THE D'OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY

Aileen Burke as Princess Nekaya in Utopia Limited

Aileen Burke (1893-94)

[Born Calcutta 14 Feb 1873, died London Aug 1939]

Aileen Burke was engaged to play Nekaya in the first Provincial production of Utopia Limited with D'Oyly Carte Opera Company "E" in December 1893. In March 1894, she left Company "E" to play the same role with Carte's American Utopia Company first in New York, and then Boston. When that tour ended on June 1, 1894, it appears her association with the D'Oyly Carte organization ended as well, though not her career in Gilbert & Sullivan. She was immediately engaged by Duff's Opera Company to play Pitti-Sing in a revival of The Mikado at Boston's Tremont Theatre.

Later that year she appeared in New York as Panilla in Jacinta, "a Mexican Comic Opera," with the Louise Beaudet Opera Bouffe Company (Miner's Fifth Avenue, November-December 1894). She also appeared in New York as the Duchess de Parthenay in a short-lived revival of The Little Duke (Abbey's, April 1896).

When she returned to England it was with a new identity. Aileen Burke was no more, replaced by Mdlle. Aileen d'Orme, a Paris-educated "pupil of Marchesi." In March 1897, when she created the role of Zillah in The Yashmak at the Shaftsbury Theatre, she was falsely billed as "making her stage debut." Nobody seemed the wiser, and Miss d'Orme would go on to become a major player in West End musical comedy. Her many star turns would include Princess Mehelaneh in A Country Girl opposite Rutland Barrington (Daly's Theatre, 1903), and, much later and most famously, as Alcolom in Chu Chin Chow opposite Courtice Pounds (His Majesty's, 1916).

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