Walter H. Fisher
Encyclopedia
Walter Henry Fisher was an English singer and actor of the Victorian era
best known as a member of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
and the creator of the role of the Defendant in Gilbert and Sullivan
's 1875 opera Trial by Jury
. Beginning with much promise both in drama and as a versatile singer in opera, Fisher's career was limited by his struggle with alcoholism.
, Fisher was the son of James Fisher (born 1812), a miniature artist and photographer. Fisher was performing as early as 1866 in Bristol in Guy Mannering as Henry Bertram, followed by other roles at that theatre, such as Laertes in Hamlet
, Malcolm in Macbeth
and Sir William Brandon in Richard III
. He began his professional stage career in 1868 at Plymouth
, at the Theatre Royal, in F. C. Burnand's burlesque Paris. Soon afterwards, he joined Captain Disney Roebuck's touring company, where he met his future wife Lottie Venne
. He first appeared in London in 1872 as Ambroise in Broken Spells at the Court Theatre
.
The next year, in the same house, he played The Right Honourable Mr. G, an impersonation of W. E. Gladstone
, in W. S. Gilbert
's burlesque The Happy Land
. Fisher's interpretation of Gladstone was appreciated by audiences but was revised on the order of the Lord Chamberlain
. Fisher then continued to play in comedy roles but made his first London appearance in light opera as Maraschino in Giroflé-Girofla
at the Opera Comique
in 1874. The Observer
wrote of his performance, "It was for him a hazardous task to essay a character which is identified with Mario Widmer, one of the most fascinating jeunes premieres at present on the stage: and it is gratifying to say that Mr. Fisher suffered little if at all by comparison". Fisher's good looks and pleasing voice led him to a promising early career "at the Philharmonic, Royalty, Olympic and other theatres [where] he became the original exponent of many notable operatic and dramatic works. By Messrs. Montague, James and Thorne, he was selected [to create] the part of Jack Wyatt (Two Roses) in the provinces."
Fisher joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
in 1875 and was the original Defendant in Gilbert and Sullivan
’s Trial by Jury
at the Royalty Theatre
. He also played Piquillo, the tenor
lead, in the accompanying presentation of Jacques Offenbach
's La Périchole
. Rutland Barrington
wrote of Fisher, "He had a charming and sympathetic voice, and was one of the very few tenors it has been my good fortune to meet who could act as well as sing." Fisher repeated the roles of the Defendant and Piquillo through the 1875-76 season, and on tour in 1876 with Richard D'Oyly Carte
, he played the Defendant, Piquillo and a leading tenor role in La fille de Madame Angot
. He also played the Costermonger in Carte's own one-act operetta, Happy Hampstead. During this engagement, however, he "became unreliable" (a euphemism for alcoholism) and was asked to leave the D'Oyly Carte company. In 1879, Fisher was back in London playing in Tita in Thibet
as Brum opposite Kate Santley
at the Royalty. The next year he was Hector in Madame Favart
. In 1881, he toured in the title role of Billee Taylor
and appeared in Bristol with his old company.
at the Globe Theatre
in 1882. He next appeared with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in the baritone
role of Archibald Grosvenor in Patience
with Carte's principal touring company in the Autumn of 1883. After another break from the company (he was again in Bristol for part of this period), he reappeared with a D'Oyly Carte touring company in 1887. He was soon playing other baritone roles, Captain Corcoran in H.M.S. Pinafore
and Samuel in The Pirates of Penzance
, on tour until June 1888. He then returned to tenor parts, touring as Frederic in Pirates and Nanki-Poo in The Mikado
until September 1888. The next year, Fisher had another engagement with a Carte touring company in 1889 in The Yeomen of the Guard
as Leonard Meryll, filling in as Colonel Fairfax for the last week of the tour in December 1889. The Manchester Guardian called his Leonard, "excellent … a great improvement on what we have previously seen and heard in the part."
Fisher married comedienne Lottie Venne
, with whom he had appeared on tour and in The Happy Land. Their children were the actor Tom Shelford (H. J. Ford) and the actress Audrey Ford (later Mrs. James Welch).
Fisher died during the 1890s.
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
best known as a member of 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...
and the creator of the role of the Defendant 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 1875 opera 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...
. Beginning with much promise both in drama and as a versatile singer in opera, Fisher's career was limited by his struggle with alcoholism.
Early years
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...
, Fisher was the son of James Fisher (born 1812), a miniature artist and photographer. Fisher was performing as early as 1866 in Bristol in Guy Mannering as Henry Bertram, followed by other roles at that theatre, such as Laertes in Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, Malcolm in Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
and Sir William Brandon in Richard III
Richard III (play)
Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
. He began his professional stage career in 1868 at Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
, at the Theatre Royal, in F. C. Burnand's burlesque Paris. Soon afterwards, he joined Captain Disney Roebuck's touring company, where he met his future wife Lottie Venne
Lottie Venne
Lottie Venne was a British comedienne, actress and singer of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, who enjoyed a theatre career spanning five decades. Venne began her stage career in musical burlesque before moving into farce and comedy. She appeared in several works by each of F. C. Burnand and W. S...
. He first appeared in London in 1872 as Ambroise in Broken Spells at the Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
.
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
, in W. S. 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 burlesque The Happy Land
The Happy Land
The Happy Land is a play with music written in 1873 by W. S. Gilbert and Gilbert Arthur à Beckett. The musical play burlesques Gilbert's earlier play, The Wicked World...
. Fisher's interpretation of Gladstone was appreciated by audiences but was revised on the order of the Lord Chamberlain
Lord Chamberlain
The Lord Chamberlain or Lord Chamberlain of the Household is one of the chief officers of the Royal Household in the United Kingdom and is to be distinguished from the Lord Great Chamberlain, one of the Great Officers of State....
. Fisher then continued to play in comedy roles but made his first London appearance in light opera as Maraschino in Giroflé-Girofla
Giroflé-Girofla
Giroflé Girofla is an opéra bouffe in three acts of 1874 with music by Charