The creation of the Metropolitan Opera was spearheaded by a man named George H. Warren and a group of seventy wealthy acquaintances of his, including the Vanderbilts, the Morgans, and the Goulds who were dissatisfied with the Academy of Music in New York due to architectural flaws in the building, such as lack of open box seats for the wealthy and no space to expand the viewing area. Few wealthy families, who were unwilling to heed to the desires of others to own the box temporarily, monopolized the box seats, leaving many prospective box owners and operagoers out to dry. Therefore, the group’s meeting led to a resolution to construct their own suitable opera house. In the post-Civil War society of the time, great importance was placed on artistic endeavors, which also afforded an opportunity to incur profit by creating a grandiose theater. They hired a prominent architect of the time named J. Cleveland Cady to design the building in New York. Although Cady had undertaken many outstanding construction projects, such as the American Museum of Natural History and Yale University, he had never attempted to design a theater. His inexperience in the project was displayed by the functional obsolescence of the side seats and family circle, as only half the stage could be viewed from them. This blunder was overshadowed by the “golden horseshoe” design, which was occupied by the seventy stockholders. Construction of the building took two years, as it began in 1881 and was completed in 1883. The opening of the Metropolitan Opera was hosted on October 22nd 1883 and was run and managed by Henry Abbey and his company.
The opening inaugural season of the Metropolitan on October 22, 1883 was a spectacle of who’s who in New York society. The ar...
... middle of paper ...
...ropolitan Opera. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Nov. 2013. .
"Great Performances." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 1 Nov. 2013. .
"Topics in Chronicling America - The First Metropolitan Opera House." The First Metropolitan Opera House. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2013. .
Kolodin, Irving. The Metropolitan Opera, 1883-1966; a candid history.. [4th ed. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1966. Print.
Eaton, Quaintance. The miracle of the Met; an informal history of the Metropolitan Opera, 1883-1967.. [1st ed. New York: Meredith Press, 1968. Print.
"The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center - New York City." The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center - New York City. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2013. .
In his day, Johann Adolph Hasse was at the forefront of Italian opera. Although he composed a fair amount of sacred works, he is best known for his operatic output. He was widely popular throughout Italy and Germany, and was commissioned by courts and opera houses throughout Europe. His performances were attended by cultural figures at the time, as well as some of the biggest names in common-era music today. In his later life, styles changed and so Hasse’s acclaim diminished after his death. But generations later, he was re-established as a figurehead and icon of classic ancient Italian opera, a designation he possesses even today.
Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock, published in 1938, has garnered attention from the very beginnings of its existence. It quickly seduced the initial director and producers with its varied musical styles ranging from classical arias to satirical ensemble numbers. However, this proletarian opera has reached moderate infamy not necessarily because of the quality of its content, but because of the way it reached its premiere performance. What began as a government-sponsored production became a guerrilla effort to perform in spite of government censors. This controversial piece resonated with both performers and audiences, and most of the cast’s sheer determination to present Blitzstein’s work is a source of great fascination. Due largely to the perfect storm created by the lingering tensions of the First Red Scare and the Great Depression, The Cradle Will Rock and the events surrounding its debut contributed directly to the end of the Federal Theatre Project.
Stempel, Larry. Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theater. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2010.
Dumenil, Lynn, ed. "New York City." The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Social History. N.p.: Oxford UP, 2012. Oxford Reference. Web. 8 Apr. 2013.
Eastern Washington University Department of Music presented a program of Opera works by Giacomo Puccini, Aron Copland, W.A. Mozart, John Dowland, Franz Shubert, Maurice Ravel, and Robert Schumann on Friday, March 7, 6:30 p.m., in the Music Building, Recital Hall. These Opera works were sung by Senior Recitalist, Alexandra Rannow.
Christmas and Opera did not merely seem to correlate, but understanding where the two events derived from can help one to understand the similarities and differences between them. The development of Christmas was different from the creation of opera because the working class was controlling the other social classes for profit. Whereas for opera, the different social classes unified to keep opera as entertainment and not a social event. Another difference came within the writing and context throughout the article and the presentation of information conveyed by the author. Yet the events share the similarity of both being refined and reinvented.
Ostlere, Hilary. “Taming The Musical.” Dance Magazine 73.12 (1999): 84. Expanded Academic ASAP. Westfield State College Library, MA. 15 April 2005.
