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Genealogy Event - Genealogical Research Society of New Orleans

Event Type: Adults
Age Group(s): Adults
Date: 5/15/2017
Start Time: 7:00 PM
End Time: 8:30 PM
Description:
 Jack Belsom, an authority of New Orleans opera history, will present “A History of the New Orleans Opera and the Associated Genealogical Research” at 7 p.m. on Monday, May 15, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon Avenue, Metairie.

The event is free of charge and is open to the public. Registration is not required.

Belsom is the author of Opera in New Orleans, which was published in 1993.

According to Belsom, the date of the very first staging of opera in the Crescent City cannot be firmly established and seems forever lost to music historians. But it can safely be stated that since 1796, in the final decade of the Spanish colonial era, New Orleans has had operatic performances on almost a yearly basis. What is also significant is that, with few exceptions throughout the nineteenth century, each year the city hosted a resident company which was engaged for its principal theatre and which could be depended upon for performances throughout an established operatic season.

The Théâtre St. Pierre, on St. Peter Street between Royal and Bourbon, opened in October 1792. Louis Alexandre Henry had purchased the land the previous year and built the theatre, which featured plays, comedies and vaudeville. It was there, on May 22, 1796, that the first documented staging of an opera in New Orleans, André Ernest Grétry’s Sylvain, took place.

Jack Belsom is a graduate of Jesuit High School, and he holds an undergraduate degree in history from Tulane University and a master of arts degree in history from Louisiana State University. He retired from the City of New Orleans as the director of its Civil Service Department.

Belsom has served as the archivist of the New Orleans Opera Association since 1974. He is past president of the Genealogical Research Society of New Orleans, and currently serves as a board member. He is a researcher and writer with published articles in New Orleans Genesis, Opera Quarterly, Louisiana History, Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, Bollettino of the Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro, Italy British Opera Magazine (New Orleans correspondent), and Opera News, New York. He is completing a history of the New Orleans Opera Association from 1943-2013.

For more information regarding this event, contact Chris Smith, Manager of Adult Programming for the library, at 504-889-8143 or wcsmith@jplibrary.net.

The Genealogical Research Society of New Orleans was established in 1960 to foster an interest in family research and to encourage preservation of genealogical records in New Orleans, and in Louisiana and the Gulf Coast south. Since January, 1962 the Society has published a quarterly, New Orleans Genesis, which is available to its members. The society welcomes new members and encourages their participation at its lecture meetings held in the months of March, April, May, September, October and November.
Library: East Bank Regional Library    Map
Location: Jefferson & Napoleon Rooms
Contact: Chris Smith
Contact Number: 504-889-8143
Presenter: Chris Smith