are generally sympathetic. She sings with feeling, but acts with more.
Her performance was meritorious beyond the performances of any of Mr.
Mapleson's women singers, Mmes. Patti and Gerster excepted.


That Mr. Abbey had made losses which were so great as to make him
unwilling to remain at the head of the operatic forces at the
Metropolitan Opera House was known long before the close of the first
season. Before the spring representations began he made answer to the
proposal of the directors of the Metropolitan Opera Company by saying
that he would act as their manager without compensation for the next
year, provided they would pay the losses which the first season would
entail upon him. The directors had agreed in their original contract to
save him whole to the extent of $60,000--a pitiful tenth part of what,
according to Mr. Schoeffel, the losses finally aggregated; I am inclined
to think, however, that Mr. Schoeffel has included the losses made in
the other cities visited by the company. There were only sixty-one
representations at the Metropolitan Opera House, and it is inconceivable
that they averaged a deficit of over $9,000 each. They could not have
cost that sum in fact, and many of the performances drew houses which at
the prevailing prices (orchestra $6) must have yielded handsome returns.
Whatever the sum which loomed up as a prospective loss, however, it
was great enough to dissuade the directors from adopting Mr. Abbey's
suggestion. Instead, they made up their minds cheerfully to pay their
own loss, and at the beginning of the spring season, all negotiations
having come to an end, sent Mr. Abbey a letter which read as follows:


Metropolitan Opera House, New York,
Secretary's Office, March 14, 1884.