In the Golden Age of Verdi and Puccini, Wagner and Richard Strauss, opera in Britain and the United States was almost exclusively the preserve of individual private businessmen - the impresarios - who made (and lost) fortunes by personally employing the great stars of the day.
King of bombast was 'Colonel' James Mapleson, child-star, wiliest of agents, then grandest and finally most unlucky of showmen. Obsession ruined Oscar Hammerstein I, not once, not twice but three times bankrupted by his determination to conquer Broadway. Great wealth protected John Christie, soldier, schoolmaster and heir to Glyndebourne Manor and estates, when his love for his wife led to his building up the largest private opera festival since Bayreuth.
This book, concentrating on the period 1860-1939, rediscovers their spectacular successes, and their even more spectacular disasters.
