Elsie Griffin
Encyclopedia
Elsie Griffin was an English opera singer, best known for her performances in the soprano
roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
.
Beginning her career by entertaining British troops in France during World War I
, she popularized such songs as Danny Boy
. She was a principal soprano
with the D'Oyly Carte from 1919 to 1926, also recording several of her roles with the company both during that time and afterwards. She married another D'Oyly Carte performer, J. Ivan "Jimmy" Menzies, in 1923. She continued her singing and acting careers into the 1950s, including tours with the Carl Rosa Opera Company
from 1934 to 1937.
, England, and sang onstage as a child prodigy. She was joint winner in the mezzo-soprano
category at the Bristol Music Festival in 1914. During World War I
, she made her professional debut in the concerts of Lena Ashwell
's company, formed at the request of King George V
, singing concerts to entertain Britain's troops in France. John Arlott
wrote of her, "Hers was the voice in Fred Weatherly
's songs, Danny Boy
and Roses of Picardy
, that is preserved in the mind's ear of surviving 1914–18 trench fodder." Her performances of these two songs made them into two of the most popular hits of the era.
After further concert work in 1918, Griffin was engaged by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
in 1919, immediately appearing on tour in the leading roles of Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore
and Gianetta in The Gondoliers
, and in the smaller part of Kate in The Yeomen of the Guard
. She soon added (sometimes sharing) the leading roles of Aline in The Sorcerer
, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance
and Phyllis in Iolanthe
. She also briefly played the small role of Lady Ella in Patience
. She was immediately singled out for praise: The Observer
called her "a vocalist of real distinction". Her colleague, Derek Oldham
said of her Mabel, "Every note dead in its centre, every run as clear as a whistle, and the whole number sung with an ease and mastery which has never been bettered." In 1921, she added the roles of Yum-Yum in The Mikado
and Rose Maybud in Ruddigore
.
In 1923, Griffin married fellow D'Oyly Carte artiste Ivan Menzies
. The couple had a daughter, Mahala Menzies. She continued to play or share these principal soprano roles and sometimes the two smaller ones, finally adding to her repertoire the part of Casilda in The Gondoliers in 1925. She played Yum-Yum in the company's four-minute silent promotional film of The Mikado in 1926. In 1927, she left the company but returned from time to time to participate in recordings.
In 1929, Griffin appeared at the Playhouse Theatre
in The Rose and the Ring. She performed frequently in concerts, oratorio and variety, giving on one occasion at the London Coliseum "a not over-exhilarating exhibition of that after dinner, drawing room type of singing which is happily a thing of the past." As a broadcaster, Griffin was continually engaged by the BBC in a range of work from light duets, comic duets (with her husband), and solos, to opera, appearing in broadcasts of Delibes
's comic opera Le roi l'a dit
with Heddle Nash
and George Baker
, and Carmen
.
Griffin appeared in a British tour of Wild Violets, and toured in South Africa in Gilbert and Sullivan
operas and in Lilac Time
in 1933 with the J. C. Williamson
company. She also toured with the Carl Rosa Opera Company
from 1934 to 1937, singing leading roles in Die Fledermaus
, The Barber of Seville
, Carmen, Romeo and Juliet
, The Tales of Hoffmann, Faust
and The Elixir of Love
. Her last stage role was in The Vanishing Island, a Moral Re-Armament
musical, in which she and her husband toured around the world from 1955 until 1957. Despite chronic illness, in 1975, during the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's centennial season, Griffin and her husband participated in the final performance of Trial by Jury
, in which the company's regular chorus was augmented by fourteen former stars of the company.
Griffin died in Blackheath, Surrey
, in 1989, aged 94.
said, "It is Elsie Griffin, however, with her deliciously fresh and effortless singing, who demands – and receives – the big bouquet. Her "Poor Wandering One" is a sheer joy – brilliant but never shrill, and with trills that would not discredit the great Galli-Curci
herself." When the 1929 recording was reissued on LP in 1981, a critic for The New York Times
wrote that her "'secure coloratura and bell-like purity of tone' made her the definitive Mabel."
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
roles of the Savoy Operas with 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...
.
Beginning her career by entertaining British troops in France during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, she popularized such songs as Danny Boy
Danny Boy
-Background:The words to "Danny Boy" were written by English lawyer and lyricist Frederic Weatherly in 1910. Although the lyrics were originally written for a different tune, Weatherly modified them to fit the "Londonderry Air" in 1913, after his sister-in-law in the U.S. sent him a copy. Ernestine...
. She was a principal soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
with the D'Oyly Carte from 1919 to 1926, also recording several of her roles with the company both during that time and afterwards. She married another D'Oyly Carte performer, J. Ivan "Jimmy" Menzies, in 1923. She continued her singing and acting careers into the 1950s, including tours 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...
from 1934 to 1937.
Life and career
Elsie Griffin was born in BristolBristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, England, and sang onstage as a child prodigy. She was joint winner in the mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
category at the Bristol Music Festival in 1914. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, she made her professional debut in the concerts of Lena Ashwell
Lena Ashwell
Lena Ashwell, OBE was a British actress and manager, known as the first to organize large-scale entertainment for troops at the front, which she did during World War I....
's company, formed at the request of King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
, singing concerts to entertain Britain's troops in France. John Arlott
John Arlott
Leslie Thomas John Arlott OBE was an English journalist, author and cricket commentator for the BBC's Test Match Special. He was also a poet, wine connoisseur and former police officer in Hampshire...
wrote of her, "Hers was the voice in Fred Weatherly
Frederick Weatherly
Frederic Edward Weatherly was an English lawyer, author, lyricist and broadcaster. He is estimated to have written the lyrics to at least 3,000 popular songs, among the best-known of which are the sentimental ballad Danny Boy set to the tune Londonderry Air, the religious "The Holy City", and the...
's songs, Danny Boy
Danny Boy
-Background:The words to "Danny Boy" were written by English lawyer and lyricist Frederic Weatherly in 1910. Although the lyrics were originally written for a different tune, Weatherly modified them to fit the "Londonderry Air" in 1913, after his sister-in-law in the U.S. sent him a copy. Ernestine...
and Roses of Picardy
Roses of Picardy
Roses of Picardy is a wartime ballad written by lyricist Frederick Weatherly while he was an army officer in 1916. Set to music by Haydn Wood, it was one of the most famous songs from World War I....
, that is preserved in the mind's ear of surviving 1914–18 trench fodder." Her performances of these two songs made them into two of the most popular hits of the era.
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 1919, immediately appearing on tour in the leading roles of Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
and Gianetta in The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances , closing on 30 June 1891...
, and in the smaller part of Kate in The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard; or, The Merryman and His Maid, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888, and ran for 423 performances...
. She soon added (sometimes sharing) the leading roles of Aline 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...
, Mabel 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 Phyllis 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....
. She also briefly played the small role of Lady Ella in Patience
Patience (opera)
Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride, is a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. First performed at the Opera Comique, London, on 23 April 1881, it moved to the 1,292-seat Savoy Theatre on 10 October 1881, where it was the first theatrical production in the...
. She was immediately singled out for praise: 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,...
called her "a vocalist of real distinction". Her colleague, Derek Oldham
Derek Oldham
Derek Oldham was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....
said of her Mabel, "Every note dead in its centre, every run as clear as a whistle, and the whole number sung with an ease and mastery which has never been bettered." In 1921, she added the roles of Yum-Yum 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...
and Rose Maybud 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...
.
In 1923, Griffin married fellow D'Oyly Carte artiste Ivan Menzies
Ivan Menzies
J. Ivan "Jimmy" Menzies was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the comic baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in Britain in the 1920s and the J. C. Williamson Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company in Australia the 1930s and 1940s.Menzies...
. The couple had a daughter, Mahala Menzies. She continued to play or share these principal soprano roles and sometimes the two smaller ones, finally adding to her repertoire the part of Casilda in The Gondoliers in 1925. She played Yum-Yum in the company's four-minute silent promotional film of The Mikado in 1926. In 1927, she left the company but returned from time to time to participate in recordings.
In 1929, Griffin appeared at the Playhouse Theatre
Playhouse Theatre
The Playhouse Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, located in Northumberland Avenue, near Trafalgar Square. The Theatre was built by F. H. Fowler and Hill with a seating capacity of 1,200. It was rebuilt in 1907 and still retains its original substage machinery...
in The Rose and the Ring. She performed frequently in concerts, oratorio and variety, giving on one occasion at the London Coliseum "a not over-exhilarating exhibition of that after dinner, drawing room type of singing which is happily a thing of the past." As a broadcaster, Griffin was continually engaged by the BBC in a range of work from light duets, comic duets (with her husband), and solos, to opera, appearing in broadcasts of Delibes
Léo Delibes
Clément Philibert Léo Delibes was a French composer of ballets, operas, and other works for the stage...
's comic opera Le roi l'a dit
Le roi l'a dit
Le roi l'a dit is an opéra comique in three acts by Léo Delibes to a French libretto by Edmond Gondinet. It is a lively comedy, remarkably requiring 14 singers – six men and eight women...
with Heddle Nash
Heddle Nash
William Heddle Nash was an English lyric tenor who appeared in opera and oratorio in the middle decades of the twentieth century. He also made numerous recordings that are still available on CD reissues....
and George Baker
George Baker (record singer)
George Baker was an English singer. He is remembered for singing on thousands of gramophone records in a career that spanned 53 years, beginning in 1909...
, and 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...
.
Griffin appeared in a British tour of Wild Violets, and toured in South Africa 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...
operas and in Lilac Time
Lilac Time
Lilac Time can refer to:*Das Dreimäderlhaus, a 1922 operetta also produced under the name Lilac Time*The Lilac Time, a British alternative rock band...
in 1933 with the J. C. Williamson
J. C. Williamson
James Cassius Williamson was an American actor and later Australia's foremost theatrical manager, founding J. C. Williamson Ltd....
company. She also toured 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...
from 1934 to 1937, singing leading roles in Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
, The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
, Carmen, Romeo and Juliet
Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette is an opéra in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique , Paris on 27 April 1867...
, The Tales of Hoffmann, Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
and The Elixir of Love
L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore is an opera by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. It is a melodramma giocoso in two acts...
. Her last stage role was in The Vanishing Island, a Moral Re-Armament
Moral Re-Armament
Moral Re-Armament was an international Christian moral and spiritual movement that, in 1938, developed from the American minister Frank Buchman's Oxford Group. Buchman, a Lutheran, headed MRA for 23 years, from 1938 until his death in 1961...
musical, in which she and her husband toured around the world from 1955 until 1957. Despite chronic illness, in 1975, during the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's centennial season, Griffin and her husband participated in the final performance of 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...
, in which the company's regular chorus was augmented by fourteen former stars of the company.
Griffin died in Blackheath, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, in 1989, aged 94.
Recordings
Griffin was an experienced recording artist by the time she joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Her recordings with the company included Rose Maybud and Zorah in Ruddigore (1924) and Yum-Yum in The Mikado (1926). She also sang Yum-Yum in a BBC radio broadcast with D'Oyly Carte that year. After she left the company, she returned to record Mabel in Pirates (1929), Kate in Yeomen (1929) and Josephine in Pinafore (1930). Her 1929 recording of "Poor Wandering One" from the Pirates set, when released separately, was voted the best British gramophone solo that year, and a review in The GramophoneThe Gramophone
Gramophone is a magazine published monthly in London by Haymarket devoted to classical music and jazz, particularly recordings. It was founded in 1923 by the Scottish author Compton Mackenzie...
said, "It is Elsie Griffin, however, with her deliciously fresh and effortless singing, who demands – and receives – the big bouquet. Her "Poor Wandering One" is a sheer joy – brilliant but never shrill, and with trills that would not discredit the great Galli-Curci
Amelita Galli-Curci
Amelita Galli-Curci was an Italian operatic soprano. She was one of the best-known coloratura singers of the early 20th century with her gramophone records selling in large numbers.-Early life:...
herself." When the 1929 recording was reissued on LP in 1981, a critic for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote that her "'secure coloratura and bell-like purity of tone' made her the definitive Mabel."