1911
Thomas Quinlan then decided to set up his own company, feeling that the provinces and "the dominions beyond the seas", as he told J.D. Fitzgerald in an interview in The Lone Hand in Sydney, had never had the chance of hearing grand opera on the same scale as Covent Garden. In 1911 the Quinlan Opera Company was formed in Liverpool. Quinlan personally supervised everything, casting the operas himself, and seeing every act of every opera before it was presented to the public.
The company rehearsed in London for five months before touring the provinces, (opening in Liverpool, where the results exceeded Quinlan's expectations), making a visit to Ireland with performances at the Theatre Royal Dublin from 26 December 1911 to 9 January 1912, and then setting off for Australia for the 1912 season. In February 1912 the company performed in South Africa (Cape Town and Johannesburg) on their way to Australia.
Read more about this topic: Thomas Quinlan (impresario)