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 IMAGE PROCESSING FOR CINEMA

K14348_FM.indd 1 12/20/13 11:42 AM

 Chapman & Hall/CRC
Mathematical and Computational
Imaging Sciences

Series Editors
Chandrajit Bajaj Guillermo Sapiro
Center for Computational Visualization Department of Electrical
The University of Texas at Austin and Computer Engineering
Duke University

Aims and Scope

This series aims to capture new developments and summarize what is
known over the whole spectrum of mathematical and computational imaging
sciences. It seeks to encourage the integration of mathematical, statistical and
computational methods in image acquisition and processing by publishing a
broad range of textbooks, reference works and handbooks. The titles included
in the series are meant to appeal to students, researchers and professionals
in the mathematical, statistical and computational sciences, application areas,
as well as interdisciplinary researchers involved in the field. The inclusion of
concrete examples and applications, and programming code and examples, is
highly encouraged.

Published Titles
Image Processing for Cinema
by Marcelo Bertalmío
Statistical and Computational Methods in Brain Image Analysis
by Moo K. Chung
Rough Fuzzy Image Analysis: Foundations and Methodologies
by Sankar K. Pal and James F. Peters
Theoretical Foundations of Digital Imaging Using MATLAB®
by Leonid P. Yaroslavsky

Proposals for the series should be submitted to the series editors above or directly to:
CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group
3 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, OX14 4RN, UK

K14348_FM.indd 2 12/20/13 11:42 AM

 Chapman & Hall/CRC
Mathematical and Computational Imaging Sciences

IMAGE PROCESSING FOR CINEMA

MARCELO BERTALMÍO
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Barcelona, Spain

K14348_FM.indd 3 12/20/13 11:42 AM

CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
© 2014 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

No claim to original U.S. Government works

Version Date: 20131118

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4398-9928-1 (eBook - PDF)

This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable
efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot
assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and
publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication
and apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any
copyright material has not been acknowledged please write and let us know so we may rectify in any
future reprint.

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transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
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Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
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and the CRC Press Web site at
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 Para Lucas y Vera,
y Guillermo y Gregory,
y papá y Serrana.
Siempre presente, Vicent.

v
This page intentionally left blank
Acknowledgments

The original illustrations in this book are by killer friends and knock-out artists
Javier Baliosian, Federico Lecumberry and Jorge Visca. They also helped me
with the book cover, along with Rafael Grompone. The rest of the figures are
reproduced with the permission of their authors, to whom I’m very grateful.
A heartfelt “Thank you” to all the researchers I’ve had the pleasure of col-
laborating with over the years: Gregory Randall, Guillermo Sapiro, Coloma
Ballester, Stan Osher, Li Tien Cheng, Andrea Bertozzi, Alicia Fernández,
Shantanu Rane, Luminita Vese, Joan Verdera, Oliver Sander, Pere Fort,
Daniel Sánchez-Crespo, Kedar Patwardhan, Juan Cardelino, Gloria Haro,
Edoardo Provenzi, Alessandro Rizzi, Álvaro Pardo, Luis Garrido, Adrián Mar-
ques, Aurélie Bugeau, Sira Ferradans, Rodrigo Palma-Amestoy, Jack Cowan,
Stacey Levine, Thomas Batard, Javier Vazquez-Corral, David Kane, Syed
Waqas Zamir and Praveen Cyriac.
Special thanks to: Sunil Nair, Sarah Gelson, Michele Dimont and everyone
at Taylor & Francis, and Aurelio Ruiz.
Very special thanks to Jay Cassidy, Pierre Jasmin and Stan Osher.
Finally, I want to acknowledge the support of the European Research
Council through the Starting Grant ref. 306337, of ICREA through their
ICREA Acadèmia Award, and of the Spanish government through the grants
TIN2012-38112 and TIN2011-1594-E.

Always present: Andrés Solé and Vicent Caselles.

vii
This page intentionally left blank
Preface

This book is intended primarily for advanced undergraduate and graduate

students in applied mathematics, image processing, computer science and re-
lated fields, as well as for researchers from academia and professionals from
the movie industry. It can be used as a textbook for a graduate course, for an
advanced undergraduate course, or for summer school. My intention has been
that it can serve as a self-contained handbook and a detailed overview of the
relevant image processing techniques that are used in practice in cinema. It
covers a wide range of topics showing how image processing has become ubiq-
uitous in movie-making, from shooting to exhibition. It does not deal with
visual effects or computer-generated images, but rather with all the ways in
which image processing algorithms are used to enhance, restore, adapt or con-
vert moving images, their purpose being to make the images look as good as
possible while exploiting all the capabilities of cameras, projectors and dis-
plays.
Image processing is by definition an applied discipline, but very few of the
image processing algorithms intended for application in the cinema industry
are ever actually used. There probably are many reasons for this, but in my
view the most important ones are that we, the researchers, are often not aware
of the impossibly high quality standards of cinema, and also we don’t have
a clear picture of what the needs of the industry are, what problems they’d
really like to solve versus what we think they’d like to solve.
Movie professionals, on the other hand, are very much aware of what their
needs are, they are very eager to learn and try new techniques that may help
them and they want to understand what is it they are applying. But very often
the technical or scientific information they want is spread over many texts, or
buried under many layers of math or unrelated exposition.
Surprisingly, then, this is the first comprehensive book on image processing
for cinema, and I’ve written it because I sincerely think that having all this
information together can be beneficial both for researchers and for movie
industry professionals.
Current digital cinema cameras match or even surpass film cameras in color
capabilities, dynamic range and resolution, and several of the largest camera
makers have ceased production of film cameras. On the exhibition side, film is
forecasted to be gone from American movie theaters by 2015. And while many
mainstream and blockbuster movies are still being shot on film, they are all
digitized for postproduction. For all these reasons this book equates “cinema”

ix
x

with “digital cinema,” considers only digital cameras and digital movies, and
does not deal with image processing algorithms for problems that are inherent
to film, like the restoration of film scratches or color fading.
The book is structured in three parts. The first one covers some funda-
mentals on optics and color. The second part explains how cameras work and
details all the image processing algorithms that are applied in-camera. The
last part is devoted to image processing algorithms that are applied off-line in
order to solve a wide range of problems, presenting state-of-the-art methods
with special emphasis on the techniques that are actually used in practice.
The mathematical presentation of all methods will concentrate on their pur-
pose and idea, leaving formal proofs and derivations for the interested reader
in the cited references.
Finally: I’ve written this book in the way I like to read (technical) books.
I hope you enjoy it.

Marcelo Bertalmı́o
Barcelona, July 2013
Contents

I Lights 1
1 Light and color 3
1.1 Light as color stimulus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Matching colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.3 The first standard color spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.3.1 Chromaticity diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.4 Perceptual color spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.4.1 Color constancy and the von Kries coefficient law . . . 18
1.4.2 Perceptually uniform color spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.4.3 Limitations of CIELUV and CIELAB . . . . . . . . . 23
1.5 Color appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

2 Optics 27
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.2 Ray diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.3 Reflection and refraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.4 Lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.4.1 Refraction at a spherical surface . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.4.2 The lens-maker’s equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.4.3 Magnification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.4.4 Lens behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.5 Optical aberrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.6 Basic terms in photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2.6.1 f-number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.6.2 Depth of field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2.6.3 Prime vs. zoom lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
2.6.4 Modulation transfer function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

II Camera 55
3 Camera 57
3.1 Image processing pipeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.2 Image sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.2.1 Pixel classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.2.2 Sensor classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

xi
xii

3.2.3 Interlaced vs. progressive scanning . . . . . . . . . . . 61

3.2.4 CCD types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.2.5 CMOS types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.2.6 Noise in image sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.2.7 Capturing colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.3 Exposure control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.3.1 Exposure metering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3.3.2 Control mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3.3.3 Extension of dynamic range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.4 Focus control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.5 White balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.6 Color transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3.6.1 The colorimetric matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3.6.2 A note on color stabilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
3.6.3 Encoding the color values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
3.7 Gamma correction and quantization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.7.1 The need for gamma correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.7.2 Transfer function and quantization . . . . . . . . . . . 89
3.7.3 Color correction pipeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
3.8 Edge enhancement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
3.9 Output formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
3.9.1 Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
3.9.2 Recording in RAW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
3.10 Additional image processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3.10.1 Lens spatial distortion correction . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3.10.2 Lens shading correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3.11 The order of the stages of the image processing pipeline . . . 97

III Action 99
4 Compression 101
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4.2 How is compression possible? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4.2.1 Measuring image quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4.3 Image compression with JPEG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4.3.1 Discrete cosine transform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
4.3.2 Run-length and entropy coding . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4.3.3 Reconstruction and regulation of the amount of com-
pression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
4.4 Image compression with JPEG2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
4.5 Video compression with MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC
(H.264) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
4.6 In-camera compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
 xiii

5 Denoising 115
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.2 Classic denoising ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
5.2.1 Modification of transform coefficients . . . . . . . . . . 116
5.2.2 Averaging image values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
5.3 Non-local approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5.4 An example of a non-local movie denoising algorithm . . . . 118
5.4.1 Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5.5 New trends and optimal denoising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
5.6 Denoising an image by denoising its curvature image . . . . 125
5.6.1 Image noise vs. curvature noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
5.6.2 Comparing the noise power in I and in its curvature
image κ(I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
5.6.2.1 PSNR along image contours . . . . . . . . . 129
5.6.2.2 Correction for contours separating flat regions 134
5.6.2.3 PSNR along contours: numerical experiments 134
5.6.2.4 PSNR in homogeneous regions . . . . . . . . 135
5.6.3 Proposed algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
5.6.3.1 The model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
5.6.4 Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

6 Demosaicking and deinterlacing 141

6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
6.2 Demosaicking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
6.3 Deinterlacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

7 White balance 151

7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
7.2 Human color constancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
7.2.1 The unsolved problem of color perception . . . . . . . 152
7.2.2 Current challenges in human color constancy . . . . . 156
7.3 Computational color constancy under uniform illumination . 157
7.4 Retinex and related methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
7.4.1 The Retinex theory and the Retinex algorithm . . . . 165
7.4.2 Judd’s critique of Land’s work . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
7.4.3 ACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
7.4.4 “Perceptual color correction through variational tech-
niques” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
7.4.5 Kernel-based Retinex and the connections between
Retinex, ACE and neural models . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
7.5 Cinema and colors at night . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
xiv

8 Image stabilization 175

8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
8.2 Rolling shutter compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
8.3 Compensation of camera motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
8.3.1 2D stabilization methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
8.3.2 3D stabilization methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
8.3.3 Eliminating motion blur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

9 Zoom-in and slow motion 187

9.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
9.2 Zoom-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
9.3 Slow-motion generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

10 Transforming the color gamut 193

10.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
10.2 Color gamuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
10.3 Gamut reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
10.4 Gamut extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
10.5 Validating a gamut mapping algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
10.6 An example of a spatial gamut reduction algorithm . . . . . 200
10.6.1 Image energy functional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
10.6.2 Gamut mapping framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
10.6.3 Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
10.6.3.1 Qualitative results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
10.6.3.2 Objective quality assessment . . . . . . . . . 206
10.7 Final remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

11 High dynamic range video and tone mapping 209

11.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
11.2 High dynamic range imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
11.3 Tone mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
11.4 Optimization of TM operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
11.4.1 Minimization of the distance between images . . . . . 216
11.4.1.1 Image quality metrics as non-local operators 216
11.4.1.2 Minimization of the distance: continuous for-
mulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
11.4.1.3 Minimization of the distance: discrete formu-
lation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
11.4.1.4 Pixel-wise intensity increments . . . . . . . . 218
11.4.1.5 Expression of the discrete gradient . . . . . . 219
11.4.2 Metric minimization for TMO optimization . . . . . . 219
11.4.2.1 Dynamic range independent metrics (DRIM) 220
11.4.2.2 Preprocessing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
11.4.2.3 Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
11.5 Final remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
 xv

12 Stereoscopic 3D cinema 227

12.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
12.2 Depth perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
12.2.1 Monocular depth cues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
12.2.2 Binocular depth cues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
12.2.3 Integrating depth cues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
12.3 Making S3D cinema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
12.3.1 3D animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
12.3.2 2D-to-3D conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
12.3.3 Stereoscopic shooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
12.4 Parallax and convergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
12.5 Camera baseline and focal length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
12.6 Estimating the depth map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
12.7 Changing the baseline/synthesizing a new view . . . . . . . . 241
12.8 Changing the focus and the depth of field . . . . . . . . . . . 243
12.9 Factors of visual discomfort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

13 Color matching for stereoscopic cinema 247

13.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
13.2 Related work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
13.3 The algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
13.4 Morphing the target image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
13.5 Aligning the histograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
13.6 Propagating the colors to unmatched pixels . . . . . . . . . . 251
13.7 Examples and comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

14 Inpainting 255
14.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
14.2 Video inpainting for specific problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
14.3 Video inpainting in a general setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
14.4 Video inpainting for stereoscopic 3D cinema . . . . . . . . . 262
14.4.1 Stereoscopic inpainting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
14.4.2 Inpainting occlusions in stereo views . . . . . . . . . . 264
14.5 Final remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Bibliography 267

Index 297
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Part I

Lights

1
This page intentionally left blank
Chapter 1
Light and color

1.1 Light as color stimulus

We live immersed in electromagnetic fields, surrounded by radiation of
natural origin or produced by artifacts made by humans. This radiation has
a dual behavior of wave and particle, where the particles can be considered
as packets of electromagnetic waves. Waves are characterized by their wave-
length, the distance between two consecutive peaks. Of all the radiation that
continuously reaches our eyes, we are only able to see (i.e. our retina pho-
toreceptors are only sensitive to) electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths
within the range of 380nm to 740nm (a nm or nanometer is one-billionth of
a meter). We are not able to see radiation outside this band, such us ultra-
violet radiation (wavelength of 10nm to 400nm) or FM radio (wavelengths
near 1m). Therefore, light is defined as radiation with wavelengths within the
visible spectrum of 380nm to 740nm. Figure 1.1 shows the full spectrum of ra-
diation with a detail of the visible light spectrum. The sun emits full-spectrum
radiation, including gamma rays and ultraviolet and infrared “light,” which
of course have an effect on our bodies even if we are not able to see them.

FIGURE 1.1: Electromagnetic spectrum and visible light.

The frequency of a wave is its number of cycles per second; all electromag-

3
4 Image Processing for Cinema

netic waves travel at the same speed, the speed of light (c in the vacuum),
therefore the wavelength of a wave is inversely proportional to its frequency.
Shorter wavelengths imply higher frequencies and also higher energies. When
we look at a single isolated light, if it has short wavelength we perceive it as
blue, if it has middle-length wavelength we see it as green, and if it has long
wavelength it appears to us as red. But we must stress that light in itself is
not colored (there are no different kinds of photons), color is a perceptual
quantity: for instance, the same light that appears red when isolated may ap-
pear yellow when it is surrounded by other lights. So the light stimulus at a
given location in the retina is not enough to determine the color appearance
it will produce; nonetheless, it must be characterized since it constitutes the
input to our visual system and therefore what color appearance will depend
on. Among other ways, light stimuli can be described by radiometry, which
measures light in energy units and does not consider the properties of our
visual system, and by colorimetry, which reduces the multi-valued radiomet-
ric spectrum of a light stimulus to three values describing the effect of the
stimulus in the three types of cone receptors in the retina [298].
With a radiometric approach, the properties of a light emitting source are
described by its power spectrum function I(λ), the irradiance, which states for
each wavelength λ the amount of power I the light has. The light absorption
properties of a surface are described by its reflectance R(λ), which for each
wavelength λ states the percentage of photons that are reflected by the surface.
When we see a surface, the light that is reflected by it and reaches our eyes is
called radiance and its power spectrum E(λ) is the product of the spectrum
functions for the incident light and the reflectance function of the surface:
E(λ) = I(λ) × R(λ). (1.1)
Figure 1.2 shows the irradiance functions of several light emitting sources,
and Figure 1.3 shows the reflectances of some patches of different colors. From
these figures and Equation 1.1 we can see that when we illuminate a red
patch (Figure 1.3(a)) with sunlight (Figure 1.2(a)) we get from the patch a
radiance E with its power concentrated in the longest wavelengths, which as
we mentioned corresponds to our sensation of red.
The human retina has photoreceptor neurons, with colored pigments.
These pigments have their particular photon absorption properties as a func-
tion of wavelength, and absorbed photons generate chemical reactions that
produce electrical impulses, which are then processed at the retina and later
at the visual cortex in the brain. The sensitivity of the pigments depends on
the luminance of the light, which is a measure of the light’s power, formally
defined as intensity per unit area in a given direction. We have two types of
phororeceptors:
– Rods, for low and mid-low luminances (at high luminances they are
active but saturated). There are some 120 million of them.
– Cones, which have pigments that are 500 times less sensitive to light
 Light and color 5

FIGURE 1.2: Spectral power distribution of various common types of illu-

minations: (a) sunlight, (b) tungsten light, (c) fluorescent light, and (d) LED.
Figure from [239].

than the rods’ pigment, rhodopsin. Therefore, cones work only with
high luminances; at low luminances they are not active. There are some
6 million of them, most of them very densely concentrated at the fovea,
the center of the retina.
There are three types of cones: S-cones, M-cones and L-cones, where the
capital letters stand for “short,” “medium” and “long” wavelengths, respec-
tively. Hubel [203] points out that three is the minimum number of types of
cones that allow us not to confuse any monochromatic light with white light.
People who lack one type of cone do perceive certain colors as gray. Frisby
and Stone [178] mention that while there are several animal species with more
than three types of color receptors, which can then tell apart different shades
of color that we humans perceive as equal, this probably comes at the price
of less visual acuity, for there are more cones to be accomodated in the same
retinal area. Low luminance or scotopic vision, mediated only by rods, is there-
6 Image Processing for Cinema

FIGURE 1.3: Spectral reflectance of various colored patches: (a) red patch,
(b) blue patch, (c) yellow patch, and (d) gray patch. Figure from [239].

fore color-less. In a low-medium range of luminances, the so-called mesopic

vision, both rods and cones are active, and this is what happens in a typi-
cal movie theatre [86]. In high-luminance or photopic vision cones are active
and the rods are saturated. Each sort of cone photoreceptor has a spectral
absorbance function describing its sensitivity to light as a function of wave-
length: s(λ), m(λ), l(λ). These curves were first determined experimentally by
König in the late 19th century. The sensitivity curves are quite broad, almost
extending over the whole visible spectrum, but they are bell-shaped and they
peak at distinct wavelengths: S-cones at 420nm, M-cones at 533nm and L-
cones at 584nm; see Figure 1.4. These three wavelength values correspond to
monochromatic blue, green and red light, respectively.
With the colorimetric approach, the sensation produced in the eye by
radiance E(λ) (the stimulus of a light of power spectrum E(λ)) is determined
by a triplet of values, called the tristimulus values, given by the integral over
 Light and color 7

