While the alternative group of artists included Miss Thudicum (Garcia's pupil), Lucile Hill, Franklin Clive, Joseph O'Mara, and Richard Green. It ran from January 31 till the end of July; then in November the house reopened with "La Basoche," in which David Bispham made his début on the London stage. With the autumn, however, all went wrong, the public stayed away, and finally, on January 16, 1892, the Royal English Opera House was finally closed, to be reopened later as the Palace Theatre of Varieties.
Before leaving 1891 we must note the Covent Garden season, where a very remarkable collection of artists appeared, who must have compared favourably with those whom Garcia had heard half a century before. The new-comers included Emma Eames, Sybil Sanderson, Van Dyck, and Plançon; while in the company were the de Rezkés, Lassalle, Maurel, Ravelli, and Montarid; Melba, Nordica, Albani, Zélie de Lussan, Rolla, Bauermeister, Giulia Ravogli, and Mme. Richard.
Nor must one pass over Signor Lago's venture of an Italian season, embarked on during the autumn of 1891 at the Shaftesbury Theatre. It was notable chiefly for the first production in England of Pietro Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana." In the première, which was conducted by Arditi, Marie Brema made her début in opera as Lola, while the cast was made up with—
| Santuzza | Adelaide Musiani. |
| Lucia | Grace Damian. |
| Alfio | Brombara. |
| Turiddu | Francesco Vignas. |
In 1892 comes the début in London of Calvé, while Harris engages the great Wagner singers from Bayreuth, to appear for a season of German opera on Wednesday evenings at Covent Garden, with Rosa Sucher as Brunhilde, and Alvary as Siegfried. One must also note the début of Clara Butt in "Orfeo" at the Royal College of Music.
In 1893, the year of Gounod's death, opera lovers at Covent Garden made the acquaintance of the younger school of Italian composers in Mascagni and Leoncavallo. The former first appeared at Covent Garden on June 19, when he conducted "L'Amico Fritz" with Calvè, De Lucia, Pauline Joran, and Dufriche. "Pagliacci" was given, with Melba as Nedda and De Lucia as Canio, while Ancona gave a magnificent rendering of the famous prologue.
The works of two English composers were also produced during the season,—Isidore de Lara's "Amy Robsart" and Villiers Stanford's "Veiled Prophet."
With 1894 there are two novelties added to the repertoire,—Verdi's "Falstaff" and Puccini's "Manon Lescaut"; while the English Jubilee is celebrated of Joseph Joachim and Alfredo Piatti.
With 1895, the year in which Manuel Garcia concludes his ninetieth year, Adelina Patti returns to Covent Garden for a few more performances, and Jean de Rezké makes a temporary absence during the season, for the first time for eight years.
The following year saw the death of Sir Augustus Harris, and with the event the present régime came into existence, the formation of the Covent Garden Syndicate, with Earl de Grey at its head, Higgins as director, and Neil Forsyth, secretary. Here we will abandon the narration of the trend of operatic events in London, for those which took place in the last ten years of Manuel Garcia's life are probably in the memories of all. Those which took place during the first forty years of the maestro's life in England seemed sufficiently remote to be worth recalling, for by them we obtain at any rate a bird's-eye view of the great names and events of the operatic world during Garcia's active career as a teacher.