ABSTRACT
Belfast was by no means the only town on the circuit, nor was the British isles the only place where touring mainstream opera companies of their nature posed these problems. In February 1856 the 13-year-old Karl Rosi had played violin solos at an Anacreontic Society concert in Belfast. He and his wife formed an opera company trading on her celebrity and called it the Parepa-Rosa company. The Carl Rosa Company began its 1881–1882 Irish season with a delay of several days, its four tons of luggage impounded at Kingstown while the customs people satisfied themselves that they had nothing to do with. The Carl Rosa Company, like most of its audience, did not need to be convinced that opera was still an art form of creative vitality. In the closing years of the century tension grew within the Carl Rosa at both performance and management levels.