FIGURE 1.4: Cone sensitivities (normalized). Figure from [19].

the visible spectrum of the product of the radiance by each of the three cone
sensitivity functions:

Z 740
L= l(λ)E(λ)dλ
380
Z 740
M= m(λ)E(λ)dλ
380
Z 740
S= s(λ)E(λ)dλ. (1.2)
380

1.2 Matching colors

If two lights with different spectra E1 (λ) and E2 (λ) produce the same
tristimulus vector (L, M, S), then both lights are producing the same cone
responses and (if viewed in isolation) we will see them as having the same
color. Lights with different spectra that appear to have the same color are
called metamers (lights with the same spectra always appear to have the
same color and are called isomers [214]).
Expressing Equation 1.2 in discrete terms, it will be easy to see that each
light has many metamers:
8 Image Processing for Cinema

740
X
L= l(λi )E(λi )
i=380
740
X
M= m(λi )E(λi )
i=380
740
X
S= s(λi )E(λi ), (1.3)
i=380

which, arranged into matrix form, becomes:

 
L
M  = SE, (1.4)
S
where S is a 3×361 matrix whose rows are the (discrete) cone sensitivities,
and E is the radiance spectrum expressed as a column vector. Equation 1.4 is
a (very) undetermined system of equations, with only three equations for the
361 unknowns of the radiance vector, and therefore for every light E1 there
will be many lights E2 producing the same tristimulus (L, M, S), i.e. many
metamers.
From Equation 1.4 we can also derive the property of trichromacy, which
is a fundamental property of human color vision: simply put, it means that
we can generate any color by mixing three given colors, merely adjusting the
amount of each. In his excellent account of the origins of color science, Mollon
[276] explains how this was a known fact and how it was already applied in
the 18th century, for printing in full color using only three types of colored
ink. Trichromacy is due to our having three types of cone photoreceptors in
the retina, therefore we must remark that it is not a property of light but
a property of our visual system. This was not known in the 18th century:
light sensation was supposed to be transmitted directly along the nerves, so
trichromacy was thought to be a physical characteristic of the light. Thomas
Young was the first to explain, in 1801, that the variable associated with color
in light is the wavelength and, since it varies continously, the trichromacy
must be imposed by the visual system and hence there must be three kind of
receptors in the eye. He was also the first to realize that visible light is simply
radiation within a certain waveband, and radiation with freqencies outside
this range was not visible but could be felt as heat.
Following the approach in [341], we can take any three primaries of spectra
Pi ,i=1,2,3, as long as they are colorimetrically independent, meaning that
none of the three lights can be matched in color by a combination of the other
two lights. Let P be a N × 3 matrix whose columns are Pi . Given a stimulus
light of power spectrum E, we compute the following three-element vector w:
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without the support of 'society.' His success demonstrated the
feasibility of such an enterprise and gave an impetus to the growth
of public interest in opera, of which others are now reaping the
benefit. He was rather unfortunate in his repertory, but he was more
fortunate in his selection of artists. Among them were Melba, Calvé,
Regina Pinkert, Bressler-Gianoli, Giannina Russ, Eleanora de
Cisneros, Allessandro Bonci, Maurice Renaud, the greatest of French
baritones, Charles Dalmorès, Charles Gilibert, Mario Ancona and
Vittorio Arimondi. He was additionally fortunate in securing Cleofonte
Campanini as conductor.

For his second season Mr. Hammerstein added to his forces Lillian
Nordica, Mary Garden, Emma Trentini, Alice Zeppilli, Ernestine
Schumann-Heink, Jeanne Gerville-Réache, Giovanni Zenatello,
Amadeo Bassi, Mario Sammarco, Hector Dufranne, Adamo Didur, and
several others of lesser note, besides retaining his principals of the
preceding season, with the exception of Calvé and Bonci. Before the
season closed he also presented Luisa Tetrazzini. The first production
in America of Charpentier's Louise and Debussy's Pelléas et
Mélisande were notable results of a new policy which was to make
the Manhattan Opera House par excellence the home of French
opera in New York. Other French operas on the list for the same
season were Carmen, Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust, Offenbach's
Les Contes d'Hoffmann, a revival, Gounod's Faust, and Massenet's
Thaïs and La Navarraise. The Italian list departed from the
hackneyed a little by the inclusion of Giordano's Siberia and Andrea
Chénier and of the Ricci brothers' Crispino e la Comare.

After the resignation of Mr. Conried from the Metropolitan, Giulio

Gatti-Casazza and Andreas Dippel were appointed managers. The
former had been director of La Scala in Milan, and the latter for
several years had been a prominent and versatile member of the
Metropolitan company. Apparently the design in conjoining them was
to give equal representation to the Italian and German sides of the
house. The results for the season 1908-9 were very pleasing and
there was a good admixture of Italian and German operas, without
any startling revolution in the general character of the repertory. The
novelties were d'Albert's Tiefland, Smetana's Die Verkaufte Braut,
Catalini's La Wally, and Puccini's Le Villi, while there were revivals of
Massenet's Manon, Mozart's Nozze di Figaro, and Verdi's Falstaff.
The most notable addition to the Metropolitan forces was Arturo
Toscanini, who came from La Scala as conductor of Italian opera.
Hertz and Mahler remained as conductors of German opera, though
Toscanini led performances of Götterdämmerung and Tristan und
Isolde with apparent gusto and brilliant success. Among the new
singers were Emmy Destinn, Frances Alda, Bernice di Pasquali,
Marion Flahaut, Pasquale Amato, Adamo Didur, and Carl Jörn.

In the same season Mr. Hammerstein brought forward a number of

interesting novelties, including Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila,
Massenet's Le Jongleur de Notre Dame, and the Princesse d'Auberge
of Jan Blockx. He also had the hardihood to produce Salome, and its
success seems to indicate that the squeamishness of New York's
moral stomach had, by some strange process, entirely disappeared.
Except for Otello there was nothing else of particular interest in his
list. During the season of 1909-10 he produced Strauss's Electra and
Massenet's Hérodiade, Grisélidis, and Sappho. In addition he made
experiments with opéra comique, presenting Maillart's Les Dragons
de Villars, Planquette's Les Cloches de Corneville, Audran's La
Mascotte, Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment, and Lecocq's La Fille de
Madame Angot. The most notable acquisitions to his forces in this
season were Madame Mazarin, a French dramatic soprano of fine
talent, Lina Cavalieri, and John McCormack, the Irish lyric tenor. He
no longer had the services of Campanini, his principal conductor
being the Belgian de la Fuente. After the close of the season he sold
out to the Metropolitan interests and entered into an agreement with
them not to give grand opera in New York city for ten years.

The season of 1909-10 at the Metropolitan had a number of unusual

features. The most prominent of them was the appearance of a
Russian troupe of dancers headed by Anna Pavlova and Mikail
Mordkin. Another departure was a series of performances at the
New Theatre, a beautiful house originally designed to give drama
under somewhat the same auspices as prevailed at the Metropolitan.
The operas given at the New Theatre were, on the whole, works of a
light and intimate character, such as Fra Diavolo, La Fille de Madame
Angot, Flotow's Stradella, Lortzing's Czar und Zimmermann and
Pergolesi's[?] Il Maestro di Capella. Nineteen operas, three ballets,
and a pantomime were presented at this house. At the Metropolitan
thirty-seven were produced, the chief novelties being Franchetti's
Germania, Tschaikowsky's Pique Dame, Frederick S. Converse's 'Pipe
of Desire' (the first production of an American opera at the
Metropolitan), and Bruneau's L'Attaque du Moulin. There was a
splendid revival of Gluck's Orfeo ed Eurydice under Toscanini.

After the close of the season Mr. Dippel left the Metropolitan to
assume the direction of the Chicago-Philadelphia Opera Company,
which was formed chiefly of artists from Mr. Hammerstein's
disbanded forces. During the season of 1910-11 he gave a
subscription series of French operas at the Metropolitan on Tuesday
evenings from January to April. The novelties of the series were
Victor Herbert's Natoma, Wolff-Ferrari's Il Segreto di Susanna, and
Jean Nougues' Quo Vadis? The regular Metropolitan season saw the
first production on any stage of Puccini's La Fanciulla del West and
Humperdinck's Königskinder, in the presence of their respective
composers. Dukas' Ariane et Barbe-Bleue had its American première
and there was also a brilliant revival of Gluck's Armide.

The seasons of 1911-12, 1912-13, and 1913-14 at the Metropolitan

have been notable chiefly for the first performance in America of
Horatio W. Parker's 'Mona,' which was awarded the prize offered by
the Metropolitan directors for the best opera by an American
composer. Thuille's Lobetanz, Wolff-Ferrari's Le Donne Curiose, Leo
Blech's Versiegelt, Walter Damrosch's Cyrano de Bergerac, Victor
Herbert's Madeleine, Moussorgsky's Boris Godounoff, Strauss's
Rosenkavalier, Charpentier's Julien, Montemezzi's L'Amore dei tre re,
and Wolf-Ferrari's L'Amore medico were the other novelties. Among
the new singers engaged for those seasons were Lydia Lipkowska,
Frieda Hempel, Margarete Ober, Lucrezia Bori, Margarete
Matzenauer, Hermann Jadlowker, Leo Slezak, Carl Burrian, Jacques
Urlus, Hermann Weil, Heinrich Hensel, and Giovanni Martinelli.
During 1914-15 Melanie Kurt, Wagnerian soprano, and Elisabeth
Schumann were added to the list of singers, and the novelties were
Giordano's Madame Sans-Gêne and Leoni's L'Oracolo. The season's
sensation was a revival of Carmen with Farrar.

