The Carl Rosa's Scottish tour at the beginning of 1922 was an unusually long one with 21 different operas on display. If the seven renderings of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci are regarded as fourteen shows, that totals 105 performances (instead of 98) over the fourteen weeks from 16 January to 22 April embracing five venues. It began in the north-east, with one week in Perth, two in Aberdeen and one in Dundee. There followed an eight week stay in Glasgow, and two final weeks in Edinburgh.
The most frequently performed operas in the season were Samson and Delilah (11), Carmen (9) and Madam Butterfly (9). Four works received only a single outing - The Valkyrie (in Aberdeen) and Lily of Killarney, Bohème and Tosca in Glasgow.
The first week commencing Monday, 16 January, in Perth's delightfully intimate Edwardian auditorium, ran in this order: Mon Carmen; Tue Tales of Hoffmann, Wed Maritana, Thu Samson and Delilah, Fri Cav & Pag, Sat mat Madam Butterfly, Sat eve Trovatore.
In Aberdeen there were changes. Cav & Pag were dropped briefly, but the expanded repertoire saw the introduction of Bohemian Girl, Faust and Mignon, plus larger-scale works by Verdi (Aïda) and Wagner - Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Valkyrie.
Dundee had not been visited since 1919 when Her Majesty's became a cinema, but the King's was now available, at least until 1928, when it, too, was acquired by a cinema company. The schedule for the week in Dundee was a fairly standard digest of the existing repertoire - Mon Faust, Tue Carmen, Wed Cav & Pag, Thu Samson and Delilah, Fri Tannhäuser, Sat Mat Madam Butterfly, and Sat Eve Trovatore.
With eight weeks to fill, it was inevitable that as well as nearly all of the above, a number of works would appear that were not seen elsewhere. These included Lily of Killarney, Rigoletto, Mastersingers, Bohème and Tosca.
A programme for the performance at the Lyceum on XXXX survives
This was the company's first visit to Dundee since 1919, after which Her Majesty's Theatre had been acquired by a cinema conglomerate. There had followed a gap of a couple of years before the King's, essentially a variety house, had undergone a radical change of management policy, allowing the return of the major touring companies.
The week's schedule was fairly standard - Mon Faust, Tue Carmen, Wed Cav & Pag, Thu Samson and Delilah, Fri Tannhäuser, Sat Mat Madam Butterfly and Sat Eve Trovatore. Notable absentees were the British standards Bohemian Girl and Maritana. Cav and Pag were by now inseparable in making up a programme.
On the same evening that the double bill packed the King's Theatre in Dundee, there was another successful attraction in the city centre, since Dundee Choral Union and the Scottish Orchestra were giving The Song of Hiawatha by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in the Caird Hall. The tenor solo was sung by the Carl Rosa's leading dramatic tenor, John Perry - on the next three evenings he would sing Samson, Tannhäüser and Manrico in the theatre.
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