Grand book for a grand stage

150 Years of Opera in Chicago
By Robert C. Marsh
Completed and Edited by Norman Pellegrini
2006, Northern Illinois University Press, DeKalb
316 pages, $45

How many organizations presented grand opera in Chicago before the current Lyric Opera (1954 to present) began its distinguished career? Where did these organizations present operas? Who brought grand opera to Chicago before any local organizations existed? What contribution did Samuel Insull, the electric utilities mogul, make to opera in Chicago? Who among the international superstars of grand opera enjoyed performing in Chicago enough to return for several seasons? This and many other questions are answered in this fact-packed, lively book.

Robert C. Marsh (1924-2002) spent a long and active life studying classical music, and then teaching and writing about it, especially for the Chicago Sun-Times. He had a national audience for his many books, articles, and reviews. Norman Pellegrini, for forty years producer of opera and symphony broadcasts at WFMT, completed the book. 150 Years of Opera in Chicago radiates the affectionate and comprehensive knowledge of both men about the most glamorous and expensive of the performing arts.

Marsh makes clear why opera is so costly. The budget must cover the cost of principal soloists, a professional symphony orchestra, music directors, stage directors, and a corps de ballet. In addition there must be experts in preparing and maintaining scenery, props, machinery, lighting, and costumes. An opera company must maintain an auditorium agreeable to performers and audiences alike. Finally, Chicago has always demanded that its opera productions should be, if not the best in the world, certainly the equal of the best. Astute managers, wealthy donors, and ingenious promoters are as necessary as great composers, singers, and instrumentalists. All such people appear in Marsh's narrative.

The book is big—8 1/2 by 11-so that each page, with two columns of print for easy reading, equals two pages in a normal size book. There are 93 well-chosen illustrations and lengthy appendices, including a year-by-year listing of all the operas actually performed, from fall of 1850 through spring, 2005. For seasons since 1973-74 the list includes productions of the Chicago Opera Studio and the Chicago Opera Theater.

And now some brief answers. Touring opera companies were a major factor in the world of grand opera from early railroad days until shortly after the second world war. In the 19^th Century, Chicago was frequently visited by a variety of Italian and German opera companies. Opera companies from New York were regular visitors well into the 20^th Century, most notably the Metropolitan Opera Touring Company. Marsh lists seven local companies responsible for staging operas in Chicago from 1910 to 1946, and notes that the Chicago Symphony Orchestra staged one opera for a single performance in 1947. By far the most successful organization was the Ravinia Opera, which offered summer seasons from 1912 to 1931. Early venues included McVicker's Theater (1857) and Crosby's Opera House (1865), both destroyed by the Great Fire, and both replaced afterwards. Still standing and once again in frequent use is the Auditorium (1889) designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan. Since 1929 Chicago's premier opera companies have performed in the Civic Opera House, promoted and financed by Samuel Insull. Tito Gobbi, the versatile Italian baritone, sang with the Lyric Opera in its first season, and continued his association for the remaining 30 years of his life. Rosa Raisa, perhaps the finest dramatic soprano of her era, sang in Chicago from 1913 to her retirement in 1938, and continued living in the city teaching voice. Mary Garden, whose family moved from Scotland to Chicago when she was nine, completed her training and became a prima donna in France. She performed regularly in Chicago from 1910 to 1931, and in 1921 briefly became manager of the Chicago Opera Association. Garden did not succeed in opera management, but two other women, Carol Fox and Ardis Krainik, guided Lyric Opera for most of its first half-century.

Robert McColley is a professor of history emeritus, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a past president of the Illinois State Historical Society.

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