He died while conducting a performance of Puccini's Madama Butterfly at Sigmund Stern Grove, an outdoor amphitheatre in western San Francisco where free summer concerts have been given since 1938.
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He emigrated to the United States in 1899 and served as an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, Henry Wilson Savage's opera company in Boston and Fortune Gallo's travelling San Carlo Opera Company.
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Part of Merola's southern strategy was to augment his company's home season with run-out performances at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
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In 1937, Merola shed all pretense of a Los Angeles company and formally established a long-running series of annual visits by the San Francisco Opera Association to the Shrine Auditorium.
The San Francisco Ballet School was founded in 1933 as part of the San Francisco Operatic and Ballet School when Gaetano Merola, the founder of the San Francisco Opera, perceived a need for an institution where dancers could be trained to perform in opera productions.
Gaetano Donizetti | Gaetano Vastola | Gaetano Previati | Merola Opera Program | Gaetano "Tom" Reina | Gaetano Stefano Bartolozzi | Gaetano Scirea | Gaetano Saya | Gaetano Reina | Gaetano Filangieri | Gaetano Fidanzati | Gaetano Bavagnoli | Gaetano Ungaro | Gaetano Rossi | Gaetano Ricciolini | Gaetano Pugnani | Gaetano Osculati | Gaetano Merola | Gaetano Kagwa | Gaetano Giulio Zumbo | Gaetano Fraschini | Gaetano Esposito | ''Gaetano Donizetti | Gaetano D'Agostino | Gaetano Cipolla | Gaetano Cicognani | Gaetano Badalamenti | Gaetano Adinolfi | Gaetano | Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone |