and the old Metropolitan Opera House, and during the first season the company also performed on tour in Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and St. Louis. In August, they announced an ambitious plan to travel to Paris, a trip that never came about. Although the productions were, by and large, a critical success, money quickly became a problem. Faced with a large operating deficit, Carnegie and other sponsors began to separate themselves from the project, and in order to escape its creditors the company was reorganized in December 1886 under a new name, the "National Opera Company". A second season followed, notable for the American premiere of Rubinstein's Nero on March 14, 1887, and for a national tour that took the company across the continent as far as San Francisco, dogged along the way by increasing financial difficulties. Singers and stage hands began to strike and sue for unpaid wages, and by the spring of 1887 the company was the subject of at least seven lawsuits. The director, Theodore Thomas, who later attributed the failure of the company to "inexperienced and misdirected enthusiasm in business management, and to misapplication of money", left on June 15, 1887, and after one final performance without him, Thurber's operatic experiment came to an end. Rochester's American Opera Company In the mid-1920s, a professional touring opera company emerged from the innovative productions of Vladimir Rosing and Rouben Mamoulian at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. Its mission was to perform operas in English to popular audiences nationwide. First known as the Rochester American Opera Company, the group made its New York City debut in April 1927 at the Guild Theatre. It won the support of many wealthy and influential backers, including financier Otto Kahn, opera stars Mary Garden and Marcella Sembrich, and socialite Edith Rockefeller McCormick. By the time the company performed for President Coolidge and 150 members of Congress at Washington D.C.'s Poli's Theater in December 1927, the company was known as the American Opera Company. The American Opera Company strictly adhered to a non-star policy, developing instead a unity of ensemble whereby a singer might have a leading role one night and a supporting role the next. A number of important singers emerged from the company, including future Metropolitan Opera stars John Gurney (bass-baritone), Helen Oelheim, Thelma Votipka, Charles Kullman, Nancy McCord and Gladys Swarthout. Future 1930s Broadway stars Natalie Hall and Bettina Hall