Hugh Talbot

[1] By 1872, Talbot travelled to Italy to study music, where he began to perform under the name Signor Ugo Talbo in 1872, appearing in Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto,[2] as the title character in Faust and as Alvaro in La Forza del destino, among other roles, and in concerts until at about 1876.

Pinafore opened at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on December 1, 1879, and Talbot was cast in the leading tenor role of Ralph Rackstraw.

The opening night review of Pinafore in The New York Times commented , "The Ralph Rackstraw, Mr. Hugh Talbot, has a light, pleasant tenor voice, which was not thoroughly under his control last evening, and he is also the best actor who has appeared here in the character".

[4]The World was not much kinder: "Mr. Talbot sang some of the airs allotted to the tenor admirably, but he was utterly innocent of any appreciation whatever of the humor of the situations and shamefully ignorant of his lines.

"[4] The Herald added: "The members of the company were not all perfect in their parts, Mr. Talbot seriously interfering with the full effect of some good points by groping after his cue in a most vague manner.

"[4] Unkindest of all was the Sun, whose critic said: "Mr. Talbot, the tenor, had unfortunately apparently not thought it necessary to commit his lines, and made nonsense of much of his role, reflecting no credit upon himself, and nearly bringing the play at times into confusion".

Sullivan, for his part, was equally displeased, writing to his mother on January 2, 1880: "Our Company and all the Chorus are charming people and devoted to us, and spared themselves no pains or trouble to do their work thoroughly well.

[1] He next joined the Blanche Roosevelt English Opera Company as Epitmethius in an unsuccessful production of B. C. Stephenson and Alfred Cellier's The Masque of Pandora in Boston in 1881.

[2] Again performing as Signor Ugo Talbo, he then joined an opera company, organized by Max Strakosch Clarence Hess, for a few weeks, in Faust and Mefistofele.

After this, in August 1881, he moved to San Francisco, California, where he joined Inez Fabbri's opera company in Carmen and La Dame blanche, but the season was a failure.