page_title: Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa
section_title: Early life and career
hierarchical_section_title: Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa / Early life and career
caption_attribution_description: English: Source: http://www.ram.ac.uk/emuweb/pages/ram/Display.php?irn=11237&amp;QueryPage=%2Femuweb%2Fpages%2Fram%2FQuery.php Photo of nineteenth century marble bust of Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa at the Royal Academy of Music
context_page_description: Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa was a British operatic soprano who established the Carl Rosa Opera Company together with her husband Carl Rosa. Parepa's aristocratic father died soon after her birth, and her mother turned to the stage to support them. Parepa made her operatic debut in 1855, at age 16, and soon earned enthusiastic reviews in the major London opera houses. In 1867, following the death of her first husband, Parepa married the violinist and conductor Carl Rosa in New York, and they founded an opera company with Parepa as the leading lady. They toured successfully in America for several years. After their return to Britain with ambitious plans for their opera company, Parepa fell ill and died in 1874 at only 37 years of age.
context_section_description: Euphrosyne Parepa was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, to the soprano Elisabeth Seguin (b. 1812, sister of basso Arthur Edward Seguin) and the Wallachian boyar Demetrius Parepa, Baron Georgiades de Boyescu of Bucharest. Her father died when Parepa was an infant, leaving her young mother impoverished. Parepa's mother turned to the stage to support her child and herself and trained the girl in singing.
  Her operatic début was in 1855 at the age of 16 in Malta as Amina in La Sonnambula, followed by engagements in Italy, Spain and Portugal. She gave her first London performance at the Lyceum Theatre, in the role of Elvira in I Puritani, with the Royal Italian Opera company, with whom she spent the 1857 season. The critic of The Observer wrote of this introduction: "Parepa possesses a soprano voice of excellent quality and remarkable compass. She acts and sings well. Her version of "Son vergine vezzosa" elicited applause terminating in a recall, and … [after the finale] she was again called for. … "Qui la voce" … was correctly and brilliantly executed; and the artiste was again summoned back to the stage to receive the homage of the audience."
  From 1859 to 1865, she appeared in opera at both Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and at Her Majesty's Theatre, becoming known for such roles as Leonora in Il trovatore, Zerlina in Fra Diavolo and Elvira in La muette de Portici. During this time, she participated in two operatic premieres, creating the title role in Alfred Mellon's Victorine in 1859 and the role of Mabel in George Alexander Macfarren's opera Helvellyn in 1864. She also was a successful oratorio and concert soloist, in constant demand in Britain and beyond. She sang with Charles Santley at the opening of the Oxford Music Hall in 1861, appeared before the Royal Philharmonic Society in Schumann's Paradise and the Peri and participated in the 19th-century English revival of the music of Handel, performing at the Handel festivals of 1862 and 1865, and in Germany.
caption: Bust of Parepa-Rosa at the Royal Academy of Music
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