THE D'OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY

Harold Wilde as the Duke of Dunstable in Patience

Harold Wilde (1907)

[Born Wigan 16 Sep 1876]

Tenor Harold Wilde was educated in Manchester and at the Royal Academy of Music. Initially primarily a concert artist, he made his first appearance on the London Stage at the Lyceum in December 1899 in a matinee performance of The Magic Flute produced by Richard Temple.

Wilde's only engagement with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company began in February 1907 when he replaced Pacie Ripple as Colonel Fairfax in The Yeomen of the Guard and Marco in The Gondoliers during the First London Repertory Season at the Savoy. When Patience and Iolanthe were added to the repertoire in April and June respectively, Wilde was the Duke of Dunstable and Earl Tolloller. When the Savoy season ended in August 1907, so did Wilde's association with the D'Oyly Carte.

His only subsequent appearances in London theatre programs were in the revues Looking Ahead (Garrick, November-December 1915) and Ooh! La! La! (Queen's, December 1915-February 1916).

Harold Wilde was for more than ten years a member of the Gramophone Company's stable of recording artists. In the years prior to World War I he recorded about fifty songs and ballads including "Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes" from The Gondoliers (Zonophone, 1910), "Is Life a Boon" from Yeomen and "A Wand'ring Minstrel I" from The Mikado (Gramophone, July 1912), and "Free From His Fetters Grim" from Yeomen and "Oh, Is There Not One Maiden Breast" from The Pirates of Penzance (Gramophone, November 1912). He later sang in the chorus of the HMV acoustical recordings of Patience (1921), Iolanthe (1922, taking Tolloller's part in some concerted numbers), H.M.S. Pinafore (1923), and Princess Ida (1925).

After retiring from the public platform, Wilde pursued a teaching career, giving "private tuition in voice production, singing, elocution, public speaking, and stage deportment" in Brixton at least until 1932.

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