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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
by
HENRY EDWARD KREHBIEL
Musical Editor of "The New York Tribune";
Author of "How To Listen To Music,"
"Studies In The Wagnerian Drama,"
"Music And Manners In The Classical Period,"
"The Philharmonic Society Of New York," etc., etc.
To MARIE—WIFE
and
DAUGHTER HELEN
Who have shared with the Author many of the
Experiences described in this book.
"Joy shared is Joy doubled."
—GOETHE.
PREFACE
The making of this book was prompted by the fact that with the season1907-08 the Metropolitan Opera House in New York completed an existenceof twenty-five years. Through all this period at public representationsI have occupied stall D-15 on the ground floor as reviewer of musicalaffairs for The New York Tribune newspaper. I have, therefore, been awitness of the vicissitudes through which the institution has passedin a quarter-century, and a chronicler of all significant musicalthings which were done within its walls. I have seen the failure ofthe artistic policy to promote which the magnificent theater was built;the revolution accomplished by the stockholders under the leadershipof Leopold Damrosch; the progress of a German régime, which did muchto develop tastes and create ideals which, till its coming, werelittle-known quantities in American art and life; the overthrow of thatrégime in obedience to the command of fashion; the subsequent dawn anddevelopment of the liberal and comprehensive policy which marked theclimax of the career of Maurice Grau as an operatic director, I havewitnessed since then, many of the fruits of wise endeavor and astutemanagement frittered away by managerial incapacity and greed, and fadand fashion come to rule again, where for a brief, but eventful period,serious artistic interest and endeavor had been dominant.
The institution will enter upon a new régime with the season 1908-09.The time, therefore, seemed fitting for a review of the twenty-fiveyears that are past. The incidents of this period are fixed; theymay be variously viewed, but they cannot be changed. They belong tohistory, and to a presentation of that history I have devoted mostof the pages which follow. I have been actuated in my work by deepseriousness of purpose, and have tried to avoid everything whichcould not make for intellectual profit, or, at least, amiable andilluminative entertainment.
The chapters which precede the more or less detailed history of theMetropolitan Opera House (I-VII) were written for the sake of thelight which they shed on existing institutions and conditions, and toillustrate the development of existing taste, appreciation, and interesttouching the lyrical drama. To the same end much consideration has beenpaid to significant doings outside the Metropolitan Opera House sinceit has been the chief domicile of grand opera in New York. Especialattention has been given for obvious reasons to the two seasons ofopera at Mr. Hammerstein's Manhattan Opera House.
H. E. KREHBIEL.
Blue Hill, Maine, the Summer of 1908.