Opera Scotland

Tannhäuser 1908Moody-Manners Opera Company

Read more about the opera Tannhäuser

Moody-Manners had been touring to Scotland for several years, but the company had not previously ventured beyond the central belt. In Edinburgh and Glasgow, the choruses for the larger pieces were augmented with members of the recently-established Grand Opera Societies for each city.

In Aberdeen, even without such support, they were described as the largest English opera company ever to have toured Great Britain. The full company consisted of 130, including a chorus of sixty and full corps de ballet.

The cast for 18 February is taken from a programme in the Weir collection at the National Library of Scotland. That for 2 March is from a programme in the Mitchell Library collection, and of 9 March from a programme in Aberdeen City Library. Changes among the principals for 17 March are specified in reviews in the Dundee Advertiser and Dundee Courier & Argus.

Joseph O'Mara and Charles Magrath appear to have sung in all performances, as do Messrs Tattersall and Cliffe in smaller parts. Otherwise the casts seem to have been varied night by night to a quite surprising degree. And the company clearly had a near-infinite supply of slim young sopranos able to convince as the shepherd-boy in the first act.