Charles Strine
Charles Strine | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | January 4, 1867 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US |
| Died | April 6, 1907 (aged 40) Boston, Massachusetts, US |
| Occupation(s) | Opera and theatrical manager |
Charles William Strine (January 4, 1867 – April 6, 1907) was an American theatrical and opera manager best known for arranging the national tours and residencies of the Metropolitan Opera Company under the direction of Maurice Grau and Heinrich Conried.
Career
[edit]Charles William Strine was born January 4, 1867,[1] in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After working as a reporter, for newspapers including The Philadelphia Record, he became a theatrical manager. He co-managed the Grand Opera House in Philadelphia for a season of opera.[2]
He managed the Ellis Opera Company in its 1898 and 1899 cross-country tours. In 1904 he was engaged as associate manager of the Tivoli Opera House in San Francisco,[3][4] and the following year he assumed responsibility for the highly successful (and lucrative) San Francisco residency of the Metropolitan Opera company, under the direction of Heinrich Conried.[5]
Strine managed US tours by Paderewski, the Metropolitan Opera company under Maurice Grau, and the first American tour of Nellie Melba.[6] Strine represented Sarah Bernhardt for her 1905–06 tour of the US, Canada and Mexico.[3][6]
He left Bernhardt in 1906 to undertake management of the cross-county tour of the Conried Metropolitan Opera Company.[7][8] The tour ended disastrously after the San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906. It occurred hours after a performance of Carmen at the Grand Opera House, in which Enrico Caruso performed the role of Don Jose. Strine lost all of his profits, as well as the new 2,000-seat theater that he had just been chosen to manage.[2][9][10] In the earthquake and fire, the Metropolitan Opera company lost all of the costumes, scenery, props and music for 19 operas, valued at more than $250,000,[11] the equivalent of $8,477,778 today.
In the autumn of 1906 Strine managed a tour by Henry B. Irving and Dorothea Baird. He was in Boston, preparing a spring tour by the Conreid Metropolitan Opera Company, when he had an attack of appendicitis. Strine died April 6, 1907, at Boothby Hospital in Boston, a week after unsuccessful surgery. He was survived by a wife and daughter.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ "Charles William Strine". Find a Grave. Retrieved 2016-02-13.
- ^ a b c "Charles Strine Dead". The New York Times. April 7, 1907. Retrieved 2017-02-13.
- ^ a b San Francisco Chronicle, 26 March 1899 Assistant Manager Strine of the Ellis Opera Company, p. 25
- ^ San Francisco Chronicle, 28 March 1904 To Aid Tivoli Management: Charles W. Strine Coming from New York to Fill the Position of Associate Manager, p. 7
- ^ San Francisco Chronicle, 23 September 1904 Conried to Bring His Stars Here: ‘Parsifal’ and Other Splendid Productions Will Be Sung by the World’s Greatest Artists, p. 16
- ^ a b "Plays and Players". Sunset. December 1905. p. 218. Retrieved 2017-02-13.
- ^ "War Memorial Opera House" (PDF). verplanck consulting. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-04-13.
...the Wade (later Grand) Opera House. Located on the north side of Mission Street, just west of Third Street, the Grand Opera House perished in 1906, along with most of the city's other opera houses, including the Tivoli Opera House and the Orpheum Theater.
- ^ Smith, James R. (4 January 2018). San Francisco's Lost Landmarks. Quill Driver Books. ISBN 9781884995446 – via Google Books.
- ^ San Francisco Chronicle, 15 April 1906 A Grand Opera-House at Union Square, p. 29
- ^ Montagne, Renée (April 11, 2006). "Remembering the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake". Morning Edition. NPR. Retrieved 2017-02-13.
- ^ "Opera Company Loses Quarter Million". Sacramento Union. May 6, 1906. Retrieved 2017-02-13.