pectators and managers still
are so. In Paris and elsewhere it is often found impossible to do
justice to the secondary stage appointments because the salaries of the
soprano and the tenor swallow the whole income. The Germans, on the
other hand, are too artistic and rational to endure such an imposition.
To them the one-star-and-ten-satellites system seems an abomination, and
doubtless Emperor William had the sympathies and approval of all his
subjects when he refused to engage Patti at a price that would have
proved disastrous to the high aims of the imperial opera, which are to
preserve an evenly-balanced and uniform excellence of all the parts of a
performance. There are signs that even England is outgrowing the star
system. Carl Rosa has adopted the German system of dispensing with
"phenomenal" singers, putting the minor roles into good hands, and
keeping a well-trained chorus and orchestra; and his success, as
everybody knows, has been enormous. Now let some competent manager in
this country follow his example: let him show that he does not merely
aim at getting the people's money, but that he has also the ambition of
honestly interpreting the works of the masters and developing a healthy
taste for good dramatic music and acting, and there can be little doubt
that instead of increasing the number of failures now recorded, the
enterprise would prove a success, and show, as Carl Rosa's has done,
that in this way opera can be made to pay even without government
assistance.

Although our rulers have not yet recognized the theatre as a possible
source of culture, they have done something which to the country at
large is of even greater importance than this would be. They have been
gradually introducing vocal music as a regular branch of study in our
public schools. In this matter we seem to have anticipated England, for
while singing was introduced in the schools of Boston more than forty,
and in Baltimore more than thirty, years ago, in the British House of
Commons only twenty-five years ago, when a member proposed that singing
should be taught in all schools, as in Germany, "the suggestion was
received with ridicule, and was deemed deserving of no other response
than a loud laugh." But there has also been, and still is, some
opposition to its general introduction in this country. Only a few
months ago the St. Louis press urged its removal from the schools on the
ground that it is one of the "ornamental" studies, and