Among the programmes in my collection is one of my eldest: a visit to Liverpool by a Grand Italian Opera Company. It was a fully reputable tour, yet newspaper reports indicate that the scheduled performances never took place. I aim to find out why.

Through my collecting I’ve become more well-versed in the world of Opera, and uncovering the mystery of this Opera Troupe has been instrumental in advancing my knowledge.

Background

To start with, we need to establish our Grand Italian Opera Company, which, like, quite a few companies of the time, was more of a pick-up troupe than a permanent one. There was, a permanent Italian Grand Opera Company, run by Max Maretzek, that operated from 1849-1878 in the US. However this is obviously not the company in question.

In fact, the Grand Italian Opera Company seems to have been a name shared by various pick-up companies and proprietors. Newspaper archives show that in the 1880s, separate companies of the name were operating under the Direction of Madame Clarice Sinico-Campobello, Signor de Gabriele, Mr James Henry Mapleson (who’s troupe toured America), Mr William Parry, and a company called Milan’s Grand Italian Opera Company, who visited India in 1881. Additionally, seasons of Italian Opera were presented by people like Mr Samuel Hayes.

Though these companies seem to have shared artists, it is Mr William Parry’s Grand Italian Opera Company with whom this mystery concerns. The Penny Illustrated Paper (printed in London) on the 4th March 1882 referred to the troupe as ‘pretentious’, and called their failure a ‘collapse’. So what happened?

People

The programme states that William Parry, the Director of the company, worked at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London. I started my search in the British Newspaper Archives, with the knowledge that Parry was a Welsh surname (from ap Harry, or son of Harry). I was able to find a William Parry, in Liverpool, who was involved with the theatre.

From what I can find, William Parry was a conductor by trade, not a theatre impresario. He was involved with the Birkenhead (a port town close to Liverpool) Cambrian Society, as a conductor. And, to my delight, I was able to find a Mr Wm. Parry involved with not only the Birkenhead Cambrian Society, but also the 1878 National Eisteddfod, a celebration of traditional Welsh culture. This annual event is usually held in Wales, but in 1878 was held in…Birkenhead. So, our company Director, was a conductor. But from what I can tell he wasn’t conducting any of these performances.

The company’s performances were due to be held at the Alexandra Theatre, Liverpool, of which Mr Edward Saker was the lessee. Saker is easier to trace, being an actor in Robert Henry Wyndham’s Edinburgh company, before becoming the lessee of the Alexandra from 1867-1883.

I expected the singers to be the hardest to trace, and I was right. I wasn’t able to find information for all of them, but some of them were easier to find than others:

• Mr Reyloff and Signor Vogr were the conductors of the company. These pair were difficult to trace. However, I believe Signor Vogr is actually Signor Vogri, due to the fact that this is how newspapers spell it. This would make him a probable relation to Fannie Vogri.
• Marie Marimon (1840-1923). Marimon was the grand soprano of the company. In 1860 she’d originated the role of Maïma in Offenbach’s Barkouf, which was not successful. The year before, however, she’d sung L’amour in Hector Berlioz’s staging of Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice. She had a rather successful career, and debuted at Covent Garden, London, in 1871. She’d retire in 1884.

