Carl Rosa Opera Company
Encyclopedia
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
.
Background
Carl Rosa was born Karl August Nikolaus Rose in HamburgHamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Germany, the son of a local businessman. A child violin prodigy, Rosa studied at the Conservatorium at Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
and in Paris. In 1863 he was appointed Konzertmeister at Hamburg, where he had occasional opportunities to conduct. He soon had considerable success as a conductor both in England and the United States. During an American tour in 1866–67 as conductor of a concert troupe that included the Scottish operatic soprano Euphrosyne Parepa
Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa
Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa was a British operatic soprano who established the Carl Rosa Opera Company together with second husband Carl Rosa...
, Rosa and Parepa were married.
From 1869 to 1872, Rosa and his wife toured their own opera company through America, with Parepa as the star and Rosa as the conductor. It brought opera to places that had never seen any, performing Italian operas in English, which made them more accessible to American audiences.
Early years
In 1872, the Rosas returned to England and also visited Europe and Egypt. In September the next year, they inaugurated the "Carl Rosa Opera" with a performance of William Vincent WallaceWilliam Vincent Wallace
William Vincent Wallace was an Irish composer and musician.-Early life:Wallace was born at Colbeck Street, Waterford, Ireland. Both parents were Irish, his father, of County Mayo, was a regimental bandmaster....
's Maritana
Maritana
Maritana is a grand opera in three acts composed by William Vincent Wallace, with a libretto by Edward Fitzball . The opera is based on the play Don César de Bazan by Adolphe d'Ennery and Philippe François Pinel Dumanoir , which was also the source material for Jules Massenet's opéra comique Don...
in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, on 1 September, and then toured England and Ireland. Rosa's policy was to present operas in English, and that remained the company's practice. Parepa died in childbirth in January 1874, and Rosa married a second time in 1881, to Josephine (d. 1927), with whom he had four children. The company's first London season opened at the Princess's Theatre
Princess's Theatre, London
The Princess's Theatre or Princess Theatre was a theatre in Oxford Street, London. The building opened in 1828 as the "Queen's Bazaar" and housed a diorama by Clarkson Stanfield and David Roberts. It was converted into a theatre and opened in 1836 as the Princess's Theatre, named for then Princess...
in September 1875, playing Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
, with Charles Santley
Charles Santley
Sir Charles Santley was an English-born opera and oratorio star with a bravuraFrom the Italian verb bravare, to show off. A florid, ostentatious style or a passage of music requiring technical skill technique who became the most eminent English baritone and male concert singer of the Victorian era...
as Figaro and Rose Hersee
Rose Hersee
Rose Hersee was an English operatic soprano. She was a founder-member of the Carl Rosa Opera Company and later formed and performed in the Rose Hersee Opera Company.-Biography:...
as Susanna. In 1876, Rosa staged a second London season, which featured the first performance in English of Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's The Flying Dutchman
The Flying Dutchman (opera)
Der fliegende Holländer is an opera, with music and libretto by Richard Wagner.Wagner claimed in his 1870 autobiography Mein Leben that he had been inspired to write "The Flying Dutchman" following a stormy sea crossing he made from Riga to London in July and August 1839, but in his 1843...
, with Santley in the title role.
Augustus Harris
Sir Augustus Henry Glossop Harris , was a British actor, impresario, and dramatist.-Early life:Harris was born in Paris, France, the son of Augustus Glossop Harris , who was also a dramatist, and his wife, née Maria Ann Bone, a theatrical costumier...
at the Drury Lane Theatre
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
. Such was the success of the company that at one point three Carl Rosa touring troupes were set up. In October 1892, Rosa's Grand Opera Company received the royal accolade, with a command performance
Royal Command Performance
For the annual Royal Variety Performance performed in Britain for the benefit of the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund, see Royal Variety Performance...
of Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's La fille du régiment
La fille du régiment
La fille du régiment is an opéra comique in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. It was written while the composer was living in Paris, with a French libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard.La figlia del reggimento, a slightly different Italian-language version , was...
at Balmoral Castle
Balmoral Castle
Balmoral Castle is a large estate house in Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is located near the village of Crathie, west of Ballater and east of Braemar. Balmoral has been one of the residences of the British Royal Family since 1852, when it was purchased by Queen Victoria and her...
