Читать книгу Great Singers on the Art of Singing - James Francis Cooke - Страница 16

About seventy or one hundred persons make up the ballet of a modern grand opera. At least ten years of continuous study are required to make a finished ballet dancer in the histrionic sense. Many receive very large fees for their services. The art of stage dancing also has undergone many great reforms in recent years; and the ballets of to-day are therefore much more popular than they were in the latter part of the last century. The most popular ballets of to-day are the Coppelia and Sylvia of Delibes. The ballets from the operas of La Gioconda, Samson et Delila, Armide, Mephistophele, Aïda, Orfeo, L'Africaine, and The Damnation of Faust also are very popular.

At a modern opera house like the Metropolitan in New York City the number of employees will be between six hundred and seven hundred, and the cost of a season will be about one million dollars.