For the season of 1891-92 the Metropolitan was leased to Messrs. Abbey, Schoeffel and Grau. The lessees brought together a brilliant company, including Lilli Lehmann, Emma Eames, Marie Van Zandt, Giula and Sophia Ravogli, Lillian Nordica, Emma Albani, Jean and Édouard de Reszke, and Jean Lassalle. Vianesi was conductor. Meyerbeer, Gounod, Bizet, Verdi, and the older Italians supplied the list of operas for the season, while _Lohengrin_, _Die Meistersinger_, _Der fliegende Holländer_, and _Fidelio_ were given (in Italian) as a sop to the 'German element.' The only novelties were Gluck's _Orfeo_ and Mascagni's _Cavalleria rusticana_, the latter having been given previously by two companies in English. A supplementary season in 1892 featured Patti in _Lucia_ and _Il Barbiere_. In the same year the Metropolitan was partially destroyed by fire. The Metropolitan Opera House Company was reorganized in 1893 as the Metropolitan Opera and Real Estate Company and made a new lease with Abbey, Schoeffel and Grau, which, through various vicissitudes, lasted until Heinrich Conried took over the reins in 1902. Abbey died in 1896 and Grau remained at the head of affairs until Conried's advent. The season of 1893-4 presented nothing new except Mascagni's _L'Amico Fritz_, which did not make a sensation. There was, however, a sensation in the fascinating shape of Emma Calvé, whose _Carmen_ is an imperishably piquant memory with New York opera-goers. With Nellie Melba and Pol Plançon she was the chief newcomer of the season. A supplemental season presented Massenet's _Werther_. Otherwise there is only to note the _Carmen_ craze provoked by Calvé and a _Faust_ craze induced by the coincidence of Emma Eames, Jean de Reszke, and Plançon. The latter was so pronounced as to lend point to Mr. W. J. Henderson's witty characterization of the Metropolitan as the _Faustspielhaus_. Calvé did not return for the season of 1894-5 and in her place came Zélie de Lussan, whom New Yorkers refused to accept as a suitable embodiment of Mérimée's heroine. Francesco Tamagno and Victor Maurel were the other noteworthy newcomers, while Luigi Mancinelli was the principal conductor. The important event of the season was the first performance of Verdi's _Falstaff_, and there was a new opera, _Elaine_, by the Argentine composer Herman Bemberg, a distinct anti-climax.