Fortune Gallo-Dean
of Operatic Impresarii
"San Carlo pays for itself—why can't the Metropolitan? de-
manded Samuel Chotzinoff. the well-known critic and music con-
sultant of the National Broadcasting Company, when summing
up in The New York Post the latest spring season of the San
Carlo Opera Company at the huge Center Theatre in New York,
—a season which, it is worthy to note, had drawn an attendance of
over 50,000 people to its eleven performances.
Gallo Makes Opera Pay
"The San Carlo has no suhsidies, underwriters or endowments."
Mr. Chotzinoff went on to point out. "Tf the Metropolitan with
its suhsidies, underwriters, and hoard of directors cannot make
opera self-supporting, let alone profitable, how comes it that Mr. •*
Gallo, single-handed, can make it pay? Mr. Gallo. music-lover
that he undoubtedly is, is in opera not alone for his health, and it
is reasonable to suppose that he labors for profit. If Mr. Gallo pos-
sesses the secret of making opera pay it behooves him to let Mr.
Johnson and the public in on it. to the end that the Metropolitan
shall begin to function as a paying enterprise."
Chicago
Opera
Company
lint/ages
Gallo
.Is
Manager
While the directors of New York's temple of opera have not
seen fit to avail themeslves of the critic's suggestion and invite
Fortune Gallo to sit in at their counsels, it would seem that the
board and sponsors of the Chicago Opera Company, after a financi-
ally disastrous season, hoped to learn the secret of this magic
touch when they appointed the founder and impresario of the
touring San Carlo troupe as the General Manager for the season
which will be inaugurated on November 8.
For over thirty years Mr. Gallo has been ministering to the
operatic needs of that vast public in these United States and
Canada, where opera "in the flesh" would have been unknown
but for his earnest endeavors. And such has been the quality of
his offerings that he has not been afraid to invade the strongholds
of Chicago and New York and invite direct comparison with the
higher-priced performances there on view. It is significant that
the greatest indoor audiences and the most profitable engagements
have been those played under Mr. Gallo's direction at the Rocke-
feller Center playhouse, the Chicago Auditorium, and the Munici-
pal Opera House in San Francisco.
It w r as in 1911 that Mr. Gallo undertook his first operatic
venture,—the organization of the grandiosely named Pacific Coast
Metropolitan Opera Company, employing a local chorus but im-
porting his principals from Italy.
Gallo Organizes San Carlo Company
The following winter the San Carlo Company came into being
and New York heard it first in one of the theaters in the Bowery,
a locale chosen possibly because there was a dense Italian popula-
tion in the neighborhood and it was to the opera lover who could
not afford the high scale of prices in vogue at the Metropolitan
to whom Mr. Gallo was appealing. It was not the most auspicious
of beginnings, but the intrepid young man succeeded in keeping
his own head above water and the company in existance for thirty
weeks in New York and on the road.
San Carlo Company Goes to Uptown New York
In 1914 the more seasoned and greatly strengthened San Carlo
troupe made its first bid for favor in uptown New York in a tri-
umphant engagement at the 44th Street Theatre. That season of
1914-15 brought further recognition to the company on tour and
• ever since then its annual visits to the principal American and
Canadian cities have become eagerly anticipated events.
With that organization safely launched, the astute and tireless
Gallo sought other outlets for his ambition and boundless energies
and became interested in the Pavlowa Ballet Kusse.
SKI'TKMKKR, 1 9 4 1
The Gallo finglish Opera Company
Another extra mural undertaking during the early twenties was
the extraordinarily gainful coast to coast tour of the Gallo English
Opera Company, which had a repertoire in large part drawn from
the works of Gilbert and Sullivan; "The Mikado." "H.M.S. Pina-
fore." "The Gondoliers." and "The Pirates of Penzance," as well
as "The Geisha" and "The Chimes of Normandy."
Mr. Gallo, also, was a pioneer in the giving of spectacular out-
door performances of opera and operetta. The first was a mam-
moth presentation of "Aida" at Sheepshead Bay, New York, when
camels and elephants were led on in the scene depicting the tri-
umphant return of Kadames. Incidentally the receipts attained a
figure which still stands as a record—$65,000. That experience led
afterward to an association with the Messrs. Shubert in the presen-
tation of elaborate revivals of operettas in the marine stadium at
Jones Beach.
The Chicago Grand Opera Season
To the average manager such an undertaking as the direction of
the coming season of the Chicago Opera Company would be an
all-time job, but the indefatigable Fortune Gallo rules otherwise.
All summer he has been commuting between New York and Chi-
cago in the interests of his two opera companies—the San Carlo
group which will resume operation in January—and his latest ac-
quisition,—the original Ballet Russe. There have been endless con-
ferences with the Chicago board of trustees and innumerable audi-
tions in the quest for new voices and faces for the Chicago season.
While many of the old favorities will return, Mr. Gallo can be de-
pended upon to discover new talents destined to take their place
among the established stars. It must be remembered that there is
already a lengthy list of artists who were groomed by Mr. Gallo
in the San Carlo forces and later added a fine lustre to the Metro-
politan and Chicago Opera Companies.
Presto Music Tiir.es believes Mr. Gallo lias fine support for the
Opera this year and that it will have a splendid season.
l'ACK
TIIIKTY-TIIRKK
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