THE D'OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY

Arnold Breedon as Billee Taylor in Billee Taylor

Arnold Breedon (1881)

[Born Newington, London 1853, died King's Norton, Birmingham 1926]

George Arnold Breedon played the title role in Stephens and Solomon's Billee Taylor, when it was performed by R. D'Oyly Carte and E. E. Rice's First American Billee Taylor Company in New York and Boston from February to June 1881. It was Breedon's only appearance under D'Oyly Carte auspices. Later that month, in a non-D'Oyly Carte production in Boston's Oakland Garden, Rice replaced Breedon with Eugene Clarke who had previously played the role on tour with Carte and Rice's Second Company.

In 1882 Breedon was in England where his parts included Ralph Rackstraw in W. Horace Lingard and W. Luscombe Searelle's lamentable spectacle, The Wreck of the Pinafore, at the Opera Comique (May 27 to 30, four performances). From July 17 to August 5, 1882, he appeared at London's Gaiety in a revival of Billee Taylor, again as the title character. In 1883 he appeared in Manchester and later at the Gaiety in another Searelle effort, a comic opera called Estrella.

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