$3 Per Seat

The San Carlo Opera Company, which has opened its annual season with a five-week stay at the Century Theatre, Manhattan, charges three dollars for an orchestra seat. The Metropolitan and the Chicago Company charge seven; standard plays and musical spectacles in New York charge from two and three-quarters dollars to eleven.

The costs of producing opera are much greater than those of producing other theatrical exhibits. For the usual Italian works, besides at least passable principals, a large and good orchestra is required, a sonorous chorus and usually a ballet. As against that, operas play in large houses before large crowds.

The San Carlo Company now has played for more than two weeks, and has given ample demonstration of its capabilities. Its principals are better this season than last. It retains most of its stars, some of these of wide reputation--Anna Fitziu, Alice True Gentle, Marie Rappold, Sophie Charlebois, Bianca Saroya, Manuel Salazar, Taki Miura. It has made some noteworthy additions--the tenors Tommasini and O'Moore, the soprano Consuelo Escobar. Its productions are generally " good "-- voices, orchestra, chorus.

The chief fault comes from a lack of rehearsals. A singer will not agree with the orchestra about the tempo. Ensembles will not move along together, with a resultant flagging of gait. The action, too, is apt to be unsynchronized. It is perhaps over much to expect that a troupe charging a modest fee shall go in extravagantly for such expensive things as rehearsals.