Article on the absence of a German opera season

“No German opera it seems!  According to the [N.Y. Weekly] Review, Mr. Grover, as well as Mr Grau, has given up the idea of operatic performances next season.  The Review says: With less regret we miss the German opera, as it would have been incomplete, a regular torso, and would have tended more to injure art than to help it.  Mr. Grover had received the most brilliant propositions for engagements from European artists of high reputation, but he preferred to stick to his cheap opera troupe, and therefore we could not have expected anything worth hearing from his singers.  It is well that the public is spared hearing mutilated operas, the performances of which would have almost made the dead composers turn in their graves.  The German singers now in this country will probably form flying corps, and roam through the States of the Union.  It cannot be doubted that a good German opera troupe possesses all the elements of vitality and success in America, if the management is at the same time an artistic and liberal one, and if discipline is maintained among the singers; but it was easier for Daniel to get along with the wild beasts whose cheerful company he had to enjoy, than for a manager to quell the continuous rioting and disturbances of a German troupe. 

Doubtless there is some reason in this; nevertheless such operas as Mr Grover did give here in Boston repeatedly—such performances of Fidelio, Der Freyschütz, La Dame Blanc, &c.,--was a great gain to the cause of good music compared with anything we get now a days from the Italian troupes.  Must it be left wholly to the Italians?”