Rosa D'Erina

Rosa D'Erina (22 February 1848– 13 April 1915), born Rose Anna O'Toole and known as the "Irish prima donna", was an Irish soprano, pianist and organist. She was the "vocalist by command to the Prince and Princess of Wales and the Irish court."[1]

Rosa D'Erina
Rosa D'Erina, from a cabinet card made in Canada, about 1875.
Born
Rose Anna O'Toole

22 February 1848
Armagh
Died13 April 1915
Ontario
NationalityIrish
Other namesRosa D. Vontom (after marriage in 1884)
OccupationSinger, pianist, organist

Early life

Rose Anna O'Toole was from Armagh,[2] and trained as a singer in Paris with M. Duprez.[3]

Career

D'Erina performed as lead female in 1869 debut of W. S. Gilbert's No Cards,[4] first produced at the Royal Gallery of Illustration in London,[5] under the management of Thomas and Priscilla German Reed, opening on 29 March 1869 and closing on 21 November 1869.[6][7]

D'Erina emigrated to North America in 1870. She was popular in Ottawa, giving several performances in that city between 1872 and 1876.[8][9] She toured in Europe in 1874.[10] In 1880, she encountered legal problems with a fraudulent booker in Iowa.

In 1889, she and her husband sang in Ireland, and toured Australia.[11] D'Erina toured in the United States, including to the remote Ray, North Dakota, Opera House,[12] and to Syracuse, New York, in 1892.[1] She performed on organ and sang in Winnipeg in 1905,[13] and in Minneapolis in 1908.[14]

In 1873, Scottish poet Alexander Hamilton Wingfield wrote "Tribute to Rose D'Erina" and "Impromptu Apostrophe to Rose D'Erina", short poems which begin, respectively, "Welcome, Erin's Prima Donna, Greet her with a happy throng" and "Hail to thee, matchless Queen of Song."[15]

Personal life

In 1884, D'Erina married a New York City professor from a prominent French family, G.R. Vontom (1852–1928), Vicomte de Ste Croix, at the Church of the Holy Innocents in New York City, where she was employed as the organist.[16] George Vontom had been born on isle of Jersey. The couple had a summer home in Ontario, where they helped to found the St. Boniface Catholic Church. She died in 1915, aged 67 years, and her grave is on St. Joseph Island in Ontario.[17]

References
  1. "Music hall! [microform] : Rosa d'Erina, Erin's prima donna, vocalist by command to the Prince and Princess of Wales and the Irish court ... will appear in her celebrated unique, original and classical musical evenings illustrating the music of many lands" – via National Library of Australia.
  2. "Irish Soprano Rosa D'Erina". Grim's Dyke Hotel. 2018-03-27. Retrieved 2020-03-30.
  3. "Concerts Various". The Musical World: 526. 25 July 1868.
  4. Review of No Cards, The Times, 30 March 1869, via gsarchive.net
  5. "Gallery of Illustration". The Musical Times: 76. 1 May 1869.
  6. Horwath, Paul. No Cards, The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, 13 July 2013, accessed 29 April 2017
  7. Stedman, Jane W.; Stedman, Jane W. (1996). W.S. Gilbert: A Classic Victorian and His Theatre. Oxford University Press. pp. 67–68. ISBN 978-0-19-816174-5.
  8. "Letter to Mr. Topley". Ottawa Citizen. February 26, 1874. (referring to the photographer William James Topley
  9. Beckwith, John; Hall, Frederick A. (1988-12-15). Musical Canada: Words and Music Honouring Helmut Kallmann. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4426-3346-9.
  10. "Captions of 2 pictures". Archived from the original on 2013-06-12.
  11. "Concert in St. Mary's Hall". Belfast News-Letter. 1889-11-19. p. 5. Retrieved 2020-03-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "Ray Opera House history, 1978" (PDF).
  13. Hartman, James B. (1997). The Organ in Manitoba: A History of the Instruments, the Builders, and the Players. Univ. of Manitoba Press. pp. 101–102. ISBN 978-0-88755-381-3.
  14. "Church Performances". The New Music Review and Church Music Review. 7: 431. June 1908.
  15. Wingfield, Alexander Hamilton (1873). Poems and Songs: In Scotch and English. Printed at the "Times" Book and Job Office. pp. 145, 200.
  16. "Marriage of the Irish Songbird", The New York Times, 19 May 1884
  17. "Death of Rosa D'Erina". The Irish Standard. 1915-04-17. p. 5. Retrieved 2020-03-30 – via Newspapers.com.
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