the announcement which came in the middle of January that the directors of...

A prologue dealing with other things may with propriety accompany this chapter, which is concerned with the history of the Metropolitan Opera House under the administration of M...

The season 1885-86 witnessed the collapse of the Italian opposition at the Academy of Music, but also the rise of an institution in its place, which, had it commanded a higher o...

Schoeffel, and Grau in 1897. Before the end of that season Mr. Grau announced, what had frequently been hinted at in the newspapers, that though he should obtain a lease of the...

The figures which I have printed showing a loss to the stockholders of the Metropolitan Opera House on opera account year after year during the German period, do not tell the wh...

The beginnings of Italian opera in America are intimately associated with two men who form an interesting link connecting the music of the Old World with that of the New. These...

Considering the present state of Italian opera in New York City (I am writing in the year of our Lord 1908), it seems more than a little strange that its entire history should c...

The first opera house built in New York City opened its doors on November 18, 1833, and was the home of Italian Opera for two seasons; the second, built eleven years later, endu...

Of the operatic managers of fifty years ago Max Maretzek was the only one with whom I was personally acquainted, and it was not until near the close of his career that he swam i...

Colonel Mapleson and the stockholders of the Academy of Music and their friends were little disposed to yield to the new order of things without a struggle. The Academy was refu...

Fifty-one years ago the center of operatic activity had shifted to the Academy of Music, at Fourteenth Street and Irving Place, and there it remained until the Metropolitan Oper...

Memories are crowding upon me, and I find there is much still to be said about the Academy of Music, and the operatic folk whom it housed between 1854 and 1886. Just now the inc...

Before the close of the season 1905-06 at the Metropolitan Opera House, Mr. Oscar Hammerstein, who was building a large theater in Thirty-fourth Street, between Eighth and Ninth...

Not the chronicler of musical doings but the historian of society should discuss the genesis of the Metropolitan Opera House, which came twenty-five years ago to displace the Ac...

From 1896 to the end of the season 1902-03 Maurice Grau was in name as well as in fact the monarch of the operatic world of America. For a brief space he also extended his reign...

More Opera Houses Palmo's and the Astor Place Signora Borghese and the Distressful Vocal Wabble Antognini and Cinti-Damoreau An Orchestral Strike Advent of the Patti Family Don...

Second and Third German Seasons The Period 1885-1888 More about Lilli Lehmann Goldmark's "Queen of Sheba" First Performance of Wagner's "Meistersinger" Patti in Concert and Oper...

The Public Clamor for German Opera Oscar Hammerstein and His First Manhattan Opera House Rivalry between Anton Seidl and Walter Damrosch The Latter's Career as Manager Wagner Tr...

The Introduction of Italian Opera in New York English Ballad Operas and Adaptations from French and Italian Works Hallam's Comedians and "The Beggar's Opera" The John Street The...

The Season 1885-1886 End of the Mapleson Régime at the Academy of Music Alma Fohström The American Opera Company German Opera in the Bowery A Tenor Who Wanted to be Manager of t...

Hammerstein's Second Season Amazing Promises but More Amazing Achievements Mary Garden and Maurice Renaud Massenet's "Thaïs," Charpentier's "Louise" Giordano's "Siberia" and Deb...

The Season 1883-1884 at the Academy of Music Lillian Nordica's American Début German Opera Introduced at the Metropolitan Opera House Parlous State of Italian Opera in London an...

Oscar Hammerstein Builds a Second Manhattan Opera House How the Manager Put His Doubters to Shame His Earlier Experiences as Impresario Cleofonte Campanini A Zealous Artistic Di...

Operatic Warfare Half a Century Ago The Academy of Music and Its Misfortunes A Critic's Opera and His Ideals A Roster of American Singers Grisi and Mario Annie Louise Cary Ole B...

The Season 1891-1892 Losses of the Stockholders of the Metropolitan Opera House Company Return to Italian Opera Mr. Abbey's Expectations Sickness of Lilli Lehmann The De Reszke...

An Interregnum Changes in the Management Rise and Fall of Abbey, Schoeffel, and Grau Death of Henry E. Abbey His Career Season 1893-1894 Nellie Melba Emma Calvé Bourbonism of th...

Wagnerian High Tide at the Metropolitan Opera House 1887-1890 Italian Low Water Elsewhere Rising of the Opposition Wagner's "Siegfried" Its Unconventionality "Götterdämmerung" "...

Of the Building of Opera Houses A Study of Influences The First Italian Opera House in New York Early Impresarios and Singers Da Ponte, Montressor, Rivafinoli Signorina Pedrotti...

Closing Years of Mr. Grau's Régime Traits in the Manager's Character Débuts of Alvarez, Scotti, Louise Homer, Lucienne Bréval and Other Singers Ternina and "Tosca" Reyer's "Sala...

Beginning of the Grau Period Death of Maurice Grau His Managerial Career An Interregnum at the Metropolitan Opera House Filled by Damrosch and Ellis Death of Anton Seidl His Fun...

The Academy's Successful Rival Why It Was Built The Demands of Fashion Description of the Theater War between the Metropolitan and the Academy of Music Mapleson and Abbey The Ri...

End of the German Period 1890-1891 Some Extraordinary Novelties Franchetti's "Asrael" "Der Vasall von Szigeth" A Royal Composer, His Opera and His Distribution of Decorations "D...

Conried's Administration Concluded 1905-1908 Visits from Humperdinck and Puccini The California Earthquake Madame Sembrich's Generosity to the Suffering Musicians "Madama Butter...

Colonel James H. Mapleson A Diplomatic Manager His Persuasiveness How He Borrowed Money from an Irate Creditor Maurice Strakosch Musical Managers Pollini Sofia Scalchi and Annie...

First German Season Death Struggles of Italian Opera at the Academy Adelina Patti and Her Art Features of the German Performances "Tannhäuser" Marianne Brandt in Beethoven's Ope...

Beginning of the Administration of Heinrich Conried Season 1903-1904 Mascagni's American Fiasco "Iris" and "Zanetto" Woful Consequences of Depreciating American Conditions Mr. C...

The First Season at the Metropolitan Opera House Mr. Abbey's Singers Gounod's "Faust" and Christine Nilsson Marcella Sembrich and Her Versatility Sofia Scalchi Signor Kaschmann...

Manuel del Popolo Vicente Garcia "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" Signorina Maria Garcia's Unfortunate Marriage Lorenzo da Ponte His Hebraic Origin and Checkered Career "Don Giovanni"...

Max Maretzek His Managerial Career Some Anecdotes "Crotchets and Quavers" His Rivals and Some of His Singers Bernard Ullmann Marty Again Bottesini and Arditi Steffanone Bosio Te...