Opera Scotland

Tannhäuser 1904Moody-Manners Opera Company

Read more about the opera Tannhäuser

1904 saw the Moody-Manners Opera Company at its peak.  For a start, there were four companies - A, B, C and D. These were of varying sizes and performed in different parts of the Kingdom. The A company generally visited the cities, in Scotland Glasgow and Edinburgh, with less frequent or extensive appearances in Dundee and Aberdeen, neither visited on this occasion.

The programme advertised the large force travelling with the A company:

Full Company of 120. Chorus of Fifty Voices. Full Corps de Ballet, and a band of 30 First-Class Instrumentalists travelling with the  Company to augment the Local Theatre Orchestra.

This meant that the thirty musicians could quickly assist the conductor to train the local players in any unfamiliar music.

The most important novelty in this cast of Tannhäuser is the arrival of a soprano from New York. Billed simply as Madame De Vere, she had already spent several seasons in leading roles at the Met. She now shared principal's duties with Fanny Moody. Her stay with the company was no doubt made easier due to her marriage to the conductor Romualdo Sapio.

Of almost as great importance is the arrival of the mezzo Toni Seiter. Invaluable in the major dramatic mezzo roles of Verdi and Wagner, she worked continuously up to the First World War,  first with Moody-Manners and then Denhof.

Source

The cast for 17 October is from a programme in the OperaScotland collection.

Scottish itinerary

The 1904 tour schedule included three weeks in the spring, one in Edinburgh and two in Glasgow, with an extra Edinburgh week in the autumn.

The schedule was as follows:-

Edinburgh w/c 14 March: Mon Carmen;  Tue 15 Faust;  Wed 16 Tannhäuser;  Thu 17 Mignon;  Fri 18 Daughter of the Regiment;  Sat 19 mat Lohengrin;  Sat 19 eve Bohemian Girl.

Glasgow w/c 21 March:  Mon Carmen;  Tue 22 Lily of Killarney;  Wed 23 Daughter of the Regiment;  Thu 24 Lohengrin;  Fri 25 Mignon;  Sat 26 mat Faust;  Sat 26 eve Bohemian Girl.

Glasgow w/c 28 March: Mon Tannhäuser:  Tue 29 Faust;  Wed 30 Philemon and Baucis & Pagliacci; Thu 31 Daughter of the Regiment;  Fri 1 Apr Mignon;  Sat 2 mat Daughter of the Regiment;  Sat 2 eve Maritana.

Edinburgh w/c 17 October: Mon Tannhäuser;  Tue 18 Carmen;  Wed 19 Traviata;  Thu 20 Mignon;  Fri 21 Lohengrin;  Sat 22 mat Daughter of the Regiment; Sat 22 eve Maritana.