Opera Scotland

Bohemian Girl 1903J W Turner's English Opera Company

Read more about the opera Bohemian Girl

Along with the new staging of Tannhäuser, the obviously popular Bo Girl was the only work to receive two performances in this Dundee week - the second being the Saturday matinee.

Additional dates and venues to be confirmed.

 

Two Brief Dundee Reviews

Dundee Advertiser: Wednesday, November 5 1903  (p2)

Her Majesty’s Theatre - “The Bohemian Girl”

'Balfe’s delightful opera was last night presented by Turner’s Opera Company, and under circumstances very different from those of other days.   The audience was miserably small, and there was awanting the warmth that of old attended recitals of the romantic and picturesque story.   Little effort was apparent in most of the acting, and the movement of the plot, which should be bold and chivalric, was principally nerveless and even halting.

'At points it required some pains to discover the opera which formerly captured and held prisoner one’s interest.   Thus, apart altogether from the vocal garniture, the fiction appeared tame.  Its dramatic moments were mostly slurred over and their passion or tenderness lost.  Solo and choral singing were indifferently good, but were not so inferior as the acting, and the old favourites, such as “Love Smiles but to Deceive”, “I Dreamt that I Dwelt”, and “The Heart Bow’d Down”, were sung with excellent effect, and really roused the audience to enthusiasm.  The regrettable feature of the major part of the representation was that the powers at command were not properly taken advantage of.  To-night The Lily of Killarney is to be given.  Lovers of music should come out in force, and thus show their regard for the presence of a favourite singer.  A big audience ought to prove an incentive.'

 

Dundee Courier & Argus: Wednesday, November 4 1903

Her Majesty’s Theatre - “The Bohemian Girl”

'Last night Mr Turner’s company produced The Bohemian Girl for by no means the first time in Dundee.  The audience was distinctly disappointing, and showed that the public of Dundee cared even less for the familiar Bohemian Girl than they did for the artistic Tannhäuser.

'Madame Constance Bellamy, a familiar artist under Mr Turner’s management, appeared as Arline, and sang her grateful music with much acceptance.  Her treatment of the delightful “I dreamt that I dwelt” was extremely finished and artistic.  In the concerted music Madame Bellamy sang with great vigour and effect.  Mr Chas. Le Sueur sang pleasantly as Thaddeus, and Mr John Ridding, a most excellent baritone, gave a representation of Count Arnheim which we have rarely seen surpassed in this quarter.  His voice is of the most sympathetic quality, and he sang “The Heart Bowed Down” with great feeling.

'Miss Edmée de Dreux, as formerly, made a magnificent Gipsy Queen.  She acted with great dramatic power, and sang the interpolated solo, “Love smiles but to deceive”, with such sympathy that she earned one of the warmest encores of the evening.  Mr Sidney Clifford and Mr R Cummings respected their familiar impersonations of Devilshoof and Florestein.  The chorus was throughout good, and the band, conducted by Mr T Lawton, were at home in the work.

'To-night that charming opera, The Lily of Killarney, will be played for the first time for many years in Dundee.  Mr Turner himself will play the congenial part of Miles.'