• Fannie (or Fanny, perhaps Franziska) Vogri. Vogri (c.1830s, died 1900), an Italian-trained soprano, had performed in the premiere of Max Vogrich’s Vanda (or Wanda), in Firenze, Italy, in 1875, singing the title role. In 1873 she’d performed Amelia in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, in Milan. There are records of her performing across Europe. Interestingly, she performed in Mexico in the late 1870s with a company performing Italian operas. In 1898 we can place her teaching singing in Brussels, Belgium.
• Philippine Siedle. Another soprano, Siedle was the sister of technical director Edward Siedle (1858-1925). She was married to composer Julian Edwards (1855-1910), having met at the Royal English Opera House (now the Palace Theatre, London). Records place both her and Edwards with the Royal English Opera Company on their 1885 tour of Scotland.
• Francesca Barri, from the Grand Opera in Madrid. In October 1881 she took part in Italian opera at the Lyceum Theatre, London, under the direction of Samuel Hayes. Among the other artists were Marie Marimon, Rose Leo, and Signors Frapolli, Vizzani, Antonuccei and Ponsard. She seems to have performed in England quite a bit during the early 1880s.
• Helen Armstrong, who trained in Milan and performed with the Royal English Opera. She also performed in operas at the Crystal Palace, in London. Reviews of her performances in newspapers of the time are positive.
• Rose Leo
• Emilie Demeric-Lablache (1930-c.1900). The daughter of soprano Joséphine de Méric and impresario Joseph Glossop, Emilie was a contralto. She married Nicolas Lablache, son of well known operatic bass Luigi Lablache. Their daughter Louise Lablache was also a contralto. The earliest record I can find of her performing in the UK is 1866.
• Giuseppe Frapolli. Born around 1846, Frapolli was a tenor. At the time of this engagement he was singing at Her Majesty’s Opera, the same establishment where William Parry was working, but also performed across Italy. His London debut was in 1878, and he was married to soprano Bianca Donadio. At the 1881 Lyceum Theatre engagement he shared tenor roles with the more senior tenor Giovanni Vizzani.
• Giovanni Vizzani. A tenor, Vizzani performed in America in 1872, singing the title role in Gounod’s Faust, among other roles. He performed in Dublin in 1870 and London in 1871, in I puritani. He was still performing in London in the 1880s, mostly at Her Majesty’s Opera and the Lyceum Theatre. Geoffrey P. Hurst writes that Vizzani ‘had been dropped from the major companies after 1871, but always seemed ready to do his best for smaller ones’.
• Enrico Utto. In August 1874, Utto performed the title role in Rigoletto in Mexico City. He repeated the role in November, this time in Puebla.
• Mademoiselle Sonnino
• Mademoiselle Corona, who’s name has become more unfortunate recently.
• Signor Antonuccei
• Signor Bellati
• Signor Moro
• Signor Benghardi
• Odoardi Barri. The husband of Francesca, his real name was Edward Slater. He was an oratorio singer, composer and music teacher, who worked in Italy, Spain and London.
• Signor Ziboli
• Signor Grazzi
• Paolo Bolli
• Signor Ponsard, from the Grand-Opera in Paris.

The fact that so many of the above were associated with Her Majesty’s Opera is easy to understand, but the link to the Lyceum is perhaps more confusing. In the 22nd February 1882 issue of the Liverpool Mercury it states that the artists for the performances would by in two categories: artists who appeared at the Lyceum, and the extra artists to augment the numbers (which refers to those from Her Majesty’s Opera and the Royal English Opera).

On top of the aforementioned performers, there was a full band, chorus and ballet, comprising of 80 members from Her Majesty’s Opera, located at the theatre in London where William Parry worked.

The Repertory

Perhaps ambitiously, the company aimed to perform a different opera for each night of their engagement. It was to last from the 20th-25th February 1882. You can see the programme with full casting as part of my online collection database here. The operas they were due to perform were:

Les Huguenots, 20th February

Les Huguenots is an 1836 Grand Opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, and written by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps. The premiere was given by the Paris Opera at the Salle Le Peletier. The story is loosely based on the event leading up to the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre in 1572 France. During the massacre Catholics killed Huguenots, or Calvinist Protestants. It’s a romantic tragedy, with the Romeo and Juliet-esque Raoul (a Huguenot) and Valentine (a Catholic) as the leading characters. It was first performed in London at Covent Garden, in 1842.

Il Barbiere de Siviglia, 21st February

Il Babiere de Siviglia, or The Barber of Seville, is a comic opera (opera buffa) by Gioachino Rossini, with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. It premiered at the Teatro Argentina, Rome, Italy, in 1816, and is based in the play of the same name by Pierre Beaumarchais. The opera concerns a love story between poor student Lindoro, really Count Almaviva in disguise, and Rosina. Almaviva aims to have Rosina love him for him, and not for his money, but her guardian Bartolo is after a dowry. The opera was first performed in England in 1818: in Italian at the King’s Theatre London in March, and in English at Covent Garden in October.

Maritana, 22nd February

An opera that was unknown to me before researching this post was William Vincent Wallace’s Maritana. Written by Edward Fitzball, Maritana premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, in 1845. The opera is based on the 1844 play Don César de Bazan, written by Dumanoir and Adolphe d’Ennery, which follows Maritana’s marriage to a unknown man, who later turns out to be Don Cæsar, a man she was admiring. At the same time, Don José tries to set Maritana up with King Charles II of Spain, in order to get the King to compromise himself. It was a popular piece at the time.

Marta, 23rd February

Marta, also known as Martha, is an 1847 opera by Friedrich von Flotow. Premiering in Vienna, the libretto (written by Friedrich Wilhelm Riese) is based on a story by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges. Set in England, the lead character is Lady Harriet Durham, a maid-of-honour to Queen Anne. It was first performed in London in 1849 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, having an Italian-language premiere at Covent Garden in 1858.

Le Nozze di Figaro, 24th February

Le nozze de Figaro, or The Marriage of Figaro, is related through its plot to The Barber of Seville. Pierre Beaumarchais’ play, on which the opera is based, is a sequel to The Barber of Seville. But Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro came before Rossini’s Barber of Seville premiering in 1786 Vienna with a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte.

