Opera Scotland

Orfeo ed Euridice 1912Denhof Opera Company

Read more about the opera Orpheus and Euridice

This piece contributed to the third season of the Edinburgh-based Denhof company, which shows increasing ambition of repertoire and of touring dates. The season had opened in Hull before touring to Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Glasgow and Edinburgh.  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.

The orchestra of 65 and chorus of 100 boasted for the previous evening's Mastersingers may not have been needed for Gluck's piece. However the company also advertised a ballet troupe of 24 dancers, who were probably required only for this evening. Perhaps the most interesting feature of the performance is therefore the presence, as solo dancer and choreographer, of the important Scottish leader of the avant-garde, Margaret Morris. Kirkby Lunn, a major international star seen more often at Covent Garden and the Met, does not seem to have performed another role with the company.

Sources

Cast details are as advertised in a poster for the week's programme in Manchester City Library; and a Glasgow programme from the OperaScotland archive.