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

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

best remembered for founding an English opera company known as the Carl Rosa Opera Company. He started his company in 1869 together with his wife, Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa, 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 (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, 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 States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

(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 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, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibitors from around ...

. 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 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's '' Maritana'' in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

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. Gilbert expanded one of the comic '' Bab Ballads'' that he had written for '' Fun'' 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 increasingly used ...

''.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 one of the oldest music schools 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 firs ...

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 in September 1875, playing ''

The Marriage of Figaro ''The Marriage of Figaro'' (, ), 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 premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienn ...

'', with Charles Santley as Figaro and Rose Hersee as Susanna. In 1876, Rosa staged a second London season, which featured the first performance in English of '' The Flying Dutchman'' 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 brief ...

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

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 LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the United States of America. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note *"L.A.", a song by Elliott Smi ...

'' 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 ...

. 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, Barton McGuckin and Giulia Warwick 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 ch ...

's ''Pauline'' (1876), Arthur Thomas'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 music, Romantic era. Born to a well-off and highly musical family in Dublin, Stanford was ed ...

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

'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, designed by architect Stephen Geary. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East sides. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for so ...

, 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 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 refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen com ...

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 Orchestra, orchestras. The original productions consisted of spectacular design and stage effects with plots normally based on o ...

Notes, references and sources

Notes

References

Sources

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External links

Photos of the Rosas
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosa, Carl German opera managers German impresarios German emigrants to the United Kingdom People associated with Gilbert and Sullivan 1842 births 1889 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery