Mr. Wood Announces: A Grand Evening Concert & Second Season of Glasgow Italian Opera, March 1855

On the Monday, the 5th of March 1855, on page one of The Glasgow Herald, Mr. Muir begged to announce that: “in compliance with the numerous requests of his Musical Friends and Supporters for a Series of Concerts, he has arranged with the principal Artistes, the Chorus, and Orchestra, engaged for the Italian Opera, to give One on every WEDNESDAY EVENING during the Month of March.”

 

The advert provides the programme for the first concert, with works by Rossini, Mozart, Cherubini, Meyerbeer, Linley, Mendelssohn, and De Beriot. The conductors were Signor Orsini and Herr Anschuetz. The leader was Herr Manns. The performers were: the violinist, Edouard Remenyi; and the singers: Monsieur Zelger; Madame Rudersdorf; Signor Benedetti; Herr Reichardt; Madame Caradori; Herr Formes; and Miss Huddart.

 

Tickets ranged in price from one shilling, to four shillings for reserved, and numbered seats. These were available, along with programmes, from J, Muir Wood & Co.’s, 42 Buchanan Street.

 

Lower down, in the same column in the Herald, Mr. Wood announced the Second Season of the Glasgow Italian Opera would open on that day, at the Theatre Royal, Dunlop Street, for a series of “Sixteen Representations”. The first performance was Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia. The advertisement offers advice regarding where carriages must set down and take up. In addition, the public were notified that all occupants of the Stalls and Boxes “must be in Evening Costume, otherwise they cannot be admitted.”

 

On Tuesday, the opera was Bellini’s Norma. Donizetti’s Lucia was on Wednesday, and Beethoven’s Fidelio was performed on Friday. A review of Lucrezia and Norma was published on page five of the Herald on Friday the 9th of March, along with the concert at the City Hall. Madame Rudersdorf was making her debut in Glasgow. The performance by Remenyi, the Hungarian violinist is particularly well reviewed.

 

Books of the operas, with the cast of characters, were available from J. Muir Wood and Co.’s, 42 Buchanan Street.