Carl August Nicholas Rosa (22 March 184230 April 1889) was a German-born musical

impresario An impresario (from the Italian ''impresa'', "an enterprise or undertaking") is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays, or operas, performing a role in stage arts that is similar to that of a film or television producer. His ...

best remembered for founding an English opera company known as the

Carl Rosa Opera Company The Carl Rosa Opera Company was founded in 1873 by Carl Rosa, a German-born musical impresario, and his wife, British operatic soprano Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa to present opera in English in London and the British provinces. The company premiered ...

. He started his company in 1869 together with his wife,

Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa (7 May 1836 – 21 January 1874) was a British operatic soprano who established the Carl Rosa Opera Company together with her husband Carl Rosa. Parepa's aristocratic father died soon after her birth, and her mother turn ...

, and popularised opera in Britain and America, performing standard repertory in English, as well as operas by English composers.

Early life and career

Jeremiah_Gurney_-_Photograph_of_Euphrosyne_Parepa-Rosa

Rosa was born Karl August Nikolaus Rose in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

, Germany, the son of Ludwig Rose, a Hamburg businessman, and Sophie Becker. His father subsequently took him to Edinburgh. A child prodigy, Rosa toured in Scotland from age 12 to age 16, eventually earning glowing notices.''The Manchester Guardian'', obituary, 1 May 1889, p. 5"The young Carl Rosa's gigs in Scotland"
Opera Scotland, September 12, 2012 Beginning in 1859, he studied at the Conservatorium at

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

(where he met and became lifelong friends with

Arthur Sullivan Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinaf ...

) and, in 1862, in Paris. In 1863, Rosa was appointed

Konzertmeister The concertmaster (from the German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (U.K.) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (or clarinet in a concert band). After the conductor, the concertmaster is the second-most signif ...

at Hamburg, where he had occasional opportunities to conduct.Legge, R. H., rev. John Rosselli
"Rosa, Carl August Nicholas (1842–1889)"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 14 October 2009 Three years later he visited England, appearing as a soloist at

the Crystal Palace The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibit ...

. He had considerable success as a conductor both in England and the United States. He travelled to America in 1866 as a member of a concert troupe promoted by the Baltimore impresario

Hezekiah Linthicum Bateman Hezekiah Linthicum Bateman (December 6, 1812March 22, 1875), was an American actor and manager. Life Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1812, the fourth child and second son of Amzi Bateman (c.1777–1816), a fisherman, and his wife, Catherine Bate ...

that also included the Scottish operatic soprano Euphrosyne Parepa. During this tour, on 26 February 1867 in New York City, he married Parepa, who became known as ''Madame Parepa-Rosa''."American and British History"
www.carlrosaopera.co.uk, 2009 Carl Rosa 001

In 1869, in collaboration with the Chicago impresario C. D. Hess, the couple formed the Parepa Rosa English Opera Company in New York and toured in America for three seasons, with Parepa as the star and Rosa as the conductor. It brought grand opera to places in America that had never seen any, performing Italian operas in English, which made them more accessible to American audiences. In 1872, the Rosas returned to England and also visited Europe and Egypt. Rosa changed the spelling of his name after he moved to England, where people took "Rose" as a monosyllable.

Carl Rosa Opera Company

In 1873 Rosa and his wife started the ''Carl Rosa Opera Company'' (the change in name reflecting her pregnancy) with a performance of

William Vincent Wallace William Vincent Wallace (11 March 1812 – 12 October 1865) was an Irish composer and pianist. In his day, he was famous on three continents as a double virtuoso on violin and piano. Nowadays, he is mainly remembered as an opera composer of n ...

's ''

Maritana ''Maritana'' is a three-act opera including both spoken dialogue and some recitatives, composed by William Vincent Wallace, with a libretto by Edward Fitzball (1792–1873). The opera is based on the 1844 French play ''Don César de Bazan'' by ...

'' in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

on 1 September,Rosen, Carol
Carl Rosa Opera Company
Grove Music Online (subscription required), accessed 14 October 2009 and then toured England and Ireland. Rosa's policy was to present operas in English, and that remained the company's practice."Mr. Carl Rosa and English Opera", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 21 June 1889, p. 7 That year, Rosa invited the dramatist

W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most fam ...

to write a libretto for Rosa to present as part of a planned 1874 season at the

Drury Lane Theatre The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Dr ...

