THE CONRIED PERIOD: 1902-'08
Operas 1903-4 1904-5 1905-6 1906-7 1907-8
"Rigoletto" …………….. 5 2 5 2 4
"Die Walküre" …………… 4 4 3 2 3
"La Bohème" …………….. 3 3 5 7 7
"Aïda" …………………. 6 5 4 6 5
"Tosca" ………………… 4 4 3 6 7
"Tannhäuser" ……………. 5 9 4 5 4
"Cavalleria Rusticana" …… 8 3 0 1 0
"Pagliacci" …………….. 5 3 3 4 4
"Lohengrin" …………….. 5 6 5 5 2
"La Traviata" …………… 3 4 2 3 6
"Il Barbiere" …………… 4 2 2 0 6
"Lucia di Lammermoor" ……. 3 3 5 4 1
"Tristan und Isolde" …….. 4 2 3 4 6
"The Magic Flute" ……….. 4 0 0 0 0
"Siegfried" …………….. 2 2 3 4 3
"L'Elisir d'Amore" ………. 4 1 2 0 0
"Carmen" ……………….. 4 4 2 1 0
"Coppélia" (ballet)………. 4 1 0 0 0
"La Dame Blanche" (Ger.) …. 1 0 0 0 0
"Faust" ………………… 4 4 5 4 6
"Mefistofele" ………….. *2 0 0 0 7
"Roméo et Juliette" ……… 2 4 0 5 0
"Nozze di Figaro" ……….. 1 2 0 0 0
+ "Parsifal" …………… 11 8 4 2 0
"Fidelio" ………………. 1 1 0 0 3
"Das Rheingold" …………. 1 2 2 1 0
"Götterdämmerung" ……….. 1 2 3 1 0
"La Gioconda" …………… 0 4 4 0 0
"Die Meistersinger" ……… 0 7 4 0 4
"Lucrezia Borgia" ……….. 0 1 0 0 0
"Don Pasquale" ………….. 0 2 2 1 0
"Die Puppenfee" (ballet) …. 0 1 0 0 0
"Les Huguenots" …………. 0 4 0 0 0
"Un Ballo in Maschera" …… 0 2 0 0 0
+ "Die Fledermaus" ………. 0 4 1 0 0
"Die Königin von Saba" …… 0 0 5 0 0
"Hänsel und Gretel" ……… 0 0 11 8 5
"La Favorita" …………… 0 0 4 0 0
"La Sonnambula" …………. 0 0 2 0 0
"Il Trovatore" ………….. 0 0 4 0 6
"Don Giovanni" ………….. 0 0 2 0 4
"Martha" ……………….. 0 0 4 3 3
"Der Zigeunerbaron" ……… 0 0 1 0 0
+ "Fedora" ……………… 0 0 0 4 3
+ "La Damnation de Faust" … 0 0 0 5 0
"Lakmé" ………………… 0 0 0 3 0
"L'Africaine" …………… 0 0 0 2 0
"Manon Lescaut" …………. 0 0 0 3 5
"Madama Butterfly" ………. 0 0 0 5 6
+ "Salome" ……………… 0 0 0 1 0
+ "Adriana Lecouvreur" …… 0 0 0 0 2
"Der Fliegende Holländer" … 0 0 0 0 4
"Iris" …………………. 0 0 0 0 5
"Mignon" ……………….. 0 0 0 0 5
* One scene only. + Novelties.
CHAPTER XXIII
HAMMERSTEIN AND HIS OPERA HOUSE
Before the close of the season 1905-06 at the Metropolitan Opera House, Mr. Oscar Hammerstein, who was building a large theater in Thirty-fourth Street, between Eighth and Ninth avenues, announced that the building would be called the Manhattan Opera House, that it would be exclusively his property and under his management, and that it was to be devoted to grand opera.
It is no reflection on Mr. Hammerstein to say that many who have been prompt and generous in their recognition of his achievements since, looked upon his enterprise as quixotic, down to the very day of the opening of his house. True, he was known to be a manager of extraordinary resource and indomitable energy, but he had dallied more or less with the operatic bauble without disclosing any ambition to have his name written among the managerial wrecks which have been cast upon the shores of Italian Opera, from Handel's day to ours, It was easy to recall that the new opera house was not his first, but that he had built one in the same street, given it the same name thirteen years before, and begun a season of grand opera with an ambitious novelty, only to abandon the enterprise after a fortnight. He had even tried German opera with no less popular an artist than Mme. Lehmann in his earlier opera house in Harlem, and entered into rivalry with an established institution in 1891 for the production of "Cavalleria Rusticana," then the reigning sensation of the hour in Europe.
When the old Manhattan Opera House, so soon abandoned to the uses of vaudeville, opened its doors with Moszkowski's "Boabdil," on January 23, 1893, there was no rival operatic establishment in the city, for the interior of the Metropolitan had been destroyed by fire, and Abbey, Schoeffel & Grau were resting on their oars for a season while the question whether or not the home of the costly and fashionable entertainment should be restored was under discussion by its owners. Yet Mr. Hammerstein was discouraged by two weeks of failure. It was not strange that many observers refused to believe that he was of the stuff out of which opera managers are made. He did not seem illogical enough, though he showed some symptoms of having been bitten by the opera habit.
Neither was there much to encourage belief in his announcements in the manner in which he put them forth. He began early in the spring by saying that he had engaged Jean and Édouard de Reszke, and kept their names before the people almost up to the time of the opening. He went abroad to engage artists, and even after his return it looked as if it would be a physical impossibility to complete his theater in time for the date set for opening. In fact it was not completed, but when the season arrived he was ready to attempt all that he had said he would do, except keep some wild promises about singers; and when the season closed the fact that loomed largest in the retrospect was the undaunted manner in which he had carried on a difficult and dangerous enterprise, compelling a large element of the public to respect and admire him, and making it possible for him to lay out a second season on lines of real pith and moment, and carry an admirable enterprise to an admirable conclusion.