Opera is a glorious spectacle, a splendid but uneven fabric of music, drama, dance, poetry, and stage architecture, imperfect by nature yet endowed with magic. -Mary Jane Matz, Opera: Grand and Not So Grand Opera was originally a pure art, surviving on subsidies from royalty, nobility, and aristocracy. But with the opening of the first public opera house in Venice in 1637, opera has gradually become a marketable commodity, competing with popular entertainments. Today, this art …showed first 75 words of 991 total…

…showed last 75 words of 991 total…eir love, then suddenly sinks, then falls, slowly but surely, until you are convinced of their impending doom. Bibliography: Eaton, Quaintance. The Miracle of the Met Meredith Press, New York; 1968. Dizikes, John. Opera in America Yale University Press, New Haven; 1993. Harries, Susie & Meirion. Opera Today St. Martins Press, New York; 1986. Matz, Mary Jane. Opera: Grand and not so Grand William Morrow & Company, Inc. New York; 1966. Simon, Henry W. Festival of Opera Hanover House, New York; 1957.