The earliest operatic performances in America were derived not from Italian but from English sources. Elson tells us in his book on American music that "The Beggar's Opera," which created such a furore in Great Britain, probably was the first entertainment of the kind given in the colonies, being performed in New York as early as December 3, 1750, and innumerable times thereafter. This was followed by a series of other ballad operas. "From the conglomerate Ballad Opera, often the work of half a dozen composers," Elson continues, "New York passed on to a more unified art-work, and the operas of Arnold, Storace, and Dibdin were given with some frequency. During the British occupation, in revolutionary days, the English regimental bands often assisted in the orchestral parts of the operatic performances. At a later period many refugees, driven from France by the Revolution, were to be found eking out a precarious livelihood in the orchestra. "At the beginning of the nineteenth century Charleston and Baltimore entered the operatic field, and travelling troupes came into existence, making short circuits from New York through the large cities, but avoiding Boston, which was wholly given over to Handel, Haydn, and psalms. "In March 1825 New Yorkers heard a great opera for the first time, for 'Der Freischütz' came to America by way of England. It was adapted and arranged with the boldest of alterations and makeshifts. Extra dances were introduced to charm the audience, and the incantation scene was often given without singing, as melodrama that is, recitation with orchestral accompaniment, while the fireworks let off during the scene won public favour at once. "But the real beginning of opera in New York, and in a certain sense in America, occurred in the autumn of this year, when the elder Garcia arrived with his well-equipped opera troupe. Well might a critic of that day speak of the Spanish tenor as 'our musical Columbus.' The whole season of opera during that memorable period was a revelation to the new world." The company which the elder Garcia brought with him from Europe consisted of the following principal artists. His daughter Maria, who was seventeen years old, undertook all the contralto _rôles_, while his wife and Mme. Barbieri were the soprani. He himself was, naturally, _primo tenore_, being assisted by the younger Crivelli as the _secondo_. The latter artist, the son of Gaẽtano, one of the best Italian tenors, had first met the Garcia family in Naples, where he had spent some years in vocal study under Millico and Zingarelli. During the last year of Garcia's stay in Italy Crivelli had written an opera, which was performed by the San Carlo company, of which it will be remembered the elder Garcia was a member.