Glasgow was always fertile ground for the Carl Rosa company, and they gave considerably more performances there than in the other Scottish cities. Indeed some years, as in 1947, the four weeks in Scotland, commencing 21 April, were spent entirely in Glasgow. The operas given were a fairly standard group, by Verdi (Rigoletto, Trovatore, Traviata); Puccini (Bohème, Butterfly); Mascagni (Cavalleria Rusticana); Leoncavallo (Pagliacci); Gounod (Faust); Offenbach (Tales of Hoffmann); Bizet (Carmen) and Wagner (Flying Dutchman).
The cast includes a new soprano, Korina Hellas, who would be the company's Butterfly for a couple of seasons. The veteran baritone Hubert Dunkerley, as Sharpless, was a late stand-in for the indisposed Arthur Copley.
Cast details are from a programme for Wednesday 30 April, in the Gardiner Collection (Mitchell Library), which contains information about both the matinee of Rigoletto and that evening's Butterfly.
A review of an earlier performanc in the tour in the Scotsman (9 April) says "it was distinguished by Joan Hammond's performance in the title role, and once more, by the general competence of the production as a whole."
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