THE D'OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY

Nancy Ray as First Bridesmaid in Trial by Jury

Nancy Ray (1910-38)

[Born Sunderland, Tyne-and-Wear, England 10 Oct 1889, died Northumberland 1978]

Soprano Nancy Ray (born Ann Priscilla Jenkins) was a member of the D'Oyly Carte chorus for the more than twenty-eight years spanning May 1910 (when she joined the D'Oyly Carte Principal Repertory Opera Company) and December 1938--the longest continuous career of any woman in the history of the Company.

Over the years she moved into and out of several smaller parts:First Bridesmaid in Trial by Jury (1927, 1928-36), Isabel in The Pirates of Penzance (1919-22), Fleta in Iolanthe (1919-21 and, on occasion, 1930-31) Lady Ella in Patience (1918-19, 1919-21, 1922-23), Sacharissa in Princess Ida (1913-15, 1918-19, 1919-35), Peep-Bo in The Mikado (1913-15, 1918-19, 1919-21, 1926-27, and, on occasion, 1930-31 and 1935-36), Zorah (1924-25, and, on occasion, 1926 and 1933-34) and Ruth (1925-26 and, on occasion, 1926-27) in Ruddigore, and Fiametta in The Gondoliers (1919, 1920-21).

She was married to fellow D'Oyly Carte chorister William Haskins in the 1910s, and later to chorister Charles Leslie.

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