Philadelphia Civic Opera Company

The Philadelphia Civic Opera Company (PCOC) was an American opera company located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that was actively performing between 1924 and 1930. Founded by Philadelphia socialite Mrs. Henry M. Tracy, the company was established partially through funds provided by the city of Philadelphia and its then-mayor, W. Freeland Kendrick. The company was led by Artistic Director Alexander Smallens. Tracy served as the company's President and ran the business side of the organization while Smallens served as the company's primary conductor and made all of the artistic decisions. W. Attmore Robinson was later brought in to help Smallens with some of the artistic direction. The company performed between 10 and 15 operas every year during an annual season until it went bankrupt a year after the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

The PCOC performed all of their productions at Philadelphia's Metropolitan Opera House (MOH) up through the spring of 1928. The company's first performance was of Giacomo Puccini's La bohème on November 6, 1924 with Anna Fitziu as Mimì, Romeo Boscacci as Rodolfo, Alfredo Gondolfi as Marcello, Emily Stokes Hagar as Musetta, and Smallens conducting. Occasionally the company presented more rarely heard works, including the American premieres of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Der Ring des Polykrates (February 10, 1927), Manuel de Falla's El amor brujo (March 17, 1927), Richard Strauss's Feuersnot (December 2, 1927), and Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos (November 1, 1928). However, the company mainly presented works from the standard opera repertory.

...
Wikipedia