Durward Lely
Encyclopedia
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
roles in Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
's comic opera
Comic opera
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
s, including Nanki-Poo in The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
.
After studying singing in Italy, Lely began his opera career in 1878, at Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
, as Don José in Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
. After two years of touring in opera, he joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
in 1880, soon becoming their leading tenor. He began there in the role of Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
and went on to create five roles in the famous series of Savoy opera
Savoy opera
The Savoy Operas denote a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte built to house...
s. He remained with the company until 1887.
After this, Lely resumed a grand opera and concert career, appearing often with Adelina Patti
Adelina Patti
Adelina Patti was a highly acclaimed 19th-century opera singer, earning huge fees at the height of her career in the music capitals of Europe and America. She first sang in public as a child in 1851 and gave her last performance before an audience in 1914...
, performing frequently at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
, and touring with the Carl Rosa Opera Company
Carl Rosa Opera Company
The Carl Rosa Opera Company was founded in 1873 by Carl August Nicholas Rosa, a German-born musical impresario, to present opera in English in London and the British provinces. The company survived Rosa's death in 1889, and continued to present opera in English on tour until 1960, when it was...
among others. Late in his career, he appeared in the 1911 film of Rob Roy. Lely outlived nearly all of the singers with whom he had performed at the Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
.
Early life and career
James Durward Lyall was born in ArbroathArbroath
Arbroath or Aberbrothock is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus in Scotland, and has a population of 22,785...
, in the County of Angus
Angus
Angus is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, a registration county and a lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Perth and Kinross and Dundee City...
, Scotland, the son of William Lyall. Lyall senior became factor
Factor (Scotland)
In Scotland a factor is a person or firm charged with superintending or managing properties and estates -- sometimes where the owner or landlord is unable to or uninterested in attending to such details personally, or in tenements in which several owners of individual flats contribute to the...
of Blackcraig Castle near Blairgowrie
Blairgowrie
Blairgowrie is the name of several places in the world:* Blairgowrie and Rattray, United Kingdom* Blairgowrie, Victoria, Australia* Blairgowrie, Gauteng, South Africa...
. He studied singing as a boy. After attending local schools, Durward worked for a firm of solicitors in Blairgowrie. He sang with a local choral society, and a local patron of the arts, impressed by his voice, sent him for training in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
. there, he studied and sang in opera for six years.
Lely made his professional British opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic debut in 1878 at Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
, under the name Signor Leli, and went on to appear as Don José in the British premiere of Bizet's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
at the same theatre and in first English translation of that opera there in 1879 with the Carl Rosa Opera Company
Carl Rosa Opera Company
The Carl Rosa Opera Company was founded in 1873 by Carl August Nicholas Rosa, a German-born musical impresario, to present opera in English in London and the British provinces. The company survived Rosa's death in 1889, and continued to present opera in English on tour until 1960, when it was...
opposite Selina Dolaro
Selina Dolaro
Selina Dolaro was an English singer, actress, theatre manager and writer. During a career in operetta and other forms of musical theatre, she managed several of her own opera companies and raised four children as a single mother...
. While touring subsequently in Carmen with Emily Soldene
Emily Soldene
Emily Soldene was an English singer, actress, director, theatre manager, novelist and journalist of the late Victorian era and the Edwardian period...
's company, Lely became engaged to Alice Frances Hurndall, whom he married early in 1881. After two years on tour, including with the Mapleson
James Henry Mapleson
James Henry Mapleson was an English opera impresario, probably the leading figure instrumental in the development of opera production, and of the careers of singers, in London and New York City in the second half of the 19th century.-Life and career:Mapleson was born in London, England...
Opera Company, he joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
at the Opera Comique
Opera Comique
The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, between Wych Street and Holywell Street with entrances on the East Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway...
. In November 1880, he replaced George Power in the leading tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
role of Frederic in the original London production of The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
. At Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
's recommendation, he adopted the name of Durward Lely. Of his Frederic, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
wrote, "His acting and enunciation of the words, with and without music, leave much to be desired.
Principal tenor
Lely became D'Oyly Carte's principal tenor, creating the leading tenor parts in several Gilbert and Sullivan operas. The first three of these were the Duke of Dunstable in Patience (1881; moving to the Savoy TheatreSavoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
when the company transferred there), Earl Tolloller in Iolanthe
Iolanthe
Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh collaboration of the fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan....
(1882), and Cyril in Princess Ida
Princess Ida
Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. Princess Ida opened at the Savoy Theatre on January 5, 1884, for a run of 246 performances...
(1884). He played Alexis in The Sorcerer
The Sorcerer
The Sorcerer is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It was the British duo's third operatic collaboration. The plot of The Sorcerer is based on a Christmas story, An Elixir of Love, that Gilbert wrote for The Graphic magazine in 1876...
and the Defendant in Trial by Jury
Trial by Jury
Trial by Jury is a comic opera in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its...
when those operas were revived in 1884. In 1885, he created the role of Nanki-Poo in The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
, playing the character until 1887. His role in that opera is dramatised in the 1999 Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh
Michael "Mike" Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s...
film Topsy-Turvy
Topsy-Turvy
Topsy-Turvy is a 1999 musical drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh and stars Allan Corduner as Arthur Sullivan and Jim Broadbent as W. S. Gilbert, along with Timothy Spall and Lesley Manville. The story concerns the 15-month period in 1884 and 1885 leading up to the premiere of Gilbert...
. In the film, Lely is portrayed by Kevin McKidd
Kevin McKidd
Kevin McKidd is a Scottish television and film actor and director. Before playing the role of Owen Hunt in Grey's Anatomy, McKidd starred as Lucius Vorenus in the historical drama series Rome, and provided the voice of Captain John "Soap" Mactavish in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and the sequel...
.
Savoy opera
The Savoy Operas denote a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte built to house...
, Ruddigore
Ruddigore
Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse, originally called Ruddygore, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan...
. In a 1926 article for The Gilbert & Sullivan Journal, Lely recalled how Dauntless's famous hornpipe
Hornpipe
The term hornpipe refers to any of several dance forms played and danced in Britain and elsewhere from the late 17th century until the present day. It is said that hornpipe as a dance began around the 16th century on English sailing vessels...
became a part of the piece:
- At the first music rehearsal, or rather the first time the music was played over to us by Sullivan at the piano we arrived at Dick Dauntless's "Parlez vous" song. After playing it over Sullivan said "That's your song, Lely." Gilbert happened to be seated next to me, and I said quite innocently "It sounds as though a hornpipe should follow." Gilbert grunted. Nothing more was said or thought – at least by me – about the matter. A few days later at rehearsal Gilbert, without any preamble, said "Lely, can you dance a hornpipe?" I was rather taken aback, as I had quite forgotten having spoken about one. So, trying to be funny I suppose, I said "Well, Mr. Gilbert, as the man said when asked if he could play the fiddle, I've never tried so I don't know." Gilbert answered quite seriously "How soon can you know?" – and I said equally seriously – "To-morrow".
After a few efforts, the ballet master confirmed: "Tell Mr. Gilbert you can". According to Lely, upon being so informed, "Gilbert said 'Right, I'll get Sullivan to write you one.'" The Times noted Lely's improved stage persona: "Mr Durward Lely was at first a very awkward actor, and yet, under Mr Gilbert
W. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
's training, developed into the dashing tar in Ruddigore
Ruddigore
Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse, originally called Ruddygore, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan...
'.
Grand opera, concert work and later years
Late in 1887, when the run of Ruddigore ended, Lely left the D'Oyly Carte company and pursued a concert and grand opera career. He appeared with Adelina PattiAdelina Patti
Adelina Patti was a highly acclaimed 19th-century opera singer, earning huge fees at the height of her career in the music capitals of Europe and America. She first sang in public as a child in 1851 and gave her last performance before an audience in 1914...
on numerous occasions, and she said he was her favourite tenor. He frequently sang Don José in Carmen, including appearing opposite Zélie de Lussan
Zélie de Lussan
Zélie de Lussan was an American opera singer of French descent who was successful in her native country but made most of her career in England. The wide range of her voice allowed her to sing both mezzo-soprano and soprano roles. Among de Lussan's most famous roles was the title role in Georges...
at Covent Garden in 1893, and also opposite Minnie Hauk
Minnie Hauk
thumb|Minnie Hauk in a [[cabinet card]] photograph, ca. 1880Amalia Mignon Hauck , was an American operatic soprano....
. The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
wrote of one of his performances in the role, "His acting was pathetic, impressive and natural; his elocution was polished, and he sang delightfully from beginning to end." He had numerous operatic and concert engagements in London and elsewhere between 1890 and 1893. His operatic appearances included several at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
, beginning with the Carl Rosa Opera Company in William Vincent Wallace
William Vincent Wallace
William Vincent Wallace was an Irish composer and musician.-Early life:Wallace was born at Colbeck Street, Waterford, Ireland. Both parents were Irish, his father, of County Mayo, was a regimental bandmaster....
's Lurline as Count Rudolph. In an 1891 interview, while touring with Carl Rosa, Lely stated that he most enjoyed concert work. In 1893, he sang in Goring Thomas's opera The Golden Web at the Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre (London)
The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster.Designed by architect C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier and B. C. Stephenson hit, Dorothy, which he transferred from the Prince of Wales Theatre to open...
. Lely rejoined Patti, touring America with her in 1893–94. With Savoy colleague Richard Temple, he later toured in Rob Roy. He also spent some time performing with his own opera company, performed on tour with Carl Rosa and sang oratorio. In 1905 at the St. James's Theatre he starred in a play called Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush with Henry Ainley
Henry Ainley
Henry Hinchliffe Ainley was an English Shakespearean stage and screen actor. He was married three times to Susanne Sheldon, Elaine Fearon and the novelist Bettina Riddle, later Baroness von Hutten zum Stolzenberg...
and Lilian Braithwaite
Lilian Braithwaite
Dame Lilian Braithwaite DBE , born Florence Lilian Braithwaite, was an English actress.She was the daughter of a clergyman, and born in Ramsgate, Kent. She was educated at Croydon High School, and married actor-manager Gerald Lawrence, first acting with amateur companies...
.
Lely toured with his wife in an entertainment called "Scottish Song and Story" before retiring to Scotland. He also appeared in the 1911 film of Rob Roy
Rob Roy (novel)
Rob Roy is a historical novel by Walter Scott. It is narrated by Frank Osbaldistone, the son of an English merchant who travels first to the North of England, and subsequently to the Scottish Highlands to collect a debt stolen from his father. On the way he encounters the larger-than-life title...
. He became a close friend of fellow D'Oyly Carte principal Henry Lytton
Henry Lytton
Sir Henry Lytton was an English actor and singer who was the leading exponent of the comic patter-baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas in the early part of the twentieth century...
, even though Lytton's long tenure with the company took place mostly after Lely had left it. Lely outlived nearly all of the singers with whom he had performed at the Savoy Theatre, and newspapers referred to him as the last surviving Savoyard, but younger performers in the original runs of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas lived much longer (for example Decima Moore
Decima Moore
Lilian Decima, Lady Moore-Guggisberg, CBE , better known by her stage name Decima Moore, was an English singer and actress, known for her performances in soprano roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and in musical comedies. She was the youngest of ten siblings...
and Nancy McIntosh
Nancy McIntosh
Nancy McIntosh was an American-born singer and actress who performed mostly on the London stage. Her father was a member of the notorious South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, which had been blamed in connection with the 1889 Johnstown Flood that resulted in the loss of over 2,200 lives in...
).
Lely died in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
on 29 February 1944, at the age of 91. The date of his death is ironic for a Gilbert and Sullivan tenor, in that 29 February, leap day, is the birthday of the tenor character, Frederic, in The Pirates of Penzance, which becomes a key plot point. In Act II of the opera, Frederic promises to claim his bride on his 21st birthday, which will not take place until 1940. Lely thus died one "birthday" after that.