The Paris opera is kept afloat by
means of an annual subsidy of eight hundred thousand francs, and the
imperial opera-houses of Berlin and Vienna, although similarly
endowed, are burdened with large annual deficits which have to be
covered by additional contributions from the imperial exchequers. New
York can hardly claim so large a public interested in high-class opera
as Vienna and Berlin; hence it would be unreasonable to expect that
grand opera should fare better here. It was, therefore, one of the
most lucky accidents in the history of American music that the
Metropolitan Opera House was built, in opposition to the Academy of
Music, by a number of the richest people in New York, who had made up
their minds to spare no cost to make it successful and to annihilate
the rival house. Having once built the new opera-house, it became
necessary to continue giving in it the only kind of opera adapted to
the vast dimensions of its auditorium, unless the stockholders should
become willing to pay the high annual rent without any return at all.
And thus German opera has been established in New York, if not for all
time, at least for years to come.
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