The season of 1909-10 at the Metropolitan had a number of unusual features. The most prominent of them was the appearance of a Russian troupe of dancers headed by Anna Pavlova and Mikail Mordkin. Another departure was a series of performances at the New Theatre, a beautiful house originally designed to give drama under somewhat the same auspices as prevailed at the Metropolitan. The operas given at the New Theatre were, on the whole, works of a light and intimate character, such as _Fra Diavolo_, _La Fille de Madame Angot_, Flotow's _Stradella_, Lortzing's _Czar und Zimmermann_ and Pergolesi's[?] _Il Maestro di Capella_. Nineteen operas, three ballets, and a pantomime were presented at this house. At the Metropolitan thirty-seven were produced, the chief novelties being Franchetti's _Germania_, Tschaikowsky's _Pique Dame_, Frederick S. Converse's 'Pipe of Desire' (the first production of an American opera at the Metropolitan), and Bruneau's _L'Attaque du Moulin_. There was a splendid revival of Gluck's _Orfeo ed Eurydice_ under Toscanini. After the close of the season Mr. Dippel left the Metropolitan to assume the direction of the Chicago-Philadelphia Opera Company, which was formed chiefly of artists from Mr. Hammerstein's disbanded forces. During the season of 1910-11 he gave a subscription series of French operas at the Metropolitan on Tuesday evenings from January to April. The novelties of the series were Victor Herbert's _Natoma_, Wolff-Ferrari's _Il Segreto di Susanna_, and Jean Nougues' _Quo Vadis?_ The regular Metropolitan season saw the first production on any stage of Puccini's _La Fanciulla del West_ and Humperdinck's _Königskinder_, in the presence of their respective composers. Dukas' _Ariane et Barbe-Bleue_ had its American première and there was also a brilliant revival of Gluck's _Armide_. The seasons of 1911-12, 1912-13, and 1913-14 at the Metropolitan have been notable chiefly for the first performance in America of Horatio W. Parker's 'Mona,' which was awarded the prize offered by the Metropolitan directors for the best opera by an American composer. Thuille's _Lobetanz_, Wolff-Ferrari's _Le Donne Curiose_, Leo Blech's _Versiegelt_, Walter Damrosch's _Cyrano de Bergerac_, Victor Herbert's _Madeleine_, Moussorgsky's _Boris Godounoff_, Strauss's _Rosenkavalier_, Charpentier's _Julien_, Montemezzi's _L'Amore dei tre re_, and Wolf-Ferrari's _L'Amore medico_ were the other novelties. Among the new singers engaged for those seasons were Lydia Lipkowska, Frieda Hempel, Margarete Ober, Lucrezia Bori, Margarete Matzenauer, Hermann Jadlowker, Leo Slezak, Carl Burrian, Jacques Urlus, Hermann Weil, Heinrich Hensel, and Giovanni Martinelli. During 1914-15 Melanie Kurt, Wagnerian soprano, and Elisabeth Schumann were added to the list of singers, and the novelties were Giordano's _Madame Sans-Gêne_ and Leoni's _L'Oracolo_. The season's sensation was a revival of _Carmen_ with Farrar.