User:MinorProphet/Draft subpages/Die grauen Stunden

Oh dear, another monster... uploaded WAF The Graus were six closely-related members of the same family originally from Brno, Moravia. They were all active in some way in the theatre business in the US (and partially in Europe) from between c1868? to c1914. A certain amount of confusion has always necessarily existed between them all. The first to arrive in the United States was Jacob Grau, who seems to have fled his native Moravia after "political complications" (ie the Revolutions of 1848). His brothers and their sons - all born in or near Brno before c1862 - seem to have arrived (presumably with the rest of their families) in the US some time after Jacob.

The Graus
NB Works on a wide screen...

Jacob Grau (1817-1877) -- Emannuel Grau (d. c. late 1871) (NY Sun Maurice Grau obit) -- Hermann Grau (born c1829 - in his 84th year [ie 83] in 1912)
 * Their children:     ||      ||

No children? Maurice (1849—1907) & Robert (c1854 - d. 9 August 1916)   Jules (b. Brno, c1853 - d. NY, 11 Sept 1905)  & Matt (b. Brno c1862, -  d. NY, 5 October 1952)

Six Graus from two generations were involved all over the US and Europe as (sometimes international) impresarios and managers

of:
 * theatres
 * theatrical companies, both resident and touring
 * individual artistes (as business managers or agents)


 * performing:
 * grand opera
 * operetta
 * stage plays in French and German, and possibly English
 * musicals
 * burlesque


 * in:
 * opera houses
 * theatres
 * vaudeville halls


 * 1. Jacob Grau (1817-1877), impresario who put on opera at the Brooklyn Academy of Music c1861, then Theatre Francaise in New York, and opened Crosby's Opera House with his Italian Opera Company.
 * 2. Emmanuel (d. 1871, apparently not involved in theatre)
 * 2.1. Maurice Grau (Brno, 1849-1907) was perhaps the most famous, started his career selling libretti in Chicago for his uncle Jacob, later simultaneously manager of the NY Met and Covent Garden;
 * 2.2. Robert Grau  (Brno, c1854 - 9 August 1916)  [see my Aargh The Miracle.rtf] who was a dodgy vaudeville manager/impresario, later a writer on theatre and entertainment business. Destested by Maurice.
 * 3. Hermann Grau (Brno, c1829 - fl. 1912 in aged 83) who ran the NY German Theatre, the Stadttheater
 * 3.1. Jules Grau     (Brno, c1853 -  NY, 11 Sept 1905)  who ran the NY French Theatre, the Theatre Francais
 * 3.2. Matt Grau     (Brno, c1862 -  NY, 5 October 1952)

Lots about Graus Robert and Maurice in "The romantic world of music" https://archive.org/details/romanticworldofm00armsuoft

Jacob Grau 1.
(1817- 14 December 1877) - impresario, and manager of the Theatre Francais, New York. Left about $10,000 ?

General b/g stuff
He was an impresario of stage plays & opera, & not a musical conductor; sometimes he is described as 'conducting' seasons of opera etc., but this is the same as 'directing'. Maurice Grau's uncle

Jacob brought a troupe to McVicker's Theatre.


 * Crosby's Opera House (1865–1871) was an opera house in Chicago, Illinois, founded by Uranus H. Crosby, destroyed by fire
 * Inaugural season, 17 April 1865, produced by Grand Italian Opera Company managed by Jacob Grau of the Theatre Francais, New York

Lots at {Music in Gotham http://www.musicingotham.org/person/549}

Jacob Grau managed Adele Ristori? when she made her debut at the French Theatre in 1866 with Medea. http://www.musicingotham.org/event/89271

Offenbach became popular through the efforts of HL Bateman who put on La grande duchesse de Gérolstein in September 1867 at the Théatre Francais (Built in 1866 BY WHO? Two blokes, but the first productions were by Jacob Grau. with Théâtre français) with Tostée.

Jacob Grau was manager of the Theatre Francais, New York NB Later the Park Theatre, New York; the company there was the Grand French Opera Bouffe Company. NB Das Mirakel was shown there in 1912 - bastards...

Jacob Grau was in competition with the impresario Max Maretzek. Jacob Grau took the same troupe that had just finished at the Academy of Music to Chicago - lol the American Civil War ended on 10 April - 17 April 1865

Hmm, there were two camps vying for prominence, the Italian and the German, centred around the Academy of Music.

Maurice Grau - his nephew - started selling libretti in the foyer and taking tickets in Chicago in 1866 for his uncle Jacob Grau, who put on the first opera season in Crosby's Opera House. Also distributed free tickets for L'Africaine.



Bio
Jacob Grau had trained as a doctor, but, because of ill health and "political complications" in Moravia, gave up his medical career when he emigrated to the U.S. aged 31. Aha! this means he was caught up in the Revolutions of 1848

Business Manager of "Associated Artists": Colson, Brignoli, Ferri, Susini: and Muzio, director. Leased the Academy of Music - lol, later the competition to the Met - and the Brooklyn Academy of Music

Further Revelations of an Opera Manager in 19th Century America - volume 3 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=NZcIAQAAMAAJ&q=Hermann+Grau+moravia

Lots and lots. Jacob leased the Brooklyn Academy for opera from c. 1861

Strong on Music: Repercussions, 1857-1862 By Vera Brodsky Lawrence

Marietta Gazzaniga made her American d6but at the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Feb. 23, 1857, as Leonora in II Trovatore.

She was first heard in this city April 13, following as Violetta in La Traviata." She sang in Havana, Cuba, in the winters of 1857 and 1858, during the first season sharing public favor with Mme. Frezzolini, and being overshadowed by Signora Gassier during the last. She then toured the country under the management of Jacob Grau and Don Diego de Vivo. May 21, 1866, she sang Rachel in La Juive at the Academy of Music, this city [1857] THE ACADEMY OF MUSIC p.31 A book

Another season of Italian opera began Jan. 21 [1862], under the management of the Associated Artists. Muzio was the conductor, Jacob Grau, director, and D. de Vivo, manager. The company included Pauline Colson, Isabella Hinckley, Mile. Elena, a debutante, Adelaide Phillips, and Signori Brignoli, Ferri, Susini, Stefani, Ippolito, and Coletti. Their first production was II Giuramento.


 * Elgira: Pauline Colson
 * Viscardo: Signor Brignoli
 * Bianca: Adelaide Phillips
 * Manfredi: Signor Ferri

Miss Hinckley made her debut Jan. 23, in Lucia. Miss Hinckley was married to Sig. Susini, and gave birth to a daughter June 2, 1862. Her confinement, however, was followed by puerperal fever, which, turning to typhoid, terminated fatally July 6, 1862. This lady sang twice at Court at The Hague, and received a most flattering mark of attention from Her Majesty the Queen of Holland, who took her by the hand, complimented her highly upon her voice, and shortly after presented her with a handsome bracelet. II Trovatore was given Jan. 29, with Miss Hinckley as Leonora and Miss Phillips as Azucena. Jan. 31, Signorina Elena made her debut as Lucrezia Borgia. Feb. 2, the Philharmonic Society of New York gave another concert. II Barbiere was sung Feb. 4, and Martha, Feb. 6. Feb. 11, Verdi's opera, Un Ballo in Maschera was given for the first time in America, and with this cast:


 * Amelia: Pauline Colson
 * Oscar: Isabella Hinckley
 * Ulrica: Adelaide Phillips
 * Riccardo: Signor Brignoli
 * Renarto: Signor Ferri

It was repeated Feb. 13, 16, 18, 20, when President-elect Lincoln attended, and Feb. 22 and 25. Clara Louise Kellogg made her public operatic d6but in New York, Feb. 27, as Gilda in Rigoletto Don Giovanni was sung March i. Miss Kellogg again appeared as Gilda, March 2 ; Un Ballo was repeated March 4-8; II Poliuto, March 8. Miss Kellogg first essayed the role of Linda in Linda di Chamounix matinée, March 9. This closed the season. Un Ballo in Maschera had a greater [THE ACADEMY OF MUSIC p. 43 ] success than any opera since II Trovatore. While in the height of its popularity it was withdrawn in order to permit Miss Kellogg to make her début in Rigoletto, Stigelli making his rentrée in the tenor part.

Clara Louise Kellogg began her professional career as a concert singer, and soon acquired the highest position in opera and in oratorio. As a singer she did not astonish you — she delighted you. She was so natural, so sympathetic in voice and manner, so nearly faultless in method, and exquisitely happy in imparting the sentiment of a song, or in illustrating the dramatic purport of a scene.

The same book

A short season of Italian opera was opened Jan. 15, 1862, under the management of Jacob Grau. The company was made up as follows : Miss Kellogg, Miss Hinckley, Madame Strakosch, Signori Brignoli, Manchesi, and Barili. The operas given were as follow: Jan. 15, La Traviata; Jan. 17, Un Ballo in Maschera. Max Maretzek, having returned from Havana, joined forces with Mr. Grau, and a two weeks' season commenced under their joint management, Jan. 29, with Miss Kellogg, Madame Strakosch, and Brignoli, Susini, and Barili in Martha. Jan. 31, II Trovatore, Feb. 3, was the début of Signor Ippolita as Germont, in La Traviata; Feb. 5, Un Ballo in Maschera; Feb. 7, Linda di Chamounix; Feb. 10, La Somnambula; Feb. 15, matinée, Martha; Feb. 21, military festival of the Regiment des Enfants Perdu[s?]; Feb. 24, Prof. Adrien, the magician ; Feb. 28, Kellogg in Lucia, and Louis M. Gottschalk, the pianist; matinee, Feb. 28, Betly and Gottschalk. Mr. Grau commenced another season March 19, with Un Ballo in Maschera; March 20, Masaniello, with Isabella Hinckley as Elvira, Isabella Cubas as Fenella, Susini as Pietro, Brignoli as

[1862] THE ACADEMY OF MUSIC p. 45

Masaniello, and Barili as Bonello; March 21, Martha; March 22 (matinee) and March 24, Masaniello; March 26, Mme. [Zelie?] de Lussan made her debut in La Favorita. Her voice was a pure soprano, reaching from G to C in alt. March 28, Mme. Elena d'Angri appeared as Rosina, in II Barbiere; March 29, Linda; April 10, the Academy was given up to a reception to the officers of the frigates Cumberland and Congress, and on the three first nights of the following week the Brothers Lubin appeared in magical stances.

Grau returned with his company April 21. Sig. Tombesi (tenor) sang the Duke in Rigoletto. Kellogg was Gilda; D'Angri, Magdalen; Barili, Sparafucile; and Ferri, Rigoletto; April 23, La Figlia del Reggimento, with Kellogg as Marie; April 25, D'Angri as Leonora in La Favorita.

That same book

Opera was again attempted the following January, 1862. The New York Times (17 January) reported that Mr. Grau, the present director of the company, had at last received permission from the directors of the Brooklyn Academy of Music to produce La Traviata. Grau's company, featuring Miss Kellogg in her first appearance as Violetta, performed the opera in New York on 15 January and in Brooklyn the following evening. Verdi's work, which provided Miss  Kellogg one of her finest successes, "excited unusual curiosity among Brooklyn's fashionable and religious circles." The Times added that among the crowded audience were many of the leading clergymen of the city.


 * And a regular season of opera at the Academy from 11 November until 15 December 1862, with Jacob Grau, with a short season in February with Clara Louise Kellogg in Poliuto (Donizetti), with a break because the tenor, Brignoli, was ill.

Jacob Grau commenced a season of Italian opera Nov. 10, 1862, introducing Mile. Genevra Guerrabella as Violetta, in La Traviata, supported by Sig. Amodip and Barili. This lady's right name is Genevieve Ward. She is the daughter of Samuel Ward of this city. In 1858 she went to Paris, where she made her first appearance on the stage, in April, 1859, Elvira, in the opera of [p. 46 A HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK STAGE ] Don Giovanni. She married a Russian count, who soon grew weary of his wedded bliss and abandoned her; but, on her appeal to the Czar, the marriage was legalized, and the faithless husband was banished to Siberia. {p. 46}

Yep, again, A History of the New York Stage

as opera production was concerned, the Academy had "sunk lower" than most opera houses in small European towns.
 * Followed in March 1863 by Max Maretzek. In an indirect criticism of Grau, the Times reviewer complained that, insofar


 * Another premiere was heard at the Academy on 11? November 1863, when Judith, ('Giuditta', 1860), by Achille Peri (1812-80), was presented in a troupe managed by Jacob Grau. Also La Favorita.


 * Maretzek put on the first US performance of Faust (fp 1859) on 25 November 1863 at the Academy.



Then Crosby's Opera House, Chicago, in April 1865, with Jacob Grau and his company from the Academy of Music. Maurice Grau (b 1849) sold tickets & librettos from 1866 aged 16-ish, and joined his uncle Jacob full-time aged c22 after Maurice's father Hermann died.

Jacob Grau came May 7 1866, with his company from Havana and gave La Traviata, with Leonilda Boschetti as Violetta; May 9, II Trovatore was sung, with Mme. Noel-Guidi as Leonora, Mme. Cash-PoUini as Azucena, Musiani as Manrico ; May 10, Faust; May II, Saffo (Sapho) for the reappearance of Mile. Gazzaniga; Faust, Un Ballo and La Juive followed ; May 18, L'Africaine, matinee. May 19, Ernani and Faust (third act).

May 21, 1866, the last performance in the old Academy of Music was given, the opera being La Juive, thus cast: Rachel, Mme. Gazzaniga; Eudoxia, Mile. Boschetti; Prince Leopold, Signer Anastasia; Eleazar, Signor Musiani ; Cardinal, Signor Milleri. Jarrett & Palmer had leased this house for the production of La Biche au Bois, but early on the morning of May 22 the house was entirely destroyed by fire. Flames were discovered in the basement, fronting on Irving Place. The performance had been closed only a short time, and a number of persons attached to the theatre were still in the building. In the short space of thirty minutes the whole building was a massive sheet of flames. At half-past one o'clock the interior of the Academy had been totally destroyed. Shortly after the fire, a meeting of the shareholders was held, and it was resolved to rebuild on the same site. The foundations were put in condition in August, 1866, and the building was ready for occupancy in February, 1867. It cost $1,300,000. Thomas R. Jackson was the architect and contractor.

A history of the New York stage

The Theatre Francais
THE house now known as the " Fourteenth Street Theatre" was originally called "The Theatre Francais," and was erected on ground formerly occupied by the Palace Garden, otherwise [448 A HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK STAGE] known as the Cremorne Garden. The parquet contained three hundred seats, and the dress circle had three rows of private boxes, separated from each other by high partitions. There were eight proscenium boxes. The stage was seventy-five feet in length and thirty in width, illuminated by sunken footlights. {pp 447-8}

A history of the New York stage [...]

Jacob Grau next leased this house and opened it Aug. 25, 1866, under the direction of Henry Draper, with Italian opera. F. C. Burnand's burlesque of Ixion had been given on the previous evening, and at a matinee on the opening day. II Barbiere was the initial opera, with Leonilda Boschetti, Sig. Tomaso, Orlandini, Nicolai, Barin, F. Rosa (conductor), Carl Formes, Massimiliani, Signora de Rossa, and Freda de Gebele in the company. Anna Lacoste acted Deborah Aug. 30 and Sept. 1, supported by W. H. Wilder, J. J. Prior, W. S. Higgins, G. C. Turner, C. T. Parsloe, Jr., C. Newton, S. E. Bloomingdale, R. L. Simpson, Mrs. H. Mills, and Mrs. Thos. Hind. Martha was sung Sept. 3; II Trovatore, Sept. 7, 8, 10, 12; The Doctor of Alcantara Sept. 13, with Fanny Stockton as Inez; Mina Geary as Isabella; and E. Duchesne as the Doctor.

Adelaide Ristori made her American début Sept. 20, under the direction of Jacob Grau in Medea. {p. 448]

A history of the New York stage

[...]

(Academy of Music) Oct. 29 1866, M. Jules Leotard, trapezist, {yes, the famous one] made his American début under the direction of Jerome Ravel. The farce The Governor's Wife was also acted. Leotard continued for three performances. p.60

p. 60 A history of the New York stage

1867
(Theatre Francaise)

On May 15 a performance took place for the benefit of the Italian schools, after which a banquet was given to Ristori, when she was presented with a gold medal. A benefit was given May 16, to the Southern Relief Association. Ristori closed May 17, with Medea (Corneille) and at the end of the performance she was made the recipient of an Italian flag. On the following day she sailed for England, her sojourn in America having been one grand series of successes, out of which Jacob Grau made a fortune. The receipts on her closing night reached $83,000. {p.450] https://archive.org/stream/cu31924082209440/cu31924082209440_djvu.txt p. 60

1868
Grau's Opera Bouffe company, from the French Theatre, gave Barbe Bleue, Dec. 17, with Desclauzs as Bulotte, for the benefit of the French Benevolent society. Genevieve de Brabant was also sung.

A history of the New York stage, p.61

Death
NY Times says he died intestate on 14th Dec, leaving brothers Herman and WILHELM, sisters Johanna and Rosalie and about 20 nephews and neices, mostly in Austria, and left personal property worth $10,050.

NY Times, 30 December 1877. http://article.archive.nytimes.com/1877/12/30/81719063.pdf

1877: Rabbi Henry S. Jacobs of the 34th Street Synagogue officiated at the funeral of Jacob Grau, the impresario. The Hebrew Mutual Benefit Society had attended the body before the ceremony which was attended by a large throng. Burial was at the Washington Cemetery.

This day in Jewish history - 12 December http://jewish1191.rssing.com/chan-15120684/all_p5.html

So who was Wilhelm, and it looks like Emmanuel was dead as well.

End of Jacob Grau

Emmanuel Grau 2.
I have discovered little about Emmanuel Grau, who seems to have kept a boarding-house (see Maurice Grau obit.) He died in around late 1871 when Maurice was around 22, who been studying law up to that time, apparently with Emmanuel paying the bills.

Maurice Grau 2.1
(b. Brno 1849—d. Paris, France, 14 March 1907)



Maurice @Metropolitan Opera CD http://www.symposiumrecords.co.uk/catalogue/1284

He was a stock exchange speculator who liked music (or a music lover who liked to speculate), originally beginning with Offenbach opéra-bouffe with Marie Aimée; his uncle Jacob Grau (1817-1877) was the manager of the Theatre Francais. Then Theatro Solis in 1881 with Patti and Arnaldo Conti. Put on the 1883-84 inaugural season of the brand-new New York Metropolitan Opera House with Abbey, but financially disastrous. Went back to comic opera. In 1891 just as the popularity of bouffe was coming to an end, Abbey and Grau and Schoeffel took over the Met again. Then Covent Garden 1897-1900, left Met 1903 and retired to Paris a rich man, died 1907

When Grau left the Met, he said: "Only a fool or madman will take up where I leave off."

Maurice Grau Music and theater impresario, was born in Brno, Moravia, (then part of Austria/Hungarian empire) the son of Emmanuel Grau and Rosalie (maiden name unknown). In about 1854 he immigrated with his parents to New York City, where they ran a boardinghouse. Grau began working in the theater for his uncle Jacob Grau while studying at the College of the City of New York. Upon graduating in 1867, he enrolled at Columbia Law School. But, preferring his uncle’s profession, Grau left without graduating, instead holding “about every place that one can hold in the theater, except on the stage.” Other members of Grau’s family involved in theater management included a brother [Robert], two cousins [Jules and Matt], and a second uncle [Hermann]. Information regarding Grau’s marital status is sketchy. Biographical sources indicate that he married Marie Durand in 1883, but obituaries list his widow as Jeannette. Grau, Maurice (1849 - 1907), Music Promoters, Opera Company Managers http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1800492

Maurice Grau (1849–1907), manager. Although best known for his successful tenure as head of the Metropolitan Opera, he was also important in the growth of popular musical theatre in America. Born in Brünn, Austria, and brought to this country at the age of five, Grau studied at Columbia and embarked on a law career. But he abandoned his legal position to help his uncle, Jacob Grau, then manager of the Théatre Francais (French Theatre) in New York. His first solo venture was to bring to America the great French star of opéra bouffe, Marie Aimée. The success of her performances helped consolidate the vogue for opéra bouffe in particular and musical theatre in general. Grau later persuaded Jacques Offenbach to make an American tour and sponsored the great Italian actor Tommaso Salvini. At various times he was occupied with the management of several New York legitimate theatres (as opposed to his brother Robert, who managed vaudeville acts including La Loie Fuller and the other one http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095904474

Abandoned law career & in 1873 organised the Clara Louise J Kellogg Opera Co. Also managed Anton Rubinstein and Salvini the Italian tragedian & others After with Henry Abbey he managed Sarah Bernhardt's tours; then with Abbey & Schoeffel managed Patti, Bernhardt, Henry Irving, and Sally? & Mme Rejane. Special season of 21 performances at the Met in 1890, and 1891 - 1903 impresario at the Met., which I think he had the lease of as well...

Czech American Timeline: Chronology of Milestones in the History of Czechs in America By Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr. p. 135 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=EXDyAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA135

Unless otherwise stated, much of this is based around Grau's obit in The Sun (NY)

The Sun (NY) 15 March 1907

IMPRESARIO GRAU IS DEAD THE MAN WHO MADE THE MET METROPOLITAN FAMOUS Was the Originator of the All-Star Cast and Put Opera Here on a Sound Financial Basis Died at His Home In Paris Where He Had Been ill for a Long Time

PARIS March 14 Maurice Grau who preceded Mr Conried in the management of the Metropolitan Opera House New York and had been managing director ot the Royal Opera Covent Garden London died today at his his home in this city He had been in poor health for some time and was reported to be in a dying condition last December

Maurice Hermann Grau as he was named by his parents was the most toted operatic impresario that this country ever knew and the Metropolitan Opera House with its great vogue the world over and its immense financial backing is the best monument to his skill as a producer of opera. He had tried his hand at other forms of theatrical management but it was was as an impresario that be became famous. Apart from a brief experience at Covent Garden his activity as a manager of opera was confined to the Metropolitan. [JLB - Not true.] He will always always be notable in the history of American amusements as the man who put opera on a businesslike sound financial basis. [JLB Mostly because he made more than enough money on Wall Street to cover his risks]

Maurice Grau, who dropped his middle name some years ago was born in Brunn Austria in 1849 and was brought to this country by his father when 5 years old. His uncle Jacob and his father Hermann were well known in those days as musical managers and had made some reputation in Europe in the same line of enterprise. Maurice went to the public school and later to the College of the City of New York then known as the Free Academy, graduating in 1867  aged 18

Attended the Columbia Law School, and two years in a law office studying in the office of Edward Lauterbach with whom he had formed a friendship in college, Mr Lauterbach being in the senior class while Mr Grau was freshman.

and read law in the office of Morrison, Lauterbach & Spitgarn.

Mr Grau's ambition to be a lawyer was frustrated by the death of of his father [who was paying the bills] - ahaha! So Emannuel Grau died in around late 1871! - Source - NY Sun Maurice Grau obit and he went eventually into the business of the family when he became the manager of the Marie Aimée [Company or her?] on February 12 1872 at Bridgeport Conn. (until 1875) Charles Chizzola had been the partner of Hermann Grau in the venture and on his [Grau's] death the son stepped into his shoes. From that time on he was active in management.

Jacob Grau managed Adele Ristori when she made her debut at the French Theatre in 1866 with Medea. http://www.musicingotham.org/event/89271

Offenbach became popular through the efforts of HL Bateman who put on La grande duchesse de Gérolstein in September 1867 at the Théatre Francais (Built in 1866 BY WHO? Two blokes, but the first productions were by Jacob Grau. with Théâtre français) with Lucille Tostée.

