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New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XIII, 28 March 1896, Page 348

IT happened in a large hotel ; the table d'hote had reached coffee and cognac when I venture! to inquire what opera was announced for that evening. A zealous waiter volunteered at once the information. •It is the “ Barber of Seville.” ’ ‘ That is no kind of an opera !’ growled my tns-ci-v>s, a well-nourished gentleman with a very red face. ‘ But I beg of you,’ I asked modestly, ‘ you will surely give credit to Rossini ?’ ‘No!’ he cried furiously. ‘ Anyone who writes two-act operas is no composer at all !’ ‘ What ! then Mozart with his “ Don Juan,” and also Beethoven do not count with vou as composers?’ I asked, surprised. ‘That they are not! I assure you an opera with only one entr'acte is simply a monstrosity !’ answered the fat one, as he halved with furious cut an apple, looking at the pieces as if they represented to him two acts of ’ Fidelio. ’ ‘My dear sir,’ he continued, ‘lam a judge on that point; I mvself am of the theatre. Look you : Meyer beer and Richard Wagner ; these I call composers! You must know that I have the lease of the theatre restaurant these twenty years past, and know all the operas and their worth. For instance, the ‘ Africaine ’ is one of the best operas. The public staring constantly at the scenery of tropical countries are beset by a sharp thirst. The en'tracte in which they build the ship is a long one; everybody rushes for the restaurant, and streams of beer and hundreds of sandwiches are consumed. I must say that I have experienced G otter darnmerrung and Huguenot representations when we had to cut six hams, 400 sausages, and five Swiss cheeses ; with these go, if you please, six barrels of beer and uncounted seltzers. Yes; this is what 1 call operas !’ ‘ One evening I will never forget; it was a Meistersinger performance, with the tenor celebrating the hundredth repetition of his role, when eight hundred and seventy-five sandwiches found their Sedan. Now, this is what I call classic music!’