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San Carlo Opera Company

San Carlo Opera Company

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The San Carlo Opera Company was the name of two different opera companies active in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century.


The first company was founded by impresario

 Henry Russell
Henry Russell (impresario)
Henry Russell was an English impresario, conductor, opera director, and singing teacher.-Biography:Henry Ronald Russell was born in London. He was the son of Henry Russell, a composer, pianist, and baritone, and his wife Hannah...

; initially as a touring arm of the Teatro di San Carlo
Teatro di San Carlo
The Real Teatro di San Carlo is an opera house in Naples, Italy. It is the oldest continuously active such venue in Europe.Founded by the Bourbon Charles VII of Naples of the Spanish branch of the dynasty, the theatre was inaugurated on 4 November 1737 — the king's name day — with a performance...

 of Naples

, Italy

 in 1904. The company soon became its own institution and toured to the Royal Opera, London
Royal Opera, London
The Royal Opera is an opera company based in central London, resident at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Along with the English National Opera, it is one of the two principal opera companies in London. Founded in 1946 as the Covent Garden Opera Company, it was known by that title until 1968...

 in the Fall of 1905 and Boston

 in early 1906. The group remained based in Boston and gave tours annually of mostly Italian opera
Italian opera

s throughout the United States from 1906-1909 in addition to giving performances in Boston. With the opening of the Boston Opera House
Boston Opera House (1909)

 in 1909, the company essentially became the seed for the newly formed Boston Opera Company
Boston Opera Company
The Boston Opera Company was an American opera company located in Boston, Massachusetts that was active from 1909 to 1915.-History:The company was founded in 1908 by Bostonian millionaire Eben Dyer Jordan, Jr. and impresario Henry Russell...

 under the leadership of Russell. Notable singers to perform with Russell's San Carlo Opera Company included soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

s Fély Dereyne, Alice Nielsen
Alice Nielsen
Alice Nielsen was a Broadway performer and operatic soprano who had her own opera company and starred in several Victor Herbert operettas.-Background:...

, Lillian Nordica
Lillian Nordica
Lillian Nordica was an American opera singer who had a major stage career in Europe and her native country....

, and Tarquinia Tarquini
Tarquinia Tarquini
Tarquinia Tarquini was an Italian dramatic soprano and the wife of composer Riccardo Zandonai. Born in Colle di Val d'Elsa, Tarquini studied singing at the Milan Conservatory and privately in Florence...

; tenor

s Florencio Constantino
Florencio Constantino
Florencio Constantino was a Spanish operatic tenor.-Biography:He was born as Florencio Constantineau on April 9, 1869 in Bilbao, Spain. He moved to Argentina in 1889. He had a nervous breakdown and died on November 19, 1919 in Mexico City.-External links:...

, Riccardo Martin
Riccardo Martin
Riccardo Martin was an American tenor.Born Hugh Whitfield Martin in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, Martin was granted an endowment which allowed him, in 1901, to go to Paris to study with Giovanni Sbriglia and Jean de Reszke; he later completed his studies with Vincenzo Lombardi in Florence and Beniamino...

, and Umberto Sacchetti; contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...

 Rosa Olitzka; and bass
Bass (voice type)
A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...

 Andrés de Segurola
Andrés de Segurola
Andrés Perelló de Segurola was a Spanish operatic bass who performed as Andrés de Segurola.-Biography:...


The second San Carlo Opera Company was a touring grand opera

 company founded by the Italian-American impresario Fortune Gallo
Fortune Gallo
Fortune Thomas Gallo was an Italian-born opera impresario. Gallo was owner and General Manager of the traveling San Carlo Opera Company from 1913 until its disbandment in the late 1950s.-Biography:...

. Taking over management of a touring opera company led by Mario Lombardi that was stranded in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri

 in 1910, Gallo brought them back to New York City
New York City

, untangled their finances, and reorganized them as the San Carlo Opera Company, opening in December 1913 with a premier performance featuring “Carmen

”. Until its disbandment in the mid 1950s, the company - 100 strong, including 30 instrumentalists - toured annually in the USA and Canada

, visiting cities and towns poorly served by other companies, and often ventured as far afield as Europe

, and South America
South America

. Part of Gallo's success was his innovation of using local talent and heavily advertising their use to spur ticket sales. The company fared well, and in 1927 Gallo built the Gallo Opera House on West 54th Street
54th Street (Manhattan)
54th Street is a two-mile-long, one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan.-West Side Highway:*The route begins at the West Side Highway . Opposite the intersection is the New York Passenger Ship Terminal and the Hudson River...

 in New York City. It would later become Studio 54
Studio 54
Studio 54 was a highly popular discotheque from 1977 until 1991, located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan, New York, USA. It was originally the Gallo Opera House, opening in 1927, after which it changed names several times, eventually becoming a CBS radio and television studio. In 1977 it...

. The San Carlo company holds the distinction of having performed in the very first sound film of a complete opera, "Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...

," in 1929. Gallo did not try to turn the opera into a "moving picture," rather this was a filmed stage production, with stage sets, framed by the proscenium arch. During the war years of 1943 and 1944, Gallo produced a full season of opera in Chicago

, which had lacked a resident opera company for some years, under the name Chicago Opera Company
Chicago Opera Company
The Chicago Opera Company was a grand opera company in Chicago, organized from the remaining assets of the bankrupt Chicago City Opera Company, that produced six seasons of opera at the Civic Opera House from 1940 to 1946 . Fausto Cleva was artistic director 1944-1946, and until 1945 Fortune Gallo...

, using both his San Carlo company and visiting artists. Carlo Moresco
Carlo Moresco
Carlo Moresco was an American conductor, composer, violinist, and stage director of Italian birth. He was one of the most important opera conductors in the city of Philadelphia during the 20th century, working for multiple opera companies in that city...

notably served as the company's music director from 1947 until its demise roughly ten years later.