Louisa Pyne

Louisa Bodda-Pyne (27 August 1832 - 20 March 1904) was an English soprano and opera company manager.

She was born Louisa Fanny Pyne in 1832, the youngest daughter of the alto George Pyne (1790–1877)[1]. Her elder sister Susan Pyne was also an accomplished singer and her uncle James Kendrick Pyne (1785–1857) was a tenor[2] whose son and grandson, both named James Kendrick Pyne were distinguished organists [3][4]. She was manager, with the tenor William Harrison, of the Pyne & Harrison Opera Company which toured the Americas in the 1850s. In 1857 she and Harrison founded the "Pyne and Harrison English Opera Company"[5][6] at the Lyceum Theatre, London[7]. It then moved to Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and in 1858, under the name of the Royal English Opera gained a lease of what is now the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden from December 1858 till 1864. She, William Harrison, W. H. Weiss and Madame Weiss formed a new company under E.T. Smith at Astley's Theatre Royal in 1865[8]. She married the singer Frank H. Bodda on 12 October 1868[9]. Her husband died aged 69 on 14 March 1892[10] and she died at her home Cambridge Gardens, North Kensington on 20 March 1904[11].

References

  1. ^ "Marriages", The Times, 20 October 1868, pg. 1
  2. ^ Charles Edward Horn's Memoirs of His Father and Himself, Charles Edward Horn (Author), Michael Kassler (Editor), 2003
  3. ^ "Obituaries, Dr. J. K. Pyne Distinguished Organist", The Times, 5 September 1938, pg. 14
  4. ^ Louisa Pyne, short biography by Dr Michael Burden, New College, Oxford
  5. ^ "Reviews, Lyceum Theatre", The Times, 27 December 1857, pg.10
  6. ^ "Reviews, Lyceum Theatre", The Times, 22 September 1857, pg. 12
  7. ^ "Reviews, Royal English Opera", The Times, 18 October 1864, pg. 12
  8. ^ "Reviews, Astley's Theatre", The Times, 7 June 1865, pg. 12
  9. ^ "Marriages", The Times, 20 October 1868, pg. 1
  10. ^ "Deaths", The Times, 15 March 1892, pg. 1
  11. ^ The Times, 22 March 1904

External links