Robert Cunningham, born in Hobart, Tasmania on 7 February 1866, seemed destined for a commercial career. His vocal inclination was initially satisfied as a member of the Melbourne Liedertafel a prominent male voice choir and local training with a Signor Zelman. The city celebrated its centenary in 1888 with an exhibition which included a specially created orchestra led by English composer Frederic Cowen, who advised Cunningham to consider a vocal career. He came to London in the following year, studied with William Shakespeare and Herman Klein and made his stage debut two years later.
His Rosa debut is frequently quoted as Thaddeus in Bohemian Girl at Bolton on 10 October 1891 but he had actually made an earlier Rosa appearance in the same role at Cork on 19 September. When the season ended in May he had added the tenor roles in Daughter of the Regiment, Maritana, and Elixir of Love to his repertoire and sung with both the main and Carmen companies. The latter included the soprano Marie Roze and conductor Henry Wood as colleagues. He departed in May 1892. The next two seasons were with the D’Oyly Carte company in London and the provinces.
He returned to the Rosa in September 1894 and remained with them for almost a decade adding Flying Dutchman (Helmsman), Cavalleria Rusticana (Turiddu), Mignon (Wilhelm), Don Giovanni (Ottavio), Pagliacci (Canio), La Boheme (Rudolfo, Carmen (Don Jose), and the title role in Faust to his repertoire. Unusual roles included George in La Vivandiere (Godard), Pedro in Poet’s Dream (Thomas), Beauty Stone (Sullivan), Olybius in Martyr of Antioch, the first stage presentation of Sullivan’s choral work and the title role in Gounod’s Cinq Mars. The highlight of his Rosa career was Rudolfo in the British premiere of Puccini’s La Boheme (Given as The Bohemians) at the Theatre Royal Manchester on 22 April 1897 in an English translation by W. Grist and P.E. Pinkerton with the composer present
He left the Rosa in August 1899 following the Osmond Carr purchase of the company and eventually opted for the role of impresario with his own company featuring former Rosa colleagues. He toured for six months as ‘National Opera Company’ and latterly as the ‘Robert Cunningham Opera Company’ and then financially collapsed. He returned to the Rosa in the summer of 1902 for a final season saying farewell in Cinq Mars at Portsmouth in May of the following year. He had sung eighteen roles during some three hundred performances with the company.
Robert returned to opera in early 1907 when he sang in a German season at Covent Garden headed by the tenor Ernest van Dyck with the celebrated conductor Arthur Nikisch at the rostrum. This was his operatic farewell but he continued to sing in concert, variety, musicals, appeared in America in 1919, and latterly ventured into the legitimate theatre. He played the Archbishop of Rheims supporting Sybil Thorndyke in the first British performance of George Bernard Shaw’ Saint Joan at the New Theatre in London on 26 March 1924. He had appeared in two historic British premieres, one operatic and the other dramatic, under the watchful eye of composer and playwright. Three years later he tried cinema with a silent film The Luck of the Navy before his long and versatile career finally ended in the early 1930s. He died in London on 13 March 1939.
Robert recorded acoustically for Pathe and Favorite probably in his Rosa years. The voice of Britain’s first Rudolfo can still be heard!
The Carl Rosa Trust wish to thank Hannah Cunningham, Robert’s great grandaughter, for assistance in the preparation of this note.
© 2026 John Ward
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