Great Singers in New York
The Age of Caruso

Note by Nimbus Records Ltd.











The history of the Metropolitan Opera House is a roll call of the world's most famous singers, with few exceptions, Battistini was one - he couldn't face the sea voyage. The final two decades of the nineteenth century brought to prominence a remarkable generation of vocal artists, the most celebrated of whom were Jean and Edouard de Reszke, Patti, Litvinne, Tamagno, Maurel, Viñas, Lilli Lehmann, Ancona and Nordica. These were the pre-eminent singers of their time, and, with the exception of Jean de Reszke (who was never recorded in the studio), they can all be heard on The Era of Adelina Patti, Nimbus NI 7840/1.

Caruso was engaged as a replacement for the idolised Jean de Reszke in 1903 and was to remain until 1920. During those 18 seasons the honour of opening the season was his on 16 occasions. Excepting Schumann-Heink (who sang a different repertory) and the other tenors, all the singers featured on this disc actually partnered Caruso at the Metropolitan.

The history of opera in New York before the turn of the century reveals a curious, but fortunate, coupling of two seemingly alien ingredients: elitist fashion-consciousness and unique virtuosity of performance. The common denominator between the two was, of course, finance. The swelling generation of American nouveaux riches had the money to attract the best European stars and to stage the most opulent productions. Their resources extended to building New York's prime opera theatre, the old Metropolitan, and reserving for themselves - the monied families and their dynastic network of acolytes - control of the auditorium's 73 gilded boxes. Prior to 22nd October 1883 (opening night of the Met), New York's shallow operatic heritage had been contained for the most part at the city's Academy of Music, with its mere 18 boxes and limited seating capacity. Greatly influenced by the cultural fashions of Europe, this institution had played host to some of the most celebrated singers of the generation, and it was not long before opera, glamour and high society became inextricably fused in a tide of social organisation which saw the rich of America emulating the aristocracies of Europe. At times, the desire to be seen on the right occasions, in the right dress and in the right company somewhat distracted the audience's preoccupations at an opera house away from the musical event in progress; nevertheless, the singing prospered, and the city's reputation grew as the global flash-point of operatic endeavour. Indeed the fever which surrounded all the various musical sensations which the Met witnessed has continued, undimmed, to this day, despite stock market crashes, fluctuations in musical taste, the founding of rival organisations, and the company's transplantation to a new building.

The social prestige and glamour associated with all things operatic, at the close of nineteenth century New York life, resulted in the establishment of a star system of Met artists, hierarchically ordered by a singer's popularity, that has since been equalled only by the Hollywood film industry. But the vocal character of these stars, and the style in which they approached their craft, together with the nature of the repertoire they undertook, underwent an axiomatic transformation between the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first of the twentieth. Loosely speaking, an older stylistic generation gave way to a new one around the turn of the century, and we find that by the 1920s opera was being performed in a manner that would have been unrecognisable to the older singers represented in this collection. The change was brought about by a shift in popular musical taste, and implemented by a new managerial initiative at the Met.

Between 1884 and 1891, the Met was administered by two Germans, first Leopold Damrosch, and then his son, Walter. They adopted a northern European approach to repertoire and singer selection, the result being a heavy bias in favour of Wagnerian and French opera. The dressing rooms were likewise populated with artists of proven distinction in these fields, their reputations having been built in Germany, Paris and London. Some Italian repertoire was undertaken, but that, like the French, was performed in German translation. Critics and populace in New York, the most influential of whom appear to have been of German extraction, were united in their support of this measure - for the time being, at any rate. The supreme female star of this generation, who exemplified the genuine virtuosity of the era, was Lilli Lehmann.

An important legacy of these years was the abundance of northern European singers in New York at the end of the century. Even after the replacement of Damrosch as manager by Maurice Grau - with the pledge to reintroduce more Italian opera and the Italian language - one still finds principal Italian roles taken by northern Europeans, or the occasional American: Nellie Melba was the Met's first Nedda (Pagliacci), and Mimì (La Bohème); Emma Eames was the first Santuzza (Cavalleria Rusticana), and Emmy Destinn the first Minnie (La Fanciulla del West). Marcella Sembrich, who had sung at the Met's first season in 1883, can be said to have towered over this generation of non-Italian sopranos. Mezzos and contraltos of the old school can be said to have been represented by Ernestine Schumann-Heink, the tenors by Jean de Reszke, the baritones by Edouard de Reszke, Victor Maurel and Marcel Journet. One of the most important hallmarks of this generation was versatility, and a number of the non-Italian lyric singers were equally capable of performing Italian, French and German repertoire.

