Opera Scotland

Faust 1899Robert Cunningham Opera Company

Read more about the opera Faust

1899 was a difficult year for the Carl Rosa company, with a gap in its performing schedule due to lack of funds. Several singers tried to keep the show on the road, albeit in a slimmed down form. The Grand National Opera company had started operations in Dublin. By the time it moved to Liverpool, two of the leading performers, Ella Russell and Charles Hedmont, had left. On arrival in Glasgow the company's lead tenor was also the name on the corporate masthead, with the husband and wife pairing of soprano Alice Esty and baritone Alec Marsh in support, along with the popular soprano Marie Titiens, and several of the stage and music staff.

The repertoire contained several popular favourites, including Faust, Trovatore, Bohemian Girl and Cav & Pag. The novelty was a new adaptation, premiered in Liverpool, of the hugely fashionable Dumas novel, The Three Musketeers. Generally reviews were quite enthusiastic about performance standards, though opinions were more mixed about the new work. Of the general quality of the opening Faust there was near unanimity. Nevertheless, the company did not continue long, perhaps because the Carl Rosa group was reconstituted.

The company visited the four Scottish cities in turn, and this cast is as seen in Dundee.