Quinlan Opera Company

Thomas Quinlan, (10 March 1881, Bury – 20 November 1951, Holborn) was a musical impresario, best known for founding the Quinlan Opera Company.

Thomas Quinlan was the son of Dennis Quinlan, a railway clerk, and Ellen Quinlan, née Carroll. He was the eldest of five children.

Quinlan studied as an accountant, and in 1901 he was company secretary of the Withnell Brick company. He also trained as a baritone; he was first coached by , and later studied for the operatic stage under Victor Maurel. He began music management in 1906, touring among others Enrico Caruso, Fritz Kreisler, John Philip Sousa and including a Nellie Melba tour of Ireland in 1908.

On 4 July 1907 he married Dora Collins (daughter of James Collins, a tea merchant) at St Peter and St Edward Church, 43 Palace Street, Pimlico, London SW1. The witnesses were Gertrude Browning and the pianist Angelo Fronani, who married the opera singer Zelie de Lussan in 1907.

In 1910 London heard – or had the opportunity of hearing – more opera than ever before in its history. Between mid-February and New Year's Eve, Sir Thomas Beecham either conducted or was responsible as impresario for 190 performances at Covent Garden Opera House and His Majesty's Theatre.

Beecham extended his dream into the provinces with The Beecham Opera Comique Company. As his manager, he chose Thomas Quinlan. The company would present two "tuneful lightweights" as he called them, The Tales of Hoffman and Die Fledermaus. The latter was known at first as "The Bat", but soon it became "A Viennese Masquerade" and then it was dropped, Hoffman being given exclusively. Some cities experienced one or both operas for the first time. Six evening and one or two matinee performances were given weekly in thirteen cities during the autumn segment (Blackpool, Belfast, Dublin, London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Newcastle upon Tyne, Leeds, Nottingham, Birmingham and Brighton) with fourteen more after Christmas (Swansea, Fulham, Bournemouth, Dublin, Southampton, Leicester, Wolverhampton, Hull, Manchester, Sheffield, Bristol, Cardiff, Plymouth, and Portsmouth).

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