Opera, Opuses, and Opi.

Mr. Gericke, the kappelmeister of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, called upon us yesterday, and, with some show of acrimony, asked us what we meant by calling the symphonies he played “opi.” He, for his part, insisted that they were opera, and not opi; and what the poor, misguided fellow said in defence of his theory indicated very clearly that his education in music had never been brought up to the standard of Chicago culture. There are three kinds of music compositions: they belong to the one general family of music, yet each is a distinct class. We divide them into (1) opera, (2) opuses, and (3) opi. To the first class, or to the opera, belong such dramatic compositions (set to light music) as “Evangeline,” “Il Trovatore,” “Chimes of Normandy,” “Lohengrin,” “Pinafore,” “Rienzi,” “The Mascot,” and “Tannhauser;” and the best-known producers of these opera are Verdi, Ed Rice, Offenbach, Wagner, Sullivan, Flotow, Gounod, and Edward Solomon. Among the second class (the opuses) are to be mentioned the more pretentious and the heavier compositions, such as “Lucille” and “Zenobia,” and a large number of other works that have had their origin in the West, and whose appearance has incited fears that, perhaps, a renaissance of the old Italian masters was likely to occur in the midst of us. 151But astrologers assure us that these portents with which the public is sporadically afflicted signify simply that music in the Western country is now passing through its porcine period. As for the opi, they are the heaviest of all music compositions. They must be a hundred years old, or they are not regarded as acceptable. No man can perform them until he has become addicted to the spectacles and onion habits, and even then a certain fineness of expression is said to be lacking unless to these accomplishments the performer has added that further accomplishment of enjoying cheeses that are old enough to vote.