For best artistic results it often seems unfortunate that the Metropolitan Opera Company has no competition. Not since Oscar Hammerstein presented French opera at his own Manhattan Opera House has the Broadway company been forced into jacking its standards. Then, in 1910. the Metropolitan directors purchased peace. Hammerstein received approximately a million dollars and in return he promised to present no opera in Manhattan for ten years. The nucleus of his troupe went to Chicago, developed into the Chicago Civic Opera of today, an organization devoted to Italian and French opera....
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