A b o u t t h e C a r l R o s a T r u s t
We’re delighted to announce that applications are invited for a funded collaborative doctoral award focusing on the Carl Rosa Collection. Please see: Northern Bridge Consortium for more details (scroll down to the bottom). This is an incredibly exciting project! The Collection has so much extraordinary material, some dating from nearly 200 years ago, and we are extremely keen for it to be better known, accessed and developed. You can follow the links within the URL above, or contact us directly, on valerie.langfield@carlrosatrust.org.uk.
Could you be one of our trustees?! The Carl Rosa Tust is seeking two new trustees to join the team. We meet four times a year in Liverpool (where the archive is looked after by Liverpool Record Archives) and/or remotely, and we are looking for people who have an enjoyment and knowledge of opera, and/or British theatre history, and want to be part of our small organisation. Help us make the Trust’s work and the archive more widely known!
You don't need to be an expert - if you are willing to get stuck in with whatever needs doing, especially with fundraising, administration and education (and it’d help if you’re within reach of Liverpool), we’d love to hear from you!
Please email Valerie Langfield on
valerie.langfield@carlrosatrust.org.uk
Our exhibition last year - showing original manuscripts, cast photos,
scenery plans, programmes, and much more - was a great success. We have
another scheduled for September 2025 in Newcastle - watch this space!
The photo shows the wonderful Liverpool-born mezzo Kathryn Rudge, who came to visit the exhibition. On the left is Anthony Phillips, grandson of HB Phillips, who owned and ran the Company for many years. On the right are Valerie Langfield and Dan Stinson, on the Carl Rosa committee.
The Carl
Rosa Opera Company still holds the
record as the longest-running and most successful travelling opera
company in British history. After successful seasons touring opera in
English in the United States of America during the late 1860s, Carl
Rosa (1842–1889) and his wife Euphrosyne
Parepa-Rosa (1836–1874) organised
their first season in Manchester in 1873. The new Company was called
the Carl Rosa Opera Company and toured the length and breadth of
Britain from then until its final performance in London (Don
Giovanni at the Prince’s Theatre) on
17th September 1960.
The Carl Rosa Trust Ltd was established in May 1953 through an
agreement made between Annette Phillips (then Artistic and Managing
Director of the Carl Rosa Company) and the
Arts Council of Great Britain. From 1953 to
1960 the Trust was responsible for the running and administration of
the Company.
Since 1960, when the Carl
Rosa Opera Company gave its last performance,
the Carl Rosa Trust has used its resources to support opera singers by
awarding grants. The Carl Rosa Trust is active today in its role as
sole custodian of the Carl Rosa Archive.
