Cincinnati Opera Festivals During the Gilded Age

The Illustrated News MUSIC HALL, 1883 (Cincinnati), Feb. 3, 1883 First Act of "Lohengrin" (Drawn by H. F. Farny) BULLETIN of The Cincinnati Historical Society April 1966 CINCINNATI Vol. 24 No. 2 Cincinnati Opera Festivals During the Gilded Age by JOSEPH E. HOLLIDAY The Gilded Age, whose negative aspects of crass materialism, poor taste and graft in political life have been so emphasized, was not without its positive achievements.1 Some of these were in the field of scientific development and cultural striving. The 1870's and early 1880's were years of great progress in the cultural development of Cincinnati, particularly in the field of music. That city, with a population in 1870 of 216,239, was the most populous city in the state of Ohio and the second in size in the west. Many of its civic leaders had high hopes of it becoming the musical center of the Middle West and their hopes were not unfounded. Choral societies had long been a part of Cincinnati's social life, especially among the German element of the population. The May Festivals, using the membership of these societies, were inaugurated with great success in 1873. Music Hall, probably the finest auditorium in the country at the time it was opened in 1878, was built irThe Gilded Age, a term originally coined by Mark Twain, has come to be generally used by historians to denote the social life in the United States from 1865 to 1890. See H. Wayne Morgan, ed., The Gilded Age: a Reappraisal (Syra- cuse, 1963). 132 The Bulletin primarily for these festivals. There were also several flourishing music schools in the city, which provided a solid foundation for musical education. The Conservatory of Music, founded in 1867, the Cincinnati College of Music, founded by Mrs. Nelson Geppert, the College of Music of Cincinnati, founded in 1878, and numerous private schools had large enrollments. They also brought to the city, as teachers, a number of able and well-known musicians from Ger- many, Italy and the eastern coast of the United States. The community provided audiences for an amazingly live concert circuit of artists and touring companies visiting the city. During the season of 1879-'8O, for opera only, Cincinnatians had an opportunity to hear the Strakosch Opera Company present Italian operas at the Grand Opera House during the week of November 3rd, Emma Abbott's Grand English Opera Company present light and grand operas at Pike's Opera House during the week of December 3rd, and the Boston Ideal Opera Company present Gilbert and Sullivan operas and others during the week of January 11th. They could also have heard Mapleson's Her Majesty's Opera Company present grand opera on a more lavish scale during the week of January 23rd, Maurice Grau's French Opera Company sing at the Grand Opera House in February, and the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, on a return visit to Pike's Opera House in April, play Gilbert and Sulli- van's operas. While the standards of these companies varied widely, the opportunities for hearing light and grand operas were frequent — more frequent than in the middle of the twentieth century. This was the era when the "star system" prevailed; only touring companies could bring these stars to various cities; no city in the United States in 1881 had a permanent resident opera company. Another fundamental civic asset not lacking in those years was vigorous and able local leadership for musical events. George Ward Nichols and his wife, Maria Longworth Nichols, A. Howard Hinkle, Reuben Springer, Julius Dexter, Edmund Pendleton and Peter R. Neff were among the civic leaders who promoted and mobilized public support for good music. Among the projects that evoked great interest in the city during the Gilded Age, in addition to the Music Festi- vals, were the Opera Festivals. Since the community continues to be a center for opera presentations during the summer, some attention to these opera festivals is of interest, inasmuch as the roots of this tradition were nurtured by these festivals. The opera festivals had their inspiration among the directors of the newly-established College of Music of Cincinnati, particularly from the ambitious, hard-driving George Ward Nichols, who was president of the college from 1878 until his death in 1885. Nichols, Cincinnati Opera Festivals During the Gilded Age 133 who had more than a dilettante's knowledge of art and music, was a hard-headed realist in financial matters.2 He had been one of the main promoters of the May Festivals, but a serious dispute between Society Collection GEORGE WARD NICHOLS Nichols and Theodore Thomas, the musical director of the festivals, had caused Nichols to withdraw from participation. His restless, energetic spirit needed another outlet for his managerial and orga- nizational talents; the opera festivals provided this outlet. The founders of the College of Music had ambitious goals for their college — goals that were beyond musical instruction. Among these were a resident city symphony orchestra and a good opera department. Their attempts to organize a permanent symphony orchestra is part of another story. It is their interest in opera that 2Robert Shafer, "George Ward Nichols," Dictionary of American Bioqraphy (New York, 1935), XIII, 494. 134 The Bulletin concerns us here. One year after the college opened, Nichols engaged Max Maretzek as the head of the opera department of the college. Maretzek's experience as violinist, conductor and impresario had established a reputation for him in the opera field. A native of Moravia, who had been a violinist and conductor in orchestras in various German cities and London, he came to the United States in 1848 to conduct opera at the Astor Place Opera House in New York. In this country he became an impresario and his name was almost synonymous with the production of Italian operas in this country. Maretzek, in the words of one of his biographers, was "enterprising, but cloaked all of his ventures in pessimism," and his career, like those of so many producers, was punctuated by quarrels and disputes. He had a highly volatile personality.3 During his residence in Cincinnati from September, 1880, to June, 1882, he was occupied with his teach- ing duties and the organization of a private orchestra which played to large evening audiences at the Highland House during the summer of 1881.4 The first opera produced by the department of the college was Rossini's Cinderella in December, 1880. In the words of one newspaper critic, "it was a handome debut" and "would have borne the test of criticism of a Paris public."5 Nichols' methods clashed with Maretzek's volatile personality and he resigned in March, 1882. The opera department of the college then came, for a time, under the direction of Albino Gorno and J. F. Rudolphson.6 In the meantime, Nichols had launched the First Opera Festival. Nichols won approval from the directors of the college to enter into a contract with Colonel James H. Mapleson to bring Her Majesty's Opera Company for a week of performances in the city; in return for a guarantee, a percentage of the profits would be re- ceived by the college. It was determined to give the presentations a festival character.7 At that time Colonel Mapleson was one of the best- known impresarios in England and America. At successive times he managed Her Majesty's Theatre, Drury Lane and the National Opera House in Covent Garden, London. He first brought his company to the United States for the season of 1878-1879 and met with marked success.8 It was with the Mapleson Company that Nichols 3David Ewen, ed., Encyclopedia of the Opera (New York, 1955), 249; Robert Sabin, ed., The International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians, Ninth ed., 1285. See also his reminiscences, Max Maretzek, Crotchets and Quavers (New York, 1855), passim. Cincinnati Commercial, July 16, 1881. Hereafter referred to as Commercial. ^Commercial, Dec. 19 and 20, 1880. ^Commercial, March 12 and June 18, 1882. ''Cincinnati Gazette, Jan. 10-12, 1881. Hereafter referred to as Gazette. 8The [James Henry] Mapleson Memoirs, 181+8-1888. 2 vols. (London, 1888), I, 247. Cincinnati Opera Festivals During the Gilded Age 135 could at that time be assured of the best set of operatic stars. Touring companies had, of course, visited Cincinnati before; the Mapleson Company itself had visited the city twice. But this season would be different from another visit by a touring operatic company. With Nichols' managerial ability and position in the community, it was to be a community enterprise. Music Hall had a seating capacity of about 4,000 — larger than any house in the country — and its stage was so large that it could carry mountings which would make the presentations true specta- cles.9 A local committee of citizens to sponsor the operas would as- sure wider support and more extensive publicity than when a touring company visited the city without such sponsorship. Nichols also be- lieved that a union of the arts could be achieved by using local artists to design and paint part of the scenery; an opportunity could be provided to local musicians and students to play in the orchestra and sing in the chorus. These local promotional and educational features, with the large auditorium and stage of Music Hall, made the Cin- cinnati opera festivals unusual for that time. Nichols had grandiose visions and he had the force, personality and position in the community to carry them through. The promotional features resembled some of those so successfully used for the May Festivals.

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