The novelties produced in the season were Gluck's "Armide," Puccini's
"La Fanciulla del West," Humperdinck's "Königskinder," Dukas's "Ariane
et Barbe-Bleue," Herbert's "Natoma," Wolf-Ferrari's "Il Segreto di
Susanna," and Nouguet's "Quo Vadis."

APPENDIX II

TWO SEASONS AT THE MANHATTAN OPERA HOUSE

The third season of opera under the sole direction of Mr. Oscar Hammerstein at the Manhattan Opera House, New York, began on November 9th, 1908, and lasted twenty weeks until March 27th, 1909. During this period there were five regular performances each week. Had there been no deviation from the rule there would have been one hundred representations, but advantage was taken of occasions which seemed auspicious to give extra performances, and therefore there were also representations on Thanksgiving Day, New Year's Day, Washington's birthday, and to signalize by special attention (and, incidentally, special prices) the coming of Richard Strauss's delectable "Salome." So there were added four performances to the weekly five originally set down for Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings, and Saturday afternoons.

In his prospectus, issued in the summer, Mr. Hammerstein specifically promised to produce "Samson et Dalila," by Saint-Saëns, "Salome," by Richard Strauss, "Le Jongleur de Notre Dame" and "Grisélidis," by Massenet, and "Princesse d'Auberge," by Jan Blockx. He brought forward all of these except "Grisélidis." In the list of operas which he was less specifically bound to perform were Massenet's "Manon," Bizet's "Les Pécheurs des Perles," Verdi's "Falstaff," Bréton's "Dolores," Giordano's "Andrea Chenier" and "Siberia," Puccini's "Madama Butterfly," Donizetti's "Linda di Chamounix," Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera" and "Ernani," all of which fell by the board. The chief features of interest in the season were the productions of the novelties, "Salome," "Le Jongleur de Notre Dame" (with Mary Garden in the part of the Juggler, which was written for a man), and "Princesse d'Auberge," and the series of performances headed by Mme. Melba, who opened the sixth week of the season on December 14th in "La Bohème," and concluded her engagement on January 11th in "Rigoletto." Her performances were confined to these two operas and "Otello." For the rest let the following table speak:

Opera First performance Times

"Tosca" ………………….. November 9 ………… 5
"Thaïs" ………………….. November 11 ……….. 7
"Samson et Dalila" ………… November 13 ……….. 6
"Il Barbiere di Siviglia" ….. November 14 ……….. 3
"Lucia di Lammermoor" ……… November 18 ……….. 7
"Gli Ugonotti" ……………. November 20 ……….. 2
"Carmen" …………………. November 26 ……….. 2
"Le Jongleur de Notre Dame" … November 27 ……….. 7
"Cavalleria Rusticana" …….. December 4 ………… 5
"Pagliacci" ………………. December 4 ………… 5
"Rigoletto" ………………. December 5 ………… 5
"Traviata" ……………….. December 12 ……….. 5
"La Bohème" ………………. December 14 ……….. 5
"Les Contes d'Hoffmann" ……. December 16 ……….. 7
"Otello" …………………. December 25 ……….. 6
"Pelléas et Mélisande" …….. January 6 …………. 4
"Crispino e la Comare" …….. January 9 …………. 3
"Salome" …………………. January 28 ……….. 10
"Aïda" …………………… February 10 ……….. 2
"La Sonnambula" …………… February 13 ……….. 3
"Louise" …………………. February 19 ……….. 5
"I Puritani" ……………… February 26 ……….. 2
"Il Trovatore" ……………. March 1 …………… 1
"Princesse d'Auberge" ……… March 10 ………….. 3
"La Navarraise" …………… March 20 ………….. 1

Total number of performances, 111; number of representations, 104; total number of operas, 25; operas composed in Italian, 14; in French, 9; in German, 1; in Flemish, 1; Italian representations, 59; French, 52. The difference between the number of representations and the total of performances of the different operas is due to the fact that on seven occasions two operas were given on the same afternoon or evening.

SEASON 1909-1910

Before beginning his fourth season Mr. Hammerstein opened his house for a season of "educational" opera, as he called it at first, which began on August 30th, 1909, and lasted until October 30th, 1909. In this preliminary season Mr. Hammerstein not only made trial of a considerable number of singers, some of whom remained with him throughout the regular season, but also experimented with operas, some of which went over into the subscription repertory with no considerable change either in casts or settings, while others, notably "La Juive" and "Le Prophète," might well have done so. In them also some singers of notable excellence were heard, like Zerola, the tenor; William Beck, the barytone, and Marguerite Sylva, but after the regular season got under way they were heard from chiefly in the newspapers in connection with the disaffections and disagreements which were almost incessant.