Three Great Impresarios: Emperors of Song

Great impresarios are an extinct breed.

Grand Opera today is presented either by the state or by major corporate trusts. Yet, in the Golden Age of Verdi and Puccini, Wagner and Richard Strauss, opera in Britain and the United States was almost exclusively the preserve of individual private businessmen — the impresarios — who made (and lost) fortunes by personallv employing the great stars of the day.

The king of bombast was Colonel James Mapleson, child-star, wiliest of agents, then grandest and finally most unlucky of showmen.

Obsession ruined Oscar Hammerstein I. not once, not twice but three times bankrupted by his determination to conquer Broadway.

Great wealth protected John Christie, soldier, schoolmaster and heir to Glyndebourne Manor and estates, when his love for his wife led to his building up the largest private opera festival since Bayreuth.

Patti and Melba, Caruso and Tetrazzini — those legendary super-egos, with their jewels, parrots, castles and private investment accounts at Rothschilds — were the raw material these enterprising men tried to turn to gold.

This book, concentrating on the period 1860-1939, rediscovers their spectacular successes, and their even more spectacular disasters.

Freddie Stockdale founded Pavilion Opera, a small touring company, in 1981 and has written two previous books on opera: The Opera Guide (with Martin Dreyer) and Figaro Here, Figaro There. He lives with his wife, daughter and youngest son in Sussex, and has three elder sons by a previous marriage. Having taken opera tours as far afield as Moscow, Sydney,Tokyo and New York, he is well qualified to assess the problems confronted by the great impresarios of the Golden Age. He has also written a series of novels under his own name, and a series of crime novels under the pseudonym John Gano.

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