James Henry Mapleson

James Henry Mapleson (Colonel Mapleson) (4 May 1830 – 14 November 1901) was an English opera impresario and a leading figure in the development of opera production and of the careers of singers in London and New York in the mid-19th century.

Born into a musical family, he briefly pursued a career as a singer before turning to management. In the 1860s he was the dominant force in London's operatic scene. At the Academy of Music in New York, from 1879 to 1883 he presented opera in an unprecedentedly glamorous style.

After his early successes, Mapleson failed to keep pace with changing public tastes. His productions and repertoire were seen as old-fashioned, and he was no longer able to engage the top operatic stars, who were to be seen at the Metropolitan Opera and Covent Garden.

Life and career Early years Mapleson was born in London on 4 May 1830, the son of James Henry Mapleson (1802–1869) and his wife Elizabeth, née Rummens. James Henry Mapleson was a violinist at and music librarian of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane for forty years. The younger Mapleson studied as a singer and violinist at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1844 to 1846. Contrary to some biographical sketches, Mapleson was never in the regular army, but he liked to be known as "Colonel Mapleson" on the strength of an honorary officership in a volunteer regiment, the Tower Hamlets rifle brigade.

In 1849 Mapleson organised a tour of the British provinces with a concert company that included Henriette Sontag, Luigi Lablache and pianist Sigismond Thalberg. In 1850 he led another concert company, including the mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot. He wrote as a music critic for The Atlas.

In the early 1850s, Mapleson travelled to Italy to study. In 1854 he sang in Lodi and Verona under the name Enrico Mariani.

Later years

From 1871 to 1876 Mapleson remained in charge at Drury Lane. In 1875, he began work on a 2,000-seat National Opera House on the Thames Embankment. By 1877, the building was well under way, but funds ran out, and Mapleson had to abandon the project. Eventually, the Metropolitan Police bought the site and built Scotland Yard there in 1887. Mapleson transferred again to Her Majesty's Theatre, which he rebuilt in 1877, producing opera there until 1881 and also in 1887 and 1889, and at Covent Garden until his last seasons in 1885 and 1887.

At the same time, Mapleson took an impressive company to New York, promoting opera seasons at the Academy of Music there, beginning with Bizet's Carmen, and presenting many American premieres, between 1878 and 1886, staging his productions with what Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians calls "unprecedentedly glamorous style".

Mapleson's memoirs, The Mapleson Memoirs, 1848–1888, were published in 1888 by Remington and Co in London, and Belford, Clarke and Co in New York. His use of the title "Colonel" may have caused confusion among biographers about his matrimonial status: his son James, also known as "Colonel Mapleson", was married to the French soprano Marie Roze, but some writers have understood her to have been the wife of Mapleson senior.

Mapleson died of Bright's disease in London on 14 November 1901 and was buried in Highgate Cemetery.