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Academy of Music (Philadelphia)
Encyclopedia
The Academy of Music, also known as American Academy of Music, is a concert hall and opera house located at Broad and Locust Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
. It was built in 1857 and is the oldest opera house in the United States
that is still used for its original purpose. Known as the "Grand Old Lady of Broad Street
," the venue is the home of the Pennsylvania Ballet
and the Opera Company of Philadelphia
.
The Academy was home to the Philadelphia Orchestra
from its inception in 1900 until 2001 when the orchestra moved to the new Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
. The Philadelphia Orchestra still retains ownership of the Academy.
The hall was designated a National Historic Landmark
in 1962.
, Gounod's
Faust
, and Wagner's
The Flying Dutchman
. In 1916, Leopold Stokowski
conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra in the American premiere of Mahler's Eighth Symphony
(the Symphony of a Thousand).
The list of renowned artists who have performed at the Academy reads like a "who's who" of the past century of performing arts history, with such greats as Marian Anderson
, Maria Callas
, Enrico Caruso, Aaron Copland
, Vladimir Horowitz
, Gustav Mahler
, Anna Pavlova, Luciano Pavarotti
, Itzhak Perlman
, Leontyne Price
, Sergei Rachmaninoff
, Artur Rubinstein, Isaac Stern
, Richard Strauss
, Igor Stravinsky
, Joan Sutherland
, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
, among many others.
Outside of arts events, it hosted the 1872 Republican National Convention
. In addition, parts of Martin Scorsese
's 1993 film The Age of Innocence
were filmed in the Academy.
An architectural competition for the Academy's design was announced in October 1854 and was won by the Philadelphia firm of Napoleon LeBrun
and Gustavus Runge. The groundbreaking ceremony was held on June 18, 1855, with President Franklin Pierce
in attendance and the venue opened with a grand ball on January 26, 1857. The first opera performed there was the Western Hemisphere
premiere of Verdi's
Il Trovatore
, on February 25 of the same year.
Le Brun and Runge's design features an "open horseshoe" shape which offers greater visibility than most opera houses to the audience seated on both sides of the balconies. The auditorium is enclosed by a solid three-foot brick wall with studding and pine boards lining the inner sides to prevent echoes and absorb sound. The upper balconies are recessed in a tiered fashion and supported by 14 Corinthian columns. The front of the first balcony is highly ornamented. The hall has a seating capacity of 2,389 which can be expanded to 2,509 when seats are placed in the orchestra pit and proscenium boxes.
. Seated on the cornice
above are the figures of Poetry, on the left, and Music, on the right. The elaborate carvings and gilded wood sculpture decorations throughout the auditorium are the work of Charles Bushor and Joseph A. Bailly
and the ceiling murals of allegorical figures were completed by Karl Hermann Schmolze.
Despite its name, the Academy has never contained a music school. Various voice and instrumental competitions have taken place there, including the Pavarotti competition.
A 2007 donation of $5.3 million (USD) by Leonore Annenberg was designated for restoration of the Academy's ballroom. This was part of the almost $12 million (USD) in donations raised at the 150th anniversary concert for the Academy of Music.
refused to make recordings with the Philadelphia Orchestra
in the Academy. Riccardo Muti
, Ormandy's successor, also made his commercial recordings with the orchestra elsewhere.
Various conductors have commented on the quality of the orchestral sound in the hall, as collected by Leo L. Beranek
in his book Music, Acoustics & Architecture: Fritz Reiner
commented: "The Academy has very good acoustics although somewhat dry. It is like an Italian opera house." Pierre Monteux
: "This hall is too dry; the tone stops instantly. The sound should have a more flattering carry-over." Herbert von Karajan
: "There is good orchestral balance, but the sound is too small. One doesn't get full power from the climaxes."'
Extensive renovations beginning in 1994 have maintained the building's architecture and made acoustic improvements.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
. It was built in 1857 and is the oldest opera house in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
that is still used for its original purpose. Known as the "Grand Old Lady of Broad Street
Broad Street (Philadelphia)
Broad Street is a major arterial street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is nearly 13 miles long.It is Pennsylvania Route 611 along its entire length with the exception of its northernmost part between Old York Road and Pennsylvania Route 309 and the southernmost part south of Interstate 95...
," the venue is the home of the Pennsylvania Ballet
Pennsylvania Ballet
Founded in 1963 by Balanchine student and protégée Barbara Weisberger, Pennsylvania Ballet is one of the leading ballet companies in the United States. Headquartered in Philadelphia, the company’s annual local season features six programs of classic favorites and new works, including the...
and the Opera Company of Philadelphia
Opera Company of Philadelphia
The Opera Company of Philadelphia is an American opera company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is the city's only company producing grand opera. The organization produces four fully staged opera productions annually, encompassing works from the seventeenth through the 21st century...
