The Grand Opera House predated the Orpheum at the southwest corner of Main and Beale. It was new in 1890, according to "Coppock's Mid-South," by the late Paul R. Coppock, a longtime Commercial Appeal reporter and editor. The Grand first showed up in a City Directory in 1891. Coppock wrote that there were"opera saloons" nearby. The opera house had financial problems in its early days, and changed managers often. From about 1899, vaudeville shows and straight dramatic stock were seen at the Grand far more frequently than opera. Shortly after the turn of the centuryt, the Grand became the Orpheum. Fire destroyed the building in 1923, but the present Orpheum was built on the same site.
The city's operatic heritage stretches all the way back to a least 1850, when the old Memphis Eagle trumpeted the news of the New Orleans Burlesque Opera Troupe's arrival. The company performed a musical variety show including choruses and a violin rendition of tunes from Lucia di Lammermoor. The Daily Appeal made much of Jenny Lind's performance in 1851, noting that her impresario, P.T. Barnum made $7,000 on "the nightingale."
The Greenlaw Opera House, a 1,600-seat, four-story brick facility was reportedly build in the 1860s at the cost of about $200,000. It existed in Memphis for about 20 years, but it burned in 1883. By the time of the fire, the Greenlaw Opera House had been in disrepair. It was once home to the Mozart Society, which according to J. P. Young's "Standard History of Memphis," presented excerpts from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Lohengrin and other operas.
In the apring of 1889, internationally know soprano Marie Selika sang in Memphis. Promoted then as a "Cherokee" songstress, she is now known as one of the 19th century's best known black vocalists. She was born in Natchez, Mississippi.
During the 1890s, light and grand opera performances were given at the Grand and the Lyceum. One company, the Boston Ideals, performed Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, Lucia di Lammermoor and Faust. Newspaper accounts reported that the great opera singer Adelina Patti sang here in 1894, with another famous diva, Lillian Nordica, coming in 1896.
Early 20th century offerings included a Metropolitan Opera performance at The Auditorium in 1901, a 1920 summer performance by a tyroupe known as the Memphis Opera Company, a mid-1920s performance by the great Russian bass, Feodor Chaliapin, with the Chicago Civic Opera and many local opera productions directed by Valentina Tumanskaya, a Memphian who had sun in Russia.
During the twenties and thirties the San Carlo Opera Company and the Chicago Opera Company also brought well attended annual tours of many opera classics. Among those operas were: Carmen, Aida and Faust. The Met's heyday here stretched from the forties to 1984, and many still remember the Met tours as one of the greatest developments in opera history in Memphis. For years, several performances a year were conducted, under the auspices of Arts Appreciation. Imagine hearing Robert Merrill and Roberta Peters in a 1965 Rigoletto; Birgit Nilsson in Turandot in 1967; Marilyn Horne in Carmen in 1973, to mentiona a few.
In the last few decades, the Mid-South regional auditions held on behalf of the Met's National Council have also contributed a chapter to local opera history. Just as importantly, the auditions have helped introduce many top singers to opera stages around the world. Considering all that, Opera Memphis has inherited a rich history. The compnay has also made the local opera tradition even richer. First known as Memphis Opera Theatre, the compnay was formed in 1956 by the Beethoven Club and others. The first production was La Traviata. For years the troupe staged a production a year.
By 1970 the company had almost 1,000 subscribers, and the following year hired George Osborne, who soon began presenting opera seasons on a grand scale. For a time, Opera Memphis and the opera troupe at Memphis State University were united, but they ultimately separated. When Robert Driver came aboard at Opera Memphis in 1984, he said the company had a deficit of about $100,000. Under the leadership of a strong board of trust and Driver, the company paid its debts and attracted a record-breaking 2,000 subscribers a few years later. The company staged classics such as Aida and Madame Butterfly, porducted offbeat interpretations from time to time, and laid the groundwork for creating new opera. Through it all, Opera Memphis has survived to age 40. With the Met tours gone now, the company faces the mighty responsibility of continuing a long, rich oepra tradition.