The company remained in business for five more years. The second season saw the addition of Milka Ternina and David Bispham to its rosters; Katharina Klafsky and her husband Otto Lohse also joined the company, but returned to Europe after the season's end. 1896 saw the premiere of Damrosch's own opera after The Scarlet Letter. With the following season came a change of name and focus for the company; becoming the Damrosch-Ellis Company, it expanded its horizons to include both Italian and French opera in addition to German. Nellie Melba and Emma Calvé both joined the company at this time. But deficits had begun to accumulate after the second season, and mounted rapidly; these forced the company to close for good in 1900.
