Maretzek Italian Opera: La traviata

     “Four performances were given at the Academy, last week, including a matinée on Saturday. The weather was unfavorable on the last-mentioned occasion, and the house suffered in consequence. An accident of this kind ought to be a slight matter, but where the balance between profit and loss is so finely adjusted, it is apt to be a very serious affair. It is probably that owing to it Mr. Maretzek has lost all the profits of his week’s labor. The conditions of operatic management are indeed hard, and no wonder that failure is so often the reward of those who undertake it. At our low prices of admission a single night of bad weather leaves a deficit that can hardly be recovered in a couple of crowded performances, and yet whilst we clamor for a good company, such as we now have, and grumble at any necessary economy that may be imposed on the management, we hesitate to acknowledge that it is essential to the maintenance of an art institution that the prices should be raised to an approximation of the European standard. How Mr. Maretzek will contrive when he brings out new operas—and two are already in preparation, one by Petrella, called ‘The Last days of Pompeii,’ and the other by Mr. W. H. Fry, called ‘Esmeralda’—is more than we can imagine.”