User:MinorProphet/Draft subpages/Maurice Grau
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Rough notes at Maurice Grau draft
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Maurice Hermann Grau (1849–14 March 1907), was an international theatre and opera impresario. Born in Brno, Moravia (then part of Austria-Hungary, now Czech Republic), his family soon emigrated to the USA where he grew up in New York, and managed operetta companies there for over 20 years. He joined the partnership of Henry E. Abbey and John B. Schoeffel in around 1882 to form Abbey, Schoeffel and Grau. They leased the 'old' New York Metropolitan Opera House for a financially disastrous inaugural season in 1883-4, but by touring with Sarah Bernhardt, Henry Irving, Ellen Terry and Adelina Patti they had recovered enough to lease the Met again for grand opera from 1891. Grau was the manager of the 'Met' from 1891 to 1903, and of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, 1897–1900.
After the operetta stars Marie Aimée and Madame Béjane[1], he brought many stars of the 'Golden Age of singing' to the USA, including the brothers Jean de Reszke and Édouard de Reszke, Victor Capoul, Emma Calvé, Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Marcella Sembrich, Emma Eames, Nellie Melba, Milka Ternina, Johanna Gadski, and Lilian Nordica; the musicians Josef Hofmann, Anton Rubinstein, Henryk Wieniawski, Pablo Sarasate; and some of the great dramatic artists, among them Tommaso Salvini, Sarah Bernhardt, Ernest Coquelin, and Henry Irving.