. Gilbert expanded one of the comic ''

Bab Ballads ''The Bab Ballads'' is a collection of light verses by W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911), illustrated with his own comic drawings. The book takes its title from Gilbert's childhood nickname. He later began to sign his illustrations "Bab". Gilbert w ...

'' that he had written for ''

Fun Fun is defined by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' as "Light-hearted pleasure, enjoyment, or amusement; boisterous joviality or merrymaking; entertainment". Etymology and usage The word ''fun'' is associated with sports, entertaining medi ...

'' magazine into a one-act libretto titled ''

Trial by Jury A jury trial, or trial by jury, is a legal proceeding in which a jury makes a decision or findings of fact. It is distinguished from a bench trial in which a judge or panel of judges makes all decisions. Jury trials are used in a significan ...

''.Stedman, p. 121 Parepa died in January 1874; Rosa dropped the project and cancelled his planned 1874 season. Rosa later endowed a Parepa-Rosa scholarship at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke ...

in London. He married a second time in 1881. With his second wife, Josephine (d. 1927), he had four children. The company's first London season opened at the

Princess's Theatre The Princess's Theatre or Princess Theatre was a theatre in Oxford Street, London. The building opened in 1828 as the "Queen's Bazaar" and housed a diorama by Clarkson Stanfield and David Roberts. It was converted into a theatre and opened in 1 ...

in September 1875, playing ''

The Marriage of Figaro ''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premi ...

'', with

Charles Santley Sir Charles Santley (28 February 1834 – 22 September 1922) was an English opera and oratorio singer with a ''bravura''From the Italian verb ''bravare'', to show off. A florid, ostentatious style or a passage of music requiring technical ski ...

as Figaro and

Rose Hersee Rose Hersee (13 December 1845 – 26 November 1924) was an English operatic soprano. She was a founder-member of the Carl Rosa Opera Company and later formed and performed in the Rose Hersee Opera Company. Biography Hersee was the daughter of Hen ...

as Susanna. In 1876, Rosa staged a second London season, which featured the first performance in English of ''

The Flying Dutchman The ''Flying Dutchman'' ( nl, De Vliegende Hollander) is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the seven seas forever. The myth is likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Dut ...

'' with Santley in the title role. For the next fifteen years, under Rosa's guidance, the company prospered and earned good notices, with provincial tours and London seasons, frequently in conjunction with

Augustus Harris Sir Augustus Henry Glossop Harris (18 March 1852 – 22 June 1896) was a British actor, impresario, and dramatist, a dominant figure in the West End theatre, West End theatre of the 1880s and 1890s. Born into a theatrical family, Harris briefl ...

at the

. Such was the success of the company that at one point three Carl Rosa touring troupes were set up. Rosa hired

Alberto Randegger Alberto Randegger (13 April 1832 – 18 December 1911) was an Italian-born composer, conductor and singing teacher, best known for promoting opera and new works of British music in England during the Victorian era and for his widely used textbook ...

as the musical director of the company from 1879 to 1885. In 1880,

George Grove Sir George Grove (13 August 182028 May 1900) was an English engineer and writer on music, known as the founding editor of ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians''. Grove was trained as a civil engineer, and successful in that profession, b ...

wrote: "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.""A Brief History"
carlrosaopera.co.uk, 2009 In 1892, Rosa's Grand Opera Company gave a command performance of ''

La fille du régiment ' (''The Daughter of the Regiment'') is an opéra comique in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti, set to a French libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard. It was first performed on 11 February 1840 by the Paris Opéra ...

'' at

Balmoral Castle Balmoral Castle () is a large estate house in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and a residence of the British royal family. It is near the village of Crathie, west of Ballater and west of Aberdeen. The estate and its original castle were bought f ...

. Rosa introduced many works of important opera repertoire to England for the first time, performing some 150 different operas over the years. Besides Santley and Hersee, Minnie Hauk,

Joseph Maas Joseph Maas (30 January 1847 in Dartford, England – 16 January 1886 in London) was an English tenor singer. He became a chorister in Rochester Cathedral. At first studying under J. C. Hopkins and Madame Bodda-Pyne, he went to study in Milan i ...

