From Pittsburgh we went to New York, where I had arranged with Abbey and Grau to give me the Metropolitan Opera House for a short season of three weeks. As I wanted a special attraction for New York, I engaged Madame Nordica for a few “Lohengrin” performances in which she was to sing _Elsa_, and Lilli Lehmann, _Ortrude_, a part that she had never sung in New York, but whose dramatic possibilities interested her very much and for which she was eminently suited. At first she was furious that I had engaged any other singer for New York. “If I was sufficient to carry on your season out of town, I do not see why you have to engage that —— for New York.” But I explained to her my managerial reasons and somewhat pacified her, and as soon as we arrived in New York I arranged for a little rehearsal on the stage of the Metropolitan for Lehmann, Nordica, and myself, in order that all the scenes, especially of the second act, in which their acting together was of importance, might be properly arranged. At this rehearsal Lehmann treated Nordica with icy disdain, but Nordica acted with such clever tact and deference that Lehmann could find no hook upon which to hang her anger, and the rehearsal passed off with outward calmness, although I could feel the volcano trembling beneath. As we passed out into the street in the late afternoon a terrible rain-storm was raging and Lilli saw Madame Nordica approach a coachman in livery who was waiting with opened umbrella to take her to her coupé. Lilli, clad in a long gray rain-coat and old hat, turned to Nordica: “Ha, you ride? I valk!” she said, as she lifted her dress and showed a pair of great boots. Incidentally my “showman’s instinct” had proved correct. Our performances of “Lohengrin” with this combination proved artistically very interesting and the public flocked to hear them. Nordica’s _Elsa_ had been very carefully trained at Bayreuth, and Lehmann’s _Ortrude_ was truly demoniac, worthy to rank with that of Marianne Brandt’s in its representation of concentrated hatred. [Illustration: LILLI LEHMANN AS ISOLDE] VIII HANS VON BÜLOW