THE D'OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY

G. W. Traverner (1882)

[Born Rye 1 Oct 1845, died Brighton 1935]

George W. Traverner was a principal tenor with Mr. D'Oyly Carte's "Claude Duval" Company from January to March 1882, and Carte's No. 1 "Pirates" Company from April to August of that year. His roles were Charles Lorrimore in Claude Duval and Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance. He had toured the previous year in a Charles Wyndham and D'Oyly Carte presentation of Olivette.

Traverner spent much of the 1880s and early 1890s in America where his repertoire included non-D'Oyly Carte productions of Iolanthe, The Mikado, Ruddygore, The Yeomen of the Guard, The Gondoliers, and a John Philip Sousa adaptation of The Contrabandista retitled Smugglers.

In England he was engaged by Violet Melnotte to create the role of Chevalier Georges de Lauvenay in Felix Remo & Ivan Caryll's comic opera The Lily of Leoville at the Grand Theatre, Birmingham, in May 1886. When the work transferred to London's Comedy Theatre later that month, however, Traverner collapsed on dress-rehearsal night and was unable to go on. He was replaced for the London opening by Henry Bracy.

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