Barton McGuckin Barton McGuckin (28 July 1852 – 17 April 1913) was an Irish tenor singer of renown, who made his career principally in Britain with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, but also gained a wide success in oratorio and concert. Richard Ellmann put him f ...

and

Giulia Warwick Giulia Warwick (15 January 1857 – 13 July 1904) was an English opera and concert singer and professor of music in the last quarter of the 19th century. She is best known for roles with Richard D'Oyly Carte's Comedy Opera Company and with the Carl ...

were some of the famous singers associated with the company during its early years. Rosa also encouraged and supported new works by English composers.

Frederic Hymen Cowen Sir Frederic Hymen Cowen (29 January 1852 – 6 October 1935), was an English composer, conductor and pianist. Early years and musical education Cowen was born Hymen Frederick Cohen at 90 Duke Street, Kingston, Jamaica, the fifth and last c ...

's ''Pauline'' (1876),

Arthur Goring Thomas Arthur Goring Thomas (20 November 185020 March 1892) was an English composer. Life He was the youngest son of Freeman Thomas and Amelia, daughter of Colonel Thomas Frederick. His elder brothers included Freeman Frederick Thomas, a noted cricket ...

's '' Esmeralda'' (1883), Alexander Mackenzie's ''Colomba'' (1883) and ''The Troubabour'', and

Charles Villiers Stanford Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (30 September 1852 – 29 March 1924) was an Anglo-Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Romantic era. Born to a well-off and highly musical family in Dublin, Stanford was educated at the ...

's ''The Canterbury Pilgrims'' (1884) were commissioned by the company. Earlier English operas by Wallace, Balfe and

Julius Benedict Sir Julius Benedict (27 November 1804 – 5 June 1885) was a German-born composer and conductor, resident in England for most of his career. Life and music Benedict was born in Stuttgart, the son of a Jewish banker, and in 1820 learnt compos ...

were also included in the company's repertoire. An obituarist noted, "He had long looked forward to the time when Sir Arthur Sullivan would have undertaken a grand opera, and to the last had hoped to have been able to produce such a work." Shortly before his death, Rosa launched a light opera company that debuted with

Robert Planquette Jean Robert Planquette (31 July 1848 – 28 January 1903) was a French composer of songs and operettas. Several of Planquette's operettas were extraordinarily successful in Britain, especially '' Les cloches de Corneville'' (1878), the length of ...

's ''Paul Jones''.

Rosa's legacy

Rosa died suddenly in Paris, on 30 April 1889,"Death of Carl Rosa", ''Daily Gazette For Middlesbrough'', 30 April 1889, p. 11 and was buried in

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

, London."Carl Rosa's Funeral", ''Daily Gazette For Middlesbrough'', 6 May 1889, p. 3 Rosa's place in English music was indicated by the number of leading musicians who attended his funeral, including Sullivan, Stanford, Mackenzie and

, together with Richard D'Oyly Carte,

George Edwardes George Joseph Edwardes (né Edwards; 8 October 1855 – 4 October 1915) was an English theatre manager and producer of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond. Edwardes started out in theatre ma ...

and

. By the time he died, Rosa had demonstrated that English opera could be an artistic and financial success. In a memorial lecture, the critic

Herman Klein Herman Klein (born Hermann Klein; 23 July 1856 – 10 March 1934) was an English music critic, author and teacher of singing. Klein's famous brothers included Charles Klein, Charles and Manuel Klein. His second wife was the writer Kathleen Cla ...

said of him, "From an artistic point of view he achieved triumph after triumph; he lifted English opera out of the slough of despond in which it was found in 1875." Both during his life and after his death, his company had much to do with popularizing opera in England, encouraging native composers and training many singers who went on to international careers. His company survived his death and continued to perform opera in English until 1960. A new opera company, using the name, was revived in 1997 under the artistic direction of Peter Mulloy. This company performs

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...

and other light operas, as well as

grand opera Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterized by large-scale casts and orchestras, and (in their original productions) lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on o ...

Notes, references and sources

Notes

References

Sources

* *

External links

Photos of the Rosas
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosa, Carl August Opera managers Impresarios People associated with Gilbert and Sullivan 1842 births 1889 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery