THE D'OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY

Clara Wisdom (1881, 1882)

[Born Wilmington, Delaware c.1864, died Philadelphia 30 Jun 1912]

Clara T. Wisdom appeared in the chorus with one of two R. D'Oyly Carte and E. E. Rice Opera Companies playing Billee Taylor in America in the spring of 1881. Her name appears in the programme for a benefit matinee put on by the combined companies in New York for Helen Lenoir, May 19, 1881.

In March and April 1882 she was in the chorus of Claude Duval, and probably Patience, when they were produced under D'Oyly Carte management at New York's Standard Theatre. Miss Wisdom also appeared as a chorister in D'Oyly Carte's New York production of Bucalossi's Les Manteaux Noirs (September-October 1882), and was Dan in Carte's cast of Planquette's Rip Van Winkle (October-November 1882), both at the Standard Theatre.

She toured with a variety of opera companies over the next fifteen years, including a stretch in 1891 when she played Katisha in The Mikado and the Duchess of Plaza-Toro in The Gondoliers with W. T. Carleton's Opera Company. Her last role in New York was the Marquise of Villareal in The Queen's Lace Handkerchief with the Castle Square Opera Company (American Theatre, 1897-98).

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