Isabel Jay

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Isabel Jay, in an April 12, 1901 publicity photo for The Emerald Isle in The Sketch

Isabel Jay (October 17, 1879 – February 26, 1927) was an English opera singer and actress, best known for her performances in soprano roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

1 Life and career
2 Recordings
3 Reference
4 External links

[edit] Life and career

[edit] Early life and D'Oyly Carte years

Isabel Emily Jay was born in Wandsworth, London, the daughter of John Wimburn Jay, an insurance officer, and his wife Isabelle Clara (Wicks). She began to sing in public at the age of twelve. She attended the Royal Academy of Music, where she came to be the first winner of the Gilbert R. Betjemann medal for operatic singing.

On leaving the Academy, in 1897, she joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company with a week-long trial at the Savoy Theatre, singing the part of Elsie Maynard in The Yeomen of the Guard. She immediately became principal soprano in a D'Oyly Carte touring company, playing the roles of Phyllis in Iolanthe, Yum-Yum in The Mikado, Princess Lucilla Chloris in His Majesty, Aline in The Sorcerer, and Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance.

Jay joined the main company at the Savoy in 1898, initially understudying the roles of Gianetta and Casilda in The Gondoliers, and soon took over the role of The Plaintiff in Trial by Jury, winning a favourable review in The Sunday Times. In early 1899, she was cast in the small role of Aloés in The Lucky Star, and she also filled in for Ruth Vincent as Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore.

[edit] Principal soprano

Late in 1899, when Ruth Vincent left the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company — turning down a comparatively minor role in The Rose of Persia to make way for American soprano Ellen Beach Yaw to sing the lead, Sultana Zubeydah, Jay was given the role of Blush-of-Morning. Then, less than two weeks later, when Yaw was released, Jay was promoted to the lead role.

Now the company's leading soprano, she played Mabel in Pirates (1900), again earning good notices, and the title role in the first London revival of Patience; created the roles of Lady Rose Pippin in The Emerald Isle (1901) and the Gipsy Woman in Ib and Little Christina (1901); and played Phyllis in the first London revival of Iolanthe (1901–1902). She left the company in 1902 to marry the African explorer Henry Cavendish, who was later the 6th Baron Waterpark.

[edit] West End career

After giving birth to her first daughter in 1903, Jay returned to the stage, taking over the soprano role in a hit production of Lionel Monckton's A Country Girl. She then starred in one West End production after another — eleven in all — over a period of seven-and-a-half years. The first was The Cingalee (composed by Paul Rubens, in 1904, with Rutland Barrington), followed by André Messager's Véronique in 1905, with Rosina Brandram. In 1905 she was invited to sing before King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra at Chatsworth House, where the Queen presented her with a brooch.

Later that year she was hired by Frank Curzon, a successful theatre manager, who became her mentor. Her first role with Curzon was to star in the long-running production of The White Chrysanthemum at the Criterion in 1905 (with Rutland Barrington and Henry Lytton). Next was The Girl Behind the Counter (1906, with C. Hayden Coffin). By the end of the following year, Jay had split up with her husband. For the next four years, she starred regularly in Curzon's West End productions. These were intended to be spectacular shows, with exotic sets, elaborate costumes and beautiful chorus girls. Successes included Miss Hook of Holland (1906), King of Cadonia (1908), Dear Little Denmark (1909) and The Balkan Princess (1910).

Jay and Curzon married in 1910. After the end of the run of The Balkan Princess in 1911, Jay retired from the stage at only 31 years of age, and she had a second child in 1915. In 1923, Jay appeared in a play of her own authorship, The Inevitable.

[edit] Early death

Jay's health began to deteriorate due to the effects of scarlet fever as a child, and she died, at the age of only 47, in Monte Carlo, having been on a cruise with her husband. In recognition of her achievements, the Royal Academy of Music two years later instituted the Isabel Jay Memorial Prize.

[edit] Recordings

Jay made a number of recordings between 1900 and 1906, mostly from her early musical comedies. She also recorded "Poor Wand'ring One" from Pirates on three occasions, once in 1900 during the Savoy revival, and twice in 1904. One of the 1904 recordings is heard on the Pearl LP and CD sets "The Art of the Savoyard."