File:Enrico Caruso in "Les pêcheurs de perles".jpg

Identifier: morechaptersofop00kreh (find matches)
Title: More chapters of opera : being historical and critical observations and records concerning the lyric drama in New York from 1908 to 1918
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors: Krehbiel, Henry Edward, 1854-1923
Subjects: Opera
Publisher: New York : H. Holt and company
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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e to thegenius of the French language as Gluck conserved it in hissetting than did the German; and we might have beenspared some of the bad vocalization with which we werefrequently overwhelmed in this and previous seasons. Before proceeding with the story of other incidents ofthe operatic season in New York let me dispose of the Met-ropolitans novelties. The first was Bizets Les Pecheursde Perles, which was given on the opening night, November13, 1916. The performance was conducted by Giorgio Po-lacco, and the characters in the opera were thus distributed: Leila Frieda Hempel Nadir Enrico Caruso Zuriga Giuseppe de Luca Nourabad Leon Rothier It was officially given out by the management of the Met-ropolitan Company that the opera, save for the first twoacts, in which Mme. Calve had once sung the part of Leila,was new to this country. Statements of this kind are oftenlightly but honestly made, and I am not inclined to attach alarge measure of obliquity to them when they prove to be er-
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Enrico CarusoIn Les Pecheurs de Perles FLEETING OPERA COMPANIES 363 roneous. Who can know all about the doings of the operacompanies which spring up in America overnight? Com-panies are wrecked annually in South America, Cuba, andMexico. Their flotsam and jetsam are cast upon the shoresof the United States. Hunger and desperation drive thesingers into the hands of a manager—and lo! somewherethere appear flamboyant announcements of the coming of aRoyal, or Imperial, or Milanese, or La Scala Grand OperaCompany which gives performances in the metropolis fortwo or three days, or even one week, and sinks again into thebubbling depths. Opera companies came and went on theEast Side of New York ever and anon during the decadewhose story I am trying to tell, and for aught I know to thecontrary Bizets divers for pearls may have fished in localwaters under my very nose without my getting a whiff oftheir activities. It would be a useless book which should seekto give an account of them. Permane

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