Opera Scotland

Carl Rosa and his Opera Company

Posted 31 Aug 2013

Our first publication is now available - on Kindle only - Carl Rosa:Touring Opera in Scotland. 1874-99. 

Based on ground-breaking new research, this tells the story of the impressive young man from Hamburg and, before his involvement with opera, his youthful career as a violin prodigy.  Read about his first UK concert - in Edinburgh when he was aged just twelve and a half. Learn about other performances, for example in Dundee, Arbroath and Forfar - not to mention Liverpool, Glasgow and Manchester.

Rosa and his Edinburgh-born wife, the soprano Euphrosyne Parepa, went on to make money performing opera in the USA. They then returned to the UK where they established Carl Rosa Opera as a household name that endured right up to modern times.

Carl Rosa brought opera in English to the mass market and operated the nearest thing to a national opera company that Britain was to see for many years, yet he is now almost entirely forgotten. Carl Rosa Opera brought operas by Verdi (Aïda, Otello), Massenet (Manon), Wagner (Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser) and Puccini (La bohème) to Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and many other British towns. Here are stories about celebrities, unruly students in the audience, singers and the difficulties of touring.  Did Carl Rosa really assault one of his singers? 

For those of you who prefer your reading in a more traditional format than e-book, we hope eventually to publish a second edition with supplementary material, profiles and photographs.

Go to Amazon and buy your e-book here!