THE BOSTON OPERA COMPANY

The life and times of the only opera company resident to Boston had a brief but boisterous existence from the opening of the house on November 8, 1909, to the filing of voluntary bankruptcy proceedings on May 11, 1915. With the zeal and zest of a true devotee, Quaintance Eaton brings back the men and women who created Boston Opera Company history, from backer Eben Jordan, Jr. (of Jordan Marsh) and impressario Henry Russell (who preferred to be known as ""artistic director"") through the many stars who graced the stage and sometimes disgraced it (Mary Garden's Tosca was a case in point), the conductors and composers who had their effect on Boston society, the critics, notably Parker and Hale, who took note of performance. Boston, in post-house days, has regressed to ""operathy,"" in the word of Cyrus Durgin, contemporary music critic for the Globe. But for the buff, this is a bright footlight on a past era.