Goossens, Eugène II
Goossens Eugène I, *25 February 1845 Bruges, †30 December 1906 Liverpool, English conductor of Belgian origin. He graduated from the Brussels Conservatory, where he studied at F.-J. Fétis (composition) and L. Meerts (violin). He was a conductor of opera groups in Belgium, France and Italy. In 1873, he moved to England. From 1883 as the second conductor, and from 1889 as the first conductor, he led the C. Rosa Opera Company; with this team, he completed, among others, the first performance of Wagner’s Tannhäuser in England (Liverpool 1892). In 1893, he settled in Liverpool, where he founded a men’s choir, soon recognised as one of the best English groups of its kind. He was a singing teacher and also served as an organist in the Catholic church of St. Anne in Liverpool. He married Sidonia, a famous dancer who performed at the Alhambra Theater in London in the 1980s.