Opera Scotland

Fliegende Holländer 1912Denhof Opera Company

Read more about the opera Flying Dutchman

This formed part of the third season of the Edinburgh-based Denhof company, and shows increasing ambition of repertoire and of touring dates. The Manchester week, commencing 4 March 1912, had the following programme: Mon Mastersingers; Tue Orpheus and Euridice; Wed Tristan and Isolde; Thu Elektra (local premiere); Fri Flying Dutchman; Sat mat Elektra; Sat eve Mastersingers.

One or two features of this Dutchman cast seem worthy of note. Firstly, the baritone Frederick Ranalow seems oddly cast as Daland, a bass role, when the part of the Dutchman himself might have seemed more appropriate. This is particularly the case, given the fact that in Edinburgh Frederic Austin had already sung Orest in Elektra in the matinee that afternoon - in Manchester, he had not been asked to sing Sachs in the evening after an Elektra matinee. By comparison, tenor Maurice D'Oisly, here singing Erik, had been given the afternoon off from his very short role as Aegisth.

Maud Perceval Allen had a significant career, though she does not seem to have appeared much in Scotland.

Sources

Cast details are taken from a poster for the Manchester week in Manchester City Library, confirmed by a programme in the Weir Collection (National Library of Scotland); for Glasgow a programme in the OperaScotland archive.