Evening star., 1940-09-03
Gatfi-Casazza, I, Creator
OF Metropo|itan's S
Golden Era,' Dead
m Operas Head n Years,
S He Discovered Curuso
And Many Others
BY the Associated Press.

NEW YORK, Sept. 8. Giulio
!. Gatti-Casazza, whose 27-year-old
tenure as manager of the Metropol-
itan Opera Co. made the American
organization one of the foremost
grand opera companies Of the world,
Is dead.
Discoverer Of Caruso, Chaliapin
!, and other great singers of the era,
&the 71-year-old impresario died in
Retirement yesterday at his ances-
stral home in Ferrara, Italy, and was
buried privately yesterday. Because
pf his death-bed request, announce
ment of his death and burial was
withheld until after the funeral. He
was general manager of the Metro
politan from 1908 to 1885.
Nine. Frances Aida, the opera
singer, received word of the death
of her former husband, from whom
she was divorced in 1928, by cable
gram in New York. Gatti-Casazzi's s
second wife was Rosina Cali, who
died in Italy last April.
An appreciation of both artistic
excellence and box-office appeal
were his outstanding traits as di-
rector of the Metropolitan.
q Created Golden Era of the Met
= Gatti-Casazza brought Italian
opera to the Metropolitan at time
when productions were mainly Ger
man. He encouraged American COM
,poserS and singers and during his
regime he produced Is American
works which had approximately 100
performances. In all he staged some
5000 performances.
For seven years Gatti-Casazza and
Arturo Toscanini, as conductor,
worked together at the Metropol-
itan. But in 1915 their friendship
cooled and it was not until 1882
that they were reconciled. When
they met both wept.
Learning of Gatti = CasazZa's S
death, Leon Rothier, leading Metro
politan basso for 80 years, declared
the world had lost an 'incompar-
able organizer who made musical
history by creating what is known
as the golden era of the Metropoh-
tan, never to be equaled."
Some of the new faces the i'm
presario brought to the Met" were
.Amelita CALI -Curci, Marion Talley,
Lily Pons, Jeritza, Anna Pavlowa,
the dancer; Lawrence Tibbett and
Kristen Flagstad.
"The Sphinx" Revived La Scala.
Gatti-Casazza, who was manager
of the Metropolitan longer than
any other man of his time, was
known as THE Sphinx"
The taciturn silence and unbend-
ing dignity which he maintained
while handling both stars and
finances earned him the title.
AS director of La Scala in Milan,
he first attracted the attention of
the European musical world by
popularizing German and French
operas on a stage where little but
Italian opera had been heard be-
fore. In addition to this, La Scala,
which had previously been closed
because of a financial deficit, be-
came prosperous under his direc-
ton.
When he became impresario of
the Metropolitan, Gatti-CaSazza
again was credited with having
brought theater's books out of the
red. He introduced wider variety
of operas to New York audiences
than they had known heretofore,
was said to have squelched the star
system, and to have placed more
American artists On the Metropon-
tan stage than any other director
Gatti-Casazza was born in Udine,
italy, February 3, 1869, the son Of
Stephano i-Casazza, a former
member of the famous "Garibaldis
Thousand" In accordance with
family wishes, he studied naval en-
gineering, being graduated from
Polytechnic College of Genoa in
1890, although he had little liking
for the sea.
Got Start in Ferrara.
From his father, who served as
chairman of the Board Of the Tea
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