The baritone Alec Marsh and soprano Alice Esty were Rosa colleagues who married whilst with the company in 1892. Esty, an American born at Lowell, Massachusetts on 12 April 1864, was a child recitalist who retained her vocal ambitions and eventually studied with Clara Smart,Boston’s leading music teacher. Her first professional engagement, probably in the 1880s, began modestly as a soloist with a Boston church and continued in this vein perhaps hindered by health issues. Happily a visit to England in the spring of 1891 brought a change of fortune. She was heard by the right people and concert engagements followed. Her future husband, Alexander Jeffe Marsh, the son of John and Eliza Marsh, was born at Stratford sub Castle near Salisbury in May 1863. He left school in 1879 destined for a legal career before vocal inclinations overcame law. He had sung as an amateur baritone and after consultations with Alberto Randegger at the Royal Academy of Music he entered the Academy as a student in 1885. Two years later he was a regular concert soloist before gaining stage experience in operetta. He joined the Rosa in 1890 and Esty followed a year later. Alec made a successful Rosa debut as Escamillo in Carmen at Drury Lane on 3 May near the end of the London season. This expanded to a repertoire of the usual baritone roles together with Nectobanus (Talisman), Grumboff (Black Domino), Zaccaria and Jonas (Prophet), Bois Guilbert(Ivanhoe), Bernard (La Vivandiere), Bertram (Robert the Devil) and Gianni in Mascagni’s rarely performed I Rantzau. He took part in two premieres. He was Iago in the British English-language premiere of Verdi’s Otello at the Prince’s Theatre, Manchester, in October 1892. This was probably the first international performance in English. Two years later in November 1894 he was Davie Deans in the world premiere of Hamish McCunn’s Jeanie Deans at the Edinburgh Lyceum in November 1894 with the composer conducting. The company generously allowed Alec and Alice temporary absence for a concert tour of Australia for most of the following year. They were both back by October 1895 and Alec said farewell probably with a final Carmen at the Theatre Royal, Middlesbrough in May 1897, leaving a legacy of some thirty roles and almost nine hundred performances over seven seasons.
Alice made her Rosa debut as Michaela in Carmen at the Theatre Royal Belfast on 10 August 1891 and a varied repertoire followed. This included the usual English Ring roles, the Marguerites of both Gounod and Berlioz, together with Mozart, Meyerbeer, Mascagni, Nicolai, Leoncavallo and Adolphe Adam. Surprisingly she sang seven Wagnerian roles, Irene(Rienzi), Senta (Flying Dutchman), Venus and Elizabeth (Tannhauser), Elsa (Lohengrin), Seiglinde (Walkure) and Eva in the British English-language premiere of Mastersingers. She took part in two world premieres, creating Amabel in The Golden Web (GoringThomas) at the Royal Court Liverpool on 15 February 1893 and Effie Deans in Jeannie Deans in Edinburgh a year later. The most significant premiere came on 22 April 1897 when she created Mimi in the British premiere of Puccini’s La Boheme at the Theatre Royal Manchester. The opera, given as The Bohemians, was sung in English with the composer present. The company also gave the first performance of the opera at Covent Garden in October of the same year. Alice made her last Rosa appearance at the Theatre Royal Brighton on 8 March 1898 after thirty roles, and some five hundred performances many shared with her husband. Alec and Alice subsequently toured with their own concert company, appeared before Queen Victoria at Balmoral Castle, and briefly returned to opera to assist the temporarily disabled Rosa company. Their concert activities surprisingly ended in 1900 when Alec, for reasons unknown, departed to Hong Kong before spending many years in India where he took part in the musical and social life of Europeans in Calcutta. Alice simultaneously continued her career with opera for Maurice Grau in America and Moody Manners in Britain but it soon became concert stage followed by the variety theatre and teaching. When Alec returned from colonial exile in 1921, Alice was teaching at the Carl Rosa Opera School still using the Marsh name. Both taught when they moved to Farnham later in the same year and Alice eventually became a pioneer broadcaster and was rumoured to be considering film work. Both died at Farnham. Alice on 1 February 1935 and Alec on 20 November 1939. Hilda, their only child, pursued a theatrical career as an actress. Alice recorded operatic extracts for the Gramophone Company in late 1904 but sadly there was nothing from La Boheme. The reference books alone ensure her niche in operatic history.
© 2025 John Ward
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