January 15, 1891. Many complaints having been made to the directors of the Opera House of the annoyance produced by the talking in the boxes during the performances, the board requests that it be discontinued. By Order of the Board of Directors.
This was the first sop to Cerberus after the directors had concluded a contract with Mr. Abbey, leasing the house to him a second time and substituting opera in Italian and French for opera in German. The public had begun to speak its mind, not only by making a mighty demonstration in honor of Mr. Seidl and the singers when a German opera was given, but in remaining away when the weak-kneed novelties were given; in requesting by petition a performance of "Fidelio" on a Saturday afternoon for which the opera by the royal composer had been set down, and in crowding the house and giving an ovation to the singers when their petition was granted. The next sop was to set aside all the works which it had been projected should take the place of the later dramas of Wagner, which the stockholders (or the majority of them) did not like, and to devote the remainder of the season almost exclusively to Wagner. The operas thus sacrificed were Marschner's "Templer und Jüdin," Massenet's "Esclarmonde," Lalo's "Le Roi d'Ys," Goetz's "Taming of the Shrew," and Nicolai's "Merry Wives of Windsor." Not love of Wagner but fear of financial consequences dictated the step, which was successful in extricating the institution from the slough into which it had fallen. How much the Wagner operas and dramas did to keep the Metropolitan Opera House alive can be shown by the statistics of the last five German seasons, which I compiled at the close of the season of 1890-91, and printed in The Tribune of March 25th of the latter year. Here is the table:
Season Season Season Season Season 1886-1887 1887-1888 1888-1889 1889-1890 1890-1891 Total representations .......... 61 64 68 67 67 Wagnerian representations .......... 31 36 35 37 39 Non-Wagnerian representations .......... 30 28 33 30 28 Total receipts ........ $202,751.00 $185,258.50 $209,581.00 $204,644.70 $198,119.25 Average receipts ........... 3,323.78 2,894.66 3,141.63 3,054.39 2,957.00 Wagnerian receipts ......... 111,049.50 116,449.75 115,784.50 121,568.70 125,169.25 Non-wagnerian receipts .......... 91,701.50 68,808.75 93,796.50 83,076.00 72,950.00 Wagnerian average ............ 3,582.21 3,234.72 3,308.13 3,285.65 3,209.46 Non-Wagnerian average ............ 3,056.71 2,457.45 2,842.32 2,769.20 2.605.37 Average difference in favor of Wagner ... 525.50 777.27 465.81 516.45 604.09