Chicago's Miniature Grand Operas

For more than eighty years Chicago has been home to several unique miniature grand operas. In 1935 Ernest Wolff and his mother premiered the Chicago Puppet Opera Company.

In 1941 the theatre was installed as after-dinner entertainment at Fredrik Chramer's Kungsholm Scandinavian Restaurant. When the theatre was destroyed in 1947, a 208 seat jewel-box opera house was created as the state-of-the-art home to the unique rod puppets.

The Kungsholm Miniature Grand Opera closed in 1971 but William Fosser's Opera in Focus continues the miniature opera genre in a Chicago suburb.

Here is the story of these three entrepreneurs and their determination to create grand opera. The book includes a study of the puppets' construction and manipulation.

Luman Coad's puppetry career spans more than fifty years. With his late wife, Coad Canada Puppets quickly became one of the leading North American puppet theatres - winning numerous awards including eight Citations of Excellence in the Art of Puppetry from the American Center of l'Union Internationale de la Marionnette, plus both the President's Award and the Trustees' Award from the Puppeteers of America. They were inducted as Pioneers in the British Columbia Entertainment Hall of Fame. As well as live theatre, Luman has worked on television and such films as "Scary Movie 3", "Desolation Sound", and "Being John Malkovich."