aise a war-whoop in behalf of Italian opera. But the powers that
rule the destinies of the Metropolitan Opera House are too wise to
heed the arguments of these prophets. They know that Italian opera can
never again be successfully revived in New York, and that the only
alternative for the present lies between German opera and no opera at
all. Signor Angelo and Mr. Mapleson were as unsuccessful in their last
efforts in behalf of Italian opera as Mr. 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. These operas had sprung into _sudden_
popularity, whereas "Fidelio," "Euryanthe," "Lohengrin," and
"Tannhaeuser," which for years had to fight for every inch of ground,
are now masters of the situation, and gaining in popularity every
year. And this brings us to the second lesson taught by the history of
the opera--that the works that thus had to _fight_ their way into the
hearts of the public are the immortal operas that are sure to gain
more and more favor as years go by. Moreover, the statistics of German
opera-houses show that Wagner's operas, from the "Flying Dutchman" to
the "Nibelung's Ring," have been gaining in popularity and frequency
of repetition, year by year, with a constancy that might almost be
expressed with mathematical exactness by means of a _crescendo_: <.
And we are by no means at the biggest end of the _crescendo_ yet. For
th