Amato Opera 1930

This run-down building at 319 Bowery hides a romantic history. Anthony and Sally Amato ran their opera company from here for more than four decades before it closed in 2009, earning recognition as a great cultural institution in the city, influencing opera beyond New York and making it accessible to everyone.

After 26 years of existing as a mostly transitory company, the Opera moved into this 19th-century building in 1964. By fascinating coincidence, its was just a couple doors down from CBGB’s, the club that is considered the unofficial birthplace of punk music. When they moved in, the venue was cozy—it had just 107 seats, a 20-foot (6-meter) stage, and a tiny orchestra pit. This intimacy was important to the Amatos as it brought people closer to the operas and made the art feel more accessible.

Tony immigrated with his family from Italy to New York, and for years he managed his father’s restaurant and butcher market. But he was passionate about opera, and after closing shop for the day he would run to the local maestro to learn from him. He eventually left the butcher business to take a job with the American Theater Wing (the organization that produces the Tony Awards). While running workshops there, he noticed servicemen in his classes who didn’t know what to do now that they had rejoined civilian life. He wanted to provide a place for them to perform.

That sense of community was key to the Amato Opera company. They believed that tickets should always be affordable to the masses, which made them only $1.84 in the 1960s and $35 in 2008. They also held Opera-in-Brief for children to introduce them to the art. Tony was known for treating everyone with kindness, even the people he would find sleeping on the doorstep of the Amato.

He and Sally bootstrapped the operation and took on many of the roles themselves. He was the artistic director. They both performed. She made costumes and ran the box office; he managed the lighting, did publicity, and handled the business matters. It was a cultural institution that received commendations and awards from several mayors and was inducted into the City Lore’s Peoples’ Hall of Fame.

Tony and Sally had success in a very tough business, and not just in the sense that they were able to do what they loved for a living. Their passion for opera brought the high-end art to the public, and their mark on New York—and opera everywhere—is enduring. Sally died in 2000, and Tony continued to run the company until 2009, when he finally sold it because it reminded him too much of his wife. He passed away in 2011 at the age of 91.

In 2001, PBS made a documentary about the Amatos, and shortly before his death Tony published his own book called “The Smallest Grand Opera in the World.” Many people started their careers in opera here, and members went on to establish three new opera companies.