In 1913 a project was launched through the initiative of the City

Club of New York to establish a regular stock opera company which
would provide good opera at popular prices. The project was
supported by the Metropolitan directors—especially by Otto H. Kahn,
chairman of the board—and a guarantee was secured sufficient to
cover any deficit which the company might suffer in the beginning.
As there was considerable doubt whether New York would support
opera in English it was decided to make the experiment of giving
operas in their original language and in English on different nights.
Messrs. Milton and Sargent Aborn were entrusted with the
management of the new enterprise and they were assisted
materially by the coöperation of the Metropolitan in the matter of
scenery and other accessories. The company was selected on the
principle of securing a good, well-balanced ensemble and avoiding
any approach to the 'star' system.

Rarely has an operatic enterprise been launched under more

favorable auspices. It had the enthusiastic and unanimous
endorsement of the press, the lively interest of the public, the
backing of many of the wealthiest and most influential men in New
York, as well as the quasi-official support of the city itself through
the City Club. Finally, it was installed in the beautiful Century
(formerly New) Theatre. Naturally, its first season was to a large
extent an experiment and there was every reason to suppose that
the faults disclosed would quickly be remedied. But the Century
enterprise quickly succeeded in proving two very important facts,
viz., that there is in New York a large public eager for good opera at
popular prices and that this public wants opera in the English
language.

The season was not far advanced before it became apparent that
what we may call the Opera-in-English nights were more extensively
patronized than the performances of operas in their original
language, and the management accordingly reduced the
performances in a foreign language to one a week. The success of
the enterprise was sufficiently indicated by the public demand which
was so unexpectedly great—especially for the cheaper seats—that
after the close of the season the capacity of the house had to be
increased to 1,800 seats.

The répertoire of the Century Opera Company during its first season
included Aïda, La Gioconda, 'Tales of Hoffmann,' Il Trovatore, Thaïs,
Louise, Faust, La Tosca, Lucia, 'Samson and Delilah,' 'Madam
Butterfly,' 'The Bohemian Girl,' 'Romeo and Juliet,' Rigoletto, 'Haensel
and Gretel,' Cavalleria rusticana, Pagliacci, Manon, Lohengrin, 'The
Secret of Suzanne,' 'The Jewels of the Madonna,' Tiefland, 'Martha,'
and 'Natoma.' The conductors were Alfred Szendrei and Carlo
Nicosia. For its season of 1914-15 the Century considerably
strengthened its forces, and particularly the orchestra, and it added
a number of experienced singers to its roll. Most of its artists, it may
be remarked, were Americans. The new conductors were Agide
Jacchia, late of the Montreal Opera Company, and Ernst Knoch, who
was formerly assistant to Richter, Bolling and others at Bayreuth.
Jacques Coini, probably the most artistic stage director New York has
had in connection with opera, was engaged in that capacity by the
Century Company. The répertoire was largely that of the first season
with the addition of La Bohème, 'Carmen,' and 'William Tell.' Of the
entire list, ten were chosen by popular vote. Altogether the quality of
the performances was considerably improved, most of the crudities
of the first season being eliminated. But financially the enterprise,
like all preceding efforts in the same direction, was not successful
and the general support did not warrant the continuance of Mr.
Kahn's subsidy, and consequently performances were suspended in
the spring of 1915. Some sort of revival of the enterprise is devoutly
to be hoped for.

W. D. D.
 FOOTNOTES:
[38] This was Manuel del Popolo Vicente García, father of Manuel García, the
famous teacher, and of Maria Felicita García, who became Madame Malibran.

[39] Da Ponte was the first professor of Italian at Columbia University, though he
bore the title only by courtesy. He really did valuable work in promoting the study
of Italian literature, particularly of Dante, in this country. His part in the promotion
of Italian opera in New York was also far from a small one, as we shall see.

[40] Translated and quoted by Dr. Ritter, op. cit., Chap. X.

[41] William Michael Rooke was the son of a Dublin tradesman named Rourke or
O'Rourke and was to a large extent a self-taught musician. For a time he taught
the violin and pianoforte in Dublin—among his pupils on the former instrument
being Balfe—and later he was chorus-master at Drury Lane under Tom Cooke,
leader at Vauxhall under Sir Henry Bishop, and a conductor of oratorios at
Birmingham. 'Amalie' was produced with success at Covent Garden in 1837.

[42] The operas given during Palmo's first season were Bellini's I Puritani, Beatrice
di Tenda, and La Sonnambula; Donizetti's Belisario and L'Elisir d'Amore; and
Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia and L'Italiana in Algieri. During the second season
were given Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Lucrezia Borgia, and Belisario;
Rossini's Sémiramide and La Cenerentola; Bellini's Il Pirata; and Luigi Ricci's Chiara
de Rosenberg.

[43] The novelties were Strakosch's Giovanna di Napoli and Donizetti's Parisina
and Maria di Rohan, while there was an oasis in the desert in the shape of
Freischütz. When his lease at the Astor Place house expired Maretzek continued
his operatic career in a more or less irregular way at Castle Garden and Niblo's. He
produced Verdi's Luisa Miller for the first time in America at the former place and
at the latter he introduced Meyerbeer's Prophète.

[44] Bergmann became conductor of the Arion in 1859. The society was formed in
1854 by seceding members from the Deutscher Liederkranz.
[45] Campanini, in the opinion of Philip Hale, was a greater tenor than either de
Reszke, de Lucia, or Tamagno. He was a brother of Cleofonte Campanini, recently
musical director of the Chicago Opera Company. Nilsson came here in 1870, after
having made a big reputation in Europe. A winsome personality and a voice of
sweet quality, great compass, and even register, but of moderate power, were her
chief assets. 'Elsa,' 'Margaret,' 'Mignon,' and 'Donna Elvira' were her most
successful rôles.

[46] Offenbach has described his American experiences in his Notes d'un musicien
en voyage, 1877.

[47] There is, of course, no intention of belittling the splendid operatic

achievements which followed the action of these gentlemen in founding the
Metropolitan company. But we have serious grounds for questioning the ultimate
value of an artistic enterprise undertaken by a group of financiers as a sort of
luxurious toy.

[48] Nicolini was Patti's husband and she refused to sing when he was not also
engaged. There is a story that she had two prices: one for herself alone and
another about 25 per cent. less for herself and Nicolini.

[49] Niemann sang Siegmund at the first Bayreuth festival.

[50] Francesco Tamagno was to a large extent a one-part tenor. He created the
title rôle in Otello, and in that rôle he has never been surpassed.

[51] We have the authority of Mr. H. E. Krehbiel, who is our guide for much of this
chapter.
 CHAPTER VII
OPERA IN THE UNITED STATES. PART II

San Francisco's operatic experiences—New Orleans and its opera

house—Philadelphia; influence of New Orleans, New York, etc.;
The Academy of Music—Chicago's early operatic history; the
Chicago-Philadelphia company; Boston—Comic opera in New York
and elsewhere.

I
During the greater part of the nineteenth century New York was
unquestionably the metropolis of opera in America, and to trace
operatic performances outside that city is a complicated and difficult
undertaking. Generally speaking, other cities obtained their opera by
grace of visiting companies from New York and, on the whole, that
grace was not abundant. Exception must be made in the case of
New Orleans and San Francisco. The latter city never enjoyed what
might be called a permanent operatic institution such as was familiar
to New York from the days of da Ponte, but it had the advantage of
frequent visits from opera troupes on their way to and from Mexico.

The first opera given in San Francisco, as far as we can discover, was
Ernani, which was produced by George Lover in 1853. Later,
attempts to establish Italian opera there were made by Lanzoni and
Lamperti. In 1857 Signor and Signora Bianchi gave a season with a
very good company and in opposition to another company brought
together by Thomas Maguire. Those were the days of flowing gold in
California, when the raw yellow metal was thrown on the stage in
moments of enthusiastic appreciation. It cannot be said that artistic
conditions were ideal. Madame Anna Bishop was in San Francisco in
1858-59, but she seems to have taken part only in operatic concerts.
A Spanish opera company and a company known as the Bianchi
Troupe appeared at the old Metropolitan Theatre in the early sixties,
producing Norma, La Sonnambula, La Favorita, Belisario, Linda di
Chamouni, Ernani, Nabucco, Il Trovatore, and other works of the
same type. La Traviata was produced at a benefit for Signora
Brambilla in 1866 and three years later Parepa Rosa appeared in
Don Pasquale. In 1870 there were three opera companies playing
San Francisco at about the same time. Alice Oates' Popular Opera
Bouffe Company gave La Périchole, Petit Duke, La Fille de Madame
Angot, and Giroflé-Girofla with great success, while similar works
were presented by a French company with Marie Aimée. At the Bijou
Theatre Campobello's troupe gave Il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Favorita,
and other compositions of the same school. In the same year
Theodor Wachtel, the famous coachman tenor, appeared—
presumably in Le Postillon de Lonjumeau—and Mme. Mez Fabbri also
gave a series of operas.

