During the greater part of the nineteenth century New York was unquestionably the metropolis of opera in America, and to trace operatic performances outside that city is a complicated and difficult undertaking. Generally speaking, other cities obtained their opera by grace of visiting companies from New York and, on the whole, that grace was not abundant. Exception must be made in the case of New Orleans and San Francisco. The latter city never enjoyed what might be called a permanent operatic institution such as was familiar to New York from the days of da Ponte, but it had the advantage of frequent visits from opera troupes on their way to and from Mexico. The first opera given in San Francisco, as far as we can discover, was _Ernani_, which was produced by George Lover in 1853. Later, attempts to establish Italian opera there were made by Lanzoni and Lamperti. In 1857 Signor and Signora Bianchi gave a season with a very good company and in opposition to another company brought together by Thomas Maguire. Those were the days of flowing gold in California, when the raw yellow metal was thrown on the stage in moments of enthusiastic appreciation. It cannot be said that artistic conditions were ideal. Madame Anna Bishop was in San Francisco in 1858-59, but she seems to have taken part only in operatic concerts. A Spanish opera company and a company known as the Bianchi Troupe appeared at the old Metropolitan Theatre in the early sixties, producing _Norma_, _La Sonnambula_, _La Favorita_, _Belisario_, _Linda di Chamouni_, _Ernani_, _Nabucco_, _Il Trovatore_, and other works of the same type. _La Traviata_ was produced at a benefit for Signora Brambilla in 1866 and three years later Parepa Rosa appeared in _Don Pasquale_. In 1870 there were three opera companies playing San Francisco at about the same time. Alice Oates' Popular Opera Bouffe Company gave _La Périchole_, _Petit Duke_, _La Fille de Madame Angot_, and _Giroflé-Girofla_ with great success, while similar works were presented by a French company with Marie Aimée. At the Bijou Theatre Campobello's troupe gave _Il Barbiere di Siviglia_, _La Favorita_, and other compositions of the same school. In the same year Theodor Wachtel, the famous coachman tenor, appeared--presumably in _Le Postillon de Lonjumeau_--and Mme. Mez Fabbri also gave a series of operas.