Article on Maretzek’s fall season of Italian opera

“The Fall Season of Italian Opera in the Academy of Music.   When Mr. Maretzek arrived on the 5th of October with his excellent opera troupe, which was both qualitatively and quantitively better than any that had preceded it here, and opened the fall season at the Academy of Music, he issued a proclamation. He promised in the season’s repertoire these operas, among others: ‘Jone,’ ‘I due Foscari,’ ‘Lucretia Borgia,’ ‘Rigoletto,’ ‘Robert le diable,’ ‘Les Huguenots,’ ‘La fille du régiment,’ ‘Il poliuto,’ ‘Maria di Rohan,’ ‘La Sonnambula,’ ‘Don Giovanni,’ ‘Norma,’ ‘I Puritani,’ ‘Il Trovatore,’ ‘Martha,’ ‘La Favorita,’ ‘La Zingara,’ ‘Ernani,’ ‘Lucia di Lammermoor,’ ‘Roberto Devereux,’ ‘Macbeth,’ ‘Judith,’ and ‘Faust.’  Also an opera written especially for the Academy of Music was a prospect.  Of the 24 promised operas, only 14 were presented, and the the larger and more difficult works were the ones omitted.

 

Among the novelties, Mr. Maretzek offered us Peri’s ‘Judith’ and Gounod’s ‘Faust.’  After many years of not having been performed, Verdi’s ‘Macbeth’ was repeated, newly rehearsed and performed several times with a goodly amount of applause.  In this season, Italian opera suffered from its old malady, an insufficient, inadequate chorus.  Mr. Maretzek has gone to Philadelphia, and will not arrive here until early in March; in the mean time, German opera will take its place in the Academy of Music.”