The Boston Ideal Opera Company, later The Bostonians, was a

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

acting company based in Boston from 1878 through 1905.Bordman, Gerald & Thomas S. Hischak
The Oxford Companion to American Theatre
p. 87 (3d ed 2004)

History

Effie Hinckley Ober (1843–1927) started the group to perform an "ideal" production of ''

H.M.S. Pinafore ''H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which ...

'' in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. The company first performed ''Pinafore'' in November 1878 on a boat in a lake in Boston's Oakland Park. It was a success, and the company continued.Emerson, Brad
"The Pinafore Sails Down East"
'' New York Social Diary'', January 25, 2011 It engaged well-regarded concert singers and opened on 14 April 1879 at the 3,000-seat Boston Theatre. The critics agreed that the company fulfilled its goal of presenting an "ideal" production. The ''Boston Journal'' reported that the audience was "wrought up by the entertainment to a point of absolute approval".Kanthor, Harold. "H.M.S. Pinafore and the Theater Season in Boston 1878–1879", ''

Journal of Popular Culture ''The Journal of Popular Culture'' (''JPC'') is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes academic essays on all aspects of popular or mass culture. It is published six times a year, printed by Wiley-Blackwell. As of Summer 2022, the editor ...

'', Spring 1991, vol. 24, no. 4, Platinum Periodicals, p. 119 The company went on to become one of the most successful touring companies in America. When the top actors later took over the group around 1887, it became "The Bostonians." Actors in the group included Henry Clay Barnabee,(17 December 1917)
Henry Clay Barnabee Dies in his 85th Year
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''Reminiscences of Henry Clay Barnabee
''The Scrap Book'' (1907)

Jessie Bartlett Davis Jessie Bartlett Davis (1860 – May 14, 1905) was an American operatic singer and actress from Morris, Illinois, who was billed as "America's Representative Contralto". Opera and acting She was born Jessie Fremont Bartlett, one of ten child ...

Mena Cleary Wilhelmina Cleary Masury (1867 — June 27, 1929), known professionally as Mena Cleary, was a Canadian-born American actress and singer, a member of the original cast of Victor Herbert's ''Prince Ananias'' in 1894. Early life Mena Cleary was the ...

, W. H. MacDonald, Eugene Cowles, Tom Karl, Marie Stone-MacDonald,A Hundred Years of Music in America
p. 234 (1889, 1900)

Geraldine Ulmar Geraldine Ulmar (June 23, 1862 – August 13, 1932) was an American singer and actress, best known for her performances in soprano roles of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Life and career Annie Geraldine ...

and

Alice Nielsen Alice Nielsen (June 7, 1872 – March 8, 1943) was a Broadway performer and operatic soprano who had her own opera company and starred in several Victor Herbert operettas. Background Her father, Rasmus, was a Danish troubadour from Aarhus. Her m ...

. Other actors in the group for spells included

Camille D'Arville Camille D'Arville (June 21, 1863 — September 9, 1932), born Cornelia "Neeltye" Dykstra, was a Dutch-born light opera singer and a vaudeville performer. She was a member of The Bostonians. (Her surname is also found as Darville, d'Arville, and D' ...

, Bertha Waltzinger,

Myron W. Whitney Myron William Whitney (5 September 1836, Ashby, Massachusetts - 18 September 1910, Sandwich, Massachusetts) was an American bass opera singer. Whitney went to Boston at the age of 16 and made his first appearance there in 1858 at a Christmas p ...

.(29 August 1903)
A Quarter Century of Existence
''Town Talk'' and Kirke La Shelle.

Selected productions

* ''

'' (first performed in Boston, April 1879) * '' Robin Hood'' (1890) * ''

Prince Ananias ''Prince Ananias'' was the first operetta composed by Victor Herbert. The libretto is by Francis Neilson. It was first produced by a troupe called "The Bostonians" at The Broadway Theatre on November 20, 1894, directed by Jerome Sykes. It remain ...

'' (1894) * ''

The Serenade ''The Serenade'' is an operetta with music and lyrics by Victor Herbert, and book by Harry B. Smith. Produced by a troupe called "The Bostonians", it premiered on Broadway on March 16, 1897 at the Knickerbocker Theatre (Broadway), Knickerbocker ...

'' (1897)

References

{{authority control 1879 establishments in Massachusetts 1905 disestablishments in Massachusetts Opera companies in Boston Musical groups established in 1879 Musical groups disestablished in 1905