Heinrich Conried (September 3, 1855 – April 27, 1909) was an Austrian and naturalized American theatrical manager and director. Beginning his career as an actor in Vienna, he took his first post as theater director at the Stadttheater Bremen in 1876. In 1878 he relocated to New York City where he remained for the rest of his career, serving initially as director of the Germania Theatre (1878-1881), followed by posts at the Thalia Theatre (1881-1882), New York Concert Company (1882-1883), and the

Irving Place Theatre The Irving Place Theatre was located at the southwest corner of Irving Place and East 15th Street in the Union Square neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1888, it served as a German language theatre, a Yiddish theatre, a burlesq ...

(1883-1903) In 1903 he became director of the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, a post he remained in until his retirement in 1908.

Biography

He was born on September 3, 1855 in

Bielitz Bielsko (german: Bielitz, cs, Bílsko) was until 1950 an independent town situated in Cieszyn Silesia, Poland. In 1951 it was joined with Biała Krakowska to form the new town of Bielsko-Biała. Bielsko constitutes the western part of that to ...

Austrian Silesia Austrian Silesia, (historically also ''Oesterreichisch-Schlesien, Oesterreichisch Schlesien, österreichisch Schlesien''); cs, Rakouské Slezsko; pl, Śląsk Austriacki officially the Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia, (historically ''Herzogth ...

(now Poland). His father was a weaver of Jewish origin. He received his education at the

Realschule ''Realschule'' () is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. Early on, he was an actor in at the Burgtheater in Vienna. Only 21 years old he became manager of the failed Stadttheater Bremen. His success in rescuing the theater not only moved the Senate of the city to pass a resolution thanking him, but also brought him to the attention of Adolf Neuendorff, who was the manager of the Germania Theatre in New York. On invitation of Neuendorff Conried moved in 1878 to New York City, where he became chief stage manager of the Germania Theatre. In 1881 he moved to the Thalia Theatre as artistic manager and in 1882 he became artistic manager of the New York Concert Company. In 1883 he assumed the management of the

where he worked for two decades. In 1903, he succeeded Maurice Grau as director of the Metropolitan Opera until 1908. His first season at the Met was notable through the first production of ''

Parsifal ''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is an opera or a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is loosely based on the 13th-century Middle High German epic poem ''Parzival ...

'' outside of Bayreuth, against the wishes of

Cosima Wagner Francesca Gaetana Cosima Wagner (née Liszt; 24 December 1837 – 1 April 1930) was the daughter of the Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt and Franco-German romantic author Marie d'Agoult. She became the second wife of the German comp ...

, who went to court but failed in her attempt to forbid the production. By December 31, 1913, when the copyright of ''Parsifal'' expired, the work had been represented 43 times at the Metropolitan Opera. Enrico Caruso, who until then had refused all offers to come to America, was persuaded by Conried to come to New York and sing at the Met. Soon after he had become director of the Metropolitan Opera, he conceived the New Theatre. His tenure was also marked by the United States premiere of Richard Strauss' '' Salome'' which was presented in “public rehearsal” on January 20, 1907, and at a benefit performance on January 22. The opera shocked the moral sensibilities of audiences and was met with disapproval, including many audience members walking out during the shocking final scene and with complaints to the company's board. The opera was pulled for the company's season and the Met did not actually stage the opera until 1934. Also in 1907, Conreid notably poached Gustav Mahler from his conducting post in Vienna, and brought him in to lead the conducting staff at the Met; a position he remained in until leaving to become the director of the

New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...

in 1909. On May 1, 1908 Conreid retired from the Metropolitan Opera House due to his poor health. Immediately afterwards he voyaged to Europe. He died on April 27, 1909 in the Hotel Meranerhof in the city of Meran from an apoplectic stroke in the presence of his wife and sister.

Biography

References

Further reading