In 1878, Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore premiered in the United States. Their arrival sparked an overwhelming response from the people, the craze that was, was known as “Pinafore-Mania”. The songs that were sung in the show became the language of the people, and became part of everyday conversation. Even though it seemed all was good, some were not pleased and happy with the two “invaders”. “In the century since Gilbert and Sullivan, people on both sides of the Atlantic have bitched about “invasions” coming from the other side. America and Britain have continually sent each other their best shows for over a hundred years. If the balance tilts a bit every now and then, no matter: it will shift again (musical 101.com)”. With the growth of the American cities and with the Industrial Revolution going on, the theater-fans were becoming more sophisticated. With this, the homegrown musical entertainment, due to the success of Gilbert and Sullivan, looked second rate.
The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Their concert hall is at the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts, where they perform for their patrons during their main season, September to May, in Verizon Hall. This has become the orchestra’s performance hall since 2001, since they also own the Academy of Music, which is the oldest operating opera house in the nation since 1957. The orchestra also performs for its Philadelphia audiences during the summer at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts. The orchestra was founded in 1900 by Fritz Scheel, who also acted as the first conductor. The current and eighth music director is Yannick Nezet-Seguin, who was appointed in 2012 (The Philadelphia Orchestra, 2016).
On October 12th, I saw Tosca by Giacomo Puccini held at Atlanta Opera. Tosca is an Italian opera, directed by Tomer Zvulun, accompanied by an orchestra conducted by Arthur Fagen, included a cast of Kara Shay Thomson, Massimiliano Pisapia, and Luis Ledesma (The Atlanta Opera). Opera is an art form in which singers act out drama through a combination of acting and vocal performance. Singers deliver conversation in a musical manner, essentially singing the conversation. Since we recently learned about opera in class, I want to explore the future of opera - where it will go next with the ever advancing modern technology, media and entertainment, and what researches are currently being done at both the industry and academic levels. I will briefly describe what the traditional opera is like using Tosca as an example. Next, I will look at modern opera after the World War II. I will also select one example from the industry and university that are experimenting with opera. At last, I will offer my imagination of what the future of opera may be.
Kenrick, John. Musical Theatre A History. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008. Print.
The Museum Of Modern Art “MOMA” was firmly established on 53rd street in 1939 in Midtown Manhattan New York, after a decade of moving due to its growth in modern art pieces. Originally Patrons Miss Lillie P. Bliss, Mrs. Cornelius J. Sullivan, and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller Jr. wanted to establish a program dedicated to modern art in the late 1920s. A. Conger Goodyear, Paul Sachs, Frank Crowninshield and Josephine Boardman Crane, whom later became trustees, created the Museum Of Modern Art in 1929. It’s founding Director, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. wanted the MOMA to be "the greatest museum of modern art in the world." Its intent was to provide ordinary blue collar individuals with a better understanding and acknowledgment of art in its era.
Mahler's early career was spent at a serious of regional opera houses (Hall in 1880, Laibach in 1881, Olmutz in 1882, Kassel in 1883, Prague in 1885, Liepzig in 1886-8, Budapest from 1886-8, and Hamburg from 1891-7), a normal career path, until he arrived as head of the Vienna Opera in 1897. Mahler ended some of the more slovenly performance pra...
DiMaggio, P. (1992). Cultural Boundaries and Structural Change: The Extension of the High Culture Model to Theater, Opera and the Dance, 1900-1940. Chicago. University of Chicago Press.
The start of the new century was marked with the emergence of ‘opera seria,’ a “serious” opera that soon became the standard Italian style. The operas were characterized by a lack of chorus and consistency, as the individuals who performed possessed separate and distinct styles and the order of the subjects of which they were interpreting seemed sporadic and haphazard. Nevertheless, with its dramatic interpretations of various historical and mythological themes, opera seria was thought of as possessing content fitting only for royalty and quickly became a favorite of the nobles and aristocrats. As such, it served to be the main attraction during the ever-popular carnival season. In less than a century, however, as opera seria was thought to be too rigid, extravagant, and expensive, fewer and fewer of the required sopranos, of whom possessed the vocal range necessary for the dramatic works, came out as opera singers as their employment moved to the church for the last decade of the century. Their talents had previously earned them the highest salaries out of any musicians, allowing those on top to live lavishly and comfortably, but the decline of opera seria in Italy forced them to change their paths and career choices.