. The French-American soprano Zélie de Lussan
Zélie de Lussan
Zélie de Lussan was an American opera singer of French descent who was successful in her native country but made most of her career in England. The wide range of her voice allowed her to sing both mezzo-soprano and soprano roles. Among de Lussan's most famous roles was the title role in Georges...
sang the heroine, Marie, and Aynsley Cook "vastly amused Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
as Sergeant Sulpice". In 1880, George Grove
George Grove
Sir George Grove, CB was an English writer on music, known as the founding editor of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians....
, editor of the authoritative musical reference work, Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, it is the largest single reference work on Western music. The dictionary has gone through several editions since the 19th century...
, wrote: "The careful way in which the pieces are put on the stage, the number of rehearsals, the eminence of the performers and the excellence of the performers have begun to bear their legitimate fruit, and the Carl Rosa Opera Company bids fair to become a permanent English institution."
The company introduced many works of important opera repertoire to England for the first time, performing some 150 different operas over the years. Besides Santley and Hersee, Blanche Cole
Blanche Cole
Blanche Cole was an English soprano. Showing promise as a child, Cole went on to have a successful operatic career, during which she sang 21 roles in English versions of operas in London and the British provinces. She died at the age of 37.-Early years:Cole was born in Portsmouth, England, to a...
, Minnie Hauk
Minnie Hauk
thumb|Minnie Hauk in a [[cabinet card]] photograph, ca. 1880Amalia Mignon Hauck , was an American operatic soprano....
, Georgina Burns, Joseph Maas
Joseph Maas
Joseph Maas was an English tenor singer.He became a chorister in Rochester Cathedral. At first studying under J. C. Hopkins and Madame Bodda-Pyne, he went to study in Milan in 1869. In February 1871 he made his first success by taking Sims Reeves's place at a concert in London...
, Barton McGuckin
Barton McGuckin
Barton McGuckin was an Irish tenor singer of renown, who made his career principally in Britain with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, but also gained a wide success in oratorio and concert....
, Giulia Warwick
Giulia Warwick
Giulia Warwick was an English operatic soprano and actress, best known for roles in with Richard D'Oyly Carte's and the Carl Rosa Opera Company in the last quarter of the 19th century.-Life and career:...
and William Ludwig were some of the famous singers associated with the company during its early years. Its successes included productions of Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries....
's Les deux journées
Les deux journées
Les deux journées, ou Le porteur d'eau is an opera in three acts by Luigi Cherubini with a libretto by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly. It takes the form of an opéra comique, meaning not that the subject matter is humorous, but that the piece is a mixture of spoken dialogue and musical numbers...
(1875), The Flying Dutchman (1876), with Santley in the title role, the first English-language production of Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
(1879), starring Selina Dolaro
Selina Dolaro
Selina Dolaro was an English singer, actress, theatre manager and writer. During a career in operetta and other forms of musical theatre, she managed several of her own opera companies and raised four children as a single mother...
in the title role and Durward Lely
Durward Lely
Durward Lely was a Scottish opera singer primarily known as the creator of five tenor roles in Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas, including Nanki-Poo in The Mikado....
as Don José, Rienzi
Rienzi
Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen is an early opera by Richard Wagner in five acts, with the libretto written by the composer after Bulwer-Lytton's novel of the same name . The title is commonly shortened to Rienzi...
(1879), Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
(1880) and Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (opera)
Tannhäuser is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg...
(1882). Alberto Randegger
Alberto Randegger
Alberto Randegger was an Italian-born composer, conductor and singing teacher, best known for promoting opera and new works of British music in England during the Victorian era and for his widely-used textbook on singing technique.-Life and career:Randegger was born in Trieste, Italy, the son of...
served as musical director of the company from 1879 to 1885.
