6. Among other noted singers we find, Lucienne
Breval, Caruso, Fremstad, Tetrazzini, Bonci, Renaud, Chaliapin, Morena,
Destinn, Mary Garden, John McCormack, Edouard Clement, and
Slezak,--samples of many nationalities.

This brings us to the opera. Maurice Grau resigned from the directorship
of the Metropolitan Opera House in 1903. Grau brought the star system to
a climax, and gave opera with "all star casts," but few new operas were
presented under his management. In 1903 Heinrich Conried succeeded to
the management of the Metropolitan Opera House, and set himself to work
to abolish the star system, as far as possible, and produce a good
ensemble. The abolition of the star system proved an impossibility,
because people had been fed upon it since the musical life of the
country began, and New York audiences would not go to hear singers who
had not already made European reputations. But Mr. Conried succeeded in
producing many works new to the American public. Of these "Parsifal"
stands forth conspicuously, though he found a competitor in Henry W.
Savage, who produced "Parsifal" in English a few days in advance of Mr.
Conried's production. This was followed in 1906 by Strauss's "Salome."
Conried died in 1908 and was succeeded by the dual control of Signor
Gatti-Casazza and Andreas Dippel, but Dippel soon resigned and went to
Chicago, and from that date until the present (1922) Signor
Gatti-Casazza has been sole manager of the Metropolitan Opera House.

In 1906 Oscar Hammerstein opened the Manhattan Opera House in New York
City and instituted a strong rivalry with the Metropolitan. He brought
to America some excellent singers and presented many works new to the
American public. While the Metropolitan company gave more German than
French or Italian opera, the Manhattan seemed to tend towards a
preponderance of French opera. The rivalry was beneficial to the public
if not to the stockholders.

We find during this period an opera, "The Pipe of Desire," by Frederick
S. Converse, the first American opera to be presented at the
Metropolitan Opera House. All the principals, with one exception, were
also of American birth,--Louise Homer, Riccardo Martin, Clarence
Whitehill and Herbert Witherspoon. The other principal was Lenora
Sparks, an English singer.

The most notable feature of the decade seems to have been the spread of
musical enterprise throughout the country. Distant cities were
organizing choral societies and orchestr