Allan James Foley

In January–April 1866 Mapleson split the company into two parties for a very extensive British provincial tour, Foli joining the ensemble of Mario, Grisi and Lablache under Arditi.

[9] Herman Klein mentions his Bertramo in the 1872 Drury Lane production of Robert le Diable with Christine Nilsson, Italo Gardoni, Mongini and de Murska.

[13] He took the role of Jacob in the first production of Macfarren's Joseph at the Leeds Festival, 21 September 1877, and Herod in that of L'Enfance du Christ of Berlioz under Charles Hallé in Manchester (30 December 1880) and London (26 February 1881).

[21] In 1877, with Santley, Nilsson and Ciro Pinsuti,[22] assisted by Arthur Chappell, he gave a benefit concert which raised £1500 towards an annuity for their colleague Mario, who was then living in Rome in straitened circumstances.

Songs described in the tours of Australia and Canada give some idea of his recitals, such as Pinsuti's Bedouin Love Song, Formes's In Sheltered Vale, Battison Haynes's Off to Philadelphia, Schubert's The Wanderer, Loder's The Diver, Knight's Rock'd in the Cradle of the Deep, the 'Drinking' song In cellar cool, Gatty's True till Death, and stand-alone operatic pieces such as Qui sdegno non-s'accende (Mozart, Die Zauberflöte), She alone charmeth my sadness (Gounod, La reine de Saba) and O ruddier than the cherry (Handel, Acis and Galatea), all of which remained in the standard English concert repertoire well into the twentieth century, and were recorded by such singers as David Bispham, Peter Dawson, Robert Radford or Norman Allin.

Foli's voice was powerful but of beautiful quality, its compass from the bass E to F above middle C.[26] With his vigorous, straightforward delivery, he was a great favourite in London for many years.

[28] A description drawn from The Daily Telegraph shows that at a private recording session at the Crystal Palace on Good Friday 1878, "both duets and solos were successfully tried by Madame Lemmens-Sherrington, M. Lemmens, Signor Foli, M. Manns and other skilled musicians.

In a few seconds the ruby point was properly adjusted over the sheet of tinfoil, and the selection repeated as sung by the Signor, though, of course, in not so loud a tone (the sound issues from the machine as from a distance).

In 1879 he appeared as witness at the Old Bailey, in a forgery case relating to authorship of a song, 'The Tar's Return', which had been written for Foli and sold to him for his public endorsement.

[31] He apparently possessed a frightening temper: the story is told of a disagreement with a head waiter in a well-known restaurant, in which Foli threw his dinner, plate and all, out of the window to make the point that the meal was unsatisfactory, shouting 'That's what's wrong with it, and now what are you going to do about it?'