Denhof Opera Company

[2] The Denhof Opera Company was formed in 1910 by Ernst Denhof (1862-1936), an Austrian-born Swiss pianist, musical impresario and teacher based in Edinburgh in Scotland who was inspired by Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung cycles given at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in 1908 to give performances of The Ring in English in Scotland.

Denhof hired The Scottish Orchestra augmented with players from London while many of the singers from the Covent Garden performances in 1908 were also hired, including Agnes Nicholls as Brünnhilde, Robert Radford as Hunding and Fasolt, Francis Maclennan (1873-1935), an American tenor with the Moody-Manners Opera Company as Siegmund in The Valkyrie and as Siegfried, and his wife Florence Easton as Freia, Sieglinde, the Woodbird in the first cycle and Gutrune.

[2] The Company's first series in 1910 was under the baton of conductor Michael Balling, who had just returned from Bayreuth where he had conducted from 1906 to 1909; this first series was a success and lead Denhof to take his new Company on a tour of the provinces where it gave performances at Leeds, Manchester and Glasgow in 1911, and Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow in 1912 using local orchestras.

Somewhat chastened, Ernst Denhof returned to the relative obscurity of teaching music in Edinburgh and died in Exeter on 5 December 1936.

[1][2][5][6] Performers with the Company included John Coates, Marie Brema, Thomas Beecham, Frederic Austin, Frank Mullings, Clytie Hine, Michael Balling and Caroline Hatchard.