The McCaull Comic Opera Company, also called the McCaull Opera Comique Company, was an American theatral production company founded by Colonel John A. McCaull in 1880. The company produced operetta, comic opera and musical theatre in New York City and on tour in the eastern and midwestern U.S. and Canada until McCaull's death in 1894. It nurtured such stars, in their early careers, as Lillian Russell and DeWolf Hopper.
McCaull (1846–1894) was born in Scotland. He served as a colonel in the Confederate Army and later became a lawyer in Baltimore. [1] He was representing John T. Ford, lessee of the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York, when Gilbert and Sullivan presented H.M.S. Pinafore in December 1879 and premiered The Pirates of Penzance at the end of that month. McCaull was attracted to theatrical production and became involved as an investor with these productions. He then quit his law practice to produce light opera. For the Christmas season in 1880, he staged Olivette at the Bijou Theatre in New York. The strong success of this piece encouraged him to continue to present comic opera. [2]
McCaull explained the goals of his opera company to The New York Times : "The public demands good voices. .... Our aim is to build up this thing until we get something like the Opéra comique in Paris". [2] McCaull invested $10,000 in Rudolph Aronson's newly rebuilt Casino Theatre in New York in 1882. [1] He opened the theatre the same year with the American premiere of the Strauss operetta The Queen's Lace Handkerchief. [3] Also there, the company produced Prince Methusalem (1883), Der Bettelstudent (1883–84), Falka (1884), Nell Gwynne (with a new libretto), [4] Die Fledermaus (1885), Apajune, the Water Nymph (1885) [5] and The Black Hussar (1885). The success of The Black Hussar led to an extended run. [6] After this, McCaull quarrelled with the Aronsons and was forced out of the theatre, so the company became exclusively a touring company. [3] [7] The company returned to Broadway, however, for summer seasons at Wallack's Theatre. [3] [8]
The company appeared in Denver, Colorado, in 1883, again playing The Queen's Lace Handkerchief. The review in the Rocky Mountain News praised the cast and stated that "in musical and dramatic ability and magnificent costuming, the McCaull opera company is the best that has ever visited Denver. The scenery is very pretty and appropriate, the chorus well trained and well dressed." [2] By 1885, McCaull had three companies on tour almost continually. He told The New York Times: "Two of these companies play 40 weeks in the year. The other plays 52 weeks. ... [T]here are 1,300 people who receive their direct support in connection with my companies." [2] The performers included Frederick Leslie, Eugène Oudin, Digby Bell, Lillian Russell, Frank Daniels, Francis Wilson, May Yohé and DeWolf Hopper. In 1890 in Kansas City and Denver, the company produced The Black Hussar and Von Suppe's opera Clover, "which was given to a crowded and appreciative house. It was exceedingly well put on and was fully enjoyed, applause being continued and frequent. The chorus work was excellent, and the work of the principals left nothing to be desired." [2]
Late in 1888 in Chicago, McCaull fell on ice, receiving a deep cut on his head. This caused a brain injury that led to paralysis of the muscles of his throat and right side. For about a year afterwards, he continued to direct the company, although his speech was so difficult to understand that he eventually had to give up directing. The De Wolf Hopper Opera Company was then formed with some of McCaull's singers. [3] Francis Wilson also formed his own opera company. By 1890, there were rumors that McCaull's company would disband. [9] By 1891, McCaull had sold his properties and rights to perform works to Harry Askin. But McCaull and his wife sued Askin for not paying the full amount. [10] McCaull continued to control his companies, using hired managers, nearly until his death in 1894. [2] [11]
Biographer Johnson Briscoe remarked: "Col. John A. McCaull was one of the greatest light opera's impresarios that this country has ever known, and the McCaull Opera Company was a truly wonderful organization, the like of which we shall probably never know again." [12]
Richard D'Oyly Carte was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer, and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era. He built two of London's theatres and a hotel empire, while also establishing an opera company that ran continuously for over a hundred years and a management agency representing some of the most important artists of the day.
Frederick George Hobson, known as Fred Leslie, was an English actor, singer, comedian and dramatist.
James William Wallack, commonly referred to as J. W. Wallack, was an Anglo-American actor and manager, born in London, and brother of Henry John Wallack.
William DeWolf Hopper was an American actor, singer, comedian, and theatrical producer. A star of vaudeville and musical theater, he became best known for performing the popular baseball poem "Casey at the Bat".
Richard Barker Cobb Temple was an English opera singer, actor and stage director, best known for his performances in the bass-baritone roles in the famous series of Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas.
Edward Solomon was an English composer, conductor, orchestrator and pianist. He died at age 39 by which time he had written dozens of works produced for the stage, including several for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, including The Nautch Girl (1891). Early in his career, he was a frequent collaborator of Henry Pottinger Stephens. He had a bigamous marriage with Lillian Russell in the 1880s.
Henry Pottinger Stephens, was an English dramatist and journalist.
Walter Alfred Slaughter was an English conductor and composer of musical comedy, comic opera and children's shows. He was engaged in the West End as a composer and musical director from 1883 to 1904.
Three New York City playhouses named Wallack's Theatre played an important part in the history of American theater as the successive homes of the stock company managed by actors James W. Wallack and his son, Lester Wallack. During its 35-year lifetime, from 1852 to 1887, that company developed and held a reputation as the best theater company in the country.
The Casino Theatre was a Broadway theatre located at 1404 Broadway and West 39th Street in New York City. Built in 1882, it was a leading presenter of mostly musicals and operettas until it closed in 1930.
Eugène Espérance Oudin was an American baritone, composer and translator of the Victorian era.
Emily Soldene was an English singer, actress, director, theatre manager, novelist and journalist of the late Victorian era and the Edwardian period. She was one of the most famous singers of comic opera in the late nineteenth century, as well as an important director of theatre companies and later a celebrated gossip columnist.
Digby Bell was a popular vaudeville entertainer and Broadway performer at the beginning of the 20th century.
Laura Joyce Bell was an English-American actress and contralto singer mostly associated with Edwardian musical comedy and light opera.
Marie Jansen was an American musical theatre actress best known for her roles at the end of the 19th century. She starred in a number of successful comic operas, Edwardian musical comedies, and comic plays in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and London during the 1880s and 1890s.
Alfred Asher Klein was an English-born stage actor, singer and comedian who appeared in operettas and musical theatre in America in the late 19th century.
Rose Beaudet was an American actress and opera singer of the late 19th and early 20th century who regularly appeared in musical theatre.
Louise Paullin, sometimes seen as Louisa Paullin, was an American stage actress.
Henry de Grey Warter, better known under the stage name Richard Barker, was a British actor, stage manager and stage director. He stage managed many of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas and other productions of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, and directed some of them, and in the 1890s directed musicals in New York as well as London.
Marion Manola was a comic opera singer and actress. Widely popular on stage in the late 19th century, she transitioned to vaudeville in her later career. Newspapers of the time gave a great deal of attention to Manola's personal affairs, avidly documenting her relationships, activities, and illnesses. Manola divorced her first husband to marry popular actor John B. Mason, with whom she frequently performed. Their marriage was marked by illnesses, financial difficulties, substance abuse, and allegations of adultery. After their divorce, she continued to perform sporadically.
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