Opera Scotland

Pagliacci 1910Carl Rosa Opera Company

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Glasgow Review

Glasgow Herald:  Tuesday, 22 March 1910  (p4)

Grand Theatre - Carl Rosa Opera Company

'The Carl Rosa Opera Company began their second week in the Grand Theatre with Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, works joined together by their sensational stories and treatment.  In sensation, of course, the Italian is now distanced by the German.  The latter can not only beat his rival in operas of blood and hate, but he can give us a score of much greater intrinsic interest.  Much of Mascagni and Leoncavallo is crude and soon loses its effect on the musician for whom emotionalism is not everything.  If Cavalleria and Pagliacci are not as popular so they were, they still have many admirers, and they may be counted on to remain in the repertory of travelling companies for a long time to come.

'Last night's audience was not so large as it might have been, but there was no lack of applause to show excited nerves and heart. (See Cavalleria note for next section)

'Pagliacci had a strong cast in Mr E C Hedmondt (Canio),  Mr Charles Victor (Tonio),  Mr Hebden Foster (Silvio),  Mr William O'Connor (Beppe), and Miss Beatrice Miranda (Nedda).  Mr Hedmondt in ''On with the Motley,'' and Mr Victor in the Prologue had great success with the audience.  Miss Miranda sang well where the music was high enough to show the best parts of her voice, and the other artists were quite safe.

'The orchestral part for both operas is somewhat heavily scored, but in accompanying the singers the band might have been more subdued with little loss of effect.  Mr Goossens, however, was a watchful conductor, and to his clear direction the performances owed not a little.

T-night Verdi's Destiny will be repeated, and for the rest of the week there are Don Giovanni, Il Trovatore, Rigoletto, Carmen,  and Faust.