The Carl Rosa Opera Company's 1891 autumn visit to Edinburgh featured, as an eztra-curricular activity, this Sunday evening concert in which conductor, soloists, chorus and orchestra seem to have given their services in a fund-raiising venture. The city's Roman Catholic Cathedral was in need of repair. This was the Sunday evening in the middle of a two-week stay in the capital, so for once, the day was not taken up with the complex business of railway scheduling, to move the company lock, stock and barrel to its next port of call. In Scotland on the Sabbath it may be that there was little for the performers to do after church other than rest - or put on another show.
Even more interesting is the choice of the work to be performed. Rossini's Stabat Mater was not a common piece, and this may even have been its Scottish premiere. How often did the company do this kind of thing? It is not the sort of piece for them to sight-read their way through. The work contains great difficulties for the solo quartet. These four were, if not absolute top-rankers, at least company principals at the time, and the music director was in charge.
The Scotsman certainly approved of the venture, and reported that the rendering in a packed cathedral was assisted by full orchestra and 'listened to with reverent attention by a large audience.'
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