Adam Itzel Jr.

Adam Itzel Jr. (November 30, 1864 – September 5, 1893) was a 19th-century American conductor, pianist, and composer active in Baltimore.

He attended the Peabody Institute's Conservatory of Music, earning a certificate of proficiency in 1880 and (along with Hermine Hoen) the conservatory's first graduate degree 1882.[1] He was the conductor of the Academy of Music's orchestra, and directed the touring McCall Opera Company.[2] In 1890 he was hired to teach and conduct at Peabody.

Composer Eliza Woods was one of his students.[3]

Itzel's best-known composition was the light opera The Tar and the Tartar. It premiered in Chicago in April 1891 with Digby Bell and Helen Bertram in the leads,[4] then ran for 152 performances at New York's Palmer Theater. The show was not a critical success, but enjoyed popular success due to Bertram's scandalous barefoot dance. The show was performed across the continent by at least six companies.[5][6] After his death, it ran again for a week in 1894 at New York's Union Square Theater with Milton Aborn in the lead role.[7]

Adam Itzel died at the age of 29 of consumption in Baltimore, Maryland, September 5, 1893.[5] A memorial concert was held at Peabody in February 1894; Daniel Gilman gave the commemorative address.[8] The Peabody Archives at Johns Hopkins University hold his archives.[9]

Selected works

[edit]
  • The Tar and the Tartar (libretto by Harry B. Smith)
  • Jack Sheppard (3-act opera, libretto by A. K. Fulton)[10]
  • untitled 3-act opera, libretto by W. Day[10]
  • The Baltimore (song, "Dedicated by The Sun of Baltimore to the gallant worship that beras the name of the Monumental City", commemorating the launch of the USS Baltimore (C-3))[11]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Fifteenth Annual Report of the Provost to the Trustees of the Peabody Institute of the City of Baltimore. Baltimore: Steam Press of Wm. K. Boyle & Son. June 1, 1882. pp. 17–36.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  2. ^ "Facts, Rumours, and Remarks". The Musical Times. June 1, 1891. p. 336.
  3. ^ Woods, Eliza (10 May 1895). "The Sun". Proquest Historical Newspapers. Archived from the original on 2000-02-29. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
  4. ^ Franceschina, John (March 2004). Harry B. Smith: Dean of American Librettists. Routledge. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-135-94908-2.
  5. ^ a b Thomas Allston Brown, A History of the New York Stage: From the First Performance in 1732 to 1901 (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1903), v. 3, 343.
  6. ^ Hildebrand, David; Schaaf, Elizabeth M. (2017). Musical Maryland: a history of song and performance from the colonial period to the age of radio. William Biehl. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 110. ISBN 978-1-4214-2240-4.
  7. ^ Franceschina, John (March 2004). Harry B. Smith: Dean of American Librettists. Routledge. p. 75. ISBN 978-1-135-94908-2.
  8. ^ Twenty-Seventh Annual Report of the Peabody Institute of the City of Baltimore. Baltimore: Wm. K. Boyle & Son. June 1, 1894. p. 21.
  9. ^ "Collection: Adam Itzel Jr. and John Itzel orchestral arrangements | Johns Hopkins University Libraries Archives Public Interface". archivesspace.library.jhu.edu. Retrieved 2024-01-15.
  10. ^ a b Office, Library of Congress Copyright (1918). Dramatic Compositions Copyrighted in the United States, 1870 to 1916. Johnson Reprint Corporation. p. 1106.
  11. ^ Itzel Jr., Adam. The Baltimore. Baltimore: Geo. Willig & Co.


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