Adam Itzel Jr.

Adam Itzel Jr. (November 30, 1864 – September 5, 1893) was a 19th-century American conductor, pianist, and composer active in Baltimore.

He attended the Peabody Institute's Conservatory of Music, earning a certificate of proficiency in 1880 and (along with Hermine Hoen) the conservatory's first graduate degree 1882.^[1] He was the conductor of the Academy of Music's orchestra, and directed the touring McCall Opera Company.^[2] In 1890 he was hired to teach and conduct at Peabody.

Composer Eliza Woods was one of his students.^[3]

Itzel's best-known composition was the light opera The Tar and the Tartar. It premiered in Chicago in April 1891 with Digby Bell and Helen Bertram in the leads,^[4] then ran for 152 performances at New York's Palmer Theater. The show was not a critical success, but enjoyed popular success due to Bertram's scandalous barefoot dance. The show was performed across the continent by at least six companies.^[5][6] After his death, it ran again for a week in 1894 at New York's Union Square Theater with Milton Aborn in the lead role.^[7]

Adam Itzel died at the age of 29 of consumption in Baltimore, Maryland, September 5, 1893.^[5] A memorial concert was held at Peabody in February 1894; Daniel Gilman gave the commemorative address.^[8] The Peabody Archives at Johns Hopkins University hold his archives.^[9]

Selected works

• The Tar and the Tartar (libretto by Harry B. Smith)
• Jack Sheppard (3-act opera, libretto by A. K. Fulton)^[10]
• untitled 3-act opera, libretto by W. Day^[10]
• The Baltimore (song, "Dedicated by The Sun of Baltimore to the gallant worship that beras the name of the Monumental City", commemorating the launch of the USS Baltimore (C-3))^[11]

References

1. Fifteenth Annual Report of the Provost to the Trustees of the Peabody Institute of the City of Baltimore. Baltimore: Steam Press of Wm. K. Boyle & Son. June 1, 1882. pp. 17–36.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
2. "Facts, Rumours, and Remarks". The Musical Times. June 1, 1891. p. 336.
3. Woods, Eliza (10 May 1895). "The Sun". Proquest Historical Newspapers. Archived from the original on 2000-02-29. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
4. Franceschina, John (March 2004). Harry B. Smith: Dean of American Librettists. Routledge. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-135-94908-2.
5. Thomas Allston Brown, A History of the New York Stage: From the First Performance in 1732 to 1901 (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1903), v. 3, 343.
6. Hildebrand, David; Schaaf, Elizabeth M. (2017). Musical Maryland: a history of song and performance from the colonial period to the age of radio. William Biehl. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 110. ISBN 978-1-4214-2240-4.
7. Franceschina, John (March 2004). Harry B. Smith: Dean of American Librettists. Routledge. p. 75. ISBN 978-1-135-94908-2.
8. Twenty-Seventh Annual Report of the Peabody Institute of the City of Baltimore. Baltimore: Wm. K. Boyle & Son. June 1, 1894. p. 21.
9. "Collection: Adam Itzel Jr. and John Itzel orchestral arrangements | Johns Hopkins University Libraries Archives Public Interface". archivesspace.library.jhu.edu. Retrieved 2024-01-15.
10. Office, Library of Congress Copyright (1918). Dramatic Compositions Copyrighted in the United States, 1870 to 1916. Johnson Reprint Corporation. p. 1106.
11. Itzel Jr., Adam. The Baltimore. Baltimore: Geo. Willig & Co.