The Denhof Opera Company was an

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

-based professional opera company founded in 1910 by Ernst Denhof to perform

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

's ''

The Ring of the Nibelung (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the . The compos ...

'' in English.Harold Rosenthal
Denhof Opera Company
Grove Music Online,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

It was the first major opera-performing Company to be established with a base in Scotland. After a series of financial losses it was taken over by

Thomas Beecham Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet, (29 April 18798 March 1961) was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philh ...

in 1913 who used it as the basis for his

Beecham Opera Company The Beecham Opera Company was an opera company founded by Thomas Beecham which presented opera in English in London and on tour between 1916 and 1920. The initiative was conceived as part of Beecham's campaign to foster musical life during World W ...

.Denhof Opera Company - Opera Scotland website
/ref> The Denhof Opera Company was formed in 1910 by Ernst Denhof (1862-1936), an Austrian-born Swiss pianist, 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 ...

and teacher based in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

who was inspired by Wagner's ''

'' cycles given at the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

in 1908 to give performances of ''The Ring'' in English in Scotland. Denhof hired The Scottish Orchestra augmented with players from London while many of the singers from the Covent Garden performances in 1908 were also hired, including

Agnes Nicholls Agnes Helen Nicholls CBE (14 July 1876 – 21 September 1959) was one of the greatest English sopranos of the 20th century, both in the concert hall and on the operatic stage. Born in Cheltenham, Nicholls was the daughter of a director of Ca ...

as Brünnhilde,

Robert Radford Robert Radford (13 May 1874, Nottingham3 March 1933, London) was a British bass singer who made his career entirely in the United Kingdom, participating in concerts and becoming one of the foremost performers of oratorios and other sacred mus ...

as Hunding and Fasolt, Francis Maclennan (1873-1935), an American tenor with the

Moody-Manners Opera Company Charles Manners (27 December 18573 May 1935) was a British bass singer and opera company manager. His earliest performances were with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, first as a chorus member and then as a principal, creating the role of Private ...

as Siegmund in '' The Valkyrie'' and as ''

Siegfried Siegfried is a German-language male given name, composed from the Germanic elements ''sig'' "victory" and ''frithu'' "protection, peace". The German name has the Old Norse cognate ''Sigfriðr, Sigfrøðr'', which gives rise to Swedish ''Sigfrid' ...

'', and his wife

Florence Easton Florence Easton (25 October 1882 – 13 August 1955) was an English dramatic soprano of the early 20th century. She was one of the most versatile singers of all time, appearing in more than 100 roles, covering a wide range of styles and peri ...

as Freia, Sieglinde, the Woodbird in the first cycle and Gutrune. Edna Thornton sang Erda in ''

Das Rheingold ''Das Rheingold'' (; ''The Rhinegold''), Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis, WWV 86A, is the first of the four epic poetry, epic music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Literary cycle, cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nib ...

'', Thomas Meux was

Alberich In German heroic legend, Alberich () is a dwarf. He features most prominently in the poems ''Nibelungenlied'' and '' Ortnit''. He also features in the Old Norse collection of German legends called the Thidreksaga under the name Alfrikr. His na ...

in ''The Ring'', Sydney Russell was Mime and

Frederic Austin Frederic William Austin (30 March 187210 April 1952) was an English baritone singer, a musical teacher and composer in the period 1905–30. He is perhaps best remembered for his arrangement of Johann Pepusch's music for a 1920 production of ' ...

was Wotan in ''

'' and later The Wanderer in ''

''.Hooey, Charles A
Hard Luck Innovator - Herr Ernst Denhof - Music Web International
/ref> The elaborate sets and costumes were from Germany. The Company's first series in 1910 was under the baton of conductor Michael Balling, who had just returned from

Bayreuth Bayreuth ( or ; High Franconian German, Upper Franconian: Bareid, ) is a Town#Germany, town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtel Mountains. The town's roots date back to 11 ...

where he had conducted from 1906 to 1909; this first series was a success and lead Denhof to take his new Company on a tour of the provinces where it gave performances at

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

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 ...

and

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

in 1911, and

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

, Leeds,

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, Manchester and Glasgow in 1912 using local orchestras. Later the Company gave the first performances in English of

Strauss Strauss, Strauß, or Straus is a common Germanic surname. Outside Germany and Austria ''Strauß'' is usually spelled ''Strauss'' (the letter " ß" is not used in the German-speaking part of Switzerland). In classical music, "Strauss" most com ...

's ''

Elektra Electra, also spelt Elektra, was a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra in Greek mythology. Electra or Elektra may also refer to: Animals * ''Electra'' (bryozoan), a genus of aquatic invertebrates * ''Elektra'' (bug), a genus of insects in the ...

'' as well as performances of

Gluck Christoph Willibald ( Ritter von) Gluck (; ; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire at ...

’s ''

Orfeo ed Euridice (; French: '; English: ''Orpheus and Eurydice'') is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck, based on the myth of Orpheus and set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the '' azione teatrale'', meaning an ...

'', ''

The Flying Dutchman The ''Flying Dutchman'' () is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the sea forever. The myths and ghost stories are likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Dutch East India C ...

'' and '' The Master-Singers of Nuremberg''. By 1913 the Company numbered 200 members, including an orchestra of 82, a chorus of 90 and a ballet of 24. That year it gave the first productions in English of ''

Der Rosenkavalier (''The Knight of the Rose'' or ''The Rose-Bearer''), Op. 59, is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from Louvet de Couvrai's novel ''Les amours du cheva ...

'', '' Pelléas et Mélisande'' and ''

Die Zauberflöte ''The Magic Flute'' (, ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. It is a ''Singspiel'', a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on ...

''. After two weeks performing in Birmingham and one in Manchester Denhof suffered financial losses of £4000 and the Company was taken over by

, one of the conductors for the 1913 season, who financed and completed most of the Company's scheduled performances and who used it to create the core of what became the

. Somewhat chastened, Ernst Denhof returned to the relative obscurity of teaching music in

and died in

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

on 5 December 1936.Kennedy, Michael and Bourne, Joyce (1996)
"Denhof Opera Company"
''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music'' (1996 edition), encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 9 May 2019Ernst Denhof, 1862-1936 - Reid Concerts: Concerts in the University of Edinburgh from 1841
-

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

website Performers with the Company included John Coates,

Marie Brema Marie Brema (28 February 1856 – 22 March 1925) was a British dramatic mezzo-soprano active in concert, operatic and oratorio roles during the last decade of the 19th and the first decade of the 20th centuries. She was the first British singer ...

Frank Mullings Frank Mullings (10 May 1881 – 19 May 1953) was a leading English tenor with Sir Thomas Beecham's Beecham Opera Company and its successor, the British National Opera Company, during the 1910s and 1920s. Blessed with a strong stage presence ...

, Clytie Hine, Michael Balling and

Caroline Hatchard Caroline Gertrude Hatchard (12 October 1883 – 7 January 1970) was a British lyric soprano, musical theatre and opera singer of the 20th-century who was the first English-born and trained soprano to be engaged by the Royal Opera House in Cov ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Denhof Opera Company Scottish opera companies Musical groups established in 1910 Musical groups disestablished in 1913 1910 establishments in Scotland Defunct British opera companies