This building’s history is notable for its connection to the theatrical history both of the Bowery and of the surrounding neighborhoods. The Bowery has a long and rich theatre history, which began with the opening of the Bowery Theatre in 1826. By the late 19th Century, the Bowery was considered to be the center of New York theatre life. The presence of The Amato Opera Company is an important reminder of this history, yet it also links the Bowery to the avant-garde theatre scene that flourished later in the 1940s and 50s all over the South Village, East Village, Greenwich Village and NoHo. The Amato Opera Company was founded with the same populist spirit that drove Joseph Papp to showcase low-cost Shakespeare productions at the Public Theatre just a few blocks uptown, and which encouraged the opening of dozens of others such as the Circle in the Square Theatre, the Provincetown Playhouse, and the Sullivan Street Theatre, all of which have been lost. As more of these theatres are demolished, a crucial part of the history of Lower Manhattan is being erased.
In 1962, the Amato Opera Company moved to its present home at 319 Bowery. Anthony and Sally renovated the building, which had been originally constructed as a store and lofts in 1899 by Julius Bockell & Son. The Amato Opera Company was founded by Italian husband-and-wife team Anthony and Sally Amato, in order to provide the general public inexpensive exposure to opera and to allow emerging talent to participate in full-length opera productions. At the time of the company’s founding in 1948, Anthony was working as Director of the Opera Workshop at The America Theatre Wing, and he would often cast his students in his productions. Many of the company’s performers (including Mignon Dunn, Jon Frederic West, George Shirley, and Chester Ludgin) have since moved to large opera companies around the world…
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The company’s first several performances were in the auditorium of Our Lady of Pompeii on Carmine Street. The first opera performed was The Barber of Seville, “sung in Italian,” according to a New York Times article from the time, “for an audience which clearly understood the language.” In 1951, the company moved to its first permanent home at 159 Bleecker Street, where it became part of the larger avant-garde theatre scene that swept the Village in the post-war years. 159 Bleecker Street had been a former movie house which would later become the Circle in Square Theatre. It had been constructed by, and used primarily for, the neighborhood’s thriving Italian community, though it was sadly lost to demolition in 2004. The Amato Closed in 2009.
Though the Holy Mission Society altered the ground floor and storefront in 1935, the building retains much historic integrity in its classically-decorated pilasters, carved frieze, molded panels, and original window configurations. Prior to the Amato, a newspaper article from 1905 indicates that J. Whitelaw & Co., cigar manufacturers, had been housed in the building. In 1906, the building had been taken over by the Holy Mission Society, which operated out of the building for the first half of the century.
Block : 457 / Lot : 8 / Building Date : 1899 / Original Owner : Karl R. Werner / Original Use : Store/Lofts / Original Architect : Julius Boekell & Son
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