Of course, eminent Italian singers were gradually introduced to New York, most notably the tenor Fernando De Lucia and the baritone Antonio Scotti, and as popular taste began to alter there arose a division of the Met's resources into separate wings: German, Italian and French. Before this time singers were clearly unimpeded by such divisions of repertoire and style, but three elements contributed to a shift in operatic perception in New York. The first was a split in attitude towards northern European opera. It was no longer considered acceptable to couple German and French opera under the same banner, and there emerged a decline of the latter. German stylists formed their own exclusive wing at the theatre, recruiting qualified Wagnerian singers such as Johanna Gadski, whereas lyric voices tended more to Italian repertoire. Composers such as Meyerbeer, Delibes, Thomas and Gounod were thenceforth represented only by their most important works.

Secondly, a good deal of public interest and aesthetic fashion was suddenly focussed on the new school of Italian opera composition, led by Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Giordano, Ciléa and Puccini. The new movement has since become known as the verismo, or 'realistic' school because of its predilection for real-life drama. Larger voices were demanded, tenors who could drive hard high notes, baritones who could shake the rafters, and sopranos who could sing lying prostrate, hanging their heads over the lip of the stage. Virtuosity and polished vocal technique was gradually eroded. The movement was in its infancy at the turn of the century, and the old school was still represented; but the people of New York, fascinated by novel sensation, were quick to respond to the lure of verismo.

The third factor which contributed to the change in musical taste related to the very make up of New York society. The Latin population was rising with the arrival of floods of immigrants, and the Italian sector, in particular, blossomed alongside the new predilection for its native country's musical heritage. Heinrich Conried, then manager of the Met gave way in 1908 to an Italian, Giulio Gatti-Casazza, and the same year saw the arrival of Arturo Toscanini as principal conductor. These two brought with them all the experience they had gained at Italy's most prestigious theatre, La Scala, and within a short time the Met had a good number of celebrated Italian singers on its roster. Genuine Italian opera had achieved a new level of respect on the international circuit.

The full consequences of this new era were to be felt after the First World War. But it would be fair to say that the swing in favour of Italianisation was to a large extent confirmed by the remarkable success and popularity of one man: Enrico Caruso. In the person of Caruso the modern style was made not only acceptable but archetypal. He has been imitated ever since.

It would be a mistake, however, to underestimate the prestige heaped by Americans on those singers of the new generation who still upheld the artistry of the past. The baritone Giuseppe de Luca, soprano Amelita Galli-Curci, and tenors John McCormack, and Tito Schipa.

Opera continued to be performed elsewhere in New York, most notably at the Lexington Avenue Theatre, but the Met reigned supreme, until 1906, when it faced a potentially devastating competitive bid from a new rival establishment. The Manhattan Opera Company was set up, complete with its own new theatre on West 34th Street, as a commercial exercise by one of the shrewdest businessmen ever to have applied his instincts to the music industry: Oscar Hammerstein. This uncompromising entrepreneur had the acumen to perceive that he was living in an age when opera and singers generated vast quantities of wealth; and he possessed the reckless audacity to challenge the greatest opera house in the world. He toured the world with a bulging wallet in search of first class singers, and succeeded in setting up a top international company which very nearly put the Met out of business altogether, so prestigious was the treasure collected under his roof (Tetrazzini, Melba, McCormack, Garden, Renaud, Zenatello, and many others). Some singers, such as Bonci, were able to appear for both companies during the period, but for the most part it was a battle of supremacy between one team and another. The founding of such a company was made possible not just by the flowering of operatic talent at the time, but the exclusivity of role allocation to individual stars at the Met. This meant that there was little space for fresh singers on the roster. It was ultimately due to the loyalty of singers like Caruso (who accepted the Met's lower fees rather than be tempted to the Manhattan) that New York's older company survived at all. In 1910, when the rivalry became critical, the Met offered Hammerstein a vast financial package if he would agree to discontinue his company, a buy-out with which the impresario was happy to comply.

The death of Caruso in 1921 and the retirement of his long time partner Geraldine Farrar the following season marked yet another shift in the Met's direction, a change which had its roots in the unavailability of European singers during the First World War. The threat of submarine attacks prevented many singers from travelling, and some, like Emmy Destinn, were forcibly detained in war-ravaged territories. This, coupled with a new patriotic fervour engendered by the conflict, led to an initiative for the discovery of native American talent; and thence we see the rise, occasionally meteoric, of such names as Rosa Ponselle, Lawrence Tibbett, John Charles Thomas, Mabel Garrison and Helen Traubel. The new direction was endorsed by the appointment of an American as general manager in 1935: the former principal tenor, Edward Johnson. The official retirement of the veteran de Luca in the same year, can be seen as the final passing of the Age of Caruso.


© 1993 Nimbus Records Ltd.

All rights of the producer and of the owner of the recorded work reserved.
Unauthorised copying, public performance and broadcasting of this recording prohibited.