THE D'OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY

Maud Digby

Maud Digby (1877)

[Born St. Helier, Jersey 6 May 1855, died Epping 1950]

Leonida Maude Vickery studied singing as a child in Australia, where she made her first stage appearance as a juvenile accompanist to a concert party. She made her first appearance in operetta at the Opera House, Melbourne, where her roles included the Plaintiff in Trial by Jury. She married Christchurch newspaper editor Frank Henry Digby.

Mr and Mrs. Digby then traveled to England where she played a Tea-woman in Richard D'Oyly Carte's one-act "musical pastoral" Happy Hampstead when it was produced under Carte's and Kate Santley's management at the Royalty Theatre, London, from January 13 to February 9, 1877.It was her only engagement under D'Oyly Carte management.

In 1879 she became a member of George Coppin's Company appearing in dramas such as Henry V, The Woman in White, and No Name.She later made a long tour of New Zealand where she not only performed but also sub-edited a weekly paper for three months. During Coppin's "farewell performances" in Adelaide she reportedly played 35 parts in a month.Miss Digby returned to Great Britain in 1886 and spent most of the next ten years on tour. Her last engagement in London was as Adele de Vernois in a single matinee performance of a one-act comedy, Betrayed by a Kiss, at the Opera Comique, May 5, 1891. She continued to perform at least until 1896 when she fulfilled a stock engagement at the Princess's Theatre, Glasgow.

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