Boston, like most other American cities, has been until recently in the position of depending chiefly on New York for its operatic fare. It was the latest of the large Eastern cities to become acquainted with grand opera, having been introduced to that form of entertainment by the Havana company of Señor Marty y Torrens in 1847. Satisfied apparently with what was supplied to it from New York, it initiated no noteworthy operatic enterprises of its own until 1909, when the Boston Opera House was built through the munificence of Mr. Eben D. Jordan. The artistic direction of the new enterprise was placed in the hands of Mr. Henry Russell, who for some years previously had toured the country successfully with his San Carlo Opera Company. Since then Boston has been an operatic city of importance. In addition to excellent performances of the regular French, Italian, and German repertory made familiar by the Metropolitan and Manhattan companies, it has heard the first performances in America of Debussy's L'Enfant Prodigue, Raoul Laparra's La Habañera, Frederick Converse's 'The Sacrifice,' Zan-donai's Conchita, Erlanger's Noël, Kienzl's Kuhreigen, Bizet's Djamileh, Louis Aubert's Forêt Bleue, and Henri Fevrier's Monna Vanna.
The Boston Opera Company is very closely affiliated with the Metropolitan and the principals of each are carried on the roster of the other. To a lesser extent there is a like exchange between the Boston and the Chicago-Philadelphia companies. Almong the more notable artists who have sung with the Boston company (excluding those belonging principally to the Metropolitan company) may be mentioned Carmen Mélis, Georgette Le Blanc-Maeterlinck, Leon Sibiriakoff, José Mardones, Florencio Constantino, Giovanni Zenatello, George Baklanoff, Lucien Muratore, Vanni Marcoux, and Eduardo Ferrari-Fontana.
It would be impossible, within the limits of a chapter, to follow operatic activities in other cities of the United States. Nearly every city of importance has received more or less regular visits from the big New York companies, from the Chicago-Philadelphia company, and from lesser enterprises organized for touring purposes. There would be little point in citing a list of these enterprises, but mention may be made of the opera companies promoted by Henry W. Savage and the Aborns, which have done for the smaller cities of the United States what the Carl Rosa and Moody-Manners companies have done for the principal cities of Great Britain.
In many of the more progressive musical cities—such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Cincinnati—the question of permanent operatic establishments has been strongly mooted, and undoubtedly the time is fast approaching when these and other cities will enjoy the advantages which now belong only to New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.
V
The line of demarcation between grand opera and comic opera is not easy to trace. Both have run together with a promiscuity which makes it very difficult to follow the history of one as distinguished from that of the other. Le Nozze di Figaro and Il Barbiere di Siviglia go hand in hand with Fidelio and Norma; Die Meistersinger is a companion of Tristan. The convenient tendency to spread the generic name of opera over all forms of musico-dramatic expression is found in all countries and periods. It is particularly noticeable in America, where even the dignified Metropolitan Opera House found it consistent to conjoin Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron with Parsifal and Salome.
In our general survey of opera in America we have touched on the comic opera activities which went on more or less in association with grand opera, and it only remains for us to refer briefly to the activities of such companies as devoted themselves exclusively to the lighter form of entertainment. The first of these, of course, were the French companies from New Orleans who familiarized the country with Pergolesi, Rousseau, Piccini, Cimarosa, Méhul, Grétry, Dalayrac, Boieldieu, Auber, and other masters of the light opera. Apart from the companies playing English ballad opera—a distinct genre—these were the only troupes of note which presented exclusively the lighter side of operatic art until late in the nineteenth century.
The real era of comic opera in America began about 1870 and lasted for somewhat less than twenty years. The first notable event of this period was the importation of Miss Emily Soldene and company—then the rage of London—by Messrs. Grau and Chizzola. They opened a season of opéra bouffe in English at the Lyceum Theatre, New York, in November, 1874, and played to crowded houses for several months, presenting Généviève de Brabant, Chilperic, La Fille de Madame Angot, and Madame l'Archiduc. Afterward they visited Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Boston—'beautiful, bald-headed Boston,' as Miss Soldene called it—Washington, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Chicago, Louisville, St. Louis, Houston, Galveston, and New Orleans. In 1875 Madame Aimée arrived with her French opéra bouffe company, also under the management of Messrs. Grau and Chizzola, and soon afterward came the Offenbach craze and the ill-starred visit of the composer.
Next came the vogue of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, with very fortunate results for America. The manager of the Boston Theatre was then engaged in a desperate and unsuccessful hunt for novelties and, in the extremity of his need, he appealed to his musical director. 'See here,' said the latter, 'this "Pinafore" that everybody is crazy about has been already done to death in many ways—but has it been really sung? Never! Well, then, why not get Phillips and Whitney and Barnabee and Tom Karl together and see what the piece is like, musically.'[53] The suggestion appealed to the manager and it was agreed that the proposed cast would be ideal. Hence the formation of the company known as the Boston Ideals, which produced 'Pinafore' on April 14, 1879. For all-round artistic excellence nothing like that performance had ever been given by an English-speaking company in America, nor did any opera company ever make such a success in this country as was achieved by the Boston Ideals.
Miss Soldene's troupe, it is true, was a tremendous rage, but she is frank enough to confess that its success was not exactly a triumph of pure art. Setting a precedent for all managers of musical comedy, she selected a chorus with a minimum of voice and a maximum of personal pulchritude. She was rewarded by liberal patronage from the sort of men who know the difference between a chorus girl and a show girl. The Boston Ideals, on the other hand, were a splendidly talented and efficient organization, containing some of the finest artists America had produced and inspired with a sincere enthusiasm for their work. During the six years following the production of 'Pinafore' they played 'The Sorcerer,' Boccaccio, Olivette, 'The Mascot,' 'Czar and Carpenter,' 'Bohemian Girl,' 'Chimes of Normandy,' 'The Musketeers,' 'Pirates of Penzance,' 'Patience,' 'Marriage of Figaro,' Fra Diavolo, 'The Weathercock' (their only failure), Giroflé-Girofla, Barbe-Bleue, 'Martha,' Fanchonette, Giralda, L'Elisir d'Amore, and 'Visit of the Blue Stocking.'