12 - A Confluence of Moravian Impresarios: Max Maretzek, the Strakosches, and the Graus

Summary

The influx of European musicians to the United States from the 1840s through 1890 was extraordinary. Attracted by competitive salaries and eager audiences, many of whom were recent immigrants, the musicians’ visits were facilitated by the development of rapid transatlantic steamers and the expansion of the American railroad system. New York, as the nation's chief port and largest city, was uniquely positioned to prosper from this flow of visitors. The visits of most foreign professional musicians were arranged through one of a number of artist managers who became active during the era. Most of the managers or agents were themselves originally visitors, although many remained in America for a number of years, if not permanently. An intriguing common factor is that several of them emigrated from Brno (then Brünn), the capital of Moravia (now in the Czech Republic), at that time a province of the Austrian Empire (see figure 12.1).

This chapter explores what might have led them from Brno to artist management in New York and what influence they may have had on one another, on musical life in New York, and, because of that city's leading role in the arts, thereby on the nation.

The Impresarios and Their Families

Moravian impresarios in New York in the mid-nineteenth century were particularly active in opera management. Italian opera had made its New York debut in 1825 but failed to achieve any degree of economic success until midcentury.

The Moravians came from three families: the Maretzeks, the Strakosches, and the Graus. The Maretzeks and Strakosches were most active during the third quarter of the century, whereas the Graus achieved greater prominence later (see appendix 12.1). Maximilian Maretzek (see plate 12.1) arrived in New York in September 1848 at age twenty-seven to assume the post of music director for the second season of the Astor Place Opera House. He had been engaged by Edward Plunket Fry (1815–1889), brother of William Henry Fry, after occupying conducting posts in Croatia, Germany, France, and, most recently, at Drury Lane Theatre in London. He had studied piano as a boy, but it was only after enrolling first in medical courses and then in law (to please his parents) at the University of Vienna that he turned to music as a profession, learning composition under Ignaz Xaver Ritter von Seyfried (1776–1841), who had studied piano with Mozart.