Opera Scotland

Pagliacci 1923Carl Rosa Opera Company

Read more about the opera Pagliacci

Cast details for the second performance of Cav & Pag on Monday, 26 February are as reviewed in the next day's Scotsman. The conductor is only mentioned in the Glasgow Herald comments on the same performance. For Tuesday, 20 March details are from a programme in the collection of the V&A, London.

The Herald review  of Tuesday, 27 February was enthusiastic about the company's full-blooded presentation of both works. Perhaps the cast in this second part was more evenly matched - in Cavalleria it can't have been easy for the tenor who partnered Eva Turner in full cry as Santuzza. In most of her roles on this tour she was partnered by John Perry, who was here leading the cast after the interval.

''In Pagliacci Mr John Perry personated Canio with some distinction both as singer and actor, and throughout he was, as he ought to be, the central figure in the drama. Mr Booth Hitchen made a capital Tonio. His singing of the Prologue was notably fine in the closing passage, and the part is rarely better acted. The Nedda was Miss Jennie Bleasdale, a newcomer, who will ripen by and by into a good artist with experience of less trying roles than this. On the vocal side however, her performance was quite creditable, the pure fresh quality of her singing being a notable feature. The orchestra played well under Mr Webber.''

For the full schedule of the Royal Carl Rosa's 1923 Scottish tour, see entries for Aïda, Maritana, Lohengrin, Carmen, Tales of Hoffmann or Bohemian Girl.