James Henry Mapleson Suggest updates
Colonel James Henry Mapleson.
Born London, 4 May 1830.
Died London, 14 November 1901.
English impresario.
Colonel Mapleson was an operatic impresario during the late nineteenth century. His activities were largely carried out in London and New York, but he was heavily engaged in touring in the provinces. Mapleson studied at the Royal Academy of Music.
Mapleson first went to Scotland with a party of musicians in 1848-49, one assumes in an administrative capacity appropriate for an eighteen year old with musical training. The party was travelling from Glasgow to Aberdeen on the evening of 29 December 1848 and got caught in snowdrifts outside Laurencekirk, resulting in a delay of over two days. They were believed missing by some and in fact were being looked after in a local farmhouse. Such adventures were to occur frequently in Mapleson's career, some of them self-inflicted.
We plan in future to detail the performance history of his touring parties.
For more information, see his biographer, Susie Timms's Mapleson:Victorian opera impresario, published in 2007 by Bezazzy Publishing. Then with this in mind, read Mapleson's diaries. Timms says "Described variously by others as urbane, peppery, guileful, garrulous and gregarious, the facts of his life may leave us stunned and incredulous."