Jacob Grau was manager of the Theatre Francais, New York; the company was the Grand French Opera Bouffe Company.

Jacob Grau was in competition with the impresario Max Maretzek. Jacob Grau took the same troupe that had just finished at the Academy of Music to Chicago - lol the American Civil War ended on 10 April - 17 April 1865 p. 66

Hmm, there were two camps vying for prominence, the Italian and the German, centred around the Academy of Music.

Maurice Grau was the most successful of all the impresarios, though he knew little about music and was more or less at the mercy of his singers. He was associated with Abbey and Schoeffler for a long time and was sole manager for about ten years. During these periods he introduced to the American public the De Reszkes, Calvé, Schumann-Heink, Sem- brich, Eames, Melba, Ternina, Gadski, Nordica, Rubin- stein, Wieniawski, Aimée, Capoul, Sarasate, Joseph Hofmann, besides some of the great dramatic artists, among them Salviai, Bernhardt, Coquelin, Bejane, and Henry Irving. Personally he was the least pre- tentious of men. He was courteous and urbane in his relations to others, but very quiet and reserved. As far as the expression of feelings is concerned, he was literally a sealed book, for, if he was elated or depressed, if he was making money or losing money, he gave no sign. He was always studiously polite in his greeting, but made no more talk than was necessary. He was lenient in management, especially with his prima donnas, even when they violated their contracts by declining to sing, nor did he interfere with them more than was absolutely necessary.

Musical memories; my recollections of celebrities of the half century, 1850-1900

Maurice Grau started selling libretti in the foyer and taking tickets in Chicago in 1866 (born 1849=aged c15) for his uncle Jacob Grau, who put on the first opera season in Crosby's Opera House, Chicago. Also distributed free tickets for L'Africaine.



26 March 1868, Bateman and Marie? Lucille Tostée with La belle Hélene at Le Theatre Francais

22 October 1868 - Maurice Grau at the Théatre Francais Genevieve de Brabant (Offenb) for 11 weeks, followed by Hervé's L'oeil crevé on 11 January 1869, and La vie parisienne on 29 March, with tickets at $3.00, double the usual price.



Marie Aimée - NB red link (born 1857) débuted on 21 December 1870 aged 23 in Offenbach (WHAT? WHERE?) Offenbach's La Grande-Duchesse in 1868 at the Theatre Francais; and Barbe-bleue at Niblo's in 1869" v. popular.


 * "By 1870 Maurice Grau was the biggest importer of opéra-bouffe" - both Aimée and Tostée were featured in his 7½-month season at the Grand Opera House (Pike's Opera House at 8th & 23rd)

1872 - Aimée in October at the "fading Olympic" and from November to 11 January 1873

1873 Maurice Grau also engaged Tommaso Salvini for 100 performances (in NY?) with a full Italian theatre company. (it:WP)

Tommaso Salvini, with an Italian company, made his American debut Sept. 16 1873, under the management of Maurice Grau, in "Othello," supported by Alessandro Salvini as lago A HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK STAGE C1873 pp.=75-76 https://archive.org/stream/cu31924082209440/cu31924082209440_djvu.txt

The Kellogg English Opera company, under C. D. Hess and Maurice Grau's direction, began an engagement here Jan. 21, 1874, in "Lucia," which they followed with "Martha," "Maritana," "The Bohemian Girl," "The Marriage of Figaro," "Rigoletto," and "Faust," when the season closed. {p. 77} A HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK STAGE C1873 https://archive.org/stream/cu31924082209440/cu31924082209440_djvu.txt


 * NB Her main manager was actually Jacob Grau (see Kellogg above), Maurice just had charge of the tour...

Lyceum (previously Théatre Francais) 24 August 1874 - Managers Grau and C. A. Chizzola - Marie Aimée in Léon Vasseur's La timbale d'argent until 17 October

C.A. Chizzola & 49 members of the French Comic Opera Company Curious Facts About Ships & Maritime Commerce to Habana
 * 03 Mar 1874 City of New York

The Soldene Opera Bouffe Company, under contract to Messrs. Maurice Grau and Carlo Chizzola of New York, started for the United States by the good ship Celtic (White Star Line), under the command of Captain Kennedy. p. 150-1
 * October 1874



During the season we produced Chilperic, La fille de Mme. Angot, La Grande Duchesse de G., and Mme. 1'Archiduc which had just appeared in Paris. A friend of M. Chizzola's brought over a vocal score, and in one week it was translated, scored, studied, learnt, rehearsed, and produced.

The Kiralfy Brothers who had been dancers at Niblo's spectacles returned on 7 September 1874 with The Deluge, a "grand spectaular drama" with 500 ballet & auxiliaries on stage; essentially a musical pageant.


 * 11 January 1875, Maurice Grau & Chizzola with their own company with Coralie Geoffroy Le Voyage en Chine.
 * 31 March 1875 at the Lyceum: Aimée in La jolie parfumeuse
 * 12 June 1875 at Booth's - La vie parisienne with Offenbach himself conducting Marie Aimée on the first night
 * 6 Sept 1875 Grau & Chizzola with Geoffroy

Brooklyn Theatre fire 5 December 1876 led to generally reduced audiences for the season.

Aimee in September 1876 Lecoq's La petite mariée and Offenb's La boulangere a des ecus

11 November 1876 — Emily Soldene, her opera-troupe and C. A. Chizzola arrived from England in the steamship City of Berlin. The New York Clipper Almanac, 1876. (New York : Frank Queen, 1853-1882.) ... http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_5655283_000/pages/ldpd_5655283_000_00000046.html

Aimée in Lecoq's Marjolaine and Strauss' La reine indigo Jacob Grau (his uncle, who started Maurice off in Chicago) died in 1877.
 * October 1877


 * C. A. Chizzola memorandum : to Haverly, 1877 May 20
 * Letterhead: Soldene English Comic Opera Company, with compliments of C.A. Chizzola, Manager. http://www.worldcat.org/title/c-a-chizzola-memorandum-to-haverly-1877-may-20/oclc/63937075

[Maurice Grau's Opera-Bouffe Company] in Le petit duc (Opera-Comique in Three Acts) by Charles Lecocq, libretto Henry Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy New York: Metropolitan Printing and Engraving Establishment, 1879. https://www.klinebooks.com/pages/books/35998/charles-lecocq-opera-comique-in-three-henry-meilhac-ludovic-halevy/le-petit-duc-maurice-graus-opera-bouffe-company

Grau's French Opera Co founded 1879? with Aimée.
 * From 1 September 1879, played opéra-bouffe for four months at Fifth Avenue Theatre, Booth's and the Academy of Music and later with Paola Marié

In 1879 he founded the Maurice Grau French Opera Company, with Marie Aimée.

1880 - Sarah Bernhardt arrived NY 27 October 1880 for her first tour under Abbey & Grau - $1,500 per performance, managers wanted $4,500 per perf.

Ebay - This is a lot of 6 different Maurice Grau's French Opera Company programs from 1879 and 1880. All of these programs were published in New York. The programs included in this lot are: Offenbach Barbe Bleue (1879); La Fille de Madame Angot (Charles Lecoq) (1879) Mme. Favart  (Offenb) (1879) (with Jouard, Mezieres, Juteau & Duplan and Aimée); Le Petit Duc (Lecoq)(1879); La Princesse de Trebizonde (Offenb) (1880); and La Fille du Tambour-Major (1880). http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1879-1880-MAURICE-GRAUS-FRENCH-OPERA-COMPANY-PROGRAM-LOT-OF-6-BARBE-O-2425-/370972338602

Grau came in 1881: conductor Gravenstein: La Traviata in French, Carmen, Donizetti La fille du régiment, Thomas' Mignon, Victor Massé's Paul et Virginie, Offenbach's La Périchole and Lecoq's Giroflé-Giroflá. Soprano Hélene Leroux, tenor Paul Mauras, bbar F. Maugé, mezzo Paola Marié, sister of Célestine Galli-Marié who created the roles of Carmen and Mignon.
 * Teatro Solis in Montevideo, Urugay.

Grau organised tours with Offenbach himself?? & Bernhardt. "suave, multilingual, apparently conciliatory - and tough as nails - who could talk on the phone with his stockbroker while laying out [theatre] casts"

Casino Theatre (opened 21 October 1882) with The Queen's Lace Handkerchief, but no heating; returned in December for 130 perfs, ended because of a previous contract with Maurice Grau's French Opera Company.



Jacob Grau, his uncle, brought over Anton Rubinstein the pianist the next year. Mr [Maurice] Grau was assigned to manage the tour. He did that with great success. The artists who appeared undor his management until 1882 were Aimée, Paola Marie, Judic, Theo, Victor Capoul, Wienjawski and Jacques Offenbach. Some of these these enterprises were in partnership with his uncle Jacob.


 * 1st and last pages of of Rubinstein's contract with Grau, Musical Quarterly vol. XXV pp 416-7 	http://www.jstor.org/stable/738692?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=Grau&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DGrau%26amp%3Bfilter%3Diid%253A10.2307%252Fi229524&seq=3#page_scan_tab_contents


 * Anton Rubinstein and Henryk Wieniawski - why Rubinstein never returned to the US http://www.classicalmusicguide.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=23803

In 1882 Henry E Abbey who had engaged Sarah Bernhardt and wanted the foreign field as well as England for his exploits sent for Maurice Grau and proposed that he become his partner. That partnership continued until the death of Mr Abbey whose methods eventually cost him all his fortune and deprived Mr Grau as well of his savings.


 * Pix of - Abbey, Grau, Mapleson, Gatti-Casazza, Henry Russell, Andeas Dippel, Oscar Hammerstein, Behymer and Milton Aborn. https://archive.org/stream/fiftyyearsinthea00leavuoft#page/352/mode/2up

When the Metropolitan Opera House was opened Henry E Abbey and Mr Grau were selected to manage It. They brought wonderful company here to compete with the well established Academy of Music but rivalry was then impossible and men were practically ruined. Then Mr Grau and his partner had to leave the theatre (the Met) which was given over to German opera.


 * The London-based banker Henry F. Gillig lost $200,000 in the Abbey-Grau Met debut.

{Fifty Years in Theatrical Management p. 420 https://archive.org/stream/fiftyyearsinthea00leavuoft#page/420/mode/2up}

== Abbey and Grau put on a number of season of French plays in London (i fink The Lyceum) before Grau took over Covent Garden in 1897, and with Bernhardt from 1901-2 after he had finished with the ROH.

Metropolitan Opera House
Metropolitan Opera gives details: - a brilliant artistic and popular success but financially disastrous. The NY Met was built by the Vanderbilts, Morgans, and Rockefellers, mercantile and industrial nouveaux riches who had been frozen out of the Academy of Music, where the grand autumn season was held for the moneyed elite classes of the establishment (the uppertens).
 * 1883-4 inaugural season

After that, German opera ruled at the Metropolitan.
 * NB 'The Morgans' (J.P. Morgan & Co.) had many and varied interests, which included not only the building of the 'old' Met, but also Goldwyn Pictures with Joe Godsol in c1920 (see my draft User:MinorProphet/Draft subpages/Ufa-Pavillon), and American International Corporation (AIC), who bought G. Amsinck & Co. (see my User:MinorProphet/George C. Crager).

