Victorian English Opera Home Page
Victorian Opera Northwest Home page
victorian english romantic opera (1)
This website is a companion site to the Victorian English Opera (1866 -1901) site. Both are devoted to English opera, i.e. opera with an original English libretto, written during the Victorian Era and which aspired to rival continental opera of the day.
Opera in the Victorian era can be divided into three. The first part covers 1834-1866 and is often titled English Romantic Opera. Its chief protagonist was Michael William Balfe but other composers, such as John Barnett, Julius Benedict, Edward Loder, George Alexander Macfarren and William Vincent Wallace, also played a significant part. Many of their operas enjoyed initial success but few managed to hold the stage until the 20th century and even they had largely disappeared within the first few decades. F
The period 1866-1876 gave rise to no new English opera of any substance although there were companies reviving a few of the old English Romantic Opera repertoire, most important of these was the Carl Rosa Company. See English Opera Interregnum for more details.
Victorian English Opera Home Page
Victorian Opera Northwest Home page