Articles on the closing of Bateman’s French opera season and the fate of the French Theatre

Prints a letter to Bateman (which was published in multiple newspapers) and his response:  

“New-York, 20 April. M. H. L. Bateman, Esq., Director of the French comic opera.

Dear Sir—We see, by the notice inserted in the newspapers, that the French Theatre season is moving toward its end;—a season during which you have made us enjoy a genre of performance that is new here and most refined, and that has been marked, with justice, by unprecedented success.

For many years, your energetic and enterprising spirit has taken care to provide us with the most up-to-date innovations in the area of entertainment, and the American audience is indebted to you to have given it the first occasion to enjoy French comic opera, with the decorations, elite artists and perfection of interpretation that distinguish the Parisian theaters. In recognition of your energy and ability, and as a mark of our personal esteem, permit us to offer you a Testimonial Benefit, the day and place [to be] at your convenience.

            Your very devoted,

William Butler Duncan, Leonard W. Jerome, Clarence S. Brown, Maj. General Daniel E. Sickles, C. Godfrey Gunther, James Gordon Bennett, Jr., Samuel L.M. Barlow, Benjamin Wood, Maj.-Gen. A. Pleasanton, B.H. Huthon, F.A. Bruguiere, H.B. Routh, B. von Hoffman, D.P. Sellar, I. Iselin, Ad. Schneely, A.J. Macomb, J.H. Reed, Theodore Gentil, George Wilkes, hon. John Kelly, Douglas Taylor, H>M> Braene, J.E. Alexander, William A. Seaver, E. Oppenheim, J.W. Corleis, S.A. Page, Thomas Boese, George D.H. Gillespie, Charles Lasalle, O.W. Davis, D. Kingsland, L. Delmonico, E.L. Corleis, Steinway and Sons, Isaac Bell, S.P. Duncan, J.M. Hildreth, DeGrasse Livingston, A.L. Robertson, S. Van Schaik, H.P. Duncan, J.M. Renshaw, J.W. Harnet, John Oakman, George H. Groadhead, Chickering and sons, Benjamin Hart, Hiram Cranston, John Brougham, Albert Weber, C. Harvier, Henry Wilder Allen, Richard Schell, Henry E. Worcester, M.B. Brady, James Bryce, L.F. Harrison & Company, A. Gunzburg, and others.

Mr. Bateman has replied:

New York, 24 April

Sirs, in acknowledging receipt of your letter of the 20^th current, permit me to thank you for the complimentary sentiments it expressed [that are] addressed to me.

I accept with gratitude the benefit performance that you offer me, and I express the opinion that the evening of 2 May and the Academy of Music are the day and place that it would be suitable to choose.

            In highly appreciating your courtesy, I am, etc.,

H. L. Bateman”

The reviewer adds: “Our population, whose national theater M. Bateman has revived with such brilliance, can’t fail to come together at the homage and the manifestation for which the signatories of the above letter have taken the initiative.”

“We know that M. Bateman has refused to rent the French Theater: we believe that he has done a good thing, and we wish that M. Grau would make it brilliant. The conditions of the rental are horribly burdensome. The rent, without counting the little endowments of the stockholders, is from $22,000 per year. The tenants pledge to make, for $15,000, repairs to rebuild the façade, etc. They have to give forty-five dramatic performances per year; we rejoice in the number, but that genre ‘doesn’t pay,’ as they say here, and the public always runs by preference to the opera comique or operetta, or whatever. The directors regard these forty-five performances in advance as sacrifices. If, in spite of so many expenses, M. Grau has rented the theater, it’s because he has his plan, and he’s able enough to make it succeed. We wish him all possible success.

M. Bateman will probably rent the Olympic.”

“After a long and prosperous reign the sceptre of the French theatre departs from Bateman, and the irrepressible Grau again mounts the throne. The kings of Greece and l’homme à la pomme himself are indignant that the charms of ‘La Belle Hélène’ were not potent enough for the unimpressionable trustee who represents the mid-mannered and inoffensive stockholders. Le bouillant Achille threatens to crush with his heel the bank whereon Sherman and Duncan flourish, and Calchas invokes the thunder of Olympus on the daring offenders’ heads. On Saturday next the army of ‘La Grande Duchesse,’ with Bateman and the kings of Greece at their head, and Birgfeld, like a second Marshal Ney, bringing up the rear, will retreat from Sixth avenue and evacuate the stronghold in which they so long maintained themselves, to the discomfiture of every other opera troupe. It is not definitely known whether they will make any attempt to spike the guns of the establishment in their retreat. The first halting place of the Offenbachian army will be at the Academy, but, fortunately for them, their stay will be ‘for one night only.’ The circumstances which led to this revolution at the French theatre are amusing and interesting. King Duncan was elected chief of the establishment. His eloquent description of it is well known:—

            This castle hath a pleasant seat: the air

            Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself

            Unto our gentle senses.

This gentle prince appointed a viceroy in the person of the gentle Grau, who again delegated his powers to the bouillant Bateman. The momentous period arrived when those powers were to be renewed for the space of five years, at the annual tribute of twenty-two thousand one hundred dollars. A council of war was held at Delmonico’s by King Duncan and his court, the result of which was that the irrepressible Grau became once more ‘Thane of Cawdor’ and manager of the disputed theatre. The wrath of the bouillant Achille was terrible to behold; but the inexorable decree had gone forth, and the days of Tostée and her merry attendants were numbered. The question now is, where shall they go? Can it be that they shall range themselves under the banner of that fierce looking Academy drum major who has led so many gallant opera companies to ruin? Let them beware of the fate of the dozen impresarii, and especially the poor cynocephalus, whose remains are interred beneath the shadow of that Upas-like building. The one hundred and ninety-nine and a half stockholders, including the General Boum, who represents them by the fraction, would prove worse to those enfants perdus than King Duncan and his amiable constituency. The latter suffered them to depart in peace, with all their baggage and munitions of war; but once in the power of the Academy drum major, and there is no hope for them. In the meantime Ristori succeeds Tostée at the French theatre, and the melancholy history of ‘Sor Teresa’ replaces the rattling dialogue and music of ‘La Belle Hélène.’ Saturday night will be a remarkable episode in the history of the Academy. It is whispered around that there will be several features introduced during the performance besides what the bill states. The cancan, it is expected, will be danced byu the one hundred and ninety-nine and a half stockholders, and the drum major will sing, ‘Piff, paf, pouf! tara [sic], para, poum!’ An incantation scene, in which the ghosts of departed managers and voices will appear, the central figure being, the cynocephalus, surrounded by red fire, will be the grand finale of the performance. Altogether it will be an interesting reunion of the past and present of opera in the Academy, and may be productive of happy results.”