.
The Academy was home to the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
from its inception in 1900 until 2001 when the orchestra moved to the new Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is a large performing arts venue located on Broad Street, along the stretch known as the "Avenue of the Arts", in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is owned and operated by Kimmel Center, Inc., an organization which also manages the Academy of Music in...
. The Philadelphia Orchestra still retains ownership of the Academy.
The hall was designated a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
in 1962.
History
The Academy has been in continuous use since 1857, hosting many world-famous performers, conductors and composers, and a significant number of American premieres of works in the standard operatic and classical repertoire. Noted operas that had their American premieres there include Strauss's Ariadne auf NaxosAriadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Bringing together slapstick comedy and consuming beautiful music, the opera's theme is the competition between high and low art for the public's attention.- First version :The opera was originally...
, Gounod's
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
, and Wagner's
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
The Flying Dutchman
The Flying Dutchman (opera)
Der fliegende Holländer is an opera, with music and libretto by Richard Wagner.Wagner claimed in his 1870 autobiography Mein Leben that he had been inspired to write "The Flying Dutchman" following a stormy sea crossing he made from Riga to London in July and August 1839, but in his 1843...
. In 1916, Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra in the American premiere of Mahler's Eighth Symphony
Symphony No. 8 (Mahler)
The Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major by Gustav Mahler is one of the largest-scale choral works in the classical concert repertoire. Because it requires huge instrumental and vocal forces it is frequently called the "Symphony of a Thousand", although the work is often performed with fewer than a...
(the Symphony of a Thousand).
The list of renowned artists who have performed at the Academy reads like a "who's who" of the past century of performing arts history, with such greats as Marian Anderson
Marian Anderson
Marian Anderson was an African-American contralto and one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century...
, Maria Callas
Maria Callas
Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique, a wide-ranging voice and great dramatic gifts...
, Enrico Caruso, Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
, Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz was a Russian-American classical virtuoso pianist and minor composer. His technique and use of tone color and the excitement of his playing were legendary. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Life and early...
, Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
, Anna Pavlova, Luciano Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti
right|thumb|Luciano Pavarotti performing at the opening of the Constantine Palace in [[Strelna]], 31 May 2003. The concert was part of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of [[St...
, Itzhak Perlman
Itzhak Perlman
Itzhak Perlman is an Israeli-born violinist, conductor, and instructor of master classes. He is regarded as one of the pre-eminent violinists of the 20th and early-21st centuries.-Early life:...
, Leontyne Price
Leontyne Price
Mary Violet Leontyne Price is an American soprano. Born and raised in the Deep South, she rose to international acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s, and was one of the first African Americans to become a leading artist at the Metropolitan Opera.One critic characterized Price's voice as "vibrant",...
, Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
, Artur Rubinstein, Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern was a Ukrainian-born violinist. He was renowned for his recordings and for discovering new musical talent.-Biography:Isaac Stern was born into a Jewish family in Kremenets, Ukraine. He was fourteen months old when his family moved to San Francisco...
, Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
, Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
, Joan Sutherland
Joan Sutherland
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s....
, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
, among many others.
Outside of arts events, it hosted the 1872 Republican National Convention
Republican National Convention
The Republican National Convention is the presidential nominating convention of the Republican Party of the United States. Convened by the Republican National Committee, the stated purpose of the convocation is to nominate an official candidate in an upcoming U.S...
. In addition, parts of Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
's 1993 film The Age of Innocence
The Age of Innocence (film)
The Age of Innocence is a 1993 American film adaptation of Edith Wharton's 1920 novel of the same name. The film was released by Columbia Pictures, directed by Martin Scorsese, and stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Winona Ryder....
were filmed in the Academy.
Design
Napoleon LeBrun
Napoleon Eugene Charles Henry LeBrun was an American architect. LeBrun is best known as the architect of several notable Philadelphia churches, including St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Twentieth Street ; the Seventh Presbyterian Church , the Scots Presbyterian Church , the Church of St...
and Gustavus Runge. The groundbreaking ceremony was held on June 18, 1855, with President Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States and is the only President from New Hampshire. Pierce was a Democrat and a "doughface" who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Pierce took part in the Mexican-American War and became a brigadier general in the Army...
in attendance and the venue opened with a grand ball on January 26, 1857. The first opera performed there was the Western Hemisphere
Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere or western hemisphere is mainly used as a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian and east of the Antimeridian , the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere.In this sense, the western hemisphere consists of the western portions...
premiere of Verdi's
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
Il Trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
, on February 25 of the same year.
