On the opening night the Grand Opera-house presented a spectacle of magnificence which I may say without exaggeration can never have been surpassed in any city. The auditorium was quite dazzling with a bewildering mass of laces, jewels, and fair faces. Every available place was taken. Outside in the street there must have been thousands of people all clamouring for tickets, whilst the broad steps of the church opposite were occupied by persons anxious to catch a glimpse of the toilettes of the ladies as they sprang out of their carriages into the vestibule.
The season opened with Lucia di Lammermoor, in which Mdme. Etelka Gerster appeared as the ill-fated heroine. I will not go into details of the performance, further than to say that the stage was loaded after every act with the most gorgeous set pieces of flowers, several being so cumbersome that they had to be left on the stage at the sides in sight of the audience during the remainder of the opera. The next evening was devoted to rest after the long and fatiguing journey that we had all undergone, Mdme. Gerster remaining in her apartments to prepare for her second appearance the following night.
The next evening was devoted to a performance of L'Elisir d'Amore, when Mdme. Gerster drew another 10,000 dollar house—the floral picturesqueness of the auditorium of the previous Monday being repeated.
Mdme. Patti was now to appear as "La Traviata." On the day of the performance it took the whole of the police force to protect the theatre from the overwhelming crowds pressing for tickets, although it had been announced that no more were to be had. Long before daylight the would-be purchasers of Patti tickets had collected and formed into line, reaching the length of some three or four streets; and from this time until the close of the engagement, some four weeks afterwards, that line was never broken at any period of the day or night. A brisk trade was done in the hiring of camp stools, for which the modest sum of 4s. was charged. A similar amount was levied for a cup of coffee or a slice of bread and butter. As the line got hungry dinners were served, also suppers. High prices were paid to obtain a place in the line, as the head of it approached the box-office; resulting only in disappointment to the intending buyer, who was, of course, unable to procure a ticket. Large squads of police were on duty the whole time, and they were busily employed in keeping the line in its place, and in defeating outsiders in their attempts to make a gap in it. Later on it was announced that a limited number of gallery tickets would be sold, when a rush was made, carrying away the whole of the windows, glass, statuary, plants, etc.
Ticket speculators were now offering seats at from £4 to £10 each, places in the fifth row of the dress circle fetching as much as £4, being 400 per cent. above the box-office price. They found buyers at rates which would have shamed Shylock. Later in the day fulminations were launched upon my head, and I was accused of taking part in the plunder. I therefore determined, as far as possible, to set this right.
At length evening approached, and hundreds of tickets had been sold for standing room only.
Meanwhile Chief Crowley and Captain Short of the police, on seeing the aisles leading to the orchestra stalls and dress-circle blocked by the vast crowd, many of whom were seated on camp-stools which they had secretly brought with them, procured a warrant for my arrest the following morning. Several hot disputes occurred about this time in the main vestibule in consequence of numbers of duplicate tickets having been issued; and several seatholders were unable to reach their places. One gentleman challenged another to come and fight it out on the side walk with revolvers.
To describe the appearance of the house would be impossible. The toilettes of the ladies were charming. Many were in white, and nearly all were sparkling with diamonds. In the top gallery people were literally on the heads of one another, and on sending up to ascertain the cause, as the numbers were still increasing, the inspector ascertained that boards had been placed from the top of an adjoining house on to the roof of the Opera-house, from which the slates had been taken off; and numbers were dropping one by one through the ceiling on to the heads of those who were seated in the gallery.
Patti, of course, was smothered with bouquets, and the Italian residents of the city sent a huge globe of violets, supported on two ladders, with the Italian and American flags hanging over each side. At the end of each act huge stands and forms of flowers were sent up over the footlights and placed on the stage. To name the fashionable people in the audience would be to go over the invitation lists of the balls given in the very best houses in the city. It would be useless to describe a performance of la Diva, with which everyone is already familiar. Galassi, the baritone, made a great success; and in the gambling scene an elegant ballet was introduced, led by little Mdlle. Bettina de Sortis. Chief Crowley reported that it would require 200 extra police to keep order the next day. On going through the tickets in the treasury, we discovered upwards of 200 bogus ones taken at the door. These counterfeits were so good, even to the shade of colour, that it was almost impossible to detect the difference from the real ones; the public having smashed into the opera as if shot from howitzers. Several ladies declared that their feet had never even touched the ground from the time they got out of their carriages; and it was with difficulty that the tickets were snatched from them as they passed. Many who had paid for standing room brought little camp stools concealed under their clothes, and afterwards opened them out, placing them in the main passage ways. Had any panic occurred, or any alarm of fire, many lives must have been sacrificed.
Of course the blame for all this was put upon me. The next day there were low mutterings of discontent all over the city against my management, whilst the newspapers were unanimous in attacking me, some of their articles being headed "The Opera Swindle."