The company also encouraged and supported new works by English composers. Pauline
Pauline (opera)
Pauline is an opera in four acts with music by the British composer Frederic H. Cowen to a libretto by Henry Hersee after The Lady of Lyons by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, first performed 22 September 1876 at the Lyceum Theatre, London....
in 1876 (Frederic Hymen Cowen
Frederic Hymen Cowen
Sir Frederic Hymen Cowen , was a British pianist, conductor and composer.-Early years:Cowen was born Hymen Frederick Cohen at 90 Duke Street, Kingston, Jamaica, the fifth and last child of Frederick Augustus Cohen and Emily Cohen née Davis. His siblings were Elizabeth Rose Cohen ; actress,...
), Esmeralda in 1883 (Arthur Goring Thomas
Arthur Goring Thomas
Arthur Goring Thomas was an English composer. He was the youngest son of Freeman Thomas and Amelia, daughter of Colonel Thomas Frederick.He was born at Ratton Park, Sussex, and educated at Haileybury College...
), Colomba in 1883 and The Troubabour (Alexander Mackenzie), and The Canterbury Pilgrims in 1884 (Charles Villiers Stanford
Charles Villiers Stanford
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer who was particularly notable for his choral music. He was professor at the Royal College of Music and University of Cambridge.- Life :...
) were five of the operas commissioned by the company. Earlier English operas by Wallace, Michael Balfe
Michael William Balfe
Michael William Balfe was an Irish composer, best-remembered for his opera The Bohemian Girl.After a short career as a violinist, Balfe pursued an operatic singing career, while he began to compose. In a career spanning more than 40 years, he composed 38 operas, almost 250 songs and other works...
and Julius Benedict
Julius Benedict
Sir Julius Benedict was a German-born composer and conductor, resident in England for most of his career.-Life:...
were also included in the company's repertoire; not just standard works like The Bohemian Girl
The Bohemian Girl
The Bohemian Girl is an opera composed by Michael William Balfe with a libretto by Alfred Bunn. The plot is loosely based on a Cervantes tale, La Gitanilla.The opera was first produced in London at the Drury Lane Theatre on November 27, 1843...
and Maritana, but less-familiar operas such as Balfe's Satanella (1858) and Wallace's Lurline (1860).
Rosa's death; survival of the company
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in north London, England. It is designated Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. It is divided into two parts, named the East and West cemetery....
, London. Two years before his death, Rosa had turned his opera enterprise into a limited company, and it was in good financial and artistic shape at the time of his death. Hamilton Clarke
Hamilton Clarke
James Hamilton Siree Clarke , better known as Hamilton Clarke, was an English conductor, composer and organist...
was appointed conductor of the company in 1893. In 1897, the company gave the first British performance of Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
in Manchester under the supervision of the composer. The company then gave a season at Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, at reduced prices, aimed at attracting "the masses" to opera.
By 1900 the company was facing financial problems from which it was rescued by the conductor Walter van Noorden and his brother Alfred, who took over and restored financial and artistic standards. The company presented two seasons at Covent Garden in 1907–08 and 1909, including new productions of Tannhäuser and Tristan and Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
conducted by Eugène Goossens II
Eugène Goossens, fils
Eugène Goossens was a French conductor and violinist.He was born in Bordeaux, and studied in Bruges and the conservatoire in Brussels...
. The company survived World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and the sudden death of Walter van Noorden in 1916, touring the British provinces. Many young British singers joined the company, including Olive Gilbert
Olive Gilbert
Olive Sarah Gilbert was an operatic singer and actress, who performed in many of Ivor Novello's musicals.-Biography:Gilbert was born in Carmarthen, Wales....
, Parry Jones
Gwynn Parry Jones
Parry Jones , known early in his career as Gwynn Jones, was a Welsh tenor of the mid-twentieth century.-Life and career:...
