The Impresario

              THE IMPRESARIO



T
HE Affiliated Musical Bureaus take great pleasure in presenting Mozart's famous opera 
The Impresario,
 headed by an all star cast of New York artists, and undoubtedly the most pretentious musical attraction ever offered in the history of our organization.  The Impresario is under the personal direction of William Wade Hinshaw of the Metropolitan Opera Company, who has organized and coached the production and has chosen an eminent cast of characters.




It is interesting to note that from the first presentation of The Impresario in New York in October, 1916, there was launched the Society of American Singers, which has since been led to empyrian heights of operatic success by Mr. Hinshaw, its president and general manager.  The first production was given under the management of the Wolfsohn Musical Bureau and the combination of artists completely took New York off its feet.  The success of The Impresario was so great and so immediate that their program was repeated several times to bigger houses.  From this production came the permanent organization of American Singers which is now incorporated.  The board of directors of the present organization include Mr. Albert Reiss, Mr. David Bispham, Mr. Herbert Witherspoon, Mr. George Hamlin and Mr. Hinshaw.  The Impresario was again repeated in 1917 for a short season of 
Opera Comique
 in New York.  The success of The Impresario in New York City led to the extensive tour which will be made next season under the management of the Affiliated Musical Bureaus.  A noteworthy cast will give the production.  The English version of the opera was written by Henry Edward Krehbiel.




MR. PERCY HEMUS, Baritone
 (
As Schickaneder, the 
Impresario.
)



The cast of artists, selected with great care from among the members of the Society of American Singers by Mr. Hinshaw, is headed by the eminent American Baritone, Mr. Percy Hemus, who, as a member and one of the founders of the Society, has appeared since the beginning in various leading roles of the many productions of the Company, and who has won the highest encomiums of praise from public and critics, alike.




Mr. Hemus is known from Coast to Coast as a singer and interpreter of songs, a master of English Diction and as an artist bearing a true message.  He is the possessor of a remarkably fine baritone voice which he uses with consummate artistic skill and control.




In choosing Mr. Hemus to sing the title role of the 
IMPRESARIO,
 Mr. Hinshaw has assured himself of the success of the opera.





MISS RUTH MILLER, Soprano
 (
As Madam Hofer
)



To sing the role of Madam Hofer, the Prima Donna Assoluta of the Vienna Opera House and, incidentally, Mozart's sister-in-law, Mr. Hinshaw has chosen Miss Ruth Miller, well known from her singing with the Metropolitan Opera Company, The Scotti Grand Opera Company, and for two Seasons with the Society of American Singers, in New York, and two summer seasons at Ravinia Park, Chicago.  Miss Miller spent five years in study abroad, where her naturally beautiful voice was developed into a brilliant coloratura soprano.





MR. MORTON ADKINS, Baritone
 (
As Phillip
)



For two seasons Mr. Morton Adkins has been an active member of the cast in the various productions of the Society of American Singers at the Park Theatre, New York, where his singing has elicited warm praise from the critics and public.  In casting him to sing the role of Phillip, the nephew of Emanuel Schickaneder (the doughty Impresario), Mr. Hinshaw has selected a man whose true worth has been proven in many leading baritone roles.





MR. THOMAS McGRANAHAN, Tenor
 (
As Mozart
)



Not since the ocean waves bore the seraphic voiced John McCormack to our shores has such another voice been heard in New York until the silver-toned 
Tom
 McGranahan came with a 
breeze from the Southland
 into our musical atmosphere, carrying all before him into ecstatic rapture on the sweet strains of his song.





MISS HAZEL HUNTINGTON, Soprano
 (
As Demoiselle Uhlic
)



As Demoiselle Uhlich, the young singer of Linz, Mr. Hinshaw selected Miss Hazel Huntington, who from every standpoint correctly represents the young but 
coming
 Prima Donna who is seeking to replace Madam Hofer, the 
Prima Donna Assoluta
 of the Vienna Opera House.  She possesses a marvelous coloratura voice.





MISS GLADYS CRAVEN
 (
At the Piano
)



An artist in every sense of the word, wonderfully gifted as a concert pianist.






THE IMPRESARIO



The Story of the Opera



The story of the opera tells how Emanuel Shickaneder, director of the Freihaus Theatre in Vienna and Mozart's librettist, is hoodwinked into engaging Demoiselle Uhlich as a member of his company.  Demoiselle Uhlich is beloved by the director's nephew, Phillip, but the director refuses to have a niece-in-law in his company.  So Demoiselle Uhlich pretends to be an Italian singer named Cavalieri, and is engaged in a delightful scene of comedy with Madam Hofer, the director's Prima Donna Assoluta.  In this scene the two singers go through a contest in song and in jealousy in a manner as funny as it is subtle.  Mozart himself permeates the action more through his buoyancy of spirit than by any absolute effect he has upon the plot.





Mozart at His Best



The music shows Mozart at his best and maturest.  It is instinct with melody, fun and gay philosophy.  In it runs the wine and light and love of old Vienna.  Its clarity of utterance, its aristocratic elegance, its grace of line, its play of color are Mozart and only Mozart.





Special Concert Program



There are demands for extra concerts from this eminent all-star group of artists.  The company will be available for special programs.  The cast specializes in costumed operatic arias, in straight concert numbers and in classical and popular ballads.  Where the straight concert program is preferred rather than The Impresario these sterling artists are able to give a wonderful program of high class, operatic and concert numbers.





Excerpts from the New York Press



It was a very lively and amusing satire on the pretensions of the people of the opera stage.—


New York Times.




Buried Gems Glitter, Mozart operettas give real delight.—


N. Y. Sun.




Got a unanimous vote that it should be repeated.—


N. Y. Evening Sun.




'THE IMPRESARIO' was fascinating.  The audience laughed at the dialogue and laughed as heartily as it could have done at hearing 'the latest Viennese operetta.'—


N. Y. Herald.




The audience was hugely amused with its legitimate and highly effective comedy.—


N. Y. Evening Mail.





Excerpts from the Press Concerning the Singers



MR. PERCY HEMUS



An institution.—


New York Times.




Admirable art.—


New York Tribune.




The master song interpreter.—


Cleveland (Ohio) Press.




Interpretative gifts are rich and rare.—


N. Y. Evening World.




Inimitable.—


Yonkers (N. Y.) News.




Made us glad to be Americans.—


Easton (Pa.) Express.




He justifies the term 'recital' as few singers do.—


Kansas City Star.




The best voice that has ever sung in Emporia.—


Emporia Gazette





MISS RUTH MILLER



Most pleasing Musetta the Metropolitan has seen since Fritzi Scheff.—


N. Y. Tribune.




Has fine voice and good operatic style.  Audience like her singing.—


N. Y. Herald.




Velvety upper tones.  Never forced a note.—


N. Y. Times.





MR. MORTON ADKINS



Mr. Adkins has a voice of unusual beauty of quality and flexibility, and of resonance and power, which he uses in excellent and artistic style and with freedom and spontaneity of utterance.—


Richard Aldrich, in New York Times.




Mr. Adkins sang with assurance, and acquitted himself more than creditably.  He possesses a baritone voice of manly gravity and agreeable timber.—


Max Smith, New York Times.




His voice is of pleasing quality and of wide range.  It has power without being explosive—


Sylvester Rawling, New York Evening Sun.




Morton Adkins sang his way into the good graces of those who appreciate a fine voice and unostentatious manner.  With youth in his favor and really serious musical tastes, he should attain his ambitions.—


Emilie Frances Bauer, New York Evening Mail.





MR. THOMAS McGRANAHAN



Fresh, clear, tenor voice; recalled John McCormack—


N. Y. World.




Lyric tenor voice of rarely sympathetic quality.—


Chicago Tribune.




Rendered tenor arias with splendid voice and feeling.—


Bridgeport (Conn.) Telegram.




Well schooled, pleasing tenor, excellent command of legato.—


Newark (N. J.) Evening News.




Has a beautiful vocal organ; handles it with skill.—


Chicago Evening American.





MISS HAZEL HUNTINGTON



Carried the vocal honors; we declare frankly that she has a great future.—


Musical America.




Very high, clear and beautiful soprano; sings with astonishing ease.—


Musical Leader.




Runs, trills and every sort of florid embellishment were accomplished with decision, understanding and mastery of vocal technique.—


Music News.






The A. B. Chase Piano is the official piano used in the presentation of 
The Impresario