Maurice Hermann Grau (1849 – 14 March 1907) was an Austrian-born American impressario, opera director, and theatre manager and producer. The Americana: A Universal Reference Library stated that "from 1872 until 1903 was the most prominent operatic manager in America". He was a named partner in the US theatre management and production firm Abbey, Schoeffel and Grau which managed numerous theaters in Boston and New York City, including the Metropolitan Opera House. As part of this firm Grau co-managed the Metropolitan Opera (the Met) from 1891 until Abbey's death in 1896 when he took over sole management of the Met. He remained the manager of the Met until 1903 when he retired. He was also concurrently the manager of the Royal Opera House in London from 1897-1900.
The Oxford Companion to American Theatre stated that, "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." He should not be confused with his cousin, also named Maurice Grau (1857-1934), who was a theatre agent.
Early life and education
Born to Moravian parents Emmanuel and Rosalie Grau, Maurice Grau was born in 1849 in Brünn, Austrian Empire (now Brno, Czech Republic). In 1854 the Grau family immigrated to the United States when Maurice was five years old; settling in New York City where Emmanuel and Rosalie operated a boarding house. He was educated in the New York City public school system and then attended the New York Free Academy (now City College of New York) where he graduated in 1867. He then matriculated to Columbia Law School and while a student there was an apprentice in the law firm of Morrison, Lauterbach & Spitgarn.
Grau abandoned his law ambitions in favor of a career in the theatre; largely due to the influence of his uncle, Jacob Grau, who was a theatre impresario that specialized in importing French opéra bouffe to the United States. Maurice began working for his uncle as a child; selling libretti to patrons at his uncle opera house. His uncle was appointed director of the Academy of Music in New York in 1862, but after a difficult tenure there during the American Civil War he left to take over the management the Theatre Francais in 1866. At this time Maurice began working for his uncle in more serious theatre business endeavors at the age of seventeen, and in 1872 he ultimately decided to not pursue the legal profession but embrace a career in artist management.
Early arts management career with Carlo A. Chizzola
Grau began his career as a theatre manager and producer in 1872 when he formed a partnership with Carlo A. Chizzola. Their partnership resulted in the first significant achievement of Grau's career: bringing the French soprano Marie Aimée to the United States. Grau and Chizzola became Aimée's manager on February 12, 1872. Theatre scholars Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak credited Aimée's American appearances with popularizing not only the genre of opéra bouffe in the United States but also setting the foundation for the popularity of the musical within America.
Grau was also responsible for bringing Anton Rubinstein to the United States for his much lauded and profitable 1872-1873 American tour. This tour was organized under the auspices of the Steinway & Sons company, as was a another tour Grau oversaw that year featuring the violinist Henryk Wieniawski. In 1873 he co-founded the English Opera Company with Clara Kellogg, but this venture proved unsuccessful financially. He next brought the Italian actor Tommaso Salvini to the United States, but his American tour of plays by William Shakespeare performed in Italian also failed to make money. After this, he became the manager of New York's Fourteenth Street Theatre (FST) in 1874 but continued to struggle financially. Entertainers whom Grau brought to New York to star in productions at the FST included actresses Clara Rousby, Adelaide Ristori, and Adelaide Neilson; actor John Lawrence Toole; and the English Opera Bouffe Company led by its manager and star Emily Soldene.
In 1875, amidst a financial crises, Grau and Chizzola's partnership ceased.
Bringing Offenbach and other European artists to America
Grau rebounded with a 1876 tour featuring the French composer Jacques Offenbach. While publicly considered a triumph for Grau, the composer's high fees made it financially a losing proposition. Offenbach's thirty performances at Madison Square Garden were a monetary failure, but these were offset partly by record breaking box office sales of a production of La Vie parisienne staged at Broadway's Booth Theatre which was produced by Grau and featured Offenbach as conductor and Marie Aimée as its star. His finances were further improved by money forfeited to him by the actor Ernesto Rossi who abandoned his contract with Grau to come to New York in favor of staying in Paris.
Grau made a large amount of money when he brought a French theatre troupe led by Paola Marie and Victor Capoul to the United States in a highly successful tour in 1879. The tour also included a further seventeen months of performances across South America, Mexico, and Cuba. He also organized a tour featuring soprano Adelina Patti. Other prominent European artists he brought to the United States included actors Benoît-Constant Coquelin, Jean Mounet-Sully, and Henry Irving; and actresses Sarah Bernhardt, Gabrielle Réjane, and Jane Hading.
