Article on opera’s challenges in New York City

“It’s surprising that opera, this year, sustains itself almost everywhere except in New York. They’ve objected by explaining Maretzek’s lack of success at the Academy, the relative incapacity of his company. This same troupe is applauded 40 leagues from here [in Philadelphia]. The truth is that M. Maretzek, in past years, spoiled his audience. We’ve had companies here composed the way they weren’t in Europe. It was difficult to maintain that level of excellence at the Academy without support, and with the so-heavy charges that the stockholders of the theater, a bit anxious about encouraging the arts, bring to bear upon the undertaking.

In Europe, the public isn’t any happier than in New York. Great singers are lacking everywhere. It’s easy to convince yourself [of that] when you see Mlle Harris, who was in the third rank here, occupying the second in Paris and the first in Madrid. Who doesn’t remember the tenor Mazzoleni, who screamed instead of singing, who often screamed out of tune, who acted like a desperado and whose voice had the timbre of a baritone? Well, M. Mazzoleni is engaged at the Grand Opera of Paris, at the rate of one hundred thousand francs per year, and furthermore he’s announced as a marvel. For the honor of good taste, the Parisian audience will cast a little frost on the premature enthusiasm of the Opera’s director, but the truth is that there aren’t any more tenors in Paris, no more than elsewhere. We’ll find them again, doubtless, if composers would agree to write in a manner that fits better with the nature of the human voice, but that question would carry us too far away.”