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To the Editors of the Crimson:

May I use your columns to call the attention of all Harvard men to the project now under way of establishing permanent opera in Boston.

One of the great differences between the musical spirit of Germany and France in comparison with that of our own country is that music, and in fact all the arts, play a far larger part in the daily life of the people than with us. There is hardly a town in Germany of twenty thousand or more inhabitants which does not have an opera house with a local troupe giving continual performances. If a German could not go to the opera two or three times a week, he would feel that he was losing one of the greatest enjoyments in life. It is a well known truth of art as well as politics, that what the people earnestly and persistently want, that they get. The continental people have permanent opera because the intellectual and imaginative parts of their nature cannot live without it; they insist upon having it.

In accordance with these principles a number of music lovers in Boston and vicinity have started an organization at the Bijou Theatre for the performance throughout the winter of good light operas. The scheme is being backed by Prof. Beale, Dr. Jaggar and many graduates and officers of the University. At first everything must be run on a modest scale, but it is not too much to say that the troupe already consists of a good orchestra and an adequate chorus and of solo voices for the leading roles of distinct vocal and dramatic ability. So far "Iolanthe," "II Trovatore" and "Fra Diavolo" have been given in a most satisfactory manner, and the enthusiasm of those who have witnessed the performances has been marked. For the first few weeks this venture, so full of possibilities for the enrichment of our musical life is distinctly on trial, and it must fail unless it has support. For this reason all Harvard men are asked to aid the project in every way by arousing the enthusiasm of those who do not know of it and by direct patronage. The prices have been made very low--the best seats for only one dollar and good seats for half that sum. I feel strongly that if opera can become permanent here in Boston, where good music is so deeply enjoyed, it will mean much in the way of refined amusement, edification, and a more liberal culture in a far too much neglected branch of musical art. W. R. SPALDING.