History – Rock Ferry Operatic Society

Rock Ferry Amateur Operatic Society was set up 1882.and, apart from unavoidable breaks during two world wars and the recent covid crisis, the society members have managed at least one performance each year since then. This is a look at the history of the society over more than 140 years through reviews, theatre programmes and photgraphs..

1882 H M S PINAFORE Music Hall Old Chester Road, Tranmere

Proceeds to be devoted to St Paul’s Tranmere, Repairs and Improvements Fund.

Rock Ferry Operatic Society’s first review was in the local paper the ‘Birkenhead News’ on December 7th 1882. It was a great review! The society started as a result of the popularity of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operas and the RFOS production of ‘HMS Pinafore’ in Birkenhead came just four years after the original opera had opened to enormous success in London.

More Gilbert and Sullivan operas followed and programmes from the 1880s and 1890s show that Rock Ferry not only had singers and actors but also plenty of talented amateur musicians to make up impressive orchestras. It would be interesting to know if anyone recognized any family names among the performers!

1887 THE MIKADO Music Hall, Old Chester Road ,Tranmere

The Tranmere Music Hall opened on 15th November 1879, it was located on Old Chester Road and was a large hall with accommodation for an audience of 1,200. Its first owner was Mr J.M Harrison. Many of the performances were by local groups and performers, the Liverpool Mercury of 4th May 1887 reported on the excellent performance of the Mikado by the Rock Ferry Amateur Operatic Society to a ‘very large’ audience.

In the early 1900s the hall was sold to a professional photographer and entrepreneur from Liverpool, James R Saronie and was later converted into a cinema.

1888 THE SORCERER Music Hall ,Old Chester Road, Tranmere

Proceeds to be devoted for a Parish Nurse for the Poor

1891 IOLANTHE Music Hall, Old Chester Road, Tranmere.

Proceeds to be devoted to the Wirral Children’s Hospital

1892 RUDDIGORE Music Hall, Old Chester Road, Tranmere

Proceeds to be devoted to the funds of the Rock Ferry and Tranmere District Nurses and the Fund for Waifs and Strays.

1893 THE GONDOLIERS Birkenhead Town Hall

Proceeds to be devoted to the Funds of the Borough Hospital

Birkenhead Town Hall was completed in 1887 so this production of The Gondoliers is likely to have been one of the earliest performances in the Town Hall’s Assembly Rooms. The Society obviously pulled out all the stops on this production at a grand new venue and the programme gives a lovely snapshot of the shops and trades available in Liverpool at that time:

‘New and Beautiful Scenery, painted expressly for this production by T. Robinson Slater Street, Liverpool ‘
‘ Magnificent Costumes by Burkinshaw, Colquitt Street, and Madame Rose, Bold Street Liverpool’
‘Peruquier – Fyans, Mount Pleasant, Liverpool’ (Specially made wigs!)
‘Mustel Organ and Bechstein Piano supplied by James Smith and Son, Liverpool’

1922 THE GONDOLIERS St Peter’s Church Hall, Rock Ferry

The Society restarted again after the First World War with what was obviously a large and lively group of members. Their first post war production was performed in 1922 – another Gilbert and Sullivan production ‘The Gondoliers’. The photo of the cast in a wonderful array of costumes is dated 22nd April 1922.