100 Years Later: All The American (Operatic) Ties To Susan B. Anthony

The original "Iron Lady": Susan B. Anthony

On this day 100 years ago in America, the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified which began to pave the way for all women's right to vote. One of the most profound leaders in the suffrage movement was Susan B. Anthony. Her name and legacy would have influence that delved even into the opera world. Let's being at the beginning."[Susan Anthony was] born into a Quaker family committed to social equality, she collected anti-slavery petitions at the age of 17. In 1856, she became the New York state agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1851, she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who became her lifelong friend and co-worker in social reform activities, primarily in the field of women's rights. In 1852, they founded the New York Women's State Temperance Society after Anthony was prevented from speaking at a temperance conference because she was female. In 1863, they founded the Women's Loyal National League, which conducted the largest petition drive in United States history up to that time, collecting nearly 400,000 signatures in support of the abolition of slavery. In 1866, they initiated the American Equal Rights Association, which campaigned for equal rights for both women and African Americans. In 1868, they began publishing a women's rights newspaper called The Revolution. In 1869, they founded the National Woman Suffrage Association as part

A Century Ago: Parade for Voting Rights

of a split in the women's movement. In 1890, the split was formally healed when their organization merged with the rival American Woman Suffrage Association to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association, with Anthony as its key force. In 1876, Anthony and Stanton began working with Matilda Joslyn Gage on what eventually grew into the six-volume History of Woman Suffrage. The interests of Anthony and Stanton diverged somewhat in later years, but the two remained close friends. In 1872, Anthony was arrested for voting in her hometown of Rochester, New York, and convicted in a widely publicized trial. Although she refused to pay the fine, the authorities declined to take further action. In 1878, Anthony and Stanton arranged for Congress to be presented with an amendment giving women the right to vote. Introduced by Sen. Aaron A. Sargent (R-CA), it later became known colloquially as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. It was eventually ratified as the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. Anthony traveled extensively in support of women's suffrage, giving as many as 75 to 100 speeches per year and working on many state campaigns. She worked internationally for women's rights, playing a key role in creating the International Council of Women, which is still active. She also helped to bring

Lauren Flanigan Will Lease $3.6 Million Harlem Mansion For Music

Headmistress: Soprano Lauren Flanigan

"It's a throwback to a time when Harlem was still a rural village and not yet legally part of the city. An old clapboard house, widely considered to be the oldest single-family home still occupied in Harlem, has been sold for $3.6 million to a new owner who plans to turn it into a home and practice facility for struggling young musicians, the Daily News has learned. The famed wooden property, at 17 E. 128th St., dates back to 1864 and is one of the few surviving frame houses in the neighborhood. It was landmarked by the city in 1982. The new owner, San Francisco-based e-commerce executive Jack Stephenson, told the Daily News that he plans to lease the property to his friend, famed opera singer Lauren Flanagan [sic]. Flanagan will turn the house into a new location for Music & Mentoring House, a not-for-profit organization providing upscale affordable housing and mentoring to students studying in the arts.'She takes music students in a gives them room and board, feeds them, makes their beds and

The new Harlem location for Music & Mentoring House
 is in the center with the green stairs.

gives them instruction in music,' Stephenson said. 'There are boot camps and classes on how to get by in the business and she invites many famous friends like Stephen Schwartz, who wrote the musical Wicked to come talk to them.'....The stunning French Second Empire-style home has five bedrooms, four bathrooms, six working marble fireplaces and a country kitchen that leads outside into a garden. The house has remained the same, even as the neighborhood has grown and evolved around it and still has its original veranda, a pair of doudle-leaf Itlaianate doors, wood-framed windows and a sloping mansard roof." [Source] For an in-depth study of the past property owners, including Carol Adams who was once a famous member of the Paul Taylor Dance Company, click here. More photos of the house can be found after the jump.

Mary Garden Rocked The Amphitheatre Before The Beatles

One With Nature: Mary Garden singing at Red Rock

"This week marks the 100th anniversary of touring acts playing live concerts at Red Rocks Amphitheater, Denver's iconic venue of the West. Shortly after internationally acclaimed opera singer Mary Garden crooned 'Ave Maria' on Stage Rock this week in 1911, she gushed: 'Never in any opera house the world over have I found more perfect acoustic properties.' 'I predict that someday, 20,000 people will assemble there to listen to the world's greatest masterpieces,' she wrote. Garden's sentiment proved prophetic. The dramatic twin fins of monolithic sandstone that harbor a historical record dating back 250 million years have hosted a much shorter but equally inspiring record of musical performances in the past century. 'It makes your hair just stand up when you think about the artists who've been here,' says Erik Dyce, who has shepherded Red Rocks marketing for Denver's Theatres and Arenas Division for the past 23 years. 'This place is a temple. It's overwhelming when the venue overpowers the artist.' Red Rocks has well served Denver, which acquired the venue in 1941 for $50,000 and quickly elevated the 868-acre park and venue to its crown jewel in an already impressive trove of mountain parks. Culturally and financially, Red Rocks plays an important role for the city, contributing $1.85 million in tax revenue last year. This week, Denver leaders merged the Theatres and Arenas Division, of which Red Rocks is a part, with the city's Office of Cultural Affairs, saving Denver's strapped general fund $1.2 million a year." [Source] For more information about The Beatles, Aretha Franklin, Jethro Tull, The Carpenters, Jimi Hendrix, and many more that have performed throughout the history of Red Rocks, click here. Scottish-American soprano Mary Garden's setlist for May 10, 1911, included "Ave Maria" and "Annie Laurie." Learn more about the soprano and her singing, after the jump.

The Red Rocks Amphitheater as it appears today for Rock and Jazz concerts in Colorado.

Did Enrico Caruso Wear A Gibus Or Chapeau Claque?

"During the 19th century, the top hat developed from a fashion into a symbol of urban respectability, and this was assured when Prince Albert started wearing them in 1850; the rise in popularity of the silk plush top hat possibly led to a decline in beaver hats, sharply reducing the size of the beaver trapping industry in North America, though it is also postulated that the beaver numbers were also reducing at the same time. Whether it directly affected or was coincidental to the decline of the beaver trade is debatable. James Laver once observed that an assemblage of 'toppers' resembled factory chimneys and thus added to the mood of the industrial era. In England, post-Brummel dandies went in for flared crowns and swooping brims. Their counterparts in France, known as the 'Incroyables,' wore top hats of such outlandish dimensions that there was no room for them in overcrowded cloakrooms until Antoine Gibus invented the collapsible top hat in 1812. A Gibus has springs inside allowing it to be folded flat by hand and stored conveniently, as for example in an Opera house cloak-room. For this reason they are often called opera hats, though the term can also refer to any tall formal men's hat. The characteristic snapping sound upon opening a Gibus suggested another name, the Chapeau Claque. Invented for convenience at the opera, collapsible top hats continue to be used as evening wear in the 21st century." [Source] A better view of Caruso's top hat is on display after the jump.

1890 North Dakota Opera House On Sale For $1.2 Million

"The historic Metropolitan Opera House in downtown Grand Forks might soon have a new owner. The Grand Forks Herald reports that building owner Oriental Avenue LLP is negotiating a sale to Rhombus House of Pizza, the company behind Rhombus Guys pizzerias in Grand Forks, Fargo, and Mentor, Minn. It's not known why the company is interested in the building. The opera house was built in 1890 and is on the National Register of Historic places. It was severely damaged in the 1997 Red River flood and under threat of being demolished before Oriental Avenue bought it and completed renovations. It has 21 apartments on its upper two levels but the 5,000-square-foot first floor has remained vacant. County records show that the building and lot are valued at $1.2 million." [Source] Read more about the history of the opera house here and some information about the current opera lofts here.