, and Eva Turner
Eva Turner
Dame Eva Turner DBE was an English dramatic soprano with an international reputation. Her strong, steady and well-trained voice was renowned for its clarion power in Italian and German operatic roles.-Career:...
, who sang Cio-Cio-San
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
and Santuzza
Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
when the company presented three postwar seasons at Covent Garden.
In 1924, after another financial crisis, H. B. Phillips became the company's owner and director, and placed it once more on a sound financial footing. Regular London seasons alternated with large-scale provincial tours during the 1920s and 1930s. Although some productions had to be curtailed during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the company nevertheless presented seasons in London and the provinces. Singers of the 1930s and 1940s included Dora Labbette
Dora Labbette
Dora Labbette was an English soprano. Her career spanned the concert hall and the opera house. She conspired with Sir Thomas Beecham to appear at the Royal Opera House masquerading as an Italian singer by the name of Lisa Perli...
, Joan Hammond
Joan Hammond
Dame Joan Hilda Hood Hammond, DBE, CMG was an Australian operatic soprano, singing coach and champion golfer.- Early life :...
, Heddle Nash
Heddle Nash
William Heddle Nash was an English lyric tenor who appeared in opera and oratorio in the middle decades of the twentieth century. He also made numerous recordings that are still available on CD reissues....
, Norman Allin
Norman Allin
Norman Allin was a British bass singer of the early and mid twentieth century, and later a teacher of voice...
and Otakar Kraus
Otakar Kraus
Otakar Kraus was a Czech , operatic baritone and teacher.He was born in Prague and studied there with Konrad Wallerstein and in Milan with Fernando Carpi. He himself was the teacher of a number of important British basses, including Robert Lloyd, Willard White, John Tomlinson and Gwynne Howell...
. Conductors included the refugees Walter Susskind
Walter Susskind
Jan Walter Susskind was a Czech-born British conductor.-Biography:Susskind was born in Prague, Austria–Hungary, now the Czech Republic. His father was a Viennese music critic and his Czech mother was a piano teacher. At the State Conservatorium he studied under composer Josef Suk, the son-in-law...
(1942–44) Vilém Tauský
Vilém Tauský
Vilém Tauský CBE was a Czech conductor and composer.-Life:Vilém Tauský was from a musical family: his Viennese mother had sung Mozart at the Vienna State Opera under Gustav Mahler, and her cousin was the operetta composer Leo Fall.Tauský studied with Leoš Janáček and later became a repetiteur at...
(1945–49) and Peter Gellhorn
Peter Gellhorn
Peter Gellhorn was a German conductor, composer, pianist and teacher who settled in London and made a career in Britain that lasted unbroken until his death....
.
End of the old company and birth of the new
Arts Council of Great Britain
The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. The Arts Council of Great Britain was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England , the Scottish Arts Council, and the Arts Council of Wales...
, who agreed to subsidise the company, now directed by Phillips's widow, Annette. The company gave seasons at Sadler's Wells
Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue located in Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington. The present day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500 seat main auditorium and the Lilian Baylis Studio, with extensive...
in 1955 and 1956. In the 1950s, the musical director was Arthur Hammond. Singers during this period included the dramatic soprano Ruth Packer
Ruth Packer
Ruth Packer was an English operatic soprano.In 1939, she made her operatic debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in Die Walküre. During World War Two, she appeared frequently with Sadler's Wells Opera and the Carl Rosa Opera Company...
and tenor Charles Craig
Charles Craig (tenor)
Charles James Craig was an English operatic tenor. He was known as one of "the most Italianate of English operatic tenors". From 1957 to 1980 he performed leading tenor roles at London's Royal Opera House and English National Opera...
