Article on raising the standard of excellence in opera in New York

“The new regime of Italian opera is not without the usual difficulties and shortcomings. It has given us one transcendent artist in Pauline Lucca, and, on the whole, a fair ensemble of artistic merit, besides some improvement in scenery, the choruses and the orchestra; but we shall not be satisfied till the opera is raised to the same standard of excellence in all respects that it has reached in the first capitals of Europe. Our people are willing and able to pay for that. This has been shown in the liberal support they gave to opera during the last season, when Nilsson was the star, and the season that has just commenced, with Lucca as the great attraction. Admitting that we have not so many first or even second rate artists to draw from as they have in London, Paris, Berlin or St. Petersburg; that there is considerable difficulty in inducing such artists to cross the Atlantic, and that when tempted to come it is only by managers paying them extravagantly for their services, still there are valuable and attractive auxiliaries to operatic performances that may be obtained at not so great a cost. The orchestra, for example, could be made better and the choruses be improved. In some operas a strong and effective chorus is so necessary that without it the whole performance may become flat. This defect has been complained of in the performance of ‘L’Africaine,’ notwithstanding the superb singing and acting of Pauline Lucca. Though we could hardly expect everything to run smoothly and entirely satisfactorily the first few nights of the season, for both the orchestra and choruses have become so well drilled, yet the public have a right to require greater efficiency, and we hope the managers will not disappoint expectation. Then, again, some of the artists who take first or important parts, except Lucca, have not been careful enough with their voices. Making every allowance for the effect of our capricious climate at this season of the year, and upon these strangers particularly, the public have just reason to complain when these artists do not avoid taking colds and sing hoarsely and indifferently. When they do so the weight of the performance falls upon the prima donna, and however ably she may do her part, it is unfair to her and unsatisfactory to the audience. Another drawback to first rate opera, as well as a great embarrassment to the managers, is the interference of certain cliques with the management. They have the absurd pretension to dictate what shall or shall not be performed and who shall or shall not perform. They even engage the Bohemians, who are affiliated with them, to threaten and embarrass the managers. They forget that the opera is for the public gratification and cultivation in music and not merely to gratify their conceit and pretensions. The season has opened well, with the exceptions mentioned, is well supported by the people and fashionable society, and promises to be a brilliant one. We are always disposed to give the greatest encouragement to this delightful and refining amusement, and in pointing out what improvements are needed we do so both in the interests of the public and for the benefit of the management. And here we must give the managers due credit for abolishing the claque and other kinds of clap-trap, which heretofore was a nuisance, as well as for suppressing the vast and indiscriminate dead-head system. It is a good indication for opera in the future when the managers are resolved to let it stand upon its merits. In Lucca they have all that could be desired in a prima donna. She has real genius, has no superior, if an equal, in the world, and both her singing and acting are exquisite. Let us have the orchestra and the choruses as good as they can be made, a conscientious performance by the other artists, and, if necessary, a fresh supply of artists to aid those already engaged, and the season cannot fail to be successful and profitable.”