THE D'OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY

Kathleen Anderson as Fiametta in The Gondoliers

Kathleen Anderson (1922-26)

[Born 26 Sep 1895]

Kathleen Anderson’s debut on the London Stage was as the Fairy Queen in a Drury Lane Harlequinade, Puss in New Boots, on Boxing Day 1916. She appears to have spent the next several years on tour, starring in the title role in a comic opera Violette in 1918.

She joined the D’Oyly Carte Repertory Opera Company in the 1922-23 season and quickly assumed the roles of the Plaintiff in Trial by Jury, Lady Ella in Patience (a role she shared with Helene François and Nancy Ray), Lady Psyche in Princess Ida, Zorah in Ruddigore (a role she shared with Marguerite Kynaston), and Fiametta in The Gondoliers (a role she shared with Helene François).

For the following season, she yielded Ella and Zorah and added Celia in Iolanthe, Peep-Bo in The Mikado (a role she shared with Aileen Davies), and Ruth in Ruddigore while occasionally substituting as Casilda in The Gondoliers. She began the 1924-25 season singing only Lady Psyche and (on occasion) Fiametta, the Plaintiff, and Ruth in Ruddigore. It was during that season that D’Oyly Carte recorded Princess Ida with Kathleen Anderson as Psyche, her only recorded role with the Company.

In January 1925, she transferred to the "New" Company, replacing Alison Stewart in the principal soprano roles of Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore, and Elsie Maynard in The Yeomen of the Guard.

Still with the "New" Company the following season, she appeared as Patience in Patience, Phyllis in Iolanthe, and Rose Maybud in Ruddigore until January 1926 when she, along with Anna Bethell, Winifred Williamson, Sydney Granville, and James Hay, sailed for Australia.

A Index  |  "Who Was Who" Homepage