. The productions were traditional, but the repertory included some operatic rarities such as Puccini's Manon Lescaut
Manon Lescaut (Puccini)
Manon Lescaut is an opera in four acts by Giacomo Puccini. The story is based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost....
and Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini
Benvenuto Cellini (opera)
Benvenuto Cellini is an opera in two acts with music by Hector Berlioz and libretto by Léon de Wailly and Henri Auguste Barbier. It was the first of Berlioz's operas. The story is loosely based on the memoirs of the Florentine sculptor Benvenuto Cellini. The opera is technically very challenging...
.
Annette Phillips retired as director of the company in 1957 and was replaced by Professor Humphrey Procter-Gregg. At the same time, the board of Sadler's Wells Opera
English National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...
made an approach to merge the two opera companies. This approach caused outrage in some operatic quarters, and Sadler's Wells's musical director (Alexander Gibson
Alexander Gibson (conductor)
Sir Alexander Gibson, CBE was a Scottish conductor and opera intendant.Gibson was born in Motherwell and studied music at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, as well as in London, Salzburg and Siena, Italy...
) and administrative heads (Norman Tucker
Norman Tucker
Norman Walter Gwynn Tucker was an English musician, administrator and translator. Trained as a concert pianist, he was invited to join Sadler's Wells Opera in 1947 in an administrative role, and from 1948 to 1966 he was the managerial head of the company.His translations of operas new to the...
and Stephen Arlen
Stephen Arlen
Stephen Arlen was an English theatre manager and operatic administrator. Originally an actor, he took up backstage work as a stage manager, and in the years after the Second World War was in charge of stage management at the Old Vic.He was persuaded to join Sadler's Wells Opera as an...
) resigned in protest. In response to the outcry, the board of the Welsh National Opera
Welsh National Opera
Welsh National Opera is an opera company founded in Cardiff, Wales in 1943. The WNO tours Wales, the United Kingdom and the rest of the world extensively. Annually, it gives more than 120 performances of eight main stage operas to a combined audience of around 150,000 people...
also made an attempt to merge with Carl Rosa Opera. In the ensuing furore, Procter-Gregg resigned, as did the chairman of the Carl Rosa Trust, Sir Donald Wolfit
Donald Wolfit
Sir Donald Wolfit, KBE was a well-known English actor-manager.-Biography:Wolfit, who was "Woolfitt" at birth was born at New Balderton, near Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire and attended the Magnus Grammar School and made his stage début in 1920...
, and trustees Astra Desmond
Astra Desmond
Astra Desmond CBE was a British contralto of the early and middle twentieth century.-Early years:Astra Desmond was born Gwendolyn Mary Thompson, in Torquay, England. She was educated at Notting Hill High School and Westfield College, where she was a classical scholar...
and Norman Allin. The Arts Council, which was accused in the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
of "doing their level best to kill [the Carl Rosa company] off altogether", withdrew its grant. The Carl Rosa Trust raised money privately, and promoted a month's season at the Prince's Theatre in 1960, but the company's final curtain descended after Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
on 17 September 1960. Sadler's Wells took over some of the company's members and many of its touring dates.
The new Carl Rosa Opera Limited was revived in 1997 under the artistic direction of Peter Mulloy. Since then, it has performed West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
seasons and toured in the UK and internationally, offering a new repertoire of Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
, continental operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
s and even serious operas such as La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
, often performed in the original languages. Recent conductors have included David Russell Hulme
David Russell Hulme
David Russell Hulme is a Welsh conductor and musicologist known for his research and publications on the music of Sir Arthur Sullivan, the Victorian era composer who, with Sir W. S...
and Martin Handley. Directors include Timothy West
Timothy West
Timothy Lancaster West, CBE is an English film, stage and television actor.-Career:West's craggy looks ensured a career as a character actor rather than a leading man. He began his career as an Assistant Stage Manager at the Wimbledon Theatre in 1956, and followed this with several seasons of...
.
External links
- New Carl Rosa website
- http://www.cris.com/~oakapple/gasdisc/mikrosa.htmInformation about the Company's 2001 recording of The MikadoThe MikadoThe Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
] - Photos of the Rosas
- Rosa's The Mikado at the G&S Archive