The
Chicago Opera Association was a company that produced seven seasons of
grand operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in Chicago’s Auditorium Theater from 1915 to 1921. The founding artistic director and principal conductor was
Cleofonte CampaniniCleofonte Campanini was an Italian conductor. His brother was the tenor Italo Campanini.Born in Parma, Campanini studied music at that city's conservatory, making his debut with a performance of Carmen, also in Parma, in 1883...
, while the general manager and chief underwriter was
Harold F. McCormickHarold Fowler McCormick, Sr. was chairman of the board of International Harvester Company. McCormick was the youngest son of Cyrus McCormick and Nancy “Nettie” Fowler McCormick, inventor and manufacturer of the mechanical reaper.-Biography:...
. When Campanini died in December 1919 he was replaced by the composer
Gino MarinuzziGino Marinuzzi was an Italian conductor and composer, particularly associated with Wagner and the Italian repertory....
, who staged his own "Jacquerie" as the opening production of the 1920/21 season.
In January 1921, operatic diva
Mary Garden' Mary Garden , was a Scottish operatic soprano with a substantial career in France and America in the first third of the 20th century...
was appointed music director (or “Directa” as she styled it) and the recently divorced McCormick promised to pay that year's difference exceeding $100,000, the previous high being $300,000.
The
Chicago Opera Association was a company that produced seven seasons of
grand operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in Chicago’s Auditorium Theater from 1915 to 1921. The founding artistic director and principal conductor was
Cleofonte CampaniniCleofonte Campanini was an Italian conductor. His brother was the tenor Italo Campanini.Born in Parma, Campanini studied music at that city's conservatory, making his debut with a performance of Carmen, also in Parma, in 1883...
, while the general manager and chief underwriter was
Harold F. McCormickHarold Fowler McCormick, Sr. was chairman of the board of International Harvester Company. McCormick was the youngest son of Cyrus McCormick and Nancy “Nettie” Fowler McCormick, inventor and manufacturer of the mechanical reaper.-Biography:...
. When Campanini died in December 1919 he was replaced by the composer
Gino MarinuzziGino Marinuzzi was an Italian conductor and composer, particularly associated with Wagner and the Italian repertory....
, who staged his own "Jacquerie" as the opening production of the 1920/21 season.
In January 1921, operatic diva
Mary Garden' Mary Garden , was a Scottish operatic soprano with a substantial career in France and America in the first third of the 20th century...
was appointed music director (or “Directa” as she styled it) and the recently divorced McCormick promised to pay that year's difference exceeding $100,000, the previous high being $300,000. He planned on this being his last season, and he called in Mary Garden to finish the company with style. The subsequent blow-out season was finished with the hugely expensive world premiere of
Sergei Prokofiev'sSergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and came to be admired as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century.-Biography:...
“A Love for Three Oranges,” which had been commissioned by the Opera Association. This, and other extravagances on Mary Garden’s part, ended the season with a deficit of $1,100,000, most of which was paid for by the McCormick fund. Mary Garden as “Directa” for one season cost $750,000 more than any single season of opera in Chicago at that time. Coming as it did during a business recession, these deficits bankrupted the company.
The bankrupt Chicago Opera Association was soon succeeded by a successor company, the
Chicago Civic OperaThe Civic Opera Company was a Chicago company that produced seven seasons of grand opera in the Auditorium Theater from 1922 to 1928, and three seasons at its own Civic Opera House from 1929 to 1931 before falling victim to financial difficulties brought on in part by the Great Depression.-...
, under the direction of utilities magnate
Samuel InsullSamuel Insull was an Anglo-American investor based in Chicago who was known for purchasing utilities and railroads. He contributed to creating an integrated electrical infrastructure in the United States...
. Sixteen of the eighteen directors were carried over from the old company.
Sources
- Davis, Ronald L., Opera in Chicago, Appleton, New York City, 1966.
- Marsh, Robert C. and Norman Pellegrini, 150 Years of Opera in Chicago, Northern Illinois University Press, Chicago 2006.