Still, it was the opera season that made the Academy the mainstay of social life for New Yorks "uppertens", and the oldest and most prominent families owned seats in the theater's boxes. This emblem of social prominence was passed down from generation to generation. The inability of New York's wealthy industrial and mercantile families, including the Vanderbilts, Goulds and Morgans, to gain access to this closed society inspired the creation of the new Metropolitan Opera Association in 1880. The trustees of the Academy belatedly attempted to head off the competition by offering to add 26 new boxes to the 18 the Academy already had, to accommodate the Vanderbilts, Morgans, Rockefellers who were behind the planned new venue, but it was too late to fend them off.[24] The Metropolitan's new opera house at Broadway and 39th Street, twice the size of the Academy, opened in 1883. It contained three tiers of elegant boxes to display the wealth of the city's new economic leaders. The new opera house was an instant success with New York society and music lovers alike, and the Academy of Music's opera season was canceled in 1886.[25] Academy of Music (New York City)

Maurice Grau's Opera Bouffe Company presented M. Sardou's familiar farcial comedy, "Divorcons," on Monday evening, at the Fifth Avenue, Mile. Aimee appearing as Cyprienne, and her Interpretation of the role is certainly essentially the French author's idea of the part; cela ra sans dire, as may be said in the vernacular. In the full acceptation of the word the performance was clever and the audience enthusiastic. As Des Prunettes M. Mezieres was simply immense and richly amusing. He could not in truth be otherwise, being the very type of a French comic. M. Guy as Adhernar made his first appearance, and was capital as the spooney young love of the brainless order. The three named are the central features and merited the entire approval, although the remaining characters were fairly enacted.

"New York Theatres". The Sporting Life, Vol. 1 No. 26 8 October 1883 p.8

Maurice Grau's Company opened the Kerr Opera House in Hastings, Nebraska in 1884.

Grau and Aimée again in September 1884, opening with Lecoq's La Princesse des Canaries, which allowed her to display "her winks and kicks and nods and smiles, and her abundance of quiet suggestiveness."

Aimée opened on Monday night [29 December 1884] at the Fifth Avenue in Mam’zelle, and will play a two weeks’ engagement to a good business. https://footlightnotes.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/a-stereoscopic-photograph-of-marie-aim-e/

In 1885 Grau was in Europe for four months, leaving May 16, including Karlsbad - very beautiful and exclusive - where he "took the waters".

Mme Judic appeared at Wallacks (Manager Henry E. Abbey) October 1.

Anton Seidl made his Met debut on 23 November, 1885 with Lohengrin.

Marie Aimée died in 1887.

Loie Fuller played Aladdin in a trousers role.
 * 12 September 1887

New York, Jan. 16. 1888 Mm. Riemann-Raabe??, the German actress, intended to leave for Chicago to-night to fulfil an engagement, but the Sheriffs officers have levied on her costumes. Hermann Grau and Abraham Bedlich, administrators' for Jacob Grau, who died in 1877, obtained the attachment These gentlemen claim that Mlle. Raabe contracted with Jacob Grau in 1871 to give 1UO atar performances between August, 1871, and April, 1872, and failed to keep the agreement The suit is to recover $8,JO0, the amount, as alleged, agreed upon in the event of failure to carry out the contract. (ref?)

Abbey & Maurice Grau engaged Adelina Patti for a tour of South America in 1888 paying her the largest sum ever paid to a woman singer which was $5,000 for every performance They made money in spite of that and continued to give opera every year although they appeared only at intervals. Lol - the conductor was Arnaldo Conti...

Abbey, Grau and Schoeffel troupe opened the Chicago Auditorium on 10 December 1889 with Romeo and Juliet with Patti: and Otello on 2 January 1890, with Emma Albani and Francisco Tamagno, cond. Arditi  Quite fitting, Jacob opened Crosby's Theatre in 1876 or whenevs.

The opera season was subsidised by the auction of boxes, bought by George M. Pullman ($1600), Richard T. Crane ($1000), Marshall Field ($1000), Samuel Allerton, father of Robert Allerton ($1000), Roland Crosby Nickerson, of 1st National Bank and Jamieson & Co., etc. (http://fkdocs.sesp.northwestern.edu/nodes/pages/57202/6353), Otto Young, and others. https://archive.org/stream/cu31924022358976#page/n381/mode/2up

Special season of 21 performances at the Met in 1890, and 1891 - 1903 impresario at the Met., which I think Maurice Grau had the lease of as well...
 * Czech American Timeline: Chronology of Milestones in the History of Czechs in America	 By Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr. p. 135	https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=EXDyAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA135


 * Grand Opera Under the Management of Mr. Henry E. Abbey and Mr. Maurice Grau: Libretto and Parlor Pianist : the Original Italian Or French Libretto, with a Correct English Translation, and the Principal Airs and Gems of the Opera. Lohengrin. Programme for Lohengrin, 1890. NB This is one of the 21 perfs at the Met in 1890 with ASG (Abbey, Schoeffel and Grau)

Dippel had his debut at the Met under Seidl in 1891 in Franchetti's Asael


 * The contract of the directors for opera in the season of 1891-92 was made with Henry E. Abbey and Maurice Grau, who figured in all the announcements as the managers. With them was associated as silent partner Mr. John B. Schoeffel, of Boston, who had shared in all of Mr. Abbey's daring theatrical ventures since 1876, and, consequently, also in the unfortunate season of 1883-84, when Maurice Grau acted as manager at a salary of $15,000.

"In New York where German opera was at that time firmly entrenched. It was not until 1891 that Abbey again came into control of the Metropolitan. Mr Grau was always the ruling spirit in the operatic combinations and he engaged the artists. The first season under under their management was not a great financial success, and the house was damaged by fire in the second year that it had to be closed for the season. In the season of 1892-93 the business of the company increased. There was no opera in the [winter] season of 1896-7 as Jean de Reszke refused to come here The death of Mr H Abbey a short time after the failure of the firm of Abbey & Grau led to the formation of the Maurice Grau Opera Company which continued in existence until the retirement of Mr Grau to Paris." (obit)

Maurice Grau had Eugene Sandow under contract, but Florenz Ziegfeld arranged for 10% of the gross so that Sandow could appear at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago Sandow appeared in "Adonis", a very slightly risqué comedy. Ziegfeld understood the duality of American taste, its young love of sensation and its nervous pursuit of the “high class.” http://gerardjones.blogspot.co.uk/2012_05_01_archive.html
 * "Florenz Ziegfeld Dies in Hollywood After Long Illness". Associated Press in New York Times. July 23, 1933. Retrieved 2009-02-19. http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0321.html

On the same page: top of col. 1


 * George C. Crager, late business manager of the Potter-Bellew company, is in town, looking out for the business interests of Frances Drake, who will shortly produce Le Petit Abbé here.

NB Cora Potter was (previously?) managed by Robert Grau.

col. 3: The negotiations with the Grau Opera com­pany to perform at the Pier, Cape May, fell through, and a new combination of unemployed singers, under the title of the New York Opera company, has been formed, and will open this evening for the Summer season. They are all good people and will be satisfied if they can make their living expenses.

Philadelphia. Philadelphia will have plenty of grand opera the coming season. Col. Mapleson's company will have Thanksgiving week at the Academy, fol­lowed by the Damrosch company for a season of seven weeks, assisted by the principal artists of the Metropolitan Opera company, after which Abbey and Grau will bring their entire company from the Metropolitan Opera House for one week. S. FERNBERGER.

and


 * THE RETURN OF CHARLES FROHMAN.
 * You have no idea how well The Gay Parisians has caught on at the London Vaude­ville, where we produced it as A Night Out. They tell me it's the biggest London hit since Our Boys. Before I sailed I arranged to con­tinue the comedy, for at least a year longer. (col 3) All from NY Dramatic Mirror, 11 July 1896, p. 11 http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2010/New%20York%20NY%20Dramatic%20Mirror/New%20York%20NY%20Dramatic%20Mirror%201895%20Dec%20Dec%201896%20Grayscale/New%20York%20NY%20Dramatic%20Mirror%201895%20Dec%20Dec%201896%20Grayscale%20-%200801.pdf#xml=

== Lots about Grau at the Met

The Metropolitan Opera-House was destroyed by the fire in 1892 and a season without opera ensued during the rebuilding, but in 1893-1894 Emma Calve as Carmen came into view.

Maurice Grau's service to music per se was not notable. He gave no incentive to composers. He avoided experiments. He had little sentimental interest in grand opera, and very little enthusiasm. He simply tried to give the public what it wanted, so far as he was able to find the public want. "I have never discovered a voice in my life," he is said to have remarked, " I have merely shown them the difference between singing at home for $2000 a year, and here for $25,000. I don't go around discovering operas, I am not musician enough for that. Opera is nothing but cold business to me." (pp 14-15)




 * Maurice Grau Heads for Paris

John Munroe & Co. Bank Transaction Statement for a Money Wire Taxed as a Bill of Exchange dated September 26, 1898

"From 1898 to 1903 the Maurice Grau Opera Company produced the operatic season at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. Grau often travelled abroad personally to secure contracts to bring top European talent to the Met's New York stage.

The above banker's statement documents a cable transfer of 50,000 francs "for credit of" Maurice Grau indicating that Grau was wiring money to himself for use while in Paris. As there was no tangible draft, check, or bill of exchange upon which to affix the tax stamps required by the exchange transaction, the bank placed them on the statement sent to Grau documenting the transaction.

That no actual tangible bill of exchange ever existed for this transaction highlights the point that what was being taxed in this instance was the transaction, not the document itself. In other instances however, such as with miscellaneous legal certificates, it clearly was the War Revenue Law's explicit intention that the physical document be taxed." John Langlois is the publisher of this site. http://1898revenues.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/maurice-grau-heads-for-paris.html

In 1898 when the Maurice Grau Opera Company began its first season the subscriptions did not amount to more than $20,000. It is sufficient proof of Mr Grau's success that on his retirement in 1903 the subscriptions amounted to more than $300,000. He made opera in New York self supporting and even a highly profitable enterprise.Until his time impresarios had been able to keep up their seasons when there was sufficient public support - otherwise they closed after appealing to the public for a benefit. Mr Grau was quick to realize that the day of one-star opera was over and that the public wanted nothing but stars in the cast. It won the result of this policy that made the Metropolitan an indispensable institution to New York operagoers.
 * Grau Obituary in the NY Sun:

He found that the more he paid for his performances the more the public was willing to come. He used to say that the public and not he paid for his high priced performances Some of his notable casts were Tristan und Isolde with Lilli Lehmann and Mme. Ernestine Schumann-Heink and the brothers De Reszke and David Bishpam; Don Giovanni with Mmes. Marcella Sembrich, Lehmann and Lilian Nordica and MM Maurel and De Reszke. In the production of Les Huguenots be brought together Mmes Melba, Nordica and Scalchi and MM Jean and Edouard de Reszke, Maurel, and Plancon. Parsimonious but shrewd, he catered to public taste with his "Nights of the Seven Stars".

Mr Grau's theory of opera was that the public cared most of all for great singers and was more or less indifferent to scenery, stage management and orchestra. In his later days however he found time to devote as much care to these features of a performance as to the singer and gave beautiful productions of Tosca, The Magic Flute, Messalina, and Salammbo. Mr Grau enjoyed great popularity among all who knew him in the opera house and '''his principal attribute in his business dealings apart from his honesty was his frankness. He was known to be a markedly truthful man and he believed in telling the facts however disagreeable they might be. He used this method with his artists as well as with the stockholders of the Metropolitan Opera and Real Estate Company and never suffered any loss of their good will on account of it.''' His associates were also devoted to him and every anniversary that came in his career was celebrated in some way. Edward Lauterbach [his friend/employer from when he studied law before his father died - Aha! When so when did Emannuel die? ] and he had been intimate friends for nearly forty years.


