Chicago Grand Opera Company
| Company type | Opera company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Performing arts |
| Founded | 1910 |
| Defunct | 1914 (first company), 1935 (second company) |
| Headquarters | Chicago , United States |
Key people | Andreas Dippel (General Manager), Cleofonte Campanini (Musical Director) |
| Products | Opera performances |
Two separate grand opera enterprises in Chicago, Illinois, operated under the title Chicago Grand Opera Company during the early 1900s. Both entities encountered the financial difficulties commonly associated with Chicago’s operatic ventures and ultimately ceased functioning within a few years. A consistently stable opera company in the city was not realized until 1954.
First company, 1910–1914
The initial Chicago Grand Opera Company presented four seasons at Chicago’s Auditorium Theater spanning from late 1910 until January 1914. This organization was the city’s inaugural resident opera troupe, established largely through an arrangement orchestrated by directors of New York’s Metropolitan Opera Company to acquire assets from Oscar Hammerstein I’s defunct Manhattan Opera Company.
Background
For several years, Hammerstein had been a rival to the Met, imposing financial pressure on the Metropolitan Opera, which recorded a $300,000 loss during 1908–9, while Hammerstein’s company made a profit of $229,000. He engaged prominent artists such as Luisa Tetrazzini, Mary Garden, and John McCormack. Nevertheless, his Philadelphia Opera House faced difficulties in the subsequent season. On January 1, 1910, Hammerstein conceded that the ongoing "operatic war" was untenable. Following this, Otto Kahn and associates from the Met acquired Hammerstein’s Manhattan and Philadelphia opera houses for $1.2 million on April 26, 1910. The purchase included a clause preventing Hammerstein and his son Arthur Hammerstein from producing opera for a decade in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, or Chicago.
History
With capitalization of $500,000 provided by fourteen investors—including Chicago figures such as J. Ogden Armour, Martin A. Ryerson, John G. Shedd, Samuel Insull, Charles G. Dawes, and Julius Rosenwald, alongside Metropolitan Opera directors like William K. Vanderbilt, Otto Kahn, and Clarence Mackay—the company was led by Andreas Dippel (formerly second-in-command at the Met) as General Manager and Cleofonte Campanini serving as musical director.
The company also held several months of performances annually in Philadelphia at what was renamed the Philadelphia Metropolitan Opera House, operating under the name Philadelphia-Chicago Grand Opera Company to preserve local civic identity.
Significant premieres included Victor Herbert’s Natoma (1911) and Attilio Parelli’s I dispettosi amanti (1912), along with American debuts of Jean Nouguès’ Quo vadis (1911), Karl Goldmark’s Das Heimchen am Herd (1912), and Alberto Franchetti’s Cristoforo Colombo (1913). Esteemed performers featured Paul Althouse, Marguerite Bériza, Mary Garden, Luisa Tetrazzini, among others.
After a season without productions, this company evolved into the Chicago Opera Association (1915–1921), and later became the Chicago Civic Opera (1921–1932).
Second company, 1933–1935
The second incarnation of the Chicago Grand Opera Company sought to continue operatic tradition in Chicago following the demise of the Chicago Civic Opera in 1932. It mounted three seasons at the Civic Opera House between 1933 and 1935 before succumbing to financial difficulties that forced its shutdown. Its successors included the Chicago City Opera Company (1936–1939) and subsequently the Chicago Opera Company (1940–1946).
Chicago remained without a permanent opera company until 1954 when the Lyric Theatre of Chicago was established and later renamed as the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1956.
References
- Bibliography
- Davis, Ronald L. (1966). Opera in Chicago. New York: Appleton.
- Kolodin, Irving (1940). The Metropolitan Opera 1883–1939. 2nd edition. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Marsh, Robert C.; Pellegrini, Norman (2006). 150 Years of Opera in Chicago. Chicago: Northern Illinois University Press.
- Moore, Edward C. (1930). Forty Years of Opera in Chicago. New York: Horace Liveright.