The Carl Rosa Opera Company
An English Operatic Company Founded by German Impresario Karl Rose
Karl August Nikolaus Rose (Hamburg, 1842-Paris, 1889) was a successful conductor in England and America, and the founder of a great English opera company.
Carl Rosa will best be remembered as the founder of the Carl Rosa Opera Company, even though also a successful violinist and conductor during his lifetime. The idea for the company came to fruition in 1869 when Rosa and his wife, the Scottish soprano Parepa, joined with the American impresario C. D. Hess to form the Parepa Rosa English Opera Company in New York. They toured the country performing Italian grand opera in English to make it more accessible to English-speaking audiences, with Rosa as conductor and Parepa as lead singer.
The Company is Formed
They returned to England three years later to settle there; they changed their name to the Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1873, often touring Europe and Britain. In 1873 W. S. Gilbert approached Rosa with the suggestion of writing music for his new comic opera Trial By Jury, in which Parepa was to sing the lead.
Tragically, Madame Parepa died in childbirth in 1874; Rosa would later endow a Parepa-Rosa scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Trial by Jury was dropped, but was revived by Richard D'Oyly Carte's company with music by Arthur Sullivan.
Success
The company prospered, dividing its London seasons between the Lyceum Theatre and the Drury Lane Theatre. Touringstill featured prominently. In 1880 Sir George Grove wrote of the company, "The careful way in which the pieces are put on the stage, the number of rehearsals, the eminence of the performers and the excellence of the performers have begun to bear their legitimate fruit, and the Carl Rosa Opera Company bids fair to become a permanent English institution".
Native Talent
The company had well over one hundred operas in its repertoire; it introduced many new operas to the English public. Quite a number of important singers were featured in Rosa's productions, and he encouraged English composers to create original works for the company. Among these were Frederic Hymen Cowen, Arthur Goring Thomas, Alexander Mackenzie and Charles Villiers Stanford. Rosa had proved that "English opera could be an artistic and financial success". Famous conductors contributed their talents to the productions, among them: Edward Downes, Eugene Goossens, Henry Wood, Hamilton Harty and Thomas Beecham.
Carl Rosa died in 1889. He had married a second time in 1881 and the couple had a daughter. The three are buried together in London's famous Highgate Cemetery.
Aftermath
The company became known as the Royal Carl Rosa Opera Company, having been allowed to use the royal title. Unfortunately, financial problems forced the company to fold in 1920. It continued to exist after a fashion, having merged with another company under different control. More problems in the 1950s caused the Arts Council to become involved, and after the withdrawal of its support later that decade the Carl Rosa Opera Company merged with another great English operatic institution, the Sadlers' Wells Opera.
Renewal
The story of Carl Rosa's great company was far from over. Thanks to artistic director Peter Mulloy the Carl Rosa Opera Limited was revived in 1997. It continues to perform and tour, specializing in light opera and operetta. Rosa's company did much to encourage the interest of the English in their own music, and gave native talent the opportunity to be heard.
Sources
Abraham, G. A Hundred Years of Music. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd., 1964.
Hughes, G. The Music of Arthur Sullivan. London: MacMillan & Co., Ltd., 1959.
Raynor, H. Music in England. London: Hale, 1980.
Smith, C. "The Carl Rosa Opera". Tempo Magazine, no 36 (Summer, 1955), pp 26-28.