 * Metropolitan Opera and Real Estate Company was formed in 1892 by 35 stockholders. They voted (on a vote of 7 to 6) to lease the Met to the Conried Metropolitan Opera Company. The next five years were relatively troubled, since although he was good as a theatre man, he had little idea of opera and an international repertoire. pp 45 & 46


 * Gustav Mahler's American Years, 1907-1911: A Documentary History

By Gustav Mahler, Zoltan Roman https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=kB6vuf0aGOgC&pg=PA45

Mr Grau used to say jokingly that he would have enough money to pay his own funeral expenses which was not true of most of his predecessors. As a matter of fact he was worth at the time of his retirement about half a million dollars. More of this was made in Wall Street, however, than In the Metropolitan Opera House. He was married in 1883 to Marie Durand who had been an actress in comic opera opera. He leaves one daughter, Marie Louise. He was a brother of Robert Grau of a this city but they had not been on good terms for years. Mr Grau was decorated by the French Government as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in reward for his services to French art in this country. He made his residence in France after his retirement. Messages sympathy were sent yesterday to Mrs Grau by the directors of the Metropolitan Opera and Real Estate Company, the directors and members the Conried Metropolitan ltalian Opera Company, Mr and Mrs Conried, and a number of Grau's former associates at the Metropolitan.

Why Caruso didn't sing at the Met during Maurice Grau's time
Late in 1899 Caruso had agreed with Maurice Grau to come to the Metropolitan at $200 a week for twenty weeks. There was a fifteen-day grace period. It stretched on into two months during which Mr. Grau disappeared. The impresario, it turned out, was at Karlsbad nursing the gout. He could not be reached. Caruso signed to return to St. Petersburg. "I've waited long enough," he sputtered to Grau's Italian agent. "I must have a new overcoat for the winter and some coal for my fireplace."

The next contract was for fifty performances a season at $1,000 each--five years with annual increases. Before this contract could take effect illness forced Grau's retirement. To his successor, Heinrich Conried, fell the honor of presenting Caruso for the first time in the United States. http://www.henryrosner.org/caruso/caruso2.html

Lots of lists of performances by Met Opera Company in OPERA IN PHILADELPHIA: PERFORMANCE CHRONOLOGY 1900-1924 COMPILED BY FRANK HAMILTON © 2009 http://frankhamilton.org/ph/ph0.pdf

"Maurice Grau's abdication" [from the Met]: Chicago Tribune, Sunday 15 February 1903, p. 18, cols. 3-4

Grau joined hand with Henry A. Abbey and John B. Schoeffel in 1882, managing dramatic companies and introducing i.a Sarah Bernhardt. In 1883-4 they headed a company with Nilssen and Sembrich, competing with Col. James Mapleson's (partners with Gye at Covent Garden, previously at Her Majesty's theatre) troupe with Patti & Gerster (who?). NB Maurice Grau went on to manage Patti on her farewell tour. It was a disastrous beginning, the new firm lost $250,000 in its first season and went back to the dramatic business to recoup, since the directors of the Met did not care to experiment futher with opera in Italian.

German opera [conducted by Seidl?] occupied the Met until 1891, when the directors returned to Italian opera. The Abbey-Schoeffel-Grau management was invited to resume, which it did with some success. Emma Eames, Plancon and the de Reszkes headed a strong troupe. From 1891 - 1897 business was good. Then came a season of reverses. Mr Abbey died. The western tour of the company, as will be remembered, was disastrous, the Abbey company dissolved and its affairs were wound up. The artists scattered. Things looked dark at the Metropolitan, but the way out was found. Grau took over the lease of the Met,, skipped a season, and reorganised as the Maurice Grau Opera Co 1898-1903.



The Maurice Grau Opera Company was organised in 1897 and Mr. Grau was made president and managing director, and from that time to this [1903)] operatic affairs have flourished in this country and in England as well, for Mr. Grau was also made director at Covent Garden, London [in 1897], as successor of Sir Augustus Harris (d. 22 June 1896)

There was also a little (unspecified) contretemps in Chicago, but apparently the windy city bore him no grudge. Chicago Tribune, Sun 15 February 1903, p. 18, cols. 3-4 http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1903/02/15/page/18/article/maurice-graus-abdication

NB In 1901-2 Grau's Opera Company made $130,000 in two weeks, $50,000 and $80,000 The New York Times, April 10, 1902, http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9905E7D91230E733A25753C1A9629C946397D6CF

The Met under Maurice Grau toured Boston: "The audiences have been small. Altogether the venture has been disastrous."
 * April/May 1901

Why Grau never found a great tenor
The search for a great tenor - why Grau never found one. Boston Evening Transcript - Mar 1, 1904, p. 10

Death, etc.
Maurice Grau's home in France: Croissy-sur Seine, Yvelines (78) Paris

"Il repose dans une tombe imposante érigée en 1907 par l’architecte André Arfvidson, ornée de motifs floraux en bronze par les sculpteurs Raynaud et Boucot. On notera également sur cette tombe la présence d’un masque mortuaire en bronze représentant un jeune homme (Jean-Pierre Ganne) de la famille mort accidentellement à Estoril.

NB Find the bit where Maurice never left a cent to his brother Robert in his will [probs. mostly because Robert was an untrustworthy shit and probably a morphine addict...?]

Grau was followed by the Conried Metropolitan Opera Company (Heinrich Conried) formed in 1903, and in 1908 by Giulio Gatti-Casazza as director of The Metropolitan Opera Company.

Grau's daughter, Louise-Rolande Grau married Maurice Ganne, an industrialist. ingénieur, professeur à l'Ecole centrale des arts et manufactures, fils de M. et de Mme Jean Ganne, de Bordeaux, e Figaro, Samedi 11 Juillet 1903 http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2881487/texteBrut

Their son, Jean-Maurice GANNE, (6 September 1911 - 1 January 2006) https://www.whoswho.fr/decede/biographie-jean-maurice-ganne_10399

Grau booked Caruso in 1902 or 03 but he didn't appear until 1904???

March 11 1903 - Der Wald - The Forest, by ''Ethel Smyth]] at the Met, with Gadski, cond. Alfred Herz http://archives.metoperafamily.org/imgs/DerWald.htm

See also Draft:Arnaldo Conti/Conti sources

END OF MAURICE GRAU

Advance Agents
Advance Agents:

Robert Grau 2.2
(Brno, c1854 - 9 August 1916, Mount Vernon, NY) - Maurice Grau's younger brother

Author of "Forty Years Observation of Music and the Drama" (1909); "The Business Man in the Amusement World" (1910), "The Stage in the Twentieth Century" (1912) and "The Theatre of Science: A Volume of Progress and Acheivement in the Motion Picture Industry" (1914).

Robert died Mount Vernon, NY, 9 August 1916

Robert Grau, noted opera producer dies. By International News Service. Mount Vernon, N Y. Aug 9 Robert Grau, veteran international impresario, died to-day at his 	home here. His death while attributed to heart disease is said to have been hastened by an 	overdose of morphine. Mr Grau was a brother of the late Maurice Grau, 	once manager of the Metropolitan Opera House. The most famous of his own managerial 	exploits was the bringing here of Adelina Patti for the last of her farewell 	tours in 1903. In recent years he has been in business as a vaudeville agent and had 	experienced many reverses.

Chicago Examiner, Vol. 14 no. 199, 10 August 1916, p. 1b http://digital.chipublib.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/examiner/id/84211/rec/6

Robert Grau, brother of Maurice Grau and one time the manager of Adelina Patti, died August 8th. World of Music Etude Magazine. October, 1916 http://etudemagazine.com/etude/1916/10/world-of-music-4.html

He was a relatively naughty man - accusations of blackmail, fraud etc. pursued him. Also decamped with the wages somewhere... (Alice Nielsen, Gaiety?)

--- Hmmmmz, Robert Grau was engaged as manager for the Criterion company in 1886 with Patience, then The Pirates of Penzance with Alice May (Louise Allen) as Ruth, who was in the last stages of her career.

Grau, "a writer, producer and manager with a poor track record", whose only recommendation was that he was the brother of Maurice Grau, an illustrious opera impresario. "The company had not been paid for a while, the reason being that Grau had decamped with the previous week's wages...." aargh

{Alice May: Gilbert & Sullivan's First Prima Donna By Adrienne Simpson, p. 177 http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ImWTAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA177 }}

--- "SMALL SOLACE FOR THE STRANDED SINGERS Baltimore, June ?0 (Special).-

Robert Grau's comic opera company, which has been singing here for ten days, has collapsed, and Grau has disappeared, he was at the theatre Monday night, but failed to appear when the salaries were to be paid. [Grau and?] Stone were the Joint proprietors. Stone engaged most of the company. The latter part of last week he went to Brooklyn with 9200 to pay off another Grau grand opera company in that city. Stone returned last night, and stated that he was no longer connected Mr. Grau. He told the stranded singers that they should resolve? their ino now?.

New-York Tribune (NY) Thursday, June 21, 1888, Page 1 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/46375434/

== A correspondent writes to know if I have ever beard of Mrs. James Brown Potter and whether she is the heir to the Syrian throne. Evidently my correspondent does not regularly read my esteemed contemporary, the Yangtsi Kiang Boycotter, else he would not need to be told that Mr*. James Brown Potter is the sister-in-law of the nephew of the grand­ father of the young Emperor of China's uncle's son. It is amazing what ignorance prevails just at present in regard to these very ordinary matters. col. 1

Forlorn Maid of Belleville. " Much of our baggage is still in Toronto, held by a hotel proprietor for unpaid board-bills. When we left for Montreal, Mr. Lederer remained behind, saying he would pay the bills. We did a fair business in Montreal, but a representative of the Grand Trunk Rail­way attached the receipts for cost of trans portation. Some members of the company were given a little money—two or three dol­lars apiece—at the end of the week. But most of them received nothing. On Monday, Feb. 28. we left for Quebec, but were snowbound and did not reach that city until 9 o'clock on Tuesday evening. We opened on Wednesday evening to a good house. On Thursday, at the instance of officials of the Grand Trunk Railway. Manager Grau was arrested for alleged swindling, and when we got away he was still languishing in jail. The principals attempted to keep the company together in the hope that business would pick up; but the scandal of the arrest told severely against us. Such members as had money or valuables were enabled to leave for home on Friday. Through the kindly efforts of Samuel Harris, of the Grand Trunk Railway, and Proprietor Russell, of the St. Louis Hotel, the rest got away on Saturday." col. 2

NY Dramatic Mirror, sometime between Dec 1886 and Dec 1888 (?), p. 7, cols 1 & 2. http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2010/New%20York%20NY%20Dramatic%20Mirror/New%20York%20NY%20Dramatic%20Mirror%201886%20Dec-Dec%201888%20Grayscale/New%20York%20NY%20Dramatic%20Mirror%201886%20Dec-Dec%201888%20Grayscale%20-%200137.pdf

ROBERT GRAU VINDICATED.; DECLARED INNOCENT OF FRAUD BY A CANADIAN COURT. Indeed, Grau's partner decamped with the wages, he was held in jail for two months and fell ill, only freed by the actions of the press & the US Consul The New York Times October 31, 1888 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A06E5DE163BE033A25752C3A9669D94699FD7CF

INFATUATED WITH ROBERT GRAU July 24, 1892 The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York · Page 14 http://bklyn.newspapers.com/newspage/50383311/

ACCUSED OF BLACKMAIL.; A BROTHER OF MAURICE GRAU GETS HIMSELF INTO SERIOUS TROUBLE. July 24, 1892 Copyright © The New York Times http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C0DEED61631E033A25757C2A9619C94639ED7CF

ROBERT GRAU ARRESTED New York, June 18. Special Telegram. Robert Grau, the theatrical manager, waa arrested this afternoon in front of the Academy of Music, where his friends in the profession tendered him a testimonial this evening. The arrest waa made on a warrant issued by Justice Shores, of CatskilL N. ?V. The warrant simply sets forth that Grau is charged with larceny. The amount is not stated. Grau is a brother to Maurice Grau. of Abbey, Scboeffel & Grau, and was formerly manager of Loie Fuller.

The Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois) 19 June 1895 p. 1 http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/33798888/

ROBERT GRAU ARRESTED He Because He Is Accused of Larceny. Could Not Attend His Benefit in the Academy.. - A mysterious woman in Catskill prevented Robert Grau, the theatrical manager, from attending his benefit performance last night at the Academy of Music Mr.Grau was loitering in front of the Academy in the afternoon, thinking of the shekels that were about to pour into the box office, when Central Office Detective Sergeants Alcincle and I Formosa invited him to accompany them to Police Headquarters. Mr. Grau protested, and said he was filled with the desire to attend his benefit performance. The detectives were deaf to entreaty, and Mr. Grau was taken to Mulberry Street. The arrest was made on a warrant signed by Police Justice Henry P. Shores of Catskill. charging Grau with larceny. The warrant-did not state the name of the complainant or the amount of the alleged larceny. One of the detectives said Grau was accused of having kept $25 sent to him by a patroness of an Institution in whose behalf he had arranged a performance at Catskill. The money, it was alleged, had been sent to Mr. Grau to be used for advertising purposes. Grau was taken before Police Justice Voorhis. He asked to be released, denying the charge, and said he could not recol [-J i iuv u.tu. v- tuy- muiymuiiiiu Due?] sent me the money and told me I could keep It for myself, he said. Justice Voorhis said he had no recourse, but to hold Grau until the Catskill authorities were heard from. For this reason Mr. Grau did not attend his benefit performance. Up to midnight no bondsman had appeared. The benefit was held, and there was a large audience. i Much sympathy was expressed for Mr. Grau by the theatrical people, who thought it was a great hardship for him to be prevented from seeing how his friends had rallied.

The New York Times, June 19, 1895, p.1 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/20389177/

---

Robert Grau, the vaudeville manager, has secured a five years' lease of the Philadelphia Grand Opera House, previously controlled by the Hashims. Theatre will continue as vaudeville house. (and probably films as well) Opened last night.

The Times (Washington), Sun 18 August 1901, p. 9

Hmm, George Crager was in Phildelphia for a while c1902

== Exterior pic of Grand Opera House (1888-1940) https://libwww.freelibrary.org/diglib/SearchItem.cfm?searchKey=9636565441&ItemID=pdcc00091

Interior of grand opera house, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-a6f7-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 == La Veen and Cross appeared at Pastor's last week, with acrobatics and muscular posing. Owing to the Grand Opera House, Philadelphia, changing its policy from vaudeville to Grand Opera, they did not play there the week of Dec. 30 1901

New York Clipper, 18 January 1902, p. 1023 col. 1 http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=d&d=NYC19020118.2.39

==

The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907, Volume 1 By Charles Musser, p.484 - not in preview, but it seems films were shown there. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=IEUMWToGOtUC&pg=PA566&lpg=PA566

Philadelphia But in 1886 there was a valiant effort made to establish opera in English by a first-class com pany, in the establishment of the American, sometimes called the National Opera Company. Charles E. Locke was Manager, Theodore Thomas General Musical Di rector, and his associate conductor was Gustav Hin richs, to whom we were to owe so much in the years to come. But owing, it it said, to bad business methods, this company, after a brief but stormy career collapsed. Mr. Hinrichs reorganized it as his own, and with it opened the Grand Opera House on April 9, 1888, with "Tannhaeuser." As the building was constructed and owned by a brewer, this selection seems rather appropriate. That night the building was not finished, and Alfred Hoegerle, now so well known to us as the manager of the Metropolitan Opera House, who presided in the box office, had only a rough table upon which his tickets were spread, and was forced to sell them by candle light. This performance began a series of summer seasons of opera in the Grand Opera House which continued until 1896, and during this period Philadel phians had the opportunity of obtaining an operatic education never offered them before or since. Yet it was wholly a labor of love, for only one of all these seasons showed a small balance on the right side of the ledger.

A Century of Grand Opera in Philadelphia John Curtis The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 44, No. 2 (1920), pp. 122-157 Published by: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20086411 Accessed: 01-07-2016 11:44 UTC

Gustavus A. Wegefarth was the next lessee, who committed suicide on 3 November 1907, after selling the Grand Opera House to Stair and Haviland Company.

Suicide in the Entertainment Industry: An Encyclopedia of 840 Twentieth Century ... By David K. Frasier https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=97WJCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA338&lpg=PA33

---
 * Patti tour:

Robert Grau dirty criticising Patti for having sung at a concert in Liverpool (for a paltry $2,000) just before she left for her very last "farewell tour" in America, and arriving hoarse. Grau was her business manager. Hmm, can't remember how much he made on that ill-fated disaster.

"The Adelina Patti I knew" Musical Canada, December 1915, vol X no. 8, pp. 162-6 https://archive.org/stream/musicalcanada10parkuoft/musicalcanada10parkuoft_djvu.txt

Grau obtained "sumptuous offices" in the Windsor Arcade. I E or TE Suckling arranged Canadian performances, inc. Montreal on 13 Nov 1903. The New York Times April 11, 1903

--- THE COMING OF PATTI THE FAMOUS DIVA WILL START ON WHAT IS ADVERTISED AS POSITIVELY HER FAREWELL TOUR OF AMERICA. Special to The Times. 1 New York, Oct. 25. According to ad vices received by her manager, Mr. Robert Grau, Mme. Adelina Patti sailed for New York yesterday and is expected to arrive here the last of this week in readiness for the opening concert of her American tour, .which is scheduled to take place in this city Monday evening, November 2. After giving three concerts in New York the famous diva will start on what is advertised as positively her farewell tour of America. The itinerary extends as far as the Pacific Coast, and the tour will riot end until after the be ginning of next year." Among the cities in which she will be heard are Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Montreal, Boston, Scranton, Washington, Baltimore, Buffalo, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Cincinnati, St Louis, Minneapolis, St. Paul,, Kansas City, Omaha, Denver and Salt Lake, reaching San Francisco the last of December. On the return trip to the Atlantic Coast the famous singer will be heard in Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas and possibly one or two other places.

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/45298387/   Reading Times (Pennsylvania),  Monday, October 26, 1903  p. 8

== Patti's Southern Triumph. Robert Grau, who is In charge of the Southern tour of Madamo Adelina Pattl, says that "Pattl will make a cleanrsweep South." No doubt the South Is richer by far this yoar than It has been at any timo Binco tho beginning of the war, fortytwo years ago, and it has money to spend on high-priced luxuries. Pattl Is essentially a high-priced luxury. Mr. Grau has wisely booked Patti during this Southern tour In the hest and largest theatres, in place of the vast and dreary convention halls and auditoriums which to offset their size are generally poorly lighted nnd heated. To make up for this he has arranged to put five hundred seats on tho stage in each place. Times Dispatch (Richmond, VA), 1904, Number 16443, 10 January 1904 http://virginiachronicle.com/cgi-bin/virginia?a=d&d=TD19040110.1.22# --- Robert Grau sued Weber & Fields in 1904 for $50,000 over a Patti concert in their theatre. He claimed they had maliciously stated that Patti was due to receive $5,000 for the concert: but only $3,200 had been collected in advance sales by 2 o'clock on the afternoon of the performance. Pattai had demanded the full sum, which the defendants (ie Robert Grau Incorporated Co.) had to make good. The Grau family occupied a box which had cost them $2, 300 (included in the receipts) and were very much out of pocket. NB Patti was deffo past it.

== Robert Grau's next venture as a manager after that of Mme. Calvé will likely be that of Mme Vera David. Contract for 250 concerts in two years all over the world. Billboard, Cincinnati, 27 February 1904

--- James Morrissey, business mgr of the Adelin Patti Company, sued Robert Grau Incorporated for $1,700 for breach of contract, and Grau - as an indivudual - for $25,000 for defamation. The New York Times, March 1, 1904

== ORCHESTRA DID NOT HEAR PATTI. And Philadelphia Audience Did Not ' Get Any Money Back. The following press telegram from Philadelphia is of interest; Philadelphia, Feb. 25 Several hundreds persons, who had anticipated hearing Adelina Patti sing yesterday afternoon suffered a, double disappointment.- when on top of the announcement that no concert would be given came the announcement that no money could be returned. At 2 o'clock a small crowd who had appeared before the closed doors of the Academy of Music and were confronted with a notice on the door that there would be no concert. The money, paid for tickets had already been tied up by attachment (law), and if, the courts decide that it cannot be released, it must be applied to the payment of the company's indebtedness, the purchasers must lose it, apparently. The receipts, amounting to $2700, were attached by Anton Hagner, cellist, who alleges that the Robert Grau Company owes him $2800 for back salary under the contract. Mme. Patti said: "I know nothing about the difficulty, as it is a matter entirely in the hands of the managers of the tour. I am under contract with Robert Grau, incorporated, and have absolutely nothing ! do with the busi ness management of the tour. I must refer you to Mr. Grau or his representative." Her husband, Baron Cedarstom, went to New York early this morning to consult with the managers. It is not yet settled when the party will leave Philadelphia.

The Decatur Herald, Decatur, Illinois, Sunday, February 28, 1904, Page 17 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/85187622/ ==

In 1903 Patti made her disastrous Farewell tour, in concert. She sang in the Academy November 9, 1893. Old timers went to hear again the singer they had wor shipped in their younger days, and young folk went to listen to a woman whose fame had long been dinned into their ears by their elders. But the marvelous voice was gone. Some of the tones were apparently unmarred by age, but at times the woman of 1903 shrieked where the diva of twenty years before had poured forth golden melody. She was announced for another concert February 24, 1904, but her tour had been disastrous, and when she reached Philadelphia a suit for salary by her 'cellist brought it to an end. The concert was cancelled, and Patti never sang again on this side of the Atlantic.

A Century of Grand Opera in Philadelphia John Curtis The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 44, No. 2 (1920), pp. 122-157 Published by: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20086411 Accessed: 01-07-2016 11:44 UTC ---

Finally! 29 June 2016 - A connection between Crager, and Cora Urquhart Potter (Mrs. James Brown Potter, Bellew-Potter etc.), and Robert Grau, tho' the shitbag Crager was with Potter in 1895. He may just have been advance agent or something.

Robert Grau announces that Mrs. James Brown Potter will make a tour of twenty weeks In vaudeville in this country next season, beginning early in September. Her specialty will consist of several recitations, including "Ostler Joe," the poem that was responsible for her first appearance on the stage. She will also give "Constellations," a series of dramatic readings to music, which she made popular in England. For the past few weeks Mrs. Potter has been appearing in a dramatic sketch at the London Coliseum.

Los Angeles Herald Sunday Supplement, 29 August 1905, p. 1 (35?) col. f http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042462/1905-08-27/ed-1/seq-35.pdf

==

Robert Grau announces that he will direct the tour of the marvelous soprano, Nina David whose season begins at Carnegie Hall, Oct. 24. She will give three concerts in Mexico City, Mex., in February.

Billboard, 27 August 1904, page 8b (also, on p. 4, announcement of the death of Eduard Hanslick) http://www.circushistory.org/Pdf/Billboard27Aug1904.pdf

--- Marie Tavary, Mile. Grazzi and Signor Agostinl are to give one act from "Faust" under the direction of Robert Grau in the vaudeville houses. Max Freeman Is also to appear In an operetta called "Tannheuser-Busch'- Announcement will be made from the stage nightly as to whether the star is working for Mr. Grau or a brewing company. [...] a few sentences... Cora Urquhart Potter Is recovering from her recent serious Illness and expects to return to the stage next month and this despite the 'report that she would never appear again. What delicate buds these players are! When an ordinary man Is confined to his room ho takes care not to talk much and is out again in a few days, but tho Indisposition of- an actor invariably means long interviews and contemplated disappearance so far as the theater is concerned. This In turn Is followed generally by a second debut and the plaudits' of an apparently grateful public. Humph!

Washington Times » 1898 » December » 11 Dec 1898, Sunday » First Edition » Page 15 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/80889273/

== Cora Urquhart Potter is having a new play written for her by Haddon Chambers.

