James Henry Mapleson

Colonel James Henry Mapleson (born May 4, 1830 in London , † November 14, 1901 ) was an English opera impresario.

Life

The grandson of violinist and violist James Wheble Mapleson studied singing and violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London and played the viola in the academy's orchestra. In 1849 he organized a concert tour with a group consisting of the singer Henriette Sontag , the tenor Enrico Calzolari , the baritone Giovanni Battista Belletti , the bassist Luigi Lablache and the pianist Sigismund Thalberg . Another concert tour took place the following year with Pauline Viardot . He then studied for three years in Italy with Alberto Mazzucato and tried a career as a singer in London in 1854. However, he developed a laryngitis and lost his voice after an operation.

So he decided to pursue a career as a music manager. He founded his first music agency in London in 1856 and adapted Michael William Balfe's opera Bohemian Girl for the English stage. From 1858 to 1861 he was assistant to ET Smith , the opera manager of the Haymarket Theater . In 1861 he took over the management of the Lyceum Theater , whose season he opened with a performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Il trovatore with Therese Tietjens , Marietta Alboni , Antonio Giuglini and Enrico Delle Sedie . In 1862 he became manager of His Majesty's Theater , whose ensemble included Tietjens and Giuglini, among others, Zelia Trebelli and the sisters Barbara and Carlotta Marchisio . He produced Charles Gounod's Faust here in 1863 and went on a concert tour with the ensemble of the house with music by Gounod.

In the following year he performed under the title Falstaff Otto Nicolai's opera The Merry Wives of Windsor with Tietjens, Giuglini, Trebelli, Edouard Gassier and Charles Santley . In 1865 he brought Ema Pukšec to London and brought Beethoven's Fidelio to the stage. His tenor this season was Giovanni Matteo Mario , for the following year he secured the famous Giulia Grisi . In 1867 he had great success with Christine Nilsson .

In 1868 His Majesty's burned down and Mapleson moved to the Theater Royal on Drury Lane. There he performed Italian operas with Tietjens, Nielsson, Clara Louise Kellogg and others. From 1869–70 he worked with Frederick Gye , after which he returned to the Theater Royal , where Italo Campanini and Marie Marimon made their London debuts . In 1876 he produced Wagner's Lohengrin with Nilsson, Campanini and Antonio Galassi , in the winter of that year he began building the National Opera House, which was never completed. In 1877 he directed the opening of the rebuilt Her Majesty's Theater .

In 1877 he traveled to New York with an opera company with Etelka Gerster , Minnie Hauk , Zelia Trebelli, Alwina Valleria , Italo Campanini , Giuseppe Frapolli , Antonio Galassi , Giuseppe del Puente and Luigi Arditi . This season he performed in New York La Traviata , Lucia di Lammermoor , La sonnambula , Carmen , Faust , Il Trovatore , Die Zauberflöte , I Puritani , Figaro , Rigoletto , Don Giovanni , Ruy Blas Dinorah , Robert le diable , Il Talismano , Les Huguenots and Der Freischütz . The troupe also played in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and other major cities in the United States, and in the summer Mapleson also worked in London.

In 1880 he produced Arrigo Boitos Mefistofele in London with Nilsson, Trebelli, Rokano Nannetti and Campanini, and in the spring of the following year he repeated the performance with Alwina Valleria , Annie Louise Cary and Campanini. In 1881 he and his troupe took part in the Cincinnati Opera Festival, where Luigi Ravelli made his first appearance. Over the next few years, Mapleson's success in the USA waned, not least due to the opening of the Metropolitan Opera in 1883. He played his last season in America from 1885 to 1886 with Minnie Hauk , Lillian Nordica , Alma Fohström , Luigi Ravelli, Giuseppe del Puente and others and a performance of Jules Massenet's Manon . With the rest of his troupe he then gave concerts in England and had an opera season at Covent Garden Opera . After that he only organized relatively insignificant concerts in the English provinces.

literature

• "The Mapleson Memoires, 1848-1888" , Library of Alexandria, 1888, ISBN 9781465549105

swell

• Philip H. Highfill, Kalman A. Burnim, Edward A. Langhans: "A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800": M'Intosh to Nash , SIU Press , 1984, ISBN 9780809311309 , p. 76
• John Ogasapian, N. Lee Orr: "Music of the Gilded Age" , Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007, ISBN 9780313335525 , p. 38
• Michigan State University - Colonel Mapleson's Obituary