Leonora Braham

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Leonora Braham
Leonora Braham

Leonora Braham (February 3, 1853 – November 23, 1931) was an English opera singer and actress primarily known as the creator of principal soprano roles in the Gilbert & Sullivan comic operas.

Contents

[edit] Life and career

Leonora Lucy Abraham was born into a Jewish family in Bloomsbury, London.

[edit] Early career

Braham made her professional stage debut in 1870 at St. George's Hall, London, in a revival of Gilbert and Clay's Ages Ago with Mr. and Mrs. German Reed, for which she received encouraging notices.[1] She remained with the German Reeds for several years, but moved to Montreal with her first husband, Frederick E Lucy Barnes, in 1878. In 1879, she played the title role in Gilbert and Clay's Princess Toto in New York and, later, in Boston. In 1880 she appeared as Dolly in Alfred Cellier's The Sultan of Mocha, again in New York. Her husband committed suicide in 1880 North America.[2]

[edit] Principal D'Oyly Carte soprano

Braham as Patience
Braham as Patience

Upon returning to England, Braham rejoined the German Reeds briefly, and then was chosen to create the title role in Patience at the Opera Comique with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1881, in which she received excellent notices.[3] She remained the company's principal soprano through 1887, creating the roles of Phyllis in Iolanthe (1882), Princess Ida in Princess Ida (1884). She was initially cast to sing the role of Lady Psyche in this opera, but was promoted during the rehearsal period, when the original choice for the part, American Lillian Russell, had a disagreement with W. S. Gilbert and was dismissed. Braham, generally regarded as a light lyric soprano, nevertheless received good notices in the demanding role. She also created the roles of Yum-Yum in The Mikado (1885—perhaps her best-known role), and Rose Maybud in Ruddigore (1887). Braham also played Aline in The Sorcerer in the 1884–85 revival.

Braham's struggles with alcoholism are portrayed in the 1999 biographical film Topsy-Turvy, and during the run of The Mikado she was threatened with dismissal for this reason. During the summer of 1886, she secretly married J. Duncan Young, previously a principal tenor with the company, and Carte soon had another reason to dismiss the actress. By early 1887, shortly into the run of Ruddigore, Braham announced that she was pregnant. This was not acceptable, particularly as the chorus sings to her prim and proper character in Ruddigore, Rose Maybud, "Rose, all glowing with virgin blushes, say: 'Is anybody going to marry you today'?" She shortly left the Savoy, and Geraldine Ulmar was hastily called back from America to assume the role.[4] Braham created more of the Gilbert and Sullivan heroines than any other soprano, and she was the only English soprano to create such roles.[5]

[edit] Peripatetic performer

Braham, her husband and children traveled to Australia later in 1887, appearing there in a number of operas including Princess Ida, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Mikado, Patience, and Iolanthe with J. C. Williamson's opera company (along with other ex-D'Oyly Carte players such as Alice Barnett) and in Alfred Cellier's Dorothy, in the title role.[6] The Argus of Melbourne wrote of her first Australian performance, that she was "Petite in form, animated and graceful in bearing, displaying colloquial tones of sonorous quality and polite inflexion, and having a singing voice both sweet and full, and of high soprano range. Miss Braham got through an arduous first appearance with complete success." She was back in England from 1888 to 1890, on stage in London and the provinces, in works other than Gilbert and Sullivan.

In 1890, and then again in 1891-92, Braham and her family (including two children under the age of four), together with other D'Oyly Carte regulars, including R. Scott Fishe, went to South America with the Edwin Cleary Opera Company, entertaining audiences in Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Valparaiso, Lima, Rio de Janeiro and other cities. Braham played Yum-Yum in The Mikado, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, Aline in The Sorcerer, the title roles in Patience, Dorothy, Erminie and Pepita, and in Billie Taylor.[7] Braham received generally good notices. The Standard said of her Dorothy in Buenos Aires, "if her portrayal of the wayward English heiress is not perfect, then I say emphatically there is no perfection in this imperfect world."[8] The company was shipwrecked off the west coast of South America in the middle of the tour, losing most of their possessions (but no lives were lost), and Braham's husband injured his arm.[9] However, undeterred by the perils of ocean travel, Braham and family soon embarked on two years of touring in South Africa with a repertoire of operas including Gilbert and Sullivan.

In 1895 Braham was back in London, appearing at Daly's Theatre in An Artist's Model. She was then engaged by D'Oyly Carte again in 1896 to play Julia Jellicoe in The Grand Duke on tour. She also played Phoebe in The Yeomen of the Guard and Yum-Yum in The Mikado for portions of the tour, which was to be her last with D'Oyly Carte.

[edit] Later career and retirement

From 1897 to 1912, Braham continued to perform in London, the British provinces, and New York. On Broadway, she played Donna Adelina Gonzales in Because She Loved Him So at Hoyt's Theatre on Broadway in 1899.[10]

In retirement, she retained her interest in Gilbert and Sullivan, and wrote of her G&S memories, "Happy Wanderings of a Savoyard," in The Gilbert & Sullivan Journal (October 1926). In March 1930 she participated with Jessie Bond and Sybil Grey in a Gilbert & Sullivan Society 45th reunion of the original "Three Little Maids from School." Her last years were difficult, however. Her husband was confined to a mental hospital, and Braham was living in poverty at the time of her death in 1931.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Includes a quote about Braham from a review of Ages Ago.
  2. ^ Information about Braham's first husband
  3. ^ review of Patience
  4. ^ Information about Braham's second husband, J. Duncan Young
  5. ^ Ainger, p. 445
  6. ^ Information about some performances of Braham in Australia
  7. ^ Lamb, p. 30
  8. ^ Lamb, p. 33
  9. ^ Lamb, p. 41
  10. ^ Information from the IBDB database

[edit] References

  • Ainger, Michael (2002). Gilbert and Sullivan, a Dual Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195147693. 
  • Ayre, Leslie (1972). The Gilbert & Sullivan Companion. London: W.H. Allen & Co Ltd.  Introduction by Martyn Green.
  • A detailed account of Braham's life and career is contained in a series of articles by Robert Binder in The Palace Peeper, newsletter of the New York branch of the Gilbert & Sullivan Society, running from October 1982 to April 1983.
  • Lamb, Andrew. "Comic Opera Goes Latin-American, 1890-92: Part 2" in The Gaiety, Winter 2006, pp. 29-47.
  • Leonora Braham at Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte
  • Profile of Braham

[edit] External links