THE D'OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY

Reginald White (1902-06)

Reginald White was a reportedly a baritone chorister with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company that toured South Africa from April 1902 to May 1903. Upon his return he joined D'Oyly Carte Opera Company "E" and, between June and December, appeared as First Citizen in The Yeomen of the Guard. Company "E" was disbanded in December 1903, and White may then have joined the remaining D'Oyly Carte Principal Repertory Opera Company.

In July 1904, following G. Villiers Arnold's departure, White took over the roles of Usher in Trial by Jury, Major Murgatroyd in Patience, and Annibale in The Gondoliers, and was made understudy to principal comedian C. Herbert Workman, for whom he deputized as the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe in 1904-05.

White remained with the Company until July 1906, playing the Usher, the Major, and Annibale for the length of his stay, and First Citizen in Yeomen beginning with the December 1905-February 1906 South Africa tour. He also filled in for Workman again in February (as Ko-Ko in The Mikado and Jack Point in Yeomen) and November 1905 (as Sir Joseph Porter in H.M.S. Pinafore and the Duke of Plaza-Toro in Gondoliers).

After leaving the D'Oyly Carte, White had one role on the London Stage. He was the second of two singers to take that part of Ptolemy Theopompus Allakama in Fenn & Faraday's comic opera Amasis (New and Criterion Theatres, August 1906-February 1907).

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