Opera Scotland

Bohemian Girl 1891Carl Rosa Opera Company

Read more about the opera Bohemian Girl

While singers may have become bored with the continuous repetition of standard works, there can be no doubt that they provided a good steady income.  Some, like John Child, Josephine Yorke and Aynsley Cook, sang these roles regularly for years. For Alec Marsh and the ladies on the spring tour, such performances may have been more of a rarity. In the spring season, Bohemian Girl was also in the repertoire of the second Carl Rosa team,  Marie Roze's Carmen company, and their performances in Edinburgh and Glasgow were in consecutive weeks alternating with the main group.

The reviewer in the Glasgow Evening Post (16 November) had little to say, but closed "the audience was most demonstratve, and all the well-known numbers were redemanded as usual". 

The reviewer in the Glasgow Evening Post (21 November) wrote "A somewhat thin house last night witnessed the second performance of the Bohemian Girl by the Carl Rosa Company during this engagement.  Vocally, the performance was a good one, but it would have been better if a little more action had been infused with it.  Mr John Child was a capital Thaddeus, and his singing, tasteful as it was throughout, was especially good in the solo 'When the Fair Land of Poland', which was marked by a high dramatic quality and a fervour that elicited the heartiest applause.  As Count Arnheim, Mr Bowman Ralston was seen to the greatest advantage, and nothing could have been finer than his singing of 'The Heart Bowed Down'.  Mr Aynsley Cook was a picturesque Devilshoof, and Mr Rhys Thomas an amusing Florestein.  Miss Josephine Yorke gave a dramatic rendering of the part of the Gipsy Queen, and Miss Alice Esty was a pleasing, if somewhat conventional Arline.  Mr Claude Jaquinot conducted."

The Scotsman review (30 November) confirmed the November cast, pointing out "Judging by the attendance on Saturday night, the Bohemian Girl is beginning to pall in the public estimation.  The cheaper parts of the theatre were well filled, but in the other portions the attendance was meagre.  Theough the audience was not large it was appreciative...repetition has in no way affected Mr Aynsley Cook in the character of Devilshoof, and the quiet humour which he infuses into the part was as usual greatly appreciated."

 

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