99 cent Opera

Last summer's musical surprise was the long run of paying opera at the big old New York Hippodrome three blocks from where the proud Metropolitan had been begging for its life. The Hippodrome seats were cheap (99-c- top). So was the quality of the performances. But listeners for the season topped 1,000,000. The impresario was Alfredo Salmaggi, a longhaired, high-strung Italian who taught the late Queen Margherita to play the mandolin, carries Caruso's silver-headed cane and specializes in Aiida with horses, elephants, camels.

This week Alfredo Salmaggi moved on to Philadelphia, thus ending in Manhattan a three-week war over 99-c- opera. At the Hippodrome a second season was in full swing, with an average attendance of 4,000 a night (capacity: 5,000). Pasquale Amato, genial oldtime Metropolitan baritone, had supplanted Salmaggi as artistic director. Salmaggi had tried to compete at the Broadway Theatre a few blocks away. Both had the same standard repertory in which Verdi predominated. But last week Amato played the deciding trump when he engaged 40 Metropolitan choristers, 40 Metropolitan orchestramen, made an honest bargain out of 99-c- opera.

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