[next col] Delia Fox has been engaged for a summer tour of big vaudeville houses, under the direction of Robert Grau, at a salary of $1,175 per week, which is to Include the services of six chorus girls, who will assist Miss Fox in giving selections from various comic operas in which she has appeared to advantage during her career. Philadelphia Is to have the little prima donna [for] three weeks, Buffalo [for] three and J. J. Murdock, manager of the Masonic Temple Roof Garden, Chicago, is congratulating himself upon having secured her for four weeks.

Indianapolis Journal, Volume 50, Number 84, page 14b & 14c, last item. Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 March 1900 https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=IJ19000325.1.14

--- Lot: 331 CAMPANARI GIUSEPPE: (18551927) Italian-born American Baritone & Cellist. A good vintage signed and inscribed sepia cabinet photograph of Campanari seated in a three quarter length pose. Photograph by Aime Dupont of New York. Signed by Campanari in bold blue fountain pen ink across a light area of the image, 'To Mr. Robert Grau from an old friend, G. Campanari' and dated New York, 21st April 1910 in his hand. One very small hole to the upper edge of the image and some light, extremely minor age wear, otherwise VG. Robert Grau (1858-1916) American Impresario & Theatre manager who helped promote Loie Fuller as an international star and managed Adelina Patti on her farewell tour of 1903-04. Estimate: £100.00 - £150.00

https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/ukauctioneers.com/pdf_catalogues/6230_with_images.pdf p. 54

--- 1895 The thirty-eighth annual festival of (he Worcester County (Mass.) Musical Association will be held Sept. Z-t to 27. Th srt:ts enlisted are: Sopranos; Mme. Melba, Mrs. Klene B. Eaton. Mrs. Seabury C. Ford, and Mme, Lillian lllauvelt; contraltos, Mrs. Carl Alves. Mile. Carlo! (a Ufsnlirf; tenors. William H. Hieger. J. C. Bartleit. A. G. Th!?, and J. H. McKinley; barytone!. Carl E. Dufft, William II. Keith, and G. Campanari; bass, [ and...] One hundred and eighty-six members of the ballet and sevenry-slx men engaged in "The Orient Sieotaele" recently left London for Hamburg, where, under the management of Gustave Amberg and the direction of Bolossy Kiralfy. they are appearing in a reduced edition of the Olympia show. This is the largest company that ever went from England to the continent. Manager Frank Perley (later with Alice Nielsen, Crager left Perley after disagreements) arrived in this city yesterday from his country seat near Minneapolis, he ably (?) reorganized the Bostonians. and spent the day consulting with Mme. Modjeska relative to her tour under his direction. etc. 	[ and...]

. "Hansel and Gretel." This wonderful work has taken the place in the affections of all foreigners formerly held by "Cavalleria Rusticana." although differing fron, that work In many essential ways: for Instance. Mascagni's opera tells of a tragedy, while in "Hansel and Gretel" a fairy tale Is adroitly unfolded that will prove quite aa Interesting to the children as to the older folks. All London has flocked to witness the presentation given there the last twelve months under the direction of Sir Augustus Harris, from whom Mr. Augustin Daly has secured the American rights. It is the purpose of Mr. Daly to engage the company in London and bring them to open at his theater in New York net October, to remain there for a period of six weeks. An orchestra of forty-eight musicians will be employed, and Herr Anton Seidl has been secured ss conductor. Only the larger cities will be visited by this organization. They will appear here during the month of January. [ and...] " Henry Irving's engagement In this country Is not going to oe an inexpensive luxury. The great English actor's expense account appears to be a somewhat unstable quantity, it varies with the conditions, and regulates itself In a way which inspires tbe unhallowed suspicion that Sir Henry is not above keeping his eyes open for a good thing. On his second tour through this country he must needs have thirty men in the orchestra, ten calcium lights, carpets in the entrances especial appointments of all kinds for himself and for his company, which numbered 100 people. This was under Mr. Abbey's management. In ISM he came back under his own management. Eleven men in the orchestra made music fit for Olympian fetes. Two calcium lights were as good as a sunburst. Any more would have dazzled the stage bands and made them dizzy. Little details of carpeting and upholstering were majestically ignored as mere trifles. For the coming season Irving comes under the management of Abbey, Schoeffel and Grau. It takes thirty men to make an orchestra. It takes 106 to make up a company to support him. about thirty of whom, it is estimated, are to be affable gentlemen of elegant leisure, who have no business cares to hinder them from taking a Junket to this country, where they can devote their time, excepting two or three hours a day, to the gratification of a desire to see this most extraordinary country.

The Inter Ocean Chicago, Illinois  Sunday, September 1, 1895  Page 37 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/33858165/ ---

Lots about the Henry Irving tour with Abbey et al.

Henry Abbey: Image Maker of the Flash Age John Collins Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. 18, No. 3, Special American Theatre Issue (Oct., 1966), pp. 230-237 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: 10.2307/3204945 Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3204945 ==

The Starr Piano Company, Mr. Gavin and John H. Stem, of Indianapolis, Ind., were made parties to the suit brought against Frank McKeige treasurer for the Madame Patti Company March 9. Judge Harvey, as attorney for the Detroit Free Press Company, asked that these parties submit to an examination as to the amounts of money due Robert Grau, incorporated. Mr. Stern was the local promoter for the Patti Concern. The Starr Piano Company and Mr. Gavin were made parties to the suit only as they were concerned with the sale of tickets, which took place at the Starr store under the direction of Mr. Gavin.

Billboard, April 2, 1904, p. 2c http://www.circushistory.org/Pdf/Billboard02Apr1904.pdf

--- Lots about Imre Kiralfy in US, a tiny bit at the end about London and the 1908 Franco-British exhibition. It's fairly clear that Max Reinhardt got a lot from the Kiralfy shows at Olympia.

" It is clear that from the outset Kiralfy knew that Columbus was to play more than one season, and Barnum and Bailey press releases stated that Columbus would be seen in both 1892 and 1893. However, according to advance publicity, the circus would not perform in Chicago during the World's Columbian Exposition since the circus' manager, James A. Bailey, expected the competition of the fair to detract from business. But Kiralfy knew that Columbus would  play the Windy City, for he had signed a contract to that effect with the New York producers Henry Abbey, Edward Schoffel, and Maurice Grau in May 1892."

Imre Kiralfy's Patriotic Spectacles: "Columbus, and the Discovery of America" (1892-1893) and "America" (1893) Barbara Barker Dance Chronicle Vol. 17, No. 2 (1994), pp. 149-178

Hermann Grau 3.
Hermann Grau was the younger brother of Jacob and Emmmanuel, his sons were Jules and Matt.

Hermann Grau [Maurice's other uncle], managed operatic performances at the Stadttheater in 1870-1871 including the very first performance in America of Lohengrin with Louise Lichtmay (see next below) as Elsa, Habelmann as Loh. and Karl Formes as the Herald, cond. Neundorff, mus dir of Stadttheater.

== Cincinatti - Robinson's Opera-house.— The Louise Lichtmay German Opera Troupe, which was apparently doing a good a good business here, came to grief to the tune of $2,176.78, and there being no funds to wipe out the trifling liabilities, the troupe disbanded, and have each sought the shortest way to his or her home. An entertainment is talked of for the benefit of the chorus, which is " In " for $448.25. We hope It will be given, and feel assured that it will be a success. The house will remain closed until "further notice."

"The Spirit of the Times", Feb 18 1875 http%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspapers%25207%2FNew%2520York%2520NY%2520Wilkes%2520Spirit%2520Of%2520The%2520Times%2FNew%2520York%2520NY%2520Spirit%2520Of%2520Times%25201875%2520Jan-Dec%2520Grayscale%2FNew%2520York%2520NY%2520Spirit%2520Of%2520Times%25201875%2520Jan-Dec%2520Grayscale%2520-%25200098.pdf&usg=AFQjCNE55BiduBmgXSsxCyw4PPyFOjvgLA&sig2=R87svQ9qnaoga10mvyd0fQ

== Missouri Music Ernst Christopher Krohn https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=x4YXAQAAIAAJ

Known as the Abbey Grand Opera Company, under the direction of Henry E. Abbey and Maurice Grau, this superb superb ensemble staged a week of opera 4 February 1884 ... Now called the German Grand Opera Company and managed by Hermann Grau, the ensemble gave a week of opera .. ---

13 December 1896 - Chicago Tribune

Metropolitan Grand Opera Company of New York disbands at Toronto - came from Cleveland about $500 in debt. Did fair business in Toronto but found to be too expensive an organisation to pay at ordinary prices. Hermann Grau (Nephew of Maurice, it says) paid the principals and decamped to NY, leaving chorus and orchestra unpaid. Conductor Albert [actually Adolf Neundorff, his wife prima donna Mme von Januschowsky.

Also touching cartoon of Eames and Calvé as songbirds with olive branch - "Reconciled" http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1896/12/13/page/1/article/opera-company-disbands-at-toronto

Hmm, I rather thought it was Robert Grau...? CHECK!

Hermann Grau, the oldest operatic manager in America paid Adelina Patti a pound of candy for her first singing on the stage. She was at that time seven years old and the concert was at Willard’s Hall, Washington, D. C.

Daly News, 13 May 1902 - Editorial section (p. 4?) http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn91066207/1902-05-30/ed-1/seq-4.pdf, col. 2

Hermann Grau was probably not a conductor in NY, no dates., more on p. 507:

HG conducted [ie was manager at] the Stadttheater (later Windsor Theatre) and Terrace Garden theatre on East 58th St, and an opera impresario from 1868 to 1895. Really?

Hermann Grau, also an uncle of the writer, was a Ger- man opera impresario at various periods from 1868 to 	1895, and he conducted many seasons of German opera at  <= This means put on as impresario, the conductor was Adolf Neundorff the Stadt Theatre (where the Windsor Theatre now 	stands) on the Bowery, also at Terrace Garden on East 58th Street; on tour he was regarded as the foremost provider of this field. Although his organizations were never of the really highest rank, he nevertheless brought out some of the best voices and the greatest artists ever heard in German opera anywhere during the time of his

[179]

regime. For a short period he had Pauline Lucca in his company, and such stars as Carl Formes, Weinlich, Mme. 	Freiderici, Herr Himmer, Pauline Canisa and Eugenie Pappenheim were always prominent in the personnel of his representations.

Hermann Grau still lives [pub. 1912] and has entered his eighty- fourth year. Two of his sons, Jules and Matt Grau, have been the managers of English Comic Opera from 1882 to 1903, when their operations were cut short by the illness of Jules who died in 1905. Matt opened a 	dramatic and musical agency in the New York Theatre Building in 1903, and has prospered there ever since, be- cause of his energy and constant application to the in- terests of the decidedly large clientele he has created.

Robert Grau "Forty Years' Observation" http://archive.org/stream/fortyyearsobserv00grauuoft/fortyyearsobserv00grauuoft_djvu.txt

Lol good photo of Henry B. Harris, p. 4

Managed 1870-71 season at the Stadt Theatre (45-47 Bowery) with Louise Lichtmay & Karl Fomes, incl. American premiere of Lohengrin on 3 April 1871. Neundorff, mus director from 1867-72, conducted.

PATTIS FIRST CONCERT Impresario Gave Her One Pound of Candy for Her Performance

"I paid Adelina Patti a pound of candy for singing at her first concert," said Herman Grau tbe oldest operatic manager in America. Little Miss Patti was at that tme seven years of age and her concert was held in Willards Hall, Washington D C. I was well acquainted with ber parents They lived at that time on Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues. They were very poor until the little prima donnas singing brought them in 1100? a week. Her singing was regarded as marvelous for a child, but no-one imagined that she would afterward receive $18000 for three concerts as she did in 1893 when singing at Madison Square Garden.

