Laying Down Tracks: Mapping the Camilla Urso Concert Company on the American Lyceum Circuit, 1873-83

[...]analyzing lyceum advertising ephemera, reveals the lyceum provided a mass-marketing network for Urso's burgeoning celebrity. Fourth, this article considers the intersection of classical and popular music on Urso's lyceum programs and investigates the relationship between Urso's performance practice and lyceum reception. Existing scholarly work dealing with musicians on the lyceum circuit, such as Katherine Preston's Opera for the People, focuses on vocal stars and opera singers rather than instrumental performers such as Urso. [...]far, exploring the prominence of non-vocal musical stars on the lyceum circuit through digital maps and data collection has not been addressed in existing scholarship. Between 1863-73, Urso gave over 270 concerts in the United States, including tours under the management of Patrick Gilmore from 1866-68, and the organization of a massive musical festival in San Francisco in February 1870.Vl" As a result, when Urso joined the Redpath Lyceum Bureau in 1873, American audiences had a pre-existing relationship with Urso built on her two decades of American concert experience.