Gaetano Merola (4 January 1881 – 30 August 1953) was an Italian conductor and founder of the San Francisco Opera.
Merola was born in Naples, the son of a Neapolitan court violinist and studied piano and conducting at the Naples conservatory. He emigrated to the United States in 1899 and served as an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, Henry Wilson Savage's opera company in Boston and Fortune Gallo's travelling San Carlo Opera Company. ...
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Gaetano Merola (4 January 1881 – 30 August 1953) was an Italian conductor and founder of the San Francisco Opera.
Merola was born in Naples, the son of a Neapolitan court violinist and studied piano and conducting at the Naples conservatory. He emigrated to the United States in 1899 and served as an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, Henry Wilson Savage's opera company in Boston and Fortune Gallo's travelling San Carlo Opera Company. Oscar Hammerstein I hired Merola as choral conductor of his Manhattan Opera Company where Merola remained until the company folded in 1910. He then served as conductor in Hammerstein's London Opera House before returning to New York as an operetta conductor. Merola conducted the premieres of several shows, including Victor Herbert's Naughty Marietta, Rudolf Friml's The Firefly and Sigmund Romberg's Maytime.
It was while touring with the San Carlo Opera that Merola began making annual visits to San Francisco. He first heard Luisa Tetrazzini, a...
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