Rosina Filippi was born in
Venice,
Italy. Her father,
Filippo Filippi, was a music critic, and her mother, Vaneri Filippi, was a French singer who taught voice at the Milan Conservatoire. According to an obituary in
The Times, she and her grandmother on her mother's side, Georgina Colmache, left France during the
Paris Commune, when Filippi was five years old, and traveled to London. Rosina Filippi had wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps and become an opera singer herself but, lacking sufficient vocal talent, pursued acting instead.
George Bernard Shaw attempted to cast her in his play
Caesar and Cleopatra as Cleopatra's nurse. She also led an acting school, emphasizing elocution, and directed the Oxford acting troupe the Christmas Dramatic Wanderers, alongside
Dorothea Baird. In 1895,
J. M. Dent published Filippi's
Duologues and Scenes From the Novels of Jane Austen. The book included seven selections of Austen's works: two from
Pride and Prejudice, three from
Emma, one from
Sense and Sensibility, and one from
Northanger Abbey. The selections focused primarily on Austen's women, with 12 female characters to four male, and downplayed the romantic aspects of Austen's works in favor of domestic scenes. and included eight illustrations demonstrating period-appropriate costumes. This was the first time Austen's works had been adapted for the stage; in her introduction, Filippi wrote: "I am convinced that Jane Austen as a playwright will fascinate her audiences as much as she has her readers as a novelist." The book was praised by most reviewers, though some questioned the viability of adapting Austen's works to the stage. It was widely re-released and anthologized, and led to several more Austen stage adaptations by other playwrights, which one reviewer suggested were spurred by "good-natured envy" of Filippi's work. This made Williams the first known actor to play Mr. Darcy on the professional stage. These plays included
The Merchant of Venice, starring
Hermione Gingold, and
Romeo and Juliet, starring Filippi's 16-year-old daughter Rosemary. This was the first time Shakespeare had been presented at the theatre; while the theater would become well known for its Shakespeare productions, at the time it was better known for opera. Filippi and manager
Lillian Baylis clashed over the matter;
Russell Thorndike claimed Baylis placed a slip in the programmes encouraging patrons to spend their money on the Vic's operas instead. ==Death==