THE D'OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY

Stuart Harold (1880)

[Born Philadelphia 12 Jan 1857, died Los Angeles 15 Apr 1918]

Stuart Harold was the stage name of Harry Stocker. He may have made his professional singing debut as a young Captain Corcoran in March 1879 at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. It was an honorable production, manager John T. Ford being the only American producer to pay the composer for performance rights.

Harold next appeared in his native Philadelphia in Febuary 1880 as Samuel in The Pirates of Penzance with D'Oyly Carte's Second American Pirates Company. Harold did not have a role when H.M.S. Pinafore was presented instead of Pirates in Philadelphia (April 12-24), but when the Company arrived in Baltimore on April 26 for a week of Pinafore, Harold assumed the part of Captain Corcoran. It was his only engagement with the Carte organization.

After working with the Alice Oates company in San Francisco, he returned to the East Coast and, in November 1886, made what may have been his New York Stage debut as Florian in a revival of Princess Ida at the Fifth Avenue Theatre under the management of John Stetson. Though not a D'Oyly Carte production, the cast featured several well-known Savoyards including Courtice Pounds and Geraldine Ulmar.

Harold's subsequent New York roles included Pippo in a revival of The Mascot and Sancho Mendingo in a musical work called Big Pony (both Bijou Opera House, 1887), and Miguel in a Mexican comic opera called Jacinta (Harry Miner's Fifth Avenue Theatre, 1894).

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