D'Oyly Carte Opera Company - Principal Performers

Principal Performers

Gilbert and Sullivan aficionados frequently use the names of the principal comedians of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company to refer to time periods of the company's history. Thus, after the sudden death of Sullivan's brother Fred, who had created the role of the Learned Judge in Trial by Jury in 1875, the unknown George Grossmith was recruited in 1877. Before Grossmith left the company in 1889, he created the principal comic roles in nine of the operas, and so the principal comedian parts in the operas are often referred to as the "Grossmith" roles. Other performers who created a long series of roles in the original productions of the operas included baritone Rutland Barrington, mezzo-soprano Jessie Bond, soprano Leonora Braham, contralto Rosina Brandram, tenor Durward Lely and bass-baritone Richard Temple. In the original New York City productions and British touring productions, soprano Geraldine Ulmar, baritone Signor Brocolini, comic George Thorne and bass-baritone Fred Billington became particularly well known.

After Grossmith left the company, the most notable players of his roles during the rest of Gilbert's lifetime were Walter Passmore (principal comedian from 1894 to 1903) and Charles H. Workman, who played the roles on tour with the company from 1897 and took over as principal comedian at the Savoy between 1906 and 1909. Both of these performers made recordings of songs from the Savoy operas. During the Passmore era, principal players of the company included Brandram and Barrington, as well as tenor Robert Evett, soprano Isabel Jay, sopranos Ruth Vincent and Florence St. John, tenor Courtice Pounds and his sister, mezzo-soprano Louie Pounds. During Workman's tenure, principal players included contralto Louie René, soprano Clara Dow, Leo Sheffield, and a young Henry Lytton. No complete recordings of the operas were made that included active members of the Company until the 1920s. Workman and W. S. Gilbert quarrelled over their production of Fallen Fairies in 1909, and Gilbert banned Workman from appearing in his works in Britain. It is likely that, otherwise, Workman would have continued as principal comedian of the company. Indeed, Rupert D'Oyly Carte wrote to Workman in 1919 asking him to return to the company as principal comedian, but Workman declined.

From 1909 to 1934, the principal comedian was Henry Lytton, who had been playing a variety of roles with the company steadily since 1887. He received a knighthood for his performances during his long tenure with the company. Lytton's voice deteriorated during his later career, and when HMV embarked on a series of complete recordings of the operas after World War I, Lytton was not invited to record most of his roles. Instead, the concert singer George Baker was brought in to substitute. Other performers from this period include mezzo-soprano Nellie Briercliffe, bass-baritone Darrell Fancourt, whose is estimated to have portrayed the Mikado of Japan more than 3,000 times, contralto Bertha Lewis, tenor Derek Oldham, soprano Elsie Griffin and baritones Leo Sheffield and Sydney Granville.

Lytton was succeeded in 1934 by Martyn Green, who played the principal comic parts until 1951, except for a gap from the end of 1939 to 1946, when Grahame Clifford replaced him. Green's time with the company is remembered for the early Decca recordings of the operas. During Green's tenure, in addition to the long-serving Fancourt, principal players included baritone Richard Walker, soprano Helen Roberts, mezzo-soprano Marjorie Eyre, baritone Leslie Rands and contralto Ella Halman. Green was followed by Peter Pratt. He left the company in 1959, after more than eight years as principal comedian, still only 36 years old. During Pratt's years, principals included bass-baritone Donald Adams, tenor Leonard Osborn (who later directed the productions), contralto Ann Drummond-Grant and mezzo-soprano Joyce Wright.

Pratt's successor was John Reed, who served as principal comedian for two decades. Other stars from this era were Thomas Round, Donald Adams, Gillian Knight, Valerie Masterson and Kenneth Sandford, all of whom, except the last, left the company for the wider operatic stage of Covent Garden, Sadler's Wells, English National Opera, Aix-en-Provence and elsewhere. When Reed left the company in 1979, his understudy James Conroy-Ward took over until the closure of the company in 1982.

From 1988, the revived company used guest artists for each production. The most regularly seen principal comedians were Eric Roberts and Richard Suart, both of whom regularly perform the "Grossmith" roles for other opera companies. Others have included Sam Kelly, Jasper Carrott and Simon Butteriss.