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Clinton Hall Mercantile Library Bldg 13 Astor Place

The Astor Opera House, also known as the Astor Place Opera House and later the Astor Place Theatre, was an opera house in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, located on

Lafayette Street Lafayette Street is a major north-south street in New York City's Lower Manhattan. It originates at the intersection of Reade Street and Centre Street, one block north of Chambers Street. The one-way street then successively runs through Chi ...

between

Astor Place Astor Place is a one-block street in NoHo/ East Village, in the lower part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs from Broadway in the west (just below East 8th Street) to Lafayette Street. The street encompasses two plazas at th ...

and East 8th Street. Designed by

Isaiah Rogers Isaiah Rogers (August 17, 1800 – April 13, 1869) was an American architect from Massachusetts who eventually moved his practice south, where he was based in Louisville, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio. He completed numerous designs for hotels, ...

, the theater was conceived by impresario Edward Fry, the brother of composer

William Henry Fry William Henry Fry (August 10, 1813 – December 21, 1864) was an American composer, music critic, and journalist. Fry was the first known person born in the United States to write for a large symphony orchestra, and the first to compose a pub ...

, who managed the opera house during its entire history.Burrows & Wallace, p.724

Opera House

Fry engaged the Sanquerico and Patti Opera Company under the management of John Sefton to perform the first season of opera at the house. The opera house opened on November 22, 1847 with a performance of

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

's ''

Ernani ''Ernani'' is an operatic ''dramma lirico'' in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the 1830 play ''Hernani (drama), Hernani'' by Victor Hugo. Verdi was commissioned by the Teatro La Fenice in V ...

'' with Adelino Vietti in the title role. Sefton and his company were not re-engaged by Fry, and the opera management of the house went to Cesare Lietti for the second season. During his tenure the opera house presented the United States premiere of Verdi's ''

Nabucco ''Nabucco'' (, short for Nabucodonosor ; en, "Nebuchadnezzar") is an Italian-language opera in four acts composed in 1841 by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera. The libretto is based on the biblical books of 2 Kings, J ...

'' on April 4, 1848. Lietti was also replaced after one season, and the Astor's third and longest lasting opera manager,

Max Maretzek Max Maretzek (June 28, 1821 – May 14, 1897) was a Moravian-born composer, conductor, and impresario active in the United States and Latin America.''Werner's magazine'', Vol.19 p.561 (1897) Music Teachers National Association, (Digitized by Google ...

, was hired for the third season, which commenced in November 1848. The following year Maretzek founded his own opera company, the

Max Maretzek Italian Opera Company The Max Maretzek Italian Opera Company (sometimes referred to as the Italian Opera Company, the Italian Grand Opera Company, or Academy of Music Opera Company) was a touring American opera company that performed throughout the United States from 184 ...

, with whom he continued to stage operas at the Astor Opera House through 1852. Under Maretzek the opera house saw the New York premiere of Donizetti's ''

Anna Bolena ''Anna Bolena'' is a tragic opera (''tragedia lirica'') in two acts composed by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after Ippolito Pindemonte's ''Enrico VIII ossia Anna Bolena'' and Alessandro Pepoli's ''Anna Bolena'', bo ...

'' on January 7, 1850 with soprano Apollonia Bertucca (later Maretzek's wife) as the title heroine. The theatre was built with the intention of attracting only the "best" patrons, the " uppertens" of New York society, who were increasingly turning out to see European singers who appeared at local venues such as

Niblo's Garden Niblo's Garden was a theater on Broadway and Crosby Street, near Prince Street, in SoHo, Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1823 as "Columbia Garden" which in 1828 gained the name of the ''Sans Souci'' and was later the property of ...

. It was expected that an opera house would be:

a substitute for a general drawing room – a refined attraction which the ill-mannered would not be likely to frequent, and around which the higher classes might gather, for the easier interchange of courtesies, and for that closer view which aides the candidacy of acquaintance.

In pursuit of this agenda, the theatre was created with the comfort of the upper classes in mind: benches, the normal seating in theatres at the time, were replaced by upholstered seats, available only by subscription, as were the two tiers of boxes. On the other hand, 500 general admission patrons were relegated to the benches of a "cockloft" reachable only by a narrow stairway, and otherwise isolated from the gentry below, and the theatre enforced a dress code which required "freshly shaven faces, evening dress, and kid gloves." Limiting the attendance of the lower classes was partly intended to avoid the problems of rowdyism which plagued other theaters in the entertainment district at the time, especially in the theatres on

the Bowery The Bowery () is a street and neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north.Jackson, Kenneth L. "Bo ...

. Nevertheless, it was the deadly

Astor Place riot Astor may refer to: People * Astor (surname) * Astor family, a wealthy 18th-century American family who became prominent in 20th-century British politics * Astor Bennett, a character in the Showtime television series ''Dexter'' * Ástor Piazzoll ...

in 1849 which caused the theatre to close permanently – provoked by competing performances of ''

Macbeth ''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...

'' by English actor

William Charles Macready William Charles Macready (3 March 179327 April 1873) was an English actor. Life He was born in London the son of William Macready the elder, and actress Christina Ann Birch. Educated at Rugby School where he became headboy, and where now the t ...

at the Opera House (which was operating under the name "Astor Place Theatre", not being able to sustain itself on a full season of opera) and American

Edwin Forrest Edwin Forrest (March 9, 1806December 12, 1872) was a prominent nineteenth-century American Shakespearean actor. His feud with the British actor William Macready was the cause of the deadly Astor Place Riot of 1849. Early life Forrest was born i ...

at the nearby Broadway Theatre.

Clinton Hall

After the riot, the theater was unable to overcome the reputation of being the "Massacre Opera House" at "DisAster Place." By May 1853, the interior had been dismantled and the furnishings sold off, with the shell of the building sold for $140,000 to the

New York Mercantile Library The Center for Fiction, originally called the New York Mercantile Library, is a not-for-profit organization in New York City, with offices at 15 Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Prior to their move in early 2018, The Center for Fiction ...

, which renamed the building "Clinton Hall". In 1890, in need of additional space, the library tore down the opera house building and replaced it with an 11-story building, also called Clinton Hall, which still stands on the site.White, Norval & Willensky, p.162

References

Notes Bibliography * * * Further reading * Hassard, Jno. ohnR. G. (February 1871)
"The New York Mercantile Library"
''Scribner’s Monthly'' Vol. 1 No. 4. New York: Scribner & Co., pp. 353–67

External links

*{{commons category-inline, Clinton Hall (former Astor Opera House) Opera houses in New York City Music venues in Manhattan Demolished buildings and structures in Manhattan 19th century in the United States Theatres completed in 1847 Music venues completed in 1847 Astor family East Village, Manhattan 1847 establishments in New York (state) Buildings and structures demolished in 1890