For several years following we can find no definite information about

opera in San Francisco beyond the fact that Mme. Zeiss-Dennis, the
famous contralto, made operatic appearances during the early
seventies. In 1876-77 Marie Rose, Annie Louise Cary, and Clara
Louise Kellogg gave English representations of Carmen and Die
Zauberflöte, and in 1878 the two last-named appeared in a season
of opera at the Baldwin Theatre. At the same theatre earlier in the
latter year Catherine Lewis sang in opéra bouffe of the Giroflé-Girofla
type. The redoubtable Colonel Mapleson brought Her Majesty's
Opera Company to San Francisco in 1881, and in the following year
the Emma Juch Opera Company gave a season at Baldwin's Theatre.
Mme. Eugénie Pappenheim, whom we have already met in New
York, appeared with the German and Italian Opera Company in
1884, and in 1884-85 there was a season of light opera at the Tivoli
Theatre, among the operas produced being 'Little Red Riding Hood,'
Boccaccio, and 'H. M. S. Pinafore.' The appearances of Etelka
Gerster, Adelina Patti, and Emma Abbott were other features of
operatic life in San Francisco in 1884.

From this time on San Francisco enjoyed opera in large quantity and
of occasionally high quality. Light opera was especially in evidence,
with the Tivoli Theatre as its favorite home. Offenbach's 'The
Georgians,' as well as Lucia di Lammermoor, 'Martha,' 'Cinderella,'
'The Mikado,' 'Nanon,' 'Nell Gwynne,' 'Olivette,' 'The Three
Guardsmen,' and 'Princess Ida' were produced in 1885. In the same
year Amalia Materna, Emma Nevada, and Sofia Scalchi made their
San Francisco débuts. The ill-fated National Opera Company and
Emma Abbott's troupe were the chief purveyors of opera in 1887.
The latter remained for a few years. In 1889 came Paston and
Canteli's Madrid Spanish Opera Company, which produced Il grand
Mogul, La Mascota, Galatea, Il Ballo in Maschera, Il Trovatore, and
La Zaroule. Tamagno in Otello was the most noteworthy event of
1890, and 1891 is remarkable for the appearance of a Jewish opera
troupe which gave operas in the Jewish language. There is nothing
particular to record for the years 1892, 1893, 1894, and 1895. The
presence of the Tavery Opera Company was the chief event of 1896,
while in 1897 the predominant feature was the appearance of
Puccini's Opera Company in La Bohème, La Traviata, Cavalleria
rusticana, Faust, and other works.

The subsequent history of opera in San Francisco is chiefly the

recital of visits by opera troupes from various quarters. Apart from
the Emma Abbott Opera Company, which was more or less a fixture,
there has been no permanent operatic organization there; but San
Francisco is an eager supporter of opera and has never lacked a
generous supply of it. Comic opera has been especially well
supported and the Tivoli Theatre has perhaps seen more of that
form of entertainment than any other house in the United States.
 II
In New Orleans during the first half of the nineteenth century opera
flourished with a brilliance unknown elsewhere in America. The
Louisiana city was, as we have pointed out, an American Paris, and
the best operatic artists of the French capital appeared there in
works selected from the current Parisian répertoire. The opera house
was the centre of social, artistic, and musical New Orleans. It was an
institution with a tradition and an atmosphere. The brilliant and
cultured Creole society lent to it the glamour which only society can
give, but it was not dependent upon social support in the same
sense as the successive New York opera houses were dependent on
such support. It was a popular institution; it was an integral part of
the life of the city; it was a source at once of pride and pleasure to
the humblest citizen. And to a certain extent it remains so still.

The father of opera in New Orleans, as we have already pointed out,

was John Davis, who built the Théâtre d'Orléans in 1816. This
theatre was remodeled in 1845 and was destroyed by fire in 1866.
Its glory, however, had departed several years previous to the latter
date and had passed over to the New French Opera House, erected
by the New Orleans Opera-House Association in 1859. The moving
spirit in the new enterprise was M. Boudousquie, who became its
manager. M. Parlange tried a season of opera at the Théâtre
d'Orléans in 1859-60, but without success, and the old house then
fell into disuse. Its history, however, had been a brilliant one. For
over forty years it had maintained a standard of artistic excellence
unsurpassed in America and not far below that of the best European
opera houses. Its ensembles, both vocal and instrumental, were
exceptionally good—notably so, indeed, in a period when operatic
stars were too conspicuously in the ascendant. True, its repertory
was never remarkable either for its novelty or for its eclecticism. But
that was a fault only too common to opera houses both here and
abroad during the first half of the nineteenth century. The list of
operas presented at the Théâtre d'Orléans between 1825 and 1860
would be too long to quote here, but it may be mentioned that
during that time New Orleans heard the following operas for the first
time: Le Barbier de Séville, La Maette de Portici, Fra Diavolo, Robert
le Diable, L'Éclair (Halévy), Sémiramide, Les Huguenots, La
Sonnambula, Zanetta (Auber), Lucia di Lammermoor, La Esmeralda
(Prévost), Beatrice di Tenda, Il Furioso, L'Elisir d'Amore, Norma,
Guillaume Tell, La Favorita, La Fille du Régiment, La Juive, Lucrecia
Borgia, I Puritani (in Italian), Belisario (in Italian), La Reine de
Chypre, Der Freischütz, Les Martyrs, Charles VI (Halévy), Jérusalem
(Verdi), Le Prophète, Le Caïd (Thomas), Les Deux Foscari, Les
Montenégrins (Limmander), La Gazza Ladra, Tancredi, Othello
(Rossini), Moses (Rossini), Don Giovanni, Marguérite d'Anjou
(Meyerbeer), La Vestale (Spontini), L'Étoile du Nord, Il Trovatore,
Ernani, Jaguarita (Halévy), Martha and Rigoletto. Of these Il Furioso,
L'Elisir d'Amore, Les Martyrs and Le Prophète were given for the first
time in America.

M. Boudousquie opened the New Orleans Opera House with a

brilliant company which included Mathieu (tenor), Melchisedes
(baritone), Genebrel (basso), and Feitlinger (soprano). He presented
Le Pardon de Ploërmel for the first time in New Orleans and put on a
number of operas already familiar to the city, including Rigoletto,
with the novice Patti in the rôle of Gilda. The war naturally killed all
operatic activities for the time being. Subsequently the New Orleans
Opera House was reopened with a strolling company managed by
the Alhaiza brothers. In 1866 a splendid company gathered together
by the Alhaizas in France was drowned on the voyage to America in
the wreck of the Evening Star. A surviving brother opened with an
Italian troupe, and since then the New Orleans Opera House has
continued its functions, with occasional interruptions, per varios
casus per tot discrimina rerum. Italian, German and English
companies have been heard there from time to time, but on the
whole it has remained a thoroughly French house directed by French
managers and presenting opera in the French tongue. Its principal
artists have been selected from among the best on the
contemporary French stage and have included many singers of
world-wide reputation. For years it has been the custom of the
house to change its singers every season, and on that account it
would be impossible to enumerate here the list of distinguished
artists who have appeared on its boards. Mention may be made,
however, of such well-known names as Devoyed, Durnestre, Ambre,
Tournie, Levelli, Pical, Michat, Orlius, Etelka Gerster, Fursch-Madi,
Paulin, Baux, Mounier, Deo, Feodor, Albers and Maurice Renaud. The
following operas have been given in New Orleans for the first time
from 1866 to 1914, inclusive: Crispino e la Comare, Faust, Un Ballo
in Maschera, Petrella's Ione, Linda di Chamouni, L'Africaine,
Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, Donizetti's Don Sebastian, Der fliegende
Holländer, Lohengrin (in Italian), Fidelio (in Italian), Tannhäuser (in
Italian), Aïda, Carmen, Mefistofele (in Italian), Paul et Virginie,
Mireille (in Italian), Les Petits Mousquetaires (first time in America),
Planquette's Rip Van Winkle, Gounod's Le Tribut de Zamora (first
time in America), Thomas's Le Songe d'une nuit d'eté, Lalo's Le roi
d'Ys (first time in America), Le Cid, Sigurd (first time in America),
Cavalleria rusticana (in English), Hérodiade (first time in America),
Samson et Dalila (first time in America), Lakmé, Esclarmonde (first
time in America), Manon, Les Pécheurs de Perles, Werther (first time
in America), Salvayre's Richard III (first time in America), Die
Walküre (in German), Siegfried (in German), Tristan und Isolde (in
German), Die Götterdämmerung (in German), La Navarraise,
Benvenuto Cellini, I Pagliacci, La Reine de Saba (first time in
America), Reyer's Salammbo (first time in America), Godard's La
Vivandière, La Vie de Bohême, La Giaconda, Cendrillon (first time in
America), Messaline, Verdi's Otello (in English), Tosca (in English),
Parsifal (in German), Siberia (first time in America), L'Amico Fritz,
Cilea's Adrienne Lecouvreur (first time in America), Madam Butterfly
(in English), Fedora (in Italian), Louise, Le Jongleur de Notre Dame,
Hänsel und Gretel, Thaïs, L'Attaque du Moulin, Leroux's Le
Chemineau (first time in America), Don Quichotte (first time in
America), Quo Vadis, Sappho, Saint-Saëns' Phryne, and Bizet's
L'Arlésienne (first time in America).
 III
Historically the French opera in New Orleans is of great importance
for its influence on the operatic development of other cities. This is
especially true of Philadelphia, which was introduced to opera by the
New Orleans organization in 1827. Philadelphia, of course, was
already familiar with the English ballad opera and it had heard a
diluted English version of Der Freischütz in 1825, but of opera in its
real sense it was still quite innocent. The New Orleans company
which appeared at the Chestnut Street Theatre in 1827 returned
each succeeding season until 1834. The following list of operas
produced by them may be of interest: Le petit Chaperon rouge,
Joconde, Robin des Bois (Der Freischütz), Azema, La Dame blanche,
Le Maçon, Werther, Thérèse, Rendezvous bourgeois, Le Solitaire, La
fète du village voisin, Adolphe et Clare, Les voitures versées, Les
Visitandines, Le nouveau seigneur de village, Cendrillon, Les Folles
amoureuses, Aline, Moses in Egypt, La Vestale, Jean de Paris, Trente
ans de la vie d'un joueur, Fiorella, La Fiancée, Gulistan, La Caravane
de Cairo, La Dame du lac, Le Calife de Bagdad, Comte Ory, La
Muette de Portici, Fra Diavolo, Guillaume Tell, Le Barbier de Séville,
La Clochette, La Gazza Ladra, Le Petit Matelot, La pie Voleuse, La
Jeune Prude, Zampa, Jean, Rossignol, Le Philtre, La Tour de Nesle.
The Montressor Troupe, an Italian company, appeared at the
Chestnut Street Theatre in 1833 and gave Philadelphia its first taste
of Italian opera, presenting Il Pirata, Italiani in Algieri, La
Cenerentola, Rossini's Otello, and Mercadante's Elisa e Claudio.

