Ancarina Massimimi Italian Opera Company
The Ancarina Massimimi Italian Opera Company was an Italian Opera Company, led by Madame Ancarina Massimimi, that visited South Africa in 1895, inter alia performing in the Opera House, Cape Town, under the auspices of impresario A. Bonamici.
A large company, they presented a large repertoire including Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti), La Favorita (Donizetti), Cavelleria Rusticana (Mascagni), The Barber of Seville (Rossini), Carmen (Bizet), Rigoletto (Verdi), Gioconda (Verdi), and Ernani (Verdi).
Though considered excellent performers by Boonzaier (1923), he says that the company failed to gain much public support and that the undertaking was "a disastrous failure".
Sources
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 1932. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)
F.C.L. Bosman, 1928. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel I: 1652-1855. Pretoria: J.H. de Bussy. [1]: p. 401
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