In 1880 American producer Mike Leavitt -- known largely for his rather louche girlie shows -- tried to upmarket a tad. He imported a troupe of players from England to play an imported burlesque (by Frank W Green, music arranged Frank Musgrave) on Carmen.
It was a pretty fair troupe. To play Carmen, he hired the original English-language star of the opera, Selina "Dolly" Dolaro. Exerienced and popular Marie Williams was Don Jose, Fanny Wentworth was Zuniga, Minnie Marshall and Camille d'Elmar of the Soldene company, dancer Daisy Ramsden, Alma Stanley as a statuesque Captain of the Guards, Adelaide Praeger from the Praeger family, plus a few comedians for Escamillo, Remendado, Dancairo and Micaela ... and a horde of dancing girls for the ballets and tranformation scenes...
Here is one of them. Miss Annie Dunscombe. I know absolutely nothing about her, before or after this engagement, I do not know whether she was really Miss Dunscombe or sailing under a nom de théâtre ... but she seemingly had time -- in the 24 performances the show survived at Haverly's 14th Street Theatre, to have her photo taken in her Spanish costume ...
Leavitt's show was a flop. The company switched to La Fille du tambour-major and fizzled out. I really, didn't expect to come across a photo of from their Carmen ...
Here are some of the other participants in this benighted production ... others may turn up, you never know. But I really wrote this blogpost to save the mysterious Miss Dunscombe ...
 |
| "Dolly" Dolaro |
 |
| Marie Williams |
 |
| Alma Stanley |
 |
| Fanny Wentworth |
No comments:
Post a Comment