An event in the operatic history of Philadelphia was the opening in 1857 of the Academy of Music, which continued to be the home of opera in that city until Oscar Hammerstein built his Philadelphia Opera House in 1908. It was erected by a company promoted and organized by most of the wealthy and socially prominent residents of Philadelphia. The first year of its existence was rendered interesting by the visit of a German company headed by Mme. Johannsen, which gave _Der Freischütz_, _Fidelio_, Auber's _Le Maçon_, and Lortzing's _Czar und Zimmermann_. There was Italian opera of the usual sort aplenty in that and the succeeding year. The winsome Piccolomini made her Philadelphia début in 1859 and additional variety was introduced into the same year by the production of _Le Nozze di Figaro_, _Don Giovanni_, Pergolesi's _La Serva Padrona_, Meyerbeer's _Les Huguenots_ and _Robert le diable_, Verdi's _I Vespri Siciliani_, and Mozart's _Die Zauberflöte_. Ronconi, Carl Formes (somewhat passé), and Adelina Patti-Strakosch were the most notable artists--apart from Piccolomini. A French company gave Offenbach's _La Chatte Métamorphosée_ and other comic operas in 1860 and the following year saw the first production in Philadelphia of Verdi's _Un Ballo in Maschera_ and Massé's _Les Noces de Jeanette_. Meyerbeer's Dinorah was a novelty of 1862. The German company with Madame Johannsen reappeared in 1863 and 1864, and to musical Philadelphia it must have come like the first breeze of autumn after a parching summer. Its répertoire included _Martha_, _Der Freischütz_, _Le Maçon_, Kreutzer's _Nachtlager in Granada_, _Fidelio_, _Die Zauberflöte_, Lortzing's _Der Wildschütz_, Boieldieu's _Jean de Paris_, Flotow's _Stradella_, Mozart's _Die Entführung aus dem Serail_, and _Le Nozze di Figaro_, Méhul's _Joseph_, Adam's _Le Postillon de Lonjumeau_, Nicolai's _Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor_, Spohr's _Jessonda_, Gounod's _Mireille_, as well as _Don Giovanni_, _Faust_, and _Tannhäuser_. At least seven of these were complete novelties to Philadelphia. The Italians continued in force with Clara Louise Kellogg, Bellini, Zucchi, and others. Petrella's _Ione_ was a novelty of 1863 and in 1864 'Notre Dame of Paris,' by the American composer W. H. Fry, was produced under the leadership of Theodore Thomas. In 1865 _La Forza del Destino_ appeared and in 1866 _L'Africaine_, _Crispino e la Comare_, and _L'Étoile du Nord_.