My Dear Sir: It gives me much pleasure to say that I am instructed by
the president to tender you the use of the Opera House on April 21,
1884, for a benefit performance to yourself. I beg also to express my
hope that the results of the benefit may in some measure be commensurate
with the manner you have presented Italian opera and to say that it will
give me great pleasure to do anything I can to aid in making the benefit
a great success. Most sincerely yours,

Edmund C. Stanton, Secretary.
To Henry E. Abbey.


In the meantime negotiations had already begun looking to the transfer
of the house for the next season to Mr. Ernest Gye, who was manager at
the time of Covent Garden, London. These negotiations were continued
till deep in the summer and came to naught at the end. Of the reasons
for the failure several became known to the public. One was the
unwillingness of the directors to give Mr. Gye a free hand in the
engagement of artists. The directors, who were active in determining
the policy of the opera, were all devoted admirers of Mme. Nilsson;
they were, in fact, the donors of the laurel wreath of gold which she
received on the first night of the season. They were desirous that she
should be re-engaged, though the weight of her contract had done much to
break Mr. Abbey's financial back, and they were also a little fearful
that Mr. Gye, the husband of Mme. Albani, would, not unnaturally, seek
to put that singer in Mme. Nilsson's place. Meanwhile, the opera season
at Covent Garden came to a close, and though Mr. Gye had not had Colonel
Mapleson at Her Majesty's Theater to cope with, as in former seasons,
but only English opera at Drury Lane, under the direction of Carl Rosa,