Twenty-five years had passed since the last performances of Esmeralda in Scotland by the Carl Rosa. That company still owned the rights to a work their founder had commissioned, but here they were credited in the programme with giving dispensation to an amateur group to perform it.
It is interesting that Glangow Grand chose to open the week with this slightly unusual piece. Also, they gave four performances of it, when the second opera in the week's repertoire, the universally popular Carmen, only received three. Of course the Bizet was very much a permanent fixture in the repertoire of the professional touring companies.
The company's stage director, here described as 'Producer and Art Director', Mr E C Hedmondt, was a retired tenor who had sung Don José many times. However he must have been on tour with the Caarl Rosa when Esmeralda was being played, even if he never sang in it himself.
Cast details from a programme in the Mitchell Library collection.
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