Arturo Bonamici
Arturo Bonamici (fl. 1870's-1900's) was a South African theatrical impresario.
Also referred to at times as Mr Bonamici or A. Bonamici
Contents
Biography
According to an advert calling for potential performers, placed in The Sydney Morning Herald of April 14, 1894, he had established himself as an impresario in South Africa in 1879, and was at various times the proprietor of the touring Lyric Opera Company and the lessee of inter alia the New Opera House, Cape Town, the Globe Theatre, Johannesburg, the Theatre Royal, Johannesburg, and the South African Fillis's Amphitheatre. He advertised that he "is open to undertake Operatic, Dramatic, Burlesque Companies' Tours in South Africa" , also Circus acts on behalf of another company.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
D.C. Boonzaier (1923) records various acts Mr. Bonamici brought to Cape Town in 1894-5, the following events put on in the Opera House, Cape Town, under his auspices:
The melodrama Jo (by John Pringle Burnett) with British actress Jennie Lee (c. 1854–1930)[1]doing her impression of "Jo" from Dickens's Bleak House.
Madame Ancarina Massimimi and her Italian Opera Company in a season that included Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti), La Favorita (Donizetti), Cavalleria Rusticana (Rossini), Barber of Seville, Carmen (Bizet), Rigoletto (Verdi), Gioconda (Verdi), and Ernani(Verdi).
The British tenor Sims Reeves in concert.
Other presentations by Bonamici include:
Frank Fillis and his Imperial Circus in 1902.
Sources
The Sydney Morning Herald, New South Wales: Saturday, April 14, 1894: page 2
http://www.ancestors.co.za/were-your-ancestors-in-the-circus/
D.C. Boonzaier. 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1923. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)
F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp. 397, 400, 401, 404.
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