Cagli Italian Opera Company

The Cagli Italian Opera Company was a visiting company, headed by signor Augusto Cagli and active in Cape Town during 1875-6.

The stopped in Cape Town in 1875, probably enroute from the east, having performed in India round about 1867-9 and in Australia in 1871-2.

In Australian sources from the same period, the company is variously (and rather oddly) referred to as "Cagli & Pompei's Royal Italian Opera Company", the "Italian Opera Company of Cagli and Pompeii", the "Pompie Cagli Italian Opera Company" or the "Cagli Pompey Company". No mention is made of the second partner in South African sources, so Signor Cagli most probably came to South Africa with his own company.

In Cape Town Augusto Cagli rented the half-completed new venue in the Cape Town Institute and Club in Burg Street and completed the renovations in 1875, the company opening the new 1500 seater theatre on 11 November with a season of Italian opera and ballet that ended in April 1876. Cagli released the Burg Street Theatre to Roebuck in May 1876 and presumably departed soon after.

Sources

F.C.L. Bosman, 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp. 300, 304, 320, 343-4, 349, 352.

Nicholas Tarling. 2015. Orientalism and the Operatic World. Rowman & Littlefield: pp. 34-6[1]

https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/473543

https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/25603898?q&versionId=30841546

Frederick Hale. 2015. "Italian grand opera at the Cape of Good Hope : the 1875 and 1876 Cagli seasons ", South African Journal of Cultural History, Volume 29, Issue 1, Jun 2015, p. 58 - 73[2]

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