John --
I'll admit, a slight exaggeration, John, but I'm not talking the Met. Read
what I said: "every last small town had its Opera House." And, despite
your information offered in response to my e-mail, even those somewhat
larger, including your very own hometown of Seattle - dating back to the
1870's! (Read below.) I'm talking those buildings built as - and called
'Opera Houses.' Which were the cultural centers of ubiquitous towns.
Which weren't usually the 800-seat caverns (such as the Millett Opera House
in Austin, TX) but were usually more often the smaller venues which hosted
amateur local presentations of everything from G & S prods to scenes from
grand opera to instrumental recitals. And which - while not solely,
exclusively used for (so-called) classical music or other 'serious'
concerts, did make experiencing it available in those towns, performed by
amateur locals to touring semi-professionals to the occasional huge-name
artists of the day. Such as Jenny Lind or Louis Moreau Gottschalk (who
actually toured civil war camps and played in tents. Large ones.)
Virtually every last small town, boomtown or not (especially from my
observational perspective - the 'wild west' of the 19th century,) had one.
Which I'll admit is superlative, but is only a very slight exaggeration.
Virtually every little town proudly erected its opera house, and some, if
not many still exist thanks to historic preservation efforts. It was an
important part of that "culturifyin'" and civilizing factor in response to
the saloons and dance halls; it happened in towns sized from tiny to
absolutely miniscule. Ghost towns of the old west have (or had) their
Opera Houses: from Hornitos, CA to Glendive, MT, to Rhyolite, NV, to the
Amargosa in Death Valley, Ca (creepy little place - but still in use); those
in Bodie, CA, Delamar, NV, Columbia, CA, to thriving still-alive older towns
such as Grass Valley, CA, to Cheyenne, WY, Longmont, CO, Granbury, TX; the
Eureka Opera House in Austin, NV or The Wheeler in Aspen, CO, the Opera
House Theatre in Philipsburg, MT, and especially some of the REALLY grand
houses such as the 1881 Tabor in Denver (think of 'The Ballad of Baby Doe')
and other extraordinarily resplendent and opulent palaces. This entire
opera house tradition really began in the 1850s after the initial gold rush
flooded the west with settlers from the cities. Eventually those folk
(particularly womenfolk) demanded a cultural environment for community pride
and also as exposure to 'the high-class' arts for their childrenfolk. And
usually some sort of venue for some sort of performing arts was constructed
and proudly named "The Opera House." And more often than not, and while
certainly there were other forms of entertainment presented in those early
days (such as minstrelsy in the mid-1800's or vaudeville much later on) much
of the entertainment was of a higher 'cultural' variety.
And it doesn't end there in the West: among notables in even-very-small East
Coast towns are one of my favorites: the absolutely gorgeous 1876 Goodspeed
Opera House in East Haddam, CT. Or Marlinton, WV's Pocahontas County Opera
House, not terribly far from you, John. And even East Coast <Ghost Town>
Opera Houses: the Rodney (MS) Opera House.
And I LOVE your erstwhile hometown of Seattle - have spent time there
wallowing in some of its history as well. I did a little digging and found
some interesting things - including news of Seattle's FIRST reported Opera
House, from 1879:
<<Squire's Opera House, Seattle's first theater, opens on November 24,
1879:>>
On November 24, 1879, the Squire's Opera House, Seattle's first theater,
opens. The Squire's Opera House, located on the east side of Commercial
Street (1st Avenue S) between Washington and Main streets, was built as a
theater with two levels of seating for 584 theater-goers. During the next
year, various operas and plays were performed, including selections from
Macbeth by Barton Hill and Josephine Cameron, Seattle Minstrels, and a
ventriloquist mystery by Professor Vertelli and Miss Rowland. To its
owners the Squire's Opera House did not seem profitable enough. In September
1882, they turned it into the New Brunswick Hotel.
<<Musicians in Seattle organize a union on November 7, 1890:>>
On November 7, 1890, Seattle musicians form an union called Musicians Mutual
Protective Association. By 1902 membership was 154. By 1906, the union
had grown to 306 members with musicians earning from $20 to $30 per week. By
1918, the Musicians Local No. 76 had 550 members. By 1920 the union had 825
members including 125 females.
<<Stradivarius Violin first played in the Pacific Northwest in Seattle in
1875:>>
In 1875 Camelia Urso gives a Seattle concert using a Stradivarius violin.
This is the first time a Stradivarius is played in the Pacific Northwest.
The whole point of this sidebar thread (and to which I believe you agreed)
is that 'classical' music in 19th century America was a tad more ubiquitous
than may be the perception. You may argue my point about its means of
delivery locales, and it may be a slight exaggeration for me to have
declared that EVERY single last town had one, but it's not far off the mark.
I've been there, seen that - and in many cases, actually played some of
those old houses myself. Those few surviving ones, of course!
Best,
Les
Les Marsden
Founding Music Director and Conductor,
The Mariposa Symphony Orchestra
Music and Mariposa? Ahhhhh, Paradise!!!
http://arts-mariposa.org/symphony.html
http://www.geocities.com/~jbenz/lesbio.html
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: John Howell
To: finale@shsu.edu
Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2007 3:44 PM
Subject: Re: [Finale] OT: American culture (was John Cage's)
At 10:33 AM -0700 5/26/07, Mariposa Symphony Orchestra wrote:
I have to differ with Andrew: 'classical' music was really far more popular
in 18th/19th century America - and in fact especially in the 20th century
than you imply. In the mid-to-late 1800s American symphony orchestras
and opera companies were sprouting everywhere; every last small town had
its Opera House which was routinely sold out when a Jenny Lind or Louis
Moreau Gottschalk came through.
While I agree with Les' thesis 100%, this is going a little too far!!
"Every last small town had its Opera House?" Every last small town
didn't even have a public or private auditorium suitable for concerts
before large audiences, let alone an edifice dedicated to
musico-theatrical productions! Nor did "every last small town" have
an orchestra capable of supporting opera. Vaudeville, yes; Minstrel
Shows, yes; Burlesque, yes; Opera, no way! Not on the East Coast,
which was the original ghetto of European culture. Not in the
riverport towns that were the next to grow into cities. And most
certainly not in the small towns that were essentially trading
centers for the rural populations (even after Messrs. Sears and
Roebuck discovered the market for mail-order merchandising). My own
home town, north of Seattle, didn't get a decent Civic Auditorium
until the 1930s, and it was a WPA project then. And I don't recall
that it EVER housed an opera production as I was growing up in the
'40s and '50s.
There were many different Americas in the later 1800s, and no
generalization can possibly describe them all.
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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