THE D'OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY

Albert Christian

Albert Christian (1883-85)

[Died London 16 Jun 1915]

Albert Christian made his D'Oyly Carte debut on tour with Mr. D'Oyly Carte's No. 2 "Patience" Company, replacing Frederick Federici as Colonel Calverley in February 1883.He would transfer to Carte's "E" Company in March 1884, playing the Colonel in Patience and Strephon in Iolanthe until May 1885.At that point, "E" Company gave the First Provincial production of The Mikado with Christian as Pooh-Bah, and began touring The Mikado exclusively.

In September 1885 he transferred again, this time to Carte's "C" (Repertory) Company, appearing as the Counsel to the Plaintiff in Trial by Jury, Doctor Daly in The Sorcerer, the Sergeant of Police in The Pirates of Penzance, Archibald Grosvenor in Patience, and (from November onward) Dick Deadeye in H.M.S. Pinafore.He left the D'Oyly Carte organization in December 1885 when "C" Company was disbanded.

Christian would go on to appear as Squire Bantam in Alfred Cellier's smash Dorothy, both in London and on tour, and in 1888 was Mateo in a comic opera called La Serenata, produced at the Prince's Theatre, Manchester.

He would leave the comic opera stage shortly thereafter to pursue a career in the music halls.Christian specialized in military songs, achieving his greatest success as the original exponent of the famous song "The Soldiers of the Queen," written and composed by Leslie Stuart.

Christian was married to fellow D'Oyly Carte and music hall artist Katie Cohen.When they toured America with Lottie Collins ("Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay") in 1893, he was billed as "D'Oyly Carte's leading baritone." His brother, Reginald Christian, had brief appearences in several tenor leads on D'Oyly Carte tours between 1882 and 1884.

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