Maurice Grau
1849-1907 , music and theater impresario
Maurice Hermann Grau (1849 – 14 March 1907) was an Austrian-born American impresario, opera director, and theatre manager and producer. The Americana: A Universal Reference Library stated that "from 1872 until 1903 [Grau] was the most prominent operatic manager in America". He was a named partner in the US theatre management and production firm Abbey, Schoeffel and Grau which managed numerous theaters in Boston and New York City, including the Metropolitan Opera House. As part of this firm Grau co-managed the Metropolitan Opera (the Met) from 1891 until Abbey's death in 1896 when he took over sole management of the Met. He remained the manager of the Met until 1903 when he retired. He was also concurrently the manager of the Royal Opera House in London from 1897 to 1900.
The Oxford Companion to American Theatre stated that, "Although best known for his successful tenure as head of the Metropolitan Opera, he was also important in the growth of popular musical theatre in America." He should not be confused with his cousin, also named Maurice Grau (1857–1934), who was a theatre agent.
Early life and education
Maurice Grau was born in 1849 in Brünn, Austrian Empire (now Brno, Czech Republic) to Moravian parents Emmanuel and Rosalie Grau. The Grau family immigrated to the United States in 1854 when Maurice was five years old, settling in New York City where Emmanuel and Rosalie operated a boarding house. Maurice was educated in the New York City public school system and then attended the New York Free Academy (now City College of New York) where he graduated in 1867.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Maurice Grau” is 1849-1907 , music and theater impresario. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Maurice, Grau and 1849-1907, not as a finished interpretation.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 12, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q55720644. VIAF identifies the subject as 64267614. The Library of Congress control number is no2009021453. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1849, 1907, 1872 and 1903.
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This entry incorporates text from “Maurice Grau” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.