KREHBIEL'S CHAPTERS OF OPERA
By the musical critic of the New York Tribune, author of "Studies in the Wagnerian Drama," "How to Listen to Music," etc. With over 60 full-page illustrations. Second printing, revised. 435 pp., 8vo. $3.50 net. By mail, $3.72. (Illustrated circular on application.)
Mr. Krehbiel's most important book. The first seven chapters deal with the earliest operatic performances in New York. Then follows a brilliant account of the first quarter-century of the Metropolitan, 1883-1908. He tells how Abbey's first disastrous Italian season was followed by seven seasons of German Opera under Leopold Damrosch and Stanton, how this was temporarily eclipsed by French and Italian, and then returned to dwell with them in harmony, thanks to Walter Damrosch's brilliant crusade,—also of the burning of the opera house, the vicissitudes of the American Opera Company, the coming and passing of Grau and Conried, and finally the opening of Oscar Hammerstein's Manhattan Opera House and the first two seasons therein, 1906-08.
"The most complete and authoritative ... pre-eminently the man to write the book ... full of the spirit of discerning criticism ... Delightfully engaging manner, with humor, allusiveness and an abundance of the personal note."—Richard Aldrich in New York Times Review.