Dinorah, 25th February

The week ends the way it started: with a performance of an opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer. Dinorah premiered in 1859, at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, with a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré. The opera is set in Brittany and revolves around relationship between a peasant girl and shepherd. It was originally titled Le pardon de Ploërmel (Ploërmel being the village in Brittany where the action takes place), but was renamed Dinorah for the 1859 London premiere (which was in Italian, instead of French).

To perform or not perform?

Various Liverpool newspapers advertised the company’s engagement, starting in late-January 1882. One of the main newspapers in Liverpool at the time (and one archived by the British Newspaper Archive) was the Liverpool Mercury.

In the Wednesday 22nd February edition of the paper a small article is dedicated to the company. The article states that while Monday’s performance didn’t go ahead, the Tuesday performance was still announced. It wasn’t until later in the day that a notice was posted outside the theatre. It’s printed as part of the article, allowing us to learn just what happened.

The manager of the Grand Italian Opera Company having failed to complete his engagement by the non-appearance of Madlle. Marimon, Madame Demeric Lablache, Signor Trapolli [Frapolli] and other principal artists. Mr Saker has been reluctantly compelled to bring the season to an abrupt termination.

Liverpool Mercury, 22nd February 1882

The article goes on to state that audience members who had paid for tickets could be refunded through the box office.

None of the newspaper accounts speculate on what was the cause of artists not showing up. While it’s not unknown for opera singers to cancel performances having a number of performers not show is more suspect. It could have been caused by travel issues, disagreements regarding pay, or perhaps just the fact that Parry overpromised. Either way, the engagement was cancelled mid-week.

To fill the empty dates at the Alexandra Mr Saker assembled a company to perform the plays Robert Macaire (presumably a work based on the character of the same name), and All that Glitters is not Gold (an 1859 play by Maddison Morton). These plays were performed back-to-back on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday, garnering a good review in the Friday edition of the Mercury. Normal scheduling at the Alexandra returned the following Monday with the Liverpool premiere of Edmond Audran’s opera La Mascotte.

But what about the artists who were in Liverpool? Well the manager of the Prince of Wales Theatre, Mr Frank Emery, came to their rescue. On Saturday Afternoon Verdi’s Il trovatore was given by the artists who were in Liverpool, along with the theatre’s orchestra (who were conducted by Signor Vogri). The cast was as follows:

Manrico: Giovanni Vizzani 
Conte di Luna: Enrico Utto
Ferrando: Signor Moro
Ruiz: Signor Grazzi
Old gypsy: Paolo Bolli
Azucena: Helen Armstrong
Inez: Mademoiselle Corona
Leonora: Fannie Vogri

The Monday 27th February edition of the Mercury writes that the performance was, as expected, uneven, but not disastrous. The reviewer highlights the performances of Utto, Moro and Vogri, though they note that the audience was not large.

When I first got this programme it was among a few 18th/early 19th century programmes. I initially did a few google searches to see if any of the performers were particularly famous, but, in doing so, I found a rather interesting mystery, and learnt more about opera in the process.

Sources

Hurst, P. Geoffrey (1959). The Operatic Age of Jean de Reszke: Forty Years of Opera, 1874-1914. McBride.

British Newspaper Archive: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

A page on the 1878 National Eisteddfod: http://cynonculture.co.uk/wordpress/history-notes/welsh-national-eisteddfod-at-birkenhead-27-08-1878/

Marie Marimon Wikipedia Page (French): https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Marimon

Listing for Vanda, 1875, on the Library of Congress site: https://www.loc.gov/resource/musschatz.10740.0/?sp=4&st=image

Listing for Un ballo in maschera, 1873, on the Internet Culturale site (Italian): https://www.internetculturale.it/jmms/iccuviewer/iccu.jsp?id=oai%3Awww.internetculturale.sbn.it%2FTeca%3A20%3ANT0000%3AN%3ACFI1021249&mode=all&teca=MagTeca+-+ICCU (on the page Personaggi you can see Fanny Vogri listed)

A dissertation on Opera in Mexico City, written by Anna Agranoff Ochs, mentioning Fanny Vogri on page 213: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/210599256.pdf

An essay on Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. A footnote on page 89 places Fannie Vogri in Brussels: http://www.wieneroboe.at/albrecht/Albrecht_UA_Beethoven_9.pdf

Opera Scotland page on Philippine Siedle (http://operascotland.org/person/7748/Philippine-Siedle) and Emilie Demeric-Lablache (http://operascotland.org/person/7823/Emilie+Deméric-Lablache)

Brooklyn Academy of Music Archive Page on Giovanni Vizanni: https://levyarchive.bam.org/Detail/entities/9930