Article on the forthcoming Maretzek Italian Opera Company season, 1865-66

“Max Maretzek, His New Artists, and the Next Opera Season.

          Max Maretzek has returned to this city from Europe, having engaged several singers for the next Opera season. . . . Maretzek’s mission has resulted in the engagement of a number of people; but we doubt whether he can put his finger upon any one of their names and declare it to be a strong card. . . .

          When we look over the list of the new company we are surprised to find it so barren of attractions.  We have certainly never heard of any of these singers before.  More than this, we are reliably informed that most of them are unknown even in Italy.  They come to us without the shadow of a reputation.  New York City surely deserves better than this.  The next Opera season will be very brilliant, as the audiences are concerned, if Maretzek will only take ordinary pains to please people.  If he does not please them they will leave him and go to the theaters, the performances at [sic] which will be extraordinarily popular.  Against this powerful theatrical competition what has Maretzek to present?  A parcel of nobodies whom we have no desire to hear. They may be hired more cheaply than good artists; but they will prove dearer in the end. This shabby system of operatic management will not do for this metropolis. We pay enough for the Opera, and we ought to have it of the best material.It is bad enough to buy a whistle dearly; but the affair becomes aggravated when we find that the whistle is of inferior quality, and cannot be made to sound. If Maretzek is going to persevere in this sort of management we shall demand an operatic as well as a municipal reform, and insist that  he shall be removed with the other heads of departments.

          It is the misfortune of some men that they become useless as soon as they become successful.  They are great in their failures and small after their triumphs.  Whether or not Maretzek belongs to this class remains to be seen. During his long struggle to establish the Opera here he did very well, and gave us excellent artists; but now that the Opera is established his enterprise and liberality appear to diminish. Last season he refused to engage several admirable singers, who were in the city and offered him their services, and was content with other, cheaper and worse performers. Now he presents us with a list of unknown people, whom he would have blushed to own as members of his company a few years ago.  This deplorable falling off is like the loss of insulation in the Atlantic cable; it neutralizes all the previous successful work. Is Maretzek, then, like one who builds a house that other men may dwell in it?  Has he established the Opera that other managers may reap all the honor and profit of its prosperity?  Has the Bohemian crew into whose hands he has fallen already led him so far from the right path?  We assure him that if he intends to conduct the coming season as he did in the past it will probably be the last over which he will be called to preside in this city.  There is no lack of good managers nor of good artists either, if the managers choose to engage them. The public know this, and are not to be humbugged by nameless performers.  Maretzek has only to persist and he will complete the parallel between himself and Maximilian.  Both will be unanimously condemned by American sentiment and both will be compelled to quit the continent in disgrace.  There is a Monroe doctrine for the Academy as well as for Mexico.  We warn Max Maretzek not to force us to apply it to himself.”