THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY INTERNATIONAL OPERATIC INDUSTRY AND THE AMERICAN MUSICAL PRESS

Abstract

The popularity of opera, and in particular Italian opera, in the United States is the result of almost two centuries of intensive activity in the field. The modest beginnings, set in motion by Manuel Garcia's family ensemble in New York during the 1820s, gradually expanded as the nineteenth century progressed. The genre, in fact, came to be rooted in the nation's cultural consciousness by the middle of the century. The 1850s were a period of great activity in the construction of American cities, and the musical press reports the planning, financing and erection of theatres suitable for performance; for example, the New York Academy of Music and the Boston Theatre in 1854, the Philadelphia Academy of Music in 1857. Since no native or immigrant American composer succeeded in the field of operatic composition during the nineteenth century, music historians have tended to leave aside mention of opera in their discussions of music in the United States. Close examination of the