operas

Open-air "Aida" (LOC)

from The Library of Congress

• swanq said:

  Perhaps related to the August 16, 1919 performance at Sheepshead Bay Speedway described in Musical Courier books.google.com/books?id=7SIqQHZL2_wC&pg=RA8-PA33&am... The New-York Tribune., August 03, 1919, Page 6, Image 36 chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1919-08-03/ed-... announces a performance at the same location for Sunday August 10, 1919. So perhaps there several open air performances that summer. NO -- According to the New-York Tribune., August 10, 1919, Page 7, Image 39 chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1919-08-10/ed-... the "mammoth open air performance of Aida" was postponed from August 10 to August 16 because of the Brooklyn Car Strike.

• Pixel Wrangler said:

  "At the Base of the Sheepshead Bay Sphinx"

  (L-R) Luigi Albertieri (stage manager), Andrés De Segurola (principal bass and co-artistic director), Giorgio Polacco (Maestro), Princess Della Pattra (principal dancer), Manuel Salazar (principal tenor), Riccardo Stracciari (principal baritone), Fortune Gallo (co-artistic director) –based on caption from Musical Courier, August 21, 1919 p18

• Art Siegel said:

  a negative review in the New York Tribune, August 24, 1919: "Racetrack opera is undoubtedly good for the health, that is except for the health of the singers, and the social benefits may also be many. Artistically it is hopeless. When the Metropolitan Opera House, which seats a little more than 3,000, is really too large for the finest artistic results, what will we say for an arena which seats ten times that number? " chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1919-08-24/ed-...

• Pixel Wrangler said:

  Art Siegel, that was an informative read -- I was expecting something else. (Grenville Vernon was the art critic for The New York Tribune and an author of several books on the performing arts.)