Hermann Grau, who is to receive a benefit at the Grand Opera House this afternoon, is a hale and vigorous old gentleman over eighty years of age He was a personal acquaintance of Liszt and Ernst and has known almost every great operatic star for the past sixty years. "Liszt [actually, Ernst] and I were born in the same little village of Brno, Moravia, twenty miles from Vienna", said the old impresario. "The most perfect music I have ever heard was an impromptu duet by Liszt at the piano and [Heinrich Wilhelm] Ernst on the violin, The two each the greatest master In his line-were playing one evening at Ernst s home, and the music attracted a vast crowd. I have heard thousands of concerts since, but not one like that duet. Nothing could equal it. That was 61 years ago. My first theater was in Richmond: I had a stock company which included Carl Formes, one of the greatist bassos the world ever knew, William Castle, tenor, who created the Abbot klss Sher Campbell baritone and Matilda Toedt, the cleverest violinist of her time. Afterward I went to Washington D C, brought Carl Anschutz a lUpu 0 Beethoven from Germany, and gave the first presentation of Faust ever given in America. My interest in grand opera dates back to ISt xxxx, when as a boy in Vienna I spent all the money that I could get my hands on to hear the music of Lanner and Strauss. There were musicians worth circling the world to hear, greater as I remember any of the present day."

The Washington Times (Washington, DC) Monday, April 28, 1902, Page 6 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/84725595/

NB This anecdote about Liszt and Ernst may be just a tale. "Liszt wrote his 'Grosses Konzertsolo' of 1849-50 for Ernst. This was Liszt's first extended single-movement work, in altered sonata form, using thematic transformation. Liszt wrote this immediately after conducting Ernst playing his 'Concerto Pathetique' in 1849 - a substantial single-movement work, in altered sonata form, using thematic transformation." http://www.ebay.com/itm/Heinrich-Wilhelm-Ernst-Virtuoso-Violinist-by-M-W-Rowe-/331569925383

[Same interview as above, but cut] "In spite of his advanced age. Mr. Hermann Gran plans to sail in a few days to the land of his birth. The benefit this afternoon, which is being managed by James W. Morrissey, is to be in a measure a farewell concert in honor of the oldest impresario in America."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch St. Louis, Missouri Monday, April 7, 1902 Page 10 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/138270924/

Jules Grau 3.1.
(died 11 September 1905) - son of Hermann, brother of Matt, and cousin of Maurice & Robert

He engaged Alice Nielsen for a season in Kansas City, MO, with his Opera company/troupe in c1886 after she sang for President Grover Cleveland at the White House. George Crager (protegé-etc. of Robert Grau, Jules' cousin) managed her from 1898.

Jules' dates: The Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre, Volume 2, Kurt Gänzl, ISBN 0028649702, 9780028649702 Publisher	Schirmer Books, 2001 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MIIRAQAAMAAJ&q="Jules+Grau" ---

NEW YORK, Sept. 11 [1905].— Jules Grau, a theatrical manager for many years, died today at his home In this city after a protracted illness. Mr. Grau, who was a brother of Maurice Grau, the impresario, and of Robert Grau, had been interested In the promotion of opera enterprises for the last twenty years. Los Angeles Herald, Volume 32, Number 346, 12 September 1905, part II p 8 http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19050912.2.95.62

--- THE BURBANK. — John Philip Sousa's great comic opera success, "El Capitan," will be given an elaborate revival at Morosco's Burbank theater next Sunday evening by the new Jules Grau opera company. [Which included Edna Thornton & Lillian Knowles] Lots of puff etc.

http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19001221.2.217 Los Angeles Herald, Number 81, 21 December 1900

Also Wang (by DeWolfe Hopper) The Mikado, Gondoliers The Capital, Volumes 11-12, 1899 https://books.google.co.uk/books?redir_esc=y&id=JeFEAQAAMAAJ

== Jules Grau Opera Company presented DeWolfe Hopper's comic opera, Wang. Comic opera was comparatively new at that time. But Jules Grau made the mistake of following his first successful attraction with old chestnuts, and my business lagged again. He finished the season with Mikado, Said Pasha, La Perichole, Gondoliers, Bohemian Girl and Loivette.

Life of Oliver Morosco: The Oracle of Broadway, Written from His Own Notes and Comments Oliver Morosco, Helen McRuer Morosco, Leonard Paul Dugger Caxton Printers, Limited, 1944, p. 127 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=S1hAAAAAIAAJ&q="Jules+Grau" ==

Jules Grau's Opera Troupe.” gave three performances in Miles City # past week, and on Friday and Saturday evenings gave “The Mikado" and “Olivett?” at the post to full houses, using the garrison stage and hop-room for it, and giving...

Armed Forces Journal - Volume 23 - Page 538 https://books.google.com/books?id=OzpFAQAAMAAJ == JULES GRAU (or is it Matt Grau ?) evidently believes that two funny persons in trousers are worth four feminine singers who can sing. As many as several years ago, the “little Grau Opera company," as it is affectionately called, ...

The Capital - Volumes 11-12 - Page 50 https://books.google.com/books?id=JeFEAQAAMAAJ ==

Jules Grau's 'Grau Company' toured N America, Jules, based in Chicago, introduced operetta to the South. Jules had frequently toured Kansas City with a cast of 40 & orchestra, performing light opera: Richard Stahl's Said Pasha, (1888) , Balfe's The Bohemian Girl, Brigands, Fra Diavolo and G&S. Jules Grau hired Alice Nielsen for his summer tour. Ferinstance: Macon, GA: Black Hussar, The Queen's Lace Handkerchief, and Erminie. Then the Bostonians on 27 October 1895.

Jules' dodgy uncle Robert Grau and later the dreadful George Crager (q.v) managed Nielsen and Fuller...

--- At the Metropolitan Theater this evening the Jules Grau Comic Opera Company will begin a week's engagement with two matinees. Tho first opera will be "The Beggar Student." The company has a fine wardrobe and an ample supply of scenery, which will be supplemented by that of the Metropolitan stage and special fittings as needed. Mr. Grau carries his own orchestra.

Sacramento Daily Record-Union, Volume 92, Number 122, 21 December 1896, p. 4 http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SDU18961221.2.31 ---

Denver theatrical performances (plus Jules Grau Opera Co, Denver, Co., Sousa & Furst, 1901) http://www.operaoldcolo.info/performances.pt2.html

Quite a lot of opera in Denver..., inc. Patti, appeared in Denver Jan 28 1904, on the final tour 'arranged' by Robert Grau, which came to an end in Philadelphia in February 1904.

--- Marie Dressler joined a "cheap opera company managed by Jules Grau"

Everybody's Magazine, Volume 12, p. 114 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015010948811;view=1up;seq=128 ==

Blanche Corelli's Opera Company, managed by Jules Grau, on June 3oth, presented Olivette, with Blanche Corelli, E. L. Connell, Willet Seaman, Max Figman, Harry Haskell, Elma Delaro, Mary Steel and Bébé Vining

Program of Grau’s English Opera Company of Fatimitya. A small newspaper notice of Grau’s Opera Company at Kernan’s in Baltimore http://corelli.halllippincott.info/?cat=48

--- 1894 - "At Coney Island there is a machine which tells your fortune by electricity. A lot of chorus men and women are trying to get Edison to work on a machine that will tell where Jules Grau keeps his bank roll."

Ah There! Lobby Chatter from the Cinicinatti Enquirer, (1894) p. 190 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qY1DAQAAMAAJ&q="Jules+Grau"

Matt Grau 3.2.
Son of Hermann, brother of Jules, younger cousin of Maurice and Robert

Matt Grau died in New York aged 90, on 5 October 1952. Among his former clients were Eva Tanguay and Mary Pickford. Source: "The Final Curtain". The Billboard, 18 Oct 1952, p. 54 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=RyAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA54

Traveling Companies and Managers: p [XX] Italian Grand Opera (Maurice Grau, mgr.) p [XXIV] OPERA AND EXTRAVAGANZA: Grau Opera Co., (Jules & Matt Grau, mgrs.). [XXX] New York Managers' Addresses: Grau, Maurice, Metropolitan Opera House. Maurice Grau Grand Opera Co.

Proprietors and Managers of Chicago Theatre: Grau Grand Opera Company

https://archive.org/stream/juliuscahnsoffic00cahn/juliuscahnsoffic00cahn_djvu.txt 1903 - Also Menchen on p. 18

--- Chapter 3

.... "I dive for the epistle, thinking, perhaps, it is some word of encouragement from Matt Grau. I tear open the envelope and pull out a letter and out drops a piece of paper that could look like it meant money. "

THE SORROWS OF A SHOW GIRL A STORY OF THE GREAT "WHITE WAY" BY KENNETH MCGAFFEY 1908 http://www.fullbooks.com/The-Sorrows-of-a-Show-Girl1.html

--- Variety (October 1913) Vol XXXII, 3 October 1913 Matt Grau, dramatic and musical agent, sailed Wednesday morning on the Mauretania for a vaction in Europe in search of health. He is suffering from neuritis and prosperity. www.myheritage.com/research/collection-90100/variety-october-1913-motion-pictures-film-industry-trade-magazine-vaudeville%3FitemId%3D117200009%26action%3DshowRecord+&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

--- The Pinehurst Outlook (N Carolina). / January 08, 1916, WINTER GOLF NUMBER / pages 1 & 16. Midwinter Tournament Qualifying Round -Leader of 1st Division had 73 points -Second Division Matt Grau, New York, 115; http://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn91068725/1916-01-08/ed-1/seq-1 and http://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn91068725/1916-01-08/ed-1/seq-16

TWO BLACK-FACE COMEDIANS who can sing. Apply MATT GRAU, New York Theatre Building Vaudeville News, 4 August 1922 PDF http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=d&d=VVN19220804.2.57#


 * Grau opera in Boise, Idaho

Wednesday, March 14, 2012 ON THE STAGE; A historical look at Boise's stage entertainment

Ernestine Schumann-Heink, billed as the "world's greatest contralto," performed at the Columbia Theatre in April 1904. She would visit Boise again in the 1920s, her powerful voice as great as ever. She, like other established divas, was first brought to America by Herman Grau who had begun bringing European opera stars to America 30 years earlier. In February, 1899, Jules Grau, one of the Herman's sons, treated Boiseans to an entire week of grand opera by The Grau Opera Company of New York City. Another brother, Maurice, was manager of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, and London's Covent Garden Opera house at the time. Brother Matt Grau, business manager of the traveling company, told a reporter that they could manage to offer top-flight opera in small towns like Boise because they saved money by staying a week in one place rather than doing one-night stands. On the tour that brought them through Boise the Grau company had a repertoire of 27 operas--more than enough to allow them to offer a different performance every night.

http://forextradingplatformonline1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/on-stage-historical-look-at-boises.html

== An opera company, is now in the city [Boise]. He was this week; the Grau company will be seen at the Columbia for six nights and ?two? that so good a company could be kept... The company comes directly from Portland [Oregon], where it has just concluded a very sucessful engagement. He replied: "There are several reasons... In the first place we save by playing long engagements. There is a great saving in railroad fares. The Graus are famous in the operatic world...

Look at this wonderful list of operas: Monday ............ New Boccaccio Tuesday ........................ Mikado Wednesday matinee ..... Bohemian Girl Wednesday ................ Said Pasha Thursday ............. Two Vagabonds Friday ............................. Martha Saturday matinee ............. Olivette Saturday ..........................Brigands

Large chorus of pretty girls. Grau's own orchestra.

The Idaho Statesman, Boise City, Idaho Sunday, February 19, 1899, https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/30541537/Page 4 ==

23 September 1906, The New York Times

"Mrs Lilian Grau" held - charged with perjury for saying she was Jules Grau's widow. A woman claimed to be Jules' wife. Matt Grau said she wasn't. Jules' estate amounted to $20,000. Case brought over a diamond ring (worth $325) and gold seal ring worth $75.

Matt Grau had tied up Jules' estate and his wife and her children had not been able to get any of it. Adjourned hearing til 1 October... http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9805EED71F3EE733A25750C2A96F9C946797D6CF

Also in disjointed form at September 23, 1906 The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, p. 16 http:/bklyn.newspapers.com/newspage/53879900/+&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

End of Matt Grau