Academy of Music

The Academy of Music, which opened in New York in 1854 on 14th Street between Third Avenue and Irving Place, provided New York audiences for over three decades with a home for grand opera.(5) Located in the area around Union Square, with its expensive mansions, the Academy in the 1860s was joined by fine hotels, restaurants,, businesses (and Tammany Hall) to become the theatrical and retail center of the city.(5)(7) Steinway & Sons moved its warerooms nearby to 71 and 73 14th Street in 1864 and opened in 1866 its impressive concert performance space Steinway Hall on the back of the warerooms at 15th Street near Irving Place. William and members of his family attended performances of opera, charity events, and Fancy Dress Balls at the Academy of Music throughout the period of William's diary.

For its first three decades, the Academy specialized in opera, with Adelina Patti as the star. In 1860, the Prince of Wales graced the theater, staying after an operatic performance for dinner and dancing.(1) The theater was very large (seating for over 4,600), but had limited box seats for the gentry.(3) Because there were not enough box seats, a group of New York's elite joined forces and funds to create the Metropolitan Opera House, which opened in 1883. The two houses competed until 1886, when the Met prevailed as the prime opera venue and the Academy began to specialize in classical drama, comedy, melodrama and other theatrical events.(1)(6) (In his diary for 1880, William noted that he and his family saw Uncle Tom's Cabin "quite well done" at the Academy.(Diary, 1880-12-27) Eventually, as upper-class New Yorkers moved away from the area, the Academy became the scene of vaudeville and movies.(1)(6) The theater was sold and closed "forever" in 1926, when the Consolidated Gas Company purchased it for an addition to the company's building.(1)(2)(4)(6)

The theater opened with a performance of Bellini's opera, "Norma," and at the final performance on May 17, 1926, the New York Symphony Orchestra played the overture to that opera as part of a program attracting some 2,000, including performers who had played in the Academy years before.(2)

William started going to performances at the Academy of Music in 1863, usually of operas, often with members of his family, some of whom often went to performances without him.(Diary, 1865-07-16, 1871-11-01) He also attended concerts and balls of the Arion Society and the Liederkranz at the Academy.(Diary, 1864-02-11,1884-05-30) His citations of the Academy noticeably lessened after 1886; there are no mentions from 1887-1892, and brief references in the last four years of the diary. His last visit to the Academy was to attend a performance of "Fidelio."(Diary, 1896-03-02)

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Sources:

1. "Academy of Music Bows to a New Era," The New York Times, August 30, 1925, p.SM7.

2. "Academy of Music Closed Forever," The New York Times, May 18, 1926, p. 3.

3. Ahlquist, Karen, Democracy at the Opera: Music, Theater, and Culture in New York City, 1815-60. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, p. 148.

4. "Gas Company Buys Academy of Music," The New York Times, August 22, 1925, p. 6.

5. Henderson, Mary C. The City and the Theatre: New York Playhouses from Bowling Green to Times Square. Clifton, N.J.: James T. White & Company, 1973, pp.1112-13.

6. Kenrick, John, "Demolished Broadway Theatres – A to B," available www.musicals101.com

7. Vos, Frank, "Tammany Hall," in The Encyclopedia of New York City (Kenneth T. Jackson, ed.), New Haven: Yale University Press (with The New-York Historical Society), 1995, p. 1149.