First Season: Spring 1895

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Four years after Emil Fischer bade farewell to New York audiences, Walter Damrosch returned German opera to the Metropolitan Opera House, presenting 16 performances over four weeks, February 25- March 23, 1895.(15) New York opera lovers supported Damrosch with the largest subscription purchases to date, amounting to over $50,000. Single ticket purchases nearly sold out the first week, standing room at a premium, to create the most successful opera season New York had ever seen.(9) Total ticket sales amounted to over $150,000.(1)(5) Steinway noted that he sent tickets for the first week’s performances, “not 1/6th enough for my nearer friends.”(Diary, 1895-02-22) Days later he gave a number of individual tickets to his lawyer, George Cotterill.(Diary, 1895-03-02)ry,

Damrosch’s Opera Company opened on February 25, 1895, to standing room only for Tristan und Isolde, the same drama that Seidl introduced so successfully at the Metropolitan in 1886 and closed German opera four years before.(15) The fervor prompted one music critic to opine that had William Steinway succeeded in uniting Damrosch and Seidl, only the massive auditorium at Madison Square Garden could have accommodated the crowd.(11) Men packed the lobbies on opening night, drinking beer and talking of opera, or more specifically, opera conductors. The two camps of Wagnerites continued to argue. Neither group spoke of Richard Wagner; the names Damrosch and Seidl reverberated throughout the halls. Contrary to those Wagnerites who believed that only Seidl could conduct Wagner, Damrosch not only conducted Tristan und Isolde, he conducted it brilliantly.(12)

On that evening Damrosch and his company transformed opera at the Metropolitan. “The spectacle presented by the audience was almost without parallel…. Thousands listened as if they were hearing things on which hung life and death. Not a stir, not a rustle, not a whisper. It was devotion to art, but it had the intentness of devotion to religion…. Nothing that was done on that stage was half so impressive as the realistic drama that played in the audience.” German opera recaptured New York as the throngs gloried in their devotion.(10)

The Nibelungen Trilogy - Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung, plus Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, and Die Meistersinger followed.(15) William’s daughter and son-in-law, Paula and Louis von Bernuth, attended the opening performance of Tristan und Isolde,(Diary, 1895-02-25) and Siegfried two nights later.(Diary, 1895-02-27) William finally joined them on March 1 for Lohengrin, the first time he had been to a theater or opera house since December 1892. William wrote that “Rothmuehl was fair as Lohengrin, Oberhauser good as Herrufer, Brema excellent as Ortrud, Gadski only fair as Elsa.”(Diary, 1895-03-01) The following week Paula and her husband attended Tannhäuser (Diary, 1895-03-08) and Die Walküre.(Diary, 1895-03-12) William joined them again at Die Meistersinger, commenting that it was a “fair performance” with Marie Maurer performing well in her debut as Lena.(Diary, 1895-03-18) During the final night of the season, March 22, a repeat performance of Die Meistersinger, the artists appeared on stage with Damrosch after the curtain lowered. The Wagner Society presented Damrosch with a large wreath entwined with red, white, and blue ribbons, and a gold medal with the inscription: “To Walter Damrosch from the Wagner Society, February 25-March 23, 1895.” Damrosch thanked the public, especially the Wagner Society for its encouragement and support. The audience applauded enthusiastically and presented him flowers upon his leaving the stage.(8) An over-crowded matinee of Tristan und Isolde closed the season.(Diary, 1895-03-23)(5)

Following these 16 performances in New York, Damrosch’s company went on a short tour throughout the Northeast and Midwest.(1) The local populace, many hearing Wagner for the first time, jammed the houses each night after paying as much as $5 per ticket.(2) Most notably, Bostonians arrived at 4:00 A.M. and purchased the entire week’s tickets by nightfall.(1) With the exception of performances for charity, Boston audiences had not experienced grand opera for five years. Furthermore, audiences eagerly anticipated hearing Tristan und Isolde for the first time.(13) Encouraged, Damrosch added four performances during Holy Week.(1)

The season proved a financial success,(Diary,1895-03-23) with a profit of $53,000, (3, p. 112) but more importantly Damrosch's triumph inspired change in grand opera in America: Cincinnati engaged a permanent opera chorus, Pittsburgh procured a permanent orchestra along with a $1 million Carnegie endowment, while Philadelphia employed a permanent opera.(7) Without Damrosch's success, Wagner’s operas would rarely have been heard in the United States. He embarked on a risky venture that engaged the public intellectually and established higher standards of performance.(6) Ultimately, Damrosch was the conductor who affixed Wagner firmly in American minds.(14) For this victory Damrosch and music lovers had William Steinway to thank.(4)
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Second Season: Fall 1895 - Spring 1896

Third Season and Beyond: Fall 1896 - Spring 1898

Sources:

1.”The Damrosch Opera Tour,” The Musical Courier, March 27, 1895, p. 19.
2. “Damrosch Speaks Of His German Opera Plans for Next Season,” The American Art Journal, May 18, 1895, p. 82.
3. Damrosch, Walter, My Musical Life, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925.
4. “German Opera Next Year,” The New York Times, May 3, 1894, p. 4.
5. “Last Wagner Matinee,” The New York Herald, March 19, 1895, p. 11.
6. “Master Of His Art,” The Chicago Daily Tribune, April 21, 1895, p. 39.
7. “Mr. Damrosch And His Plans,” The Chicago Daily Tribune, November 18, 1895, p. 2.
8. “Mr. Damrosch’s Speech,” The New York Herald, March 23, 1895, p. 9.
9. “Notes of Music: The Wagner Opera,” The New York Times,March 3, 1895, p. 23.
10. “Opening of the Wagner Opera Season,” New York Daily Tribune, February 26, 1895, p. 7.
11. “Opening of the Wagner Opera Season with ‘Tristan and Isolde,’” The American Art Journal, March 2, 1895, p. 388.
12. “Raconteur,” The Musical Courier, March 6, 1895, pp. 22-23.
13. “Wagner Opera Again,” The Boston Daily Globe, April 2, 1895, p. 1.
14. “Walter Damrosch,” The Musical Courier, March 27, 1895, p. 22.
15. “A Week’s Musical Topics,” The New York Times, February 24, 1895, p. 12.