WHAT THE STUDENT WHO ASPIRES TO GO INTO OPERA SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE
MECHANICAL SIDE OF GIVING AN OPERATIC PERFORMANCE
Even after one has mastered the art of singing there is still much that
the artist must learn about the actual working of the opera house
itself. This of course is best done by actual experience; but the writer
has found that much can be gained by insight into some of the conditions
that exist in the modern opera house.
In the childhood of hundreds of people now living opera was given with
scenery and costumes that would be ridiculed in vaudeville if seen
to-day. Pianos, lamps, chairs and even bird cages were often painted
right on the scenery. One set of costumes and properties was made to do
for the better part of the repertoire in such a way that even the most
flexible imagination was stretched to the breaking point several times
during the performance. Now, most of this has changed and the modern
opera house stage is often a mechanical and electrical marvel.
It is most human to want to peep behind the scenes and see something of
the machinery which causes the wonderful spectacle of the stage. We
remember how, as children, we longed to open the clock and see the
wheels go round. Behind the asbestos curtain there is a world of ropes,
lights, electrical and mechanical machinery, paints and canvas, which
is always a territory filled with interest to those who sit in the seats
in front.
Much of the success of the opera in New York, during the early part of
the present century, was due to the great efficiency of the Director,
Giulio Gatti-Casazza. Gatti-Casazza was a graduate of the Royal Italian
Naval Academy at Leghorn, and had been intended for a career as a naval
engineer before he undertook the management of the opera at Ferrara.
This he did because his father was on the board of directors of the
Ferrara opera house, and the institution had not been a great success.
His directorship was so well executed that he was appointed head
director of the opera at La Scala in Milan and astonished the musical
world with his wonderful Italian productions of Wagner's operas under
the conductorship of Toscanini. In New York many reforms were
instituted, and later took the New York company to Paris, giving
performances which made Europe realize that opera in New York is as fine
as that in any music center in the world, and in some particulars finer.
The New York opera is more cosmopolitan than that of any other country.
Its company included artists from practically every European country,
but fortunately includes more American singers and musicians to-day than
at any time in our operatic history. We are indebted to the staff of the
Metropolitan Opera House, experts who, with the kind permission of the
director, furnished the writer with the following interesting
information:
[Illustration: PROFILE OF THE PARIS GRAND OPERA. (NOTE THAT THE STAGE
SECTION IS LARGER THAN THE AUDITORIUM. ALSO NOTE THE IMMENSE SPACE GIVEN
TO THE GRAND ENTRANCE STAIRWAY.)]