Article on the merits of the Strakosch Italian Opera Company

“The want of a proper ensemble in opera at the Academy of Music has been for many years past a source of regret and censure. The New York public, liberal to a degree towards the lyric drama, have been hardly treated by operatic managers. A prima donna or a tenor of renown has been the sole element of merit presented during an entire season. The other members of the company have been gifted with such worthless qualities as to burlesque every work entrusted to them. The Herald has for years past opposed this inartistic course in operatic management. Mr. Strakosch, adopting our suggestion, has brought to this country an opera company complete in every detail and capable of investing each work with the symmetry of execution and effect it demands. Apart from the transcendent qualities of the prima donna, Mme. Nilsson, this company possesses artists of the very highest order of merit. The tenors, Campanini and Capoul, and the barytones, Maurel and Del Puente, would be a sufficient recommendation in themselves to attract to the opera every friend of art. An excellent opportunity to hear this admirable company in the best light will be afforded on Monday evening, when the greatest of all lyric works, ‘The Huguenots,’ will be presented for the first time. Such a troupe deserves the hearty support of the music loving public of the great metropolis.”