ugh Lakme
needs but few. There were gorgeous uniforms for the British soldiers,
the real article, each scarlet coat and every top boot having a piece
of history attached, and models of the scenery which any doubting
Thomas of a newspaper reporter might inspect if he felt so disposed.
When the redoubtable colonel came it was to be only a matter of a week
or so before the opera would be put on the stage in the finest of
styles; it was still a matter of a week or so when the Academy season
came to an end. When Delibes's exquisite and exotic music reached a
hearing in the American metropolis, it was sung to English words, and
the most emphatic success achieved in performance was the acrobatic one
of Mme. L'Allemand as she rolled down some uncalled-for pagoda steps in
the death scene.

Mme. Adelina Patti was the second Lakme heard in New York. After the
fifth season of German opera at the Metropolitan Opera House had come
to an end in the spring of 1890, Messrs. Abbey and Grau took the
theatre for a short season of Italian opera by a troupe headed by Mme.
Patti. In that season "Lakme" was sung once--on April 2, 1890. Now came
an opportunity for the original representative of the heroine. Abbey
and Grau resumed the management of the theatre in 1891, and in their
company was Miss Van Zandt, for whom the opera was "revived" on
February 22. Mr. Abbey had great expectations, but they were
disappointed. For the public there was metal more attractive than Miss
Van Zandt and the Hindu opera in other members of the company and other
operas. It was the year of Emma Eames's coming and also of Jean de
Reszke's (they sang together in Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette") and
"Cavalleria Rusticana" was new. Then Delibes's opera hibernated in New
York for fifteen years, after which the presence in the Metropolitan
company of Mme. Marcella Sembrich led to another "revival." (Operas
which are unperformed for a term of two or three years after having
been once included in the repertory are "revived" in New York.) It was
sung three times in the season of 1906-1907. It also afforded one of
Mr. Hammerstein's many surprises at the Manhattan Opera House. Five
days before the close of his last season, on March 21, 1910, it was
precipitated on the stage ("pitchforked" is the popular and
professional term) to give Mme. Tetrazzini a chance to sing the bell
song. Altogether I know of no more singular history than that of
"Lakme" in New York.

Lakme is a