Abbey, Schoeffel and Grau and the the Metropolitan Opera
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In 1882 Grau joined with theatre managers Henry Eugene Abbey and John B. Schoeffel to form the theatre management and production firm Abbey, Schoeffel and Grau. With this organization he played a significant though unofficial role in the newly created Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1883 when Abbey served as the Met's first managing director. Grau did not hold an official title at the Metropolitan Opera at this point, but did the work of the Met's business manager for Abbey during its first season. Abbey did not renew his contract with the Met after its first year. It was rumored that Grau was a leading applicant for his replacement, but Grau chose not to apply for the position.
In 1883 Grau married opera singer Maria Louise Durand (also known as Marie Durand).
Grau's association with the Metropolitan Opera was renewed in 1890 when he partnered with Abbey to bring a special series of 21 opera performances to the Met stage. On January 15, 1891 Abbey, Schoeffel and Grau were officially named co-managers of the Met; initially with the intent that the three would transform the Met from a German repertoire only opera house into a company that focused on works from the Italian and French opera canons. This shift was deemed necessary as the public had expressed weariness with the operas of Richard Wagner. The three men successfully implemented this shift; although during the six years that they co-managed the Met they also slowly brought German repertory back into the Met's performance rotation.
Grau was the Met's sole manager from 1898-1903.
Later life and death
Grau became ill in December 1906. He died at his home in Paris on March 14, 1907.
He was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour by the Government of France.
References
Citations
- ^ Beach & Rines 1912, Entry: Grau, Maurice.
- ^ Dee Baily (2002). "Grau, Maurice". Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O004182.
- ^ Bordman & Hischak 2004, p. 274.
- "MAURICE GRAU DEAD; THEATRICAL AGENT; Son of Ex-Metropolitan Opera Manager and Cousin of Late Maurice Grau". The New York Times. March 11, 1934. p. 31.
- ^ Kytka (3 January 2019). "Moravian Maurice Grau and the Metropolitan Opera". Très Bohèmes. Czechs in America Organization.
- ^ Gänzl 2001, p. 810.
- ^ Krehbiel 1909, p. 278.
- ^ "MAURICE GRAU DIES IN HIS PARIS HOME; Former Director of the Metropolitan Opera House Had Been Ill Since December. A FAMOUS IMPRESARIO Directed the Tours of Many Celebrities and Put Grand Opera on a Paying Basis". The New York Times. March 15, 1907. p. 9.
- Carlson 1985, p. 27.
- ^ "Impresario Grau Is Dead: The Man Who Made the Metropolitan Famous". The Sun. New York City. 15 March 1907. p. 9a.
- ^ Grau 1909, p. 276.
- Krehbiel 1909, p. 279.
- Eisler 1984, p. 39.
- Eisler 1984, p. 58-59.
- Eisler 1984, p. 175.
- Eisler 1984, p. 209.
- Eisler 1984, pp. 209–210.
- Eisler 1984, p. 22.
Bibliography
- Beach, Frederick Converse; Rines, George Edwin, eds. (1912). "Grau, Maurice". The Americana: A Universal Reference Library. Scientific American Compiling Department.
- Bordman, Gerald; Hischak, Thomas S. (2004). "Grau, Maurice". The Oxford Companion to American Theatre (3 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195169867.
- Carlson, Marvin (1985). The Italian Shakespearians: Performances by Ristori, Salvini, and Rossi in England and America. Folger Books. ISBN 9780918016768.
- Eisler, Paul E. (1984). The Metropolitan Opera : The First Twenty-Five Years, 1883-1908. North River Press. ISBN 9780884270461.
- Gänzl, Kurt (2001). "Grau, Maurice". The Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre, Second Edition. Vol. II. Schirmer Books.
- Grau, Robert (1909). Forty Years Observation of Music and the Drama. Broadway Publishing Company.
- Krehbiel, Henry Edward (1909). Chapters of Opera: Being Historical and Critical Observations and Records Concerning the Lyric Drama in New York from Its Earliest Days Down to the Present Time. Henry Holt and Company.