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Show COMIC OPERA OS THE KOAD. Details of Staging and Planning the Route and Other Matter. Tho preparation of an opera for the stage' necessarily involves a great many details but these are almost infinitely increased in-creased when the company is going 01 the road. The success of a toui' depends de-pends very largely upon the planning of the route; and the effort to get as many performances as possible at the smallest cost of transporation is one of the puzzles which tries the soul of the impresario, writes W. T. C'urlcton in Kate Field's Washington. No, there is no difficulty to get artisis of very considerable merit to make an engagement engage-ment for a long tour. Of course they would all prefer to settle down and play in one towrn, but there are so very few places where this is impossibls th.it' singernn comic opera are willing to travel about. Even in New York there is but one house tho Casino whiuh presents comic opera throughout the year, and the rarity of one town engagement smooths tho way for the manager who is trying to get a good company together. The duties of manager and stat' combined com-bined are more than one man should attempt. Ay hen a singer conies on the stage he should have nothing to think of but his own performance; but,1 if he is tho persou re;pDnsible for success of the opera, this is impossible. ' Any slight defect in the custom!n jf of tho minor characters, or some small awkwardness awk-wardness which t'.ie aud'un:!e never notices, is, alas, only too visiblo to the trained eye. This feeling ofrespousi-, bility for the p r.'ormance as a whole adds a considerable burden of anxiety to the artist who is play lag a leading part. My training and precedents are wholly those of t'je leciti nate onera. and among my pleasantest experiences are the years I spent as baritone in tho company of Clara Louise Kellogg. But in these days opera comiuue has crowded out the legitimate to a great extent, ami at the same time is taking on much of the excellence formerly monopolized by grand opera. By the way, nolhiug is more curious to watch than tin change i;i the attitude of the public toward the stage, and to note the insignilicane of scma of the c tuses. In a certain city a house which had !ong been used entirely for concerts and oratorios chang ;l its policy and opened its doors lo theatiiual performances perform-ances and light operas. It had a large cons-tituency accustomed to' go there, but not lo any ot' or house. A great nunile.' of these rople were in this way made permanent patrons of comic opera when they would never have thought of going to the same entertainment entertain-ment clsewheie. We do not s ari with a full re iertory, but have two or three operas ready when wo tet out, find let the list grow from weak to week, rehearsing one while playing another. This work is largely simp'itied by the fact that many of my e;iinp tny hae been with me for a number of seusjii, and there are but few newe nners to accuston to our ways. What do all these people do w hen the season is final ly over?, Well, to begin with, they h ive a very long season, and tl eve are only a few we.;ks left them before the befrhitrnj of tho mw one. Besides, the popr.lar idea tl.a', professional pro-fessional peo) 1 ) arc improvident is very far from correct. Comic opera singers are well paid, and almost wiihout exception ex-ception they save a cons' d jraLlu part of their salaries. Even the chorus people peo-ple have something ahead, and when i the season closes they are prepared to enjoy themselves in the same way that other people do in the summer. |