About seventy or one hundred persons make up the ballet of a modern
grand opera. At least ten years of continuous study are required to make
a finished ballet dancer in the histrionic sense. Many receive very
large fees for their services. The art of stage dancing also has
undergone many great reforms in recent years; and the ballets of to-day
are therefore much more popular than they were in the latter part of the
last century. The most popular ballets of to-day are the _Coppelia_ and
_Sylvia_ of Delibes. The ballets from the operas of _La Gioconda_,
_Samson et Delila_, _Armide_, _Mephistophele_, _Aida_, _Orfeo_,
_L'Africaine_, and _The Damnation of Faust_ also are very popular.
At a modern opera house like the Metropolitan in New York City the
number of employees will be between six hundred and seven hundred, and
the cost of a season will be about one million dollars.