‘The greatest ornaments of their profession’ - the New Zealand tours by the simonsen opera companies, 1876-1889

Abstract

With charming nineteenth-century hyperbole, this slender volume draws its title from a misquotation from the press of the time. While ‘greatest’ undoubtedly sits better on a title page, however, it seems a pity not to have stayed with the original: for ‘brilliant ornaments of their profession’ the Simonsens were, their performances illuminating the lives of early New Zealand settlers.