• Title
  George Benjamin Allen, chorister, organist, and conductor, 1873 / photograph by Coxhead Brothers
• Creator
  Coxhead Brothers
• Call number
  P1/32
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  1873
• Type of material
  Graphic Materials, Photographs
• Reference code
  874523
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  1 photographic print - carte de visite - 10.4 x 6.3 cm
  
• ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
  
  Allen was a chorister, organist, and conductor in England, Ireland, and Australia. He managed a comic opera company, performing numerous operas in New Zealand, Australia, and India (1874-76), before returning to England. In 1874 his opera bill in Wellington, New Zealand included that country's premiere of Burnand & Sullivan's Cox and Box. (Allen's Royal English Opera Company featured Alice May as its prima donna. He and Miss May were widely reported to be married but that was not strictly the case.)
  
  Allen composed at least four stage works, three cantatas, and many songs. His stage works included Castle Grim (an opera with words by Robert Reese, produced at the Royalty Theatre, London, 2 September to 21 October 1865), The Wicklow Rose (an Irish comic opera by Reese, produced in Manchester, 3 May 1882), Keep Your Places (a operetta by Reese, St. George's Hall, 15 February 1886), and The Viking (an unperformed five-act opera).
  
  For further details on Allen's life and career, see Adrienne Simpson's biography of Alice May, "Allice May: Gilbert & Sullivan's First Prima Donna" (Routledge, New York and London, 2003
  
  Reference: The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company online. http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/whowaswho/A/AllenGB.htm (accessed October 12, 2009)
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright: created before 1955
• General note
  
  Transferred from P1/Allen, G. B. (BM), October 2009
  Digital order no:a4157032
• Signatures / Inscriptions
  
  G.B. Allen / Mus Doc / England Opera Co / 1873 -- in ink below the photograph
  
  "Old Snipe Nose" -- in ink on the reverse
• Subject
  Adult Males
  Conductors (Music).
  
• Topic
  portraits
  choristers
  composers
  organists
  theatrical producers & directors
  
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE3273834

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