Abbey. And although Mme.
Patti fared better at her last appearance, it was only because a large
number of people believed that she _really_ was singing in New York
for the last time; for when she returned a fortnight later for
_another_ "farewell," the sale of seats was so small that the spoiled
prima donna refused to sing, and only one performance was given
instead of two.
The lovers of vocal tight-rope dancing and threadbare orchestral
accompaniments who insist that Wagner is merely a fashion, and that
ere long there will be a return to the saccharine melodies of Rossini
and Bellini, show thereby that they have never studied the history of
the opera. This history teaches a curious lesson, viz., that operas
which had a great vogue at one time and subsequently lost their
popularity can _never_ be galvanized into real life again. What has
become of the threescore and more operas of Donizetti, and the forty
of Rossini--some of which for years monopolized the stage so
completely the world over that Weber and Beethoven were ignored even
in Vienna and the German capitals? They are dead, and all efforts to
revive them have been futile.
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