The proximity of New York insured frequent visits of opera

companies from that city, and it may be said without exaggeration
that from this time forward New York was almost exclusively the
source of supply for opera in Philadelphia. So much is this so that to
follow the history of opera in the former city is practically to follow it
in the latter, except that New York was a base and Philadelphia a
visiting point. Opera in English by the Woods was a feature of the
Philadelphia season in 1843 and, in the following year, the Rivafinoli
Opera Troupe, which we have already met in New York, gave a
season of ten nights. Cimarosa's Matrimonio segreto was the most
interesting of their offerings. More opera in English by the Woods,
the Seguins, Caradori-Allan, Fanny Elssler, and others occupied
musical Philadelphia until 1845, the only break being a short season
in 1843 by an Italian company which presented Norma, Lucia di
Lammermoor, Belisario, I Puritani, and Gemma di Vergy. The New
Orleans company reappeared in 1845 with La Favorite, La Fille du
régiment, Robert le diable, Le Domino noir, La Muette de Portici,
L'Ambassadrice, La Juive, and Les Huguenots.

The Havana troupe, which we met in New York, regaled Philadelphia

in 1847 with Pacini's Saffo, Verdi's Ernani, I Lombardi and Due
Foscari, with Bettini's Romeo e Giuletta, with La Sonnambula, Mosé
in Egitto, Norma, and Linda di Chamouni. The Seguins still continued
to give opera in English. Sanquirico and Patti brought their company
from New York in 1848, without setting the Delaware on fire, though
they included Don Giovanni in their extended répertoire. They
remained in Philadelphia until 1851, when the Havana troupe
appeared with a splendid company, including Bosio, Bertucca, Salvi,
and Marini. The only novelty produced by the Havana company was
Don Pasquale, but their performances were artistically the finest that
had been heard in Philadelphia. In 1852 the Seguins produced
Verdi's Luisa Miller for the first time in America. Both Albani and
Sontag appeared in Philadelphia in 1853 with the old Rossini-Bellini-
Donizetti program, and a similar repertory secured the appearances
of Grisi and Mario in 1855. Il Trovatore was heard in 1856 with
Brignoli and Anna La Grange. Opera in English still continued under
various auspices.

An event in the operatic history of Philadelphia was the opening in

1857 of the Academy of Music, which continued to be the home of
opera in that city until Oscar Hammerstein built his Philadelphia
Opera House in 1908. It was erected by a company promoted and
organized by most of the wealthy and socially prominent residents of
Philadelphia. The first year of its existence was rendered interesting
by the visit of a German company headed by Mme. Johannsen,
which gave Der Freischütz, Fidelio, Auber's Le Maçon, and Lortzing's
Czar und Zimmermann. There was Italian opera of the usual sort
aplenty in that and the succeeding year. The winsome Piccolomini
made her Philadelphia début in 1859 and additional variety was
introduced into the same year by the production of Le Nozze di
Figaro, Don Giovanni, Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona, Meyerbeer's Les
Huguenots and Robert le diable, Verdi's I Vespri Siciliani, and
Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. Ronconi, Carl Formes (somewhat passé),
and Adelina Patti-Strakosch were the most notable artists—apart
from Piccolomini. A French company gave Offenbach's La Chatte
Métamorphosée and other comic operas in 1860 and the following
year saw the first production in Philadelphia of Verdi's Un Ballo in
Maschera and Massé's Les Noces de Jeanette. Meyerbeer's Dinorah
was a novelty of 1862.

The German company with Madame Johannsen reappeared in 1863

and 1864, and to musical Philadelphia it must have come like the
first breeze of autumn after a parching summer. Its répertoire
included Martha, Der Freischütz, Le Maçon, Kreutzer's Nachtlager in
Granada, Fidelio, Die Zauberflöte, Lortzing's Der Wildschütz,
Boieldieu's Jean de Paris, Flotow's Stradella, Mozart's Die Entführung
aus dem Serail, and Le Nozze di Figaro, Méhul's Joseph, Adam's Le
Postillon de Lonjumeau, Nicolai's Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor,
Spohr's Jessonda, Gounod's Mireille, as well as Don Giovanni, Faust,
and Tannhäuser. At least seven of these were complete novelties to
Philadelphia. The Italians continued in force with Clara Louise
Kellogg, Bellini, Zucchi, and others. Petrella's Ione was a novelty of
1863 and in 1864 'Notre Dame of Paris,' by the American composer
W. H. Fry, was produced under the leadership of Theodore Thomas.
In 1865 La Forza del Destino appeared and in 1866 L'Africaine,
Crispino e la Comare, and L'Étoile du Nord.

Balfe's 'The Rose of Castile,' Auber's La Fiancée, Eichberg's 'Doctor

of Alcantara,' Wallace's 'Maritana,' and other works were given in
English by Ritching's troupe in 1866 and 1867. Indeed, opera in
English persisted in Philadelphia as it has done nowhere else in
America. Italian opera continued on its usual course from year to
year without any achievements of special note. In 1868 and again in
1873, 1875, and 1879 there was an epidemic of opéra comique
during which Philadelphia heard La Grande Duchesse, La Belle
Hélène, Barbe-Bleue, La Périchole, Orphée aux Enfers, Les Bavards,
Monsieur Chaufleuri, Géneviève de Brabant, L'Œil Crève, Fleur de
Thé, La Vie Parisienne, Le Petit Faust, Les Cent Vierges, La Fille de
Madame Angot, and other works of that type. The first performance
of Gounod's Romeo et Juliette in 1868, Le Prophète in 1869,
Bristow's 'Rip Van Winkle' in 1870, Thomas's Mignon and Hamlet in
1872, Verdi's Aïda in 1873, Lohengrin in 1874, Der fliegende
Holländer in 1877, Rienzi and Carmen in 1878, and Boïto's
Mefistofele in 1881 may also be worthy of notice. During those years
Strakosch and Mapleson were the chief purveyors of opera to
Philadelphia, excepting, of course, the French troupes who were so
generous of opéra comique novelties. In 1882 the Boston Ideal
Opera Company, of which we shall have something to say later,
appeared at the Walnut Street Theatre presenting Fatinitza, 'The
Pirates of Penzance,' 'The Mascot,' Olivette, 'Czar and Carpenter,' 'H.
M. S. Pinafore,' and 'The Chimes of Normandy.' The Emma Abbott
Grand English Opera Company appeared in the same year, as did
Maurice Grau's French Opera Company.

From this time on Philadelphia was supplied with opera chiefly from
the Metropolitan in New York until Mr. Hammerstein built his
Philadelphia Opera House there in 1908 and presented the same
attractions as were heard at the Manhattan. After he sold out to the
Metropolitan interests the Chicago-Philadelphia Opera Company, of
which we shall speak later, catered to the operatic demands of the
Quaker city.

IV
Chicago, in spite of—or perhaps because of—its phenomenally rapid
growth, has only recently become an operatic city of any
importance. But one must not conclude that opera was unknown
there before the unlucky Mr. Hammerstein was compelled to forego
the organization which his genius had created and which formed the
nucleus of the Chicago Opera Company. Chicago, indeed, became
acquainted with opera while yet it was a city only in futuro, and it
continued to enjoy opera with more or less regularity during all the
succeeding years, though it lacked a permanent organization of its
own until fate and Mr. Hammerstein conspired to supply one.

The beginning of grand opera in Chicago has been traced by Mr.

Karleton Hackett, and his record of it furnishes interesting and rather
amusing reading.[52] Chicago in 1850 had a population of about
28,000 people and a theatre built and managed by J. B. Rice. Mr.
Rice was enterprising and an important result of his enterprise is
noticed in the Chicago 'Journal' of July 27, 1850, as follows: 'Mr.
Rice, ever ready to minister to the tastes of the public, has effected
an engagement with an opera troupe of acknowledged reputation
who will make their first appearance on Monday evening.

Among them are Mr. Manners and Miss Brienti, names already
familiar to many of our readers. This is a new feat in theatrical
entertainments and one which should meet with distinguished favor.'

Two nights later La Sonnambula formally introduced Chicago to the

'new feat in theatrical entertainments.' As an example of musical
criticism in its simplest terms we quote the following from the
'Journal': 'An excellent house welcomed the Opera Troupe to the
Chicago boards last evening and La Somnambula (!) was performed
as announced. Whatever may be the taste of the theatre-going
public in this city with regard to Operas, all must conceed (!) that
the music was of a high order, and executed with admirable grace
and skill. Miss Brienti's face is eloquent in her favor, to begin with,
and her voice, now as soft as a vesper bell, now wild and shrill as a
clarion, doubles and completes the charm. Messrs. Manvers and
Quibel both possess voices of tone, power and cultivation, and with
Miss Brienti and Miss Mathews make melody and harmony that
Apollo would not hesitate to accompany upon his ocean-tuned harp.'

The second performance of La Sonnambula was interrupted by a fire

which burned down Mr. Rice's theatre. The enterprising manager,
however, erected a 'new and splendid establishment' which was
opened early in 1851. Two years later Signor Poliani, 'acting in the
name and on behalf of Mme. de Vries and Signor L. Arditi,'
announced performances at the Chicago Theatre of 'the opera in
three acts, Lucia di Lammermoor, the chef d'œuvre of Donizetti, and
the grand masterpiece of Bellini, Norma.' In addition to Mme. de
Vries and Signori Pezzolini, Toffanelli and Colletti, there was 'a very
effective chorus of ladies and gentlemen—the best in the United
States of America and desirable even in Europe.' The orchestra,
furthermore, was 'composed of solo performers, and all professors of
the highest standing—over 40 in number, the whole under the magic
direction of the most distinguished master and composer, Sig. L.
Arditi, of European fame and well known as one of the greatest
living composers.' One is not surprised to learn that this marvellous
company made a great hit and remained in Chicago long enough to
give La Sonnambula. It was succeeded by a troupe of 'acting
monkeys, dogs, and goats.'

In 1858 Chicago had its next operatic treat when the New Orleans
English Opera Company—which assuredly did not come from New
Orleans—gave a season of two weeks, presenting La Sonnambula,
'Daughter of the Regiment,' Auber's 'Crown Diamonds,' and Fra
Diavolo, 'The Barber of Seville,' 'The Bohemian Girl,' 'Cinderella,' Der
Freischütz, and Il Trovatore. The tenor rôles were sung by a lady. In
the same year Carl Formes, whose reputation had outlived his voice,
appeared with a strong company which carried no less than three
conductors—the same being Carl Anschütz, Carl Bergmann, and
Theodore Thomas. Maurice Strakosch with Amalia Patti, Brignoli, and
the others of his troupe visited Chicago in 1859, giving Il Trovatore,
Martha, Norma, La Sonnambula, La Favorita, and Don Giovanni—the
last-named with a 'cast which has never been excelled in any opera
house in Europe, New York, Boston, or Philadelphia.'

From this time forward Chicago was supplied with opera almost
exclusively from New York and was included in the itinerary of the
tour with which nearly every New York company began or finished
its season. The visits of the New York companies to Chicago varied
in length from a week to four weeks. After Mr. Hammerstein sold out
to the Metropolitan interests his forces formed the nucleus of a
newly organized Chicago-Philadelphia Opera Company, which, under
the management of Mr. Andreas Dippel and subsequently of Mr.
Cleofonte Campanini, has since given Chicago regular seasons of
opera rivalling in the standard of their achievement those given at
the Metropolitan in New York.

The Chicago-Philadelphia company has divided its season between

the two cities after which it is named, besides making post-season
trips to a number of Western cities. During the few years of its
existence it has placed to its credit a number of notable
achievements, including the first performances in America of Jean
Nougues' Quo Vadis?; Ermano Wolf-Ferrari's Il Segreto di Susanna
and Le Giojie della Madonna; Victor Herbert's Natoma; Goldmark's
'Cricket on the Hearth' (in English), Massenet's Cendrillon and Don
Quichotte, and Franchetti's Cristoforo Colombo. Its regular repertory
has been mainly that which prevailed at the Manhattan Opera House
under Hammerstein. The same is true of most of its singers. Among
the more notable additions to its list of artists have been Jeanne
Korolewicz, Maggie Teyte, Caroline White, Lillian Grenville, Mario
Guardabassi and Tito Ruffo, and it has also enjoyed frequent 'visits'
from stars of the Metropolitan and Boston Opera Houses, with both
of which it is closely affiliated.

Boston, like most other American cities, has been until recently in
the position of depending chiefly on New York for its operatic fare. It
was the latest of the large Eastern cities to become acquainted with
grand opera, having been introduced to that form of entertainment
by the Havana company of Señor Marty y Torrens in 1847. Satisfied
apparently with what was supplied to it from New York, it initiated
no noteworthy operatic enterprises of its own until 1909, when the
Boston Opera House was built through the munificence of Mr. Eben
D. Jordan. The artistic direction of the new enterprise was placed in
the hands of Mr. Henry Russell, who for some years previously had
toured the country successfully with his San Carlo Opera Company.
Since then Boston has been an operatic city of importance. In
addition to excellent performances of the regular French, Italian, and
German repertory made familiar by the Metropolitan and Manhattan
companies, it has heard the first performances in America of
Debussy's L'Enfant Prodigue, Raoul Laparra's La Habañera, Frederick
Converse's 'The Sacrifice,' Zan-donai's Conchita, Erlanger's Noël,
Kienzl's Kuhreigen, Bizet's Djamileh, Louis Aubert's Forêt Bleue, and
Henri Fevrier's Monna Vanna.

The Boston Opera Company is very closely affiliated with the

Metropolitan and the principals of each are carried on the roster of
the other. To a lesser extent there is a like exchange between the
Boston and the Chicago-Philadelphia companies. Almong the more
notable artists who have sung with the Boston company (excluding
those belonging principally to the Metropolitan company) may be
mentioned Carmen Mélis, Georgette Le Blanc-Maeterlinck, Leon
Sibiriakoff, José Mardones, Florencio Constantino, Giovanni Zenatello,
George Baklanoff, Lucien Muratore, Vanni Marcoux, and Eduardo
Ferrari-Fontana.

It would be impossible, within the limits of a chapter, to follow

operatic activities in other cities of the United States. Nearly every
city of importance has received more or less regular visits from the
big New York companies, from the Chicago-Philadelphia company,
and from lesser enterprises organized for touring purposes. There
would be little point in citing a list of these enterprises, but mention
may be made of the opera companies promoted by Henry W. Savage
and the Aborns, which have done for the smaller cities of the United
States what the Carl Rosa and Moody-Manners companies have done
for the principal cities of Great Britain.

In many of the more progressive musical cities—such as San

Francisco, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Cincinnati—the question of
permanent operatic establishments has been strongly mooted, and
undoubtedly the time is fast approaching when these and other
cities will enjoy the advantages which now belong only to New York,
Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.

V
The line of demarcation between grand opera and comic opera is not
easy to trace. Both have run together with a promiscuity which
makes it very difficult to follow the history of one as distinguished
from that of the other. Le Nozze di Figaro and Il Barbiere di Siviglia
go hand in hand with Fidelio and Norma; Die Meistersinger is a
companion of Tristan. The convenient tendency to spread the
generic name of opera over all forms of musico-dramatic expression
is found in all countries and periods. It is particularly noticeable in
America, where even the dignified Metropolitan Opera House found
it consistent to conjoin Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron with
Parsifal and Salome.

In our general survey of opera in America we have touched on the

comic opera activities which went on more or less in association with
grand opera, and it only remains for us to refer briefly to the
activities of such companies as devoted themselves exclusively to
the lighter form of entertainment. The first of these, of course, were
the French companies from New Orleans who familiarized the
country with Pergolesi, Rousseau, Piccini, Cimarosa, Méhul, Grétry,
Dalayrac, Boieldieu, Auber, and other masters of the light opera.
Apart from the companies playing English ballad opera—a distinct
genre—these were the only troupes of note which presented
exclusively the lighter side of operatic art until late in the nineteenth
century.

The real era of comic opera in America began about 1870 and lasted
for somewhat less than twenty years. The first notable event of this
period was the importation of Miss Emily Soldene and company—
then the rage of London—by Messrs. Grau and Chizzola. They
opened a season of opéra bouffe in English at the Lyceum Theatre,
New York, in November, 1874, and played to crowded houses for
several months, presenting Généviève de Brabant, Chilperic, La Fille
de Madame Angot, and Madame l'Archiduc. Afterward they visited
Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Boston—'beautiful, bald-headed Boston,' as
Miss Soldene called it—Washington, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Chicago,
Louisville, St. Louis, Houston, Galveston, and New Orleans. In 1875
Madame Aimée arrived with her French opéra bouffe company, also
under the management of Messrs. Grau and Chizzola, and soon
afterward came the Offenbach craze and the ill-starred visit of the
composer.

Next came the vogue of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, with very
fortunate results for America. The manager of the Boston Theatre
was then engaged in a desperate and unsuccessful hunt for novelties
and, in the extremity of his need, he appealed to his musical
director. 'See here,' said the latter, 'this "Pinafore" that everybody is
crazy about has been already done to death in many ways—but has
it been really sung? Never! Well, then, why not get Phillips and
Whitney and Barnabee and Tom Karl together and see what the
piece is like, musically.'[53] The suggestion appealed to the manager
and it was agreed that the proposed cast would be ideal. Hence the
formation of the company known as the Boston Ideals, which
produced 'Pinafore' on April 14, 1879. For all-round artistic
excellence nothing like that performance had ever been given by an
English-speaking company in America, nor did any opera company
ever make such a success in this country as was achieved by the
Boston Ideals.
Miss Soldene's troupe, it is true, was a tremendous rage, but she is
frank enough to confess that its success was not exactly a triumph
of pure art. Setting a precedent for all managers of musical comedy,
she selected a chorus with a minimum of voice and a maximum of
personal pulchritude. She was rewarded by liberal patronage from
the sort of men who know the difference between a chorus girl and
a show girl. The Boston Ideals, on the other hand, were a splendidly
talented and efficient organization, containing some of the finest
artists America had produced and inspired with a sincere enthusiasm
for their work. During the six years following the production of
'Pinafore' they played 'The Sorcerer,' Boccaccio, Olivette, 'The
Mascot,' 'Czar and Carpenter,' 'Bohemian Girl,' 'Chimes of Normandy,'
'The Musketeers,' 'Pirates of Penzance,' 'Patience,' 'Marriage of
Figaro,' Fra Diavolo, 'The Weathercock' (their only failure), Giroflé-
Girofla, Barbe-Bleue, 'Martha,' Fanchonette, Giralda, L'Elisir d'Amore,
and 'Visit of the Blue Stocking.'

Subsequently the company was reorganized and, at the suggestion

of Colonel Henry Watterson, was christened 'The Bostonians.' Under
its new name the company lived for twenty-five years, surviving by
considerable length the popularity of comic opera in America. Among
the works it produced were 'The Poachers,' 'Dorothy,' Don Pasquale,
Don Quixote, Mignon, 'Pygmalion and Galatea,' 'Robin Hood,' 'The
Knickerbockers,' 'The Ogalallas,' 'Prince Ananias,' 'In Mexico, or a
War-time Wedding,' 'The Serenade,' 'Rip Van Winkle,' 'Maid Marian,'
'Rob Roy,' 'Vice Roy,' 'The Smugglers,' 'Maid of Plymouth,' and
'Queen of Laughter.' Of these the most successful by far was De
Koven's 'Robin Hood,' which the Bostonians played for twelve years
without dimming the freshness of that most delightful of American
light operas. Not the least valuable of the services rendered to music
by the Bostonians was the opportunity they gave to young American
singers. 'The Bostonians,' said Henry Clay Barnabee, 'gave the
United States the most successful school for operatic study that this
country has ever had, and from its ranks graduated an astonishing
number of well-known singers. No other organization has done
more, if as much, toward assisting American writers of opera.' A list
of the well-known graduates of the Bostonians would be too long to
quote, but among the familiar names may be mentioned Marie
Stone, Alice Nielsen, Grace Van Studdiford, Jessie Bartlett Davis,
Marcia Van Dresser, Kate Condon, Tom Karl, Joseph Sheehan,
George B. Frothingham, Eugene Cowles, Allan Hinckley, and W. H.
MacDonald, besides the inimitable comedian—Barnabee. The
company, of course, devoted its efforts largely to Boston, New York,
and other Eastern cities, but it made frequent tours west of the
Mississippi, playing every city of importance between that river and
the Pacific Coast.

In New York the chief purveyor of comic opera during the seventies
was Maurice Grau, who had brought over Emily Soldene and Mme.
Aimée and who continued to import European favorites, including
the Offenbach operetta queen, Madame Théo. Rudolph Aronson,
who had done some successful experimenting in concert direction,
next came forward with an original scheme for a combined theatre,
concert hall, restaurant, and roof garden—an American adaptation of
such European institutions as the Ambassadeurs, Kroll's Garten, and
the Volksgarten. With the backing of nearly all the socially and
financially prominent gentlemen in New York he formed the New
York Casino Company and built the Casino, a Mauresque structure
which is as much in place on Broadway as Independence Hall would
be in Algiers. With the operetta company of John A. McCaull, taken
over from the Bijou Opera House, the Casino opened in October,
1882, presenting Johann Strauss's 'The Queen's Lace Handkerchief.'
After a very successful run this operetta was taken off to make room
for the Maurice Grau French Opera Company headed by Madame
Théo, which gave La Jolie Parfumeuse, Romeo et Juliette, Paul et
Virginie, La Fille de Madame Angot, and La Mascotte. The McCaull
Opera Company, with Lillian Russell, then returned to the Casino,
presenting 'The Sorcerer,' 'The Princess of Trebizond,' 'The Queen's
Lace Handkerchief,' 'Prinz Methusalem,' 'The Beggar Student,' 'Merry
War,' 'Polly,' 'Billie Taylor,' 'Nanon,' 'Amorita,' 'Gypsy Baron,' 'Erminie,'
'The Marquis,' 'Madelon,' 'Nadjy,' 'The Yeomen of the Guard,' 'The
Brigands,' 'The Drum Major,' 'The Grand Duchess,' 'The Brazilian,'
'Madame Angot,' 'Poor Jonathan,' 'Apollo,' 'Indigo,' 'The Tyrolean,'
Cavalleria rusticana, 'Uncle Celestin,' 'Child of Fortune,' 'The Vice-
Admiral,' and 'The Rainmaker of Syria.' This company had become
known in the meantime as the Casino Comic Opera Company. In
1886 it went on tour, playing Boston, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn,
while the Casino was occupied by the Violet Cameron Opera
Company from London. The latter presented 'The Commodore' and
'Kenilworth' with little success. In 1892 Mr. Aronson decided to
change the policy of the Casino and to produce there lighter works
of the best French and German operatic schools. While he was in
Europe the directors of the Casino decided to turn the house into a
music hall on the style of the Empire and the Alhambra in London.

By this time, however, comic opera had lost its hold on the fickle
affections of the American people and frequent efforts to revive
interest in it since then have met with no more than the success of a
temporary curiosity. Much of the decline in the popularity of comic
opera was due to the rise of the English musical comedy, beginning
with 'Florodora' and 'The Belle of New York.' Except for occasional
excursions into Orientalism, like 'The Geisha' and 'San Toy,' musical
comedy rapidly ran into a set type of 'girl' show invariably
characterized by inanity of plot, mediocrity of text and music, and a
lavish display of feminine charms. For a time the success of Lehàr's
'Merry Widow' induced a vogue of Viennese light opera, of which
traces still exist, and occasional revivals de luxe of 'Erminie,' 'Robin
Hood,' and the Gilbert and Sullivan operas aroused temporary
interest. But since the old Casino days there has been no public in
New York for comic opera and in that respect the fashion of New
York has been followed by the rest of the country. No comic opera
which has come before the public on its own merits and without the
support of some such stimulus as the 'Soul Kiss' waltzes of the new
Viennese school, has been able to win any measure of success. An
instance may be cited in the complete failure of 'Veronique.'
Attempts to reach a public educated above the musical attractions of
the ordinary theatres have been no more fruitful. Oscar
Hammerstein made a gallant and costly effort with French comic
opera at the Manhattan and the Metropolitan followed his good
example more eclectically at the New Theatre (now the Century). In
neither case was New York interested. Even when the indomitable
and persevering Mr. Hammerstein shifted to Broadway and to the
vernacular, his productions of 'Hans the Flute Player' and 'The
Firefly,' flavored with the sauce piquante of Emma Trentini, failed to
stimulate a lasting appetite in the New York theatre-goers. Andreas
Dippel opened a series of comic opera productions in the season of
1914-15. How far and how successfully his plans will mature remains
to be seen. But so far the lethargy of the public toward comic opera
has triumphantly resisted every attempt to rouse it and the
prospects of the enterprising impresario in that field are far from
encouraging. The trouble seems to lie deeper than mere indifference
to a particular genre of musical entertainment. It is presumably
symptomatic of a general apathy toward good music, or rather of a
general lack of intelligent æsthetic appreciation. That the faculty of
intelligent æsthetic appreciation is somewhat rudimentary in the
average American of to-day is a fact that the unbiased observer can
hardly escape.

W. D. D.
 FOOTNOTES:
[52] 'The Beginning of Grand Opera in Chicago,' 1913.

[53] See 'Reminiscences of Henry Clay Barnabee,' Boston, 1913.

 CHAPTER VIII
INSTRUMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS IN THE UNITED
STATES

The New York Philharmonic Society and other New York

orchestras—Orchestral organizations in Boston—The Theodore
Thomas orchestra of Chicago; Orchestral music in Cincinnati—The
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra—Orchestral music in the West;
the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra—Chamber music ensembles
—Visiting orchestras.

I
In spite of the work done by the Euterpean Society, the Musical Fund
and the Sacred Music Society, New York in the first decades of the
nineteenth century did not possess an orchestral organization
capable of interpreting adequately the compositions of the great
masters. As we have already pointed out, the city was suffering from
musical expansion when it really needed concentration. It was
suffering also from too much amateurism. Many clear-headed New
York musicians realized the needs of the situation and eventually
there arose a healthy agitation in favor of a strong permanent
orchestra of professional musicians. The agitation found an energetic
leader in Uriah C. Hill, conductor of the Sacred Music Society, and
chiefly through his efforts the Philharmonic Society was formed in
1842. In many respects the Philharmonic differed from all the
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