Signor Brocolini
After brief study in Italy in 1875, he was engaged to sing opera in London and on tour by James Henry Mapleson, adopting his stage name from the borough of Brooklyn,[1] and Italianizing it.
Over the next decade, he mostly toured in America, briefly visiting Australia, and played mostly in Gilbert and Sullivan roles, often with E. E. Rice and John Stetson companies.
[5] At the same time, still under the name John Clark, he began taking professional singing engagements, including with several touring opera companies and with Bowers and Prendergast's Minstrels in 1864.
He continued to sing in concerts, appearing as bass soloist at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and at various churches and other venues,[10] and toured with Susan Galton's operetta company.
[11] The same year, he was leading the newly formed Brooklyn Operatic Association and performed in The Pearl of Baghdad, an opera by John M. Loretz.
"[10] With a big sendoff from Brooklyn, including a banquet attended by Mayor John W. Hunter, among others, Brocolini sailed for Milan and soon decided to adopt his new stage name to honor the borough in which he grew up.
[3] By the spring of 1876, he had been engaged to sing by James Henry Mapleson's Italian opera company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London, now using his stage name, Signor Brocolini.
[3] Brocolini joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in October 1879 in Liverpool, England, playing Dick Deadeye in H.M.S.
[16] In November, he traveled to New York to appear as Captain Corcoran in the first authorized American production of Pinafore at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, which premiered on December 1, 1879.
[19] Brocolini rejoined D'Oyly Carte and E. E. Rice in a tour of Billee Taylor in April 1881, playing Christopher Crab.
[20] From late 1882 to the spring of 1883, he appeared with Collier's Standard Opera Company in the role of Strephon in Iolanthe, the first work produced at the Boston Bijou Theatre.
[11] In early 1884, Brocolini played King Hildebrand in New York's first production of Princess Ida, at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, produced by E. E.
[21] By 1884, Brocolini's marriage had ended in divorce, and Lizzie had remarried the former singer Carlos Florentine, who had appeared in Sullivan's The Zoo (1875), and whom the Clarks had known in London.
He traveled to Australia the following year, where he appeared with the Williamson, Garner and Musgrove Royal Comic Opera Company beginning in April 1885, in Melbourne with La Petite Mademoiselle by Charles Lecocq.
In early 1887, he toured in New England, with producer John Stetson, playing the roles of Colonel Calverley in Patience, King Hildebrand in Princess Ida, and Sir Despard Murgatroyd in Ruddigore.
