strongest combination of women singers that the city had ever known;
nor has it been equaled in any one season since. The financial failure
of the enterprise caused no surprise among intelligent and impartial
observers. One needed not to be prophetically gifted to foretell
twenty-five years ago that New York could not support two such costly
establishments as the Academy of Music and the Metropolitan Opera House.
The world of fashion, which in the nature of things is the supporter of
Italian opera, and has been ever since the art form was invented, was
divided in its allegiance, and divided, moreover, in a manner which made
an interchange of courtesies all but impossible. This threw the burden
of maintaining the rival houses upon two limited groups of persons, and
the loss was mutual.

In Mr. Abbey's prospectus he promised to produce twenty-four operas,
which he named; he kept his promise as to all but five, these being
"Lucrezia Borgia," "Linda di Chamouni," "Fra Diavolo," "Otello," and
"Le Nozze di Figaro." "Roméo et Juliette," which he attempted to give,
but failed at the last, was not in the original list. Besides these
performances, he gave fifty-eight outside of New York in visits to
Brooklyn, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis,
Washington, and Baltimore. The local record may be tabulated as
follows:


Opera First performance Times given

"Faust" .................... October 22 ............ 6
"Lucia di Lammermoor" ...... October 24 ............ 3
"Il Trovatore" ............. October 26 ............ 3
"I Puritani" ............... October 29 ............ 1