Scarcity of theatrical performances in America; Charleston and Tony Aston; New York, Philadelphia, and elsewhere--The Revolution and after; rivalry between New York and Philadelphia--The New Orleans opera. Accepting the year 1750 as the earliest in which indisputable records appear of opera in New York, writers on American musical history pass over the remainder of the century with a few brief references and escape with evident relief to the arrival of García's Italian troupe in 1825.[37] This willingness to let the dust lie undisturbed on certain phases of our musical development is hardly justifiable in the present instance, for undoubtedly these writers were well aware that opera in America during the eighteenth century was not such an infrequent and sporadic thing as to deserve no extended mention. Mr. H. E. Krehbiel, in his anecdotic and entertaining 'Chapters of Opera,' writes: 'There are traces of ballad opera in America in the early decades of the eighteenth century, and there can exist no doubt at all that French and Italian operas were given in some form, perhaps, as a rule, in the adapted form which prevailed in the London theatres until far into the nineteenth century, before the year 1800, in the towns and cities of the Eastern seaboard which were in most active communication with Great Britain.' If ballad operas were known in America in the early decades of the eighteenth century and French and Italian operas were given before the beginning of the nineteenth, it is surely worth while to consider what part they played in the musical life of the country. The subject, of course, is bristling with difficulties. Information is scarce and not easily accessible. Much of the difficulty is due to the fact that before the nineteenth century there were no opera companies, in our sense. Operatic performances were given by regular theatrical companies whose repertory was made up partly of straight drama and partly of opera. Artistic versatility was a characteristic of the period, and performers like Mrs. Oldmixon and Miss Broadhurst were prominent not only on the dramatic and operatic stage, but also on the concert platform. Our search for the beginnings of opera, therefore, lead us naturally to early records of the American theatre, and an examination of these elucidates some interesting facts. I