In 1873 Rosa and his wife started the "Carl Rosa Opera Company" (the change in name reflecting her pregnancy) with a performance of William Vincent Wallace's "Maritana" in Manchester on 1 September, and then toured England and Ireland. Rosa's policy was to present operas in English, and that remained the company's practice. That year, Rosa invited the dramatist W. S. Gilbert to write a libretto for Rosa to present as part of a planned 1874 season at the Drury Lane Theatre. Gilbert expanded one of the comic "Bab Ballads" that he had written for "Fun" magazine into a one-act libretto titled "Trial by Jury". Parepa died in January 1874; Rosa dropped the project and cancelled his planned 1874 season. Rosa later endowed a Parepa-Rosa scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He married a second time in 1881. With his second wife, Josephine (d. 1927), he had four children.