The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 1, 1902, Page 11

11 THE SUNDAY CALL. ning at the g Humbert of the Queen of It Empress of the Emperor of many and Victor Emmanuel IiI, present ruler of Italy. In the boxes at the right and left of the stage are the cabinet and princes of Italy. The Theater San Carlo is connected with the royal palace, and royalty walks into its box from the palace. The other boxes are owned by the no- They have been handed down from generation. In the first £ ard be a heritage to them and forever. ight for the nobility, but hard on the manager. or the boxes except the h varies from 2 to 6 or from 40 cents to $1 in our money. francs or $2 is the price ifi the top ry, where the students usually sit, and 30 fra or $6 in the pit, or paltrona, as they call it. But the manager, or impresario, is a man who has barrels of money to pay out. He is manager for art’s sake and not for commercial reasons. He has no rent to pay, for the theaters there are a municl- pal institution, But there is the ballet of 600 to 1000. In one opera I attended at La Scala (Milano) there were ten changes of cos- tumes, making 10,000 costumes, and all beauties, too, for there is nothing cheap or tawdry at the Royal Theater. It keeps open only during the winter season, and the manager is satisfied if he does not lose more than $50,000. He is a patron of art, and art is a shrine at which the Italians worship, just as we worship at the shrine of 4 rs and cents. And, after al must be an investment which he looks back with pleasure. k of feeding 3600 hungry souls with music! The staging is realistic. The stage i 850 feet deep and 200 feet wide, and a lage scene, for instance, instead of being painted on the back drop, as woul done in an ordinary theater, be is built up of set houses, smoke ascends from the chimneys, neighbors gossip on the door- steps, or an Alpine boy drives a herd of real sheep along the village street in the rear of the stage while the singing is go- ing on before the footlights. No expense is spared. The rehearsals are something thorough, as I had occasion to notice when on the anniversary of Verdl's death they pro- duced Il Trovatore.” Although the cast had sung the opera over three hi times Musical Director hearsed it thirty-two times for this occa- is the lahd of opera. Here they = 2o K_) { A 57 oo O V, 2N A X = @D @ @Y A & WY, N7 N, g \.,V — \.J.\ Y S SR Riodd D — Intetno dof R\ Teal; I N\ N\ b o W V/,\ B "N/ D/ N7 2%