Le Brun and Runge's design features an "open horseshoe" shape which offers greater visibility than most opera houses to the audience seated on both sides of the balconies. The auditorium is enclosed by a solid three-foot brick wall with studding and pine boards lining the inner sides to prevent echoes and absorb sound. The upper balconies are recessed in a tiered fashion and supported by 14 Corinthian columns. The front of the first balcony is highly ornamented. The hall has a seating capacity of 2,389 which can be expanded to 2,509 when seats are placed in the orchestra pit and proscenium boxes.
Interior furnishings
The auditorium is graced by a large crystal chandelier, which measures 16 ft (4.9 m) in diameter, 50 ft (15.2 m) in circumference and weighs 5000 lb (2,268 kg). When installed, the chandelier contained 240 gas jets, it was wired for electricity in 1900 and in 1957, was rewired and fitted with an electric-powered winch, allowing it to be lowered more easily. It previously required 12 people working four-hours to lower it by hand. Atop the proscenium is a bas-relief bust of MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
. Seated on the cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
above are the figures of Poetry, on the left, and Music, on the right. The elaborate carvings and gilded wood sculpture decorations throughout the auditorium are the work of Charles Bushor and Joseph A. Bailly
Joseph A. Bailly
Joseph Alexis Bailly was a French-born American sculptor who spent most of his career in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He taught briefly at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, which has a collection of his sculpture...
and the ceiling murals of allegorical figures were completed by Karl Hermann Schmolze.
Despite its name, the Academy has never contained a music school. Various voice and instrumental competitions have taken place there, including the Pavarotti competition.
A 2007 donation of $5.3 million (USD) by Leonore Annenberg was designated for restoration of the Academy's ballroom. This was part of the almost $12 million (USD) in donations raised at the 150th anniversary concert for the Academy of Music.
Acoustics
Some controversy exists regarding the Academy's acoustics. Although historically regarded for many decades as having excellent acoustics, some performers have been quoted as finding the Academy's sound problematic. The cavernous spaces above the hall's stage that allow for rapid set changes during an operatic performance tend to reduce resonance, giving the hall a dry acoustic. It has been theorized that the famous rich "Philadelphia Sound" of the hall's orchestra was, at least in part, the result of an effort by its music directors to compensate for this weakness. After some remodeling in the mid 1950s, Eugene OrmandyEugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.-Early life:Born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy began studying violin at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music at the age of five...
refused to make recordings with the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
in the Academy. Riccardo Muti
Riccardo Muti
Riccardo Muti, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI is an Italian conductor and music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.-Childhood and education:...
, Ormandy's successor, also made his commercial recordings with the orchestra elsewhere.
Various conductors have commented on the quality of the orchestral sound in the hall, as collected by Leo L. Beranek
Leo Beranek
Leo Leroy Beranek is an American acoustics expert, former MIT professor and a founder and former president of Bolt, Beranek and Newman ....
in his book Music, Acoustics & Architecture: Fritz Reiner
Fritz Reiner
Frederick Martin “Fritz” Reiner was a prominent conductor of opera and symphonic music in the twentieth century.-Biography:...
commented: "The Academy has very good acoustics although somewhat dry. It is like an Italian opera house." Pierre Monteux
Pierre Monteux
Pierre Monteux was an orchestra conductor. Born in Paris, France, Monteux later became an American citizen.-Life and career:Monteux was born in Paris in 1875. His family was descended from Sephardi Jews who came to France in the wake of the Spanish Inquisition. He studied violin from an early age,...
: "This hall is too dry; the tone stops instantly. The sound should have a more flattering carry-over." Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
: "There is good orchestral balance, but the sound is too small. One doesn't get full power from the climaxes."'
Extensive renovations beginning in 1994 have maintained the building's architecture and made acoustic improvements.
External links
- Academy of Music website
- 15 photos of the Academy of Music at Library of Congress - Historic American Buildings Survey
- The Historical Society of Pennsylvania collection of Academy of Music programs, playbills, and scrapbooks, including playbills and programs from 1857 to 1972, are available for research use at the Historical Society of PennsylvaniaHistorical Society of PennsylvaniaThe Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a historical society founded in 1824 and based in Philadelphia. The Society's building, designed by Addison Hutton and listed on Philadelphia's Register of Historical Places, houses some 600,000 printed items and over 19 million manuscript and graphic items...
. - G. Runge, Das neue Opernhaus „Academy of music" in Philadelphia
- Opernhaus in Philadelphia Copperplate engravings, pp. 19–25 (pdf pp. 22–28)