Fanny Simonsen
Born Françoise De Haes or Dehaes, Fanny Simonsen was a French lyric soprano, who claimed aristocratic parentage and had studied under Manuel Garcia II.
[1] She had on occasion shared the Paris stage with Madame Carvalho, and played prima donna roles in Brussels and the great French provincial cities.
In June 1866 Mme Simonsen joined Lyster's Grand Opera Company as prima donna, commencing with Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.
[6] This was followed by Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots (as Marguerite de Valois), the Australian première of L'Africaine (alternately with Lucy Escott, playing Selika), perhaps her most celebrated role[7]) and Roberto il diavolo, perhaps their most popular production[8] (as Isabel/Isabelle).
In 1867 she played the name part in Maritana (Wallace), Amina in La Sonnambula (Bellini) and Auber's comic operas The Crown Diamonds as Catarina and Masaniello as Elvira.
Despite Lyster's alternation of loss-making grand opera productions with crowd-pleasing comic offerings, his attention to detail and the quality of his orchestra and ensemble and stars Simonsen and Lucy Escott, Henry Squires and Armes Beaumont, he was failing in a business sense due to the public demand for novelty.
They returned to Melbourne by the Marpesia in July 1869 and held a short series of concerts at the Academy of Music (Princess's Theatre on Spring Street), and the goldfield towns, supported by Rebecca Nordt (soprano), Arthur R. Moule (tenor) and Harcourt Lee (bass and pianist).
On 19 August 1871 the Simonsen troupe, consisting of Rebecca Nordt, her husband[20] Arthur Moule (tenor), Edward Farley (baritone), Barry O'Neil (comic singer), Henry King (pianist) held a concert at the Lyceum Theatre prior to leaving for Europe.
Works included Die Fledermaus, The Hermit's Bell, Satanella, The Bohemian Girl, The Grand Duohess, Giroflé-Girofla, Maritana and Der Freischütz.
[32] In September 1880 Martina joined her mother's Royal English & Italian Opera Company of some 50 members, which included Martin Simonsen as conductor, Carrie Godfrey, Eugenie Dehaes,[a] tenors Pietro Paladini and Gaetano Bianchi, and basses Ernest St Clair and Tom Riccardi.
[35] They played at the Theatre Royal, Adelaide, in August and September to good and appreciative houses for ten different works, Un Ballo perhaps making the greatest impression.
"[42] Around the same time Martin Simonsen had in Sydney an Italian troupe starring Lilian Tree and Giuseppe Pimazzoni, which had to be disbanded due to personal difficulties.
Inclement weather and the depressed economic climate were blamed, but a more likely cause was the opera's refined artistry and lack of well-known stars, as more prosaic entertainments nearby were doing well.
Crossley was arguably her most important pupil — she would travel from her country home to St Kilda twice weekly for lessons, until Simonsen agreed to take her as a boarder, a situation which lasted two or three years.
