Verdi at the Golden Gate

Opera is a fragile, complex art, but it flourished extravagantly in San Francisco during the Gold Rush years. How did this madness for opera take root and grow? This study contributes to a new understanding of urban culture in the Jacksonian-Manifest Destiny eras, and the role of opera in cities during this time, especially in the American West. "This is a narrative unlike any other, combining the most colorful, passionate, and theatrical of all art forms with the history of the most colorful, passionate, and theatrical of all American cities."—from the foreword by Lotfi Mansouri, General Director, San Francisco Opera "An important contribution to the cultural history of California and of San Francisco, unusual because of the author's rich understanding of Verdi's place in Western culture. Music and cultural historians will find this an exciting book in the field of opera and society."—Burton W. Peretti, author of The Creation of Jazz: Music, Race, and Culture in Urban America Opera is a fragile, complex art, but it flourished extravagantly in San Francisco during the Gold Rush years, a time when daily life in the city was filled with gambling, duels, murder, and suicide. In the history of the United States there has never been a rougher town than Gold Rush San Francisco, yet there has never been a greater frenzy for opera than developed there in these exciting years. How did this madness for opera take root and grow? Why did the audience's generally drunken, brawling behavior gradually improve? How and why did Verdi emerge as the city's favorite composer? These are the intriguing themes of George Martin's enlightening and wonderfully entertaining story. Among the incidents recounted are the fist fight that stopped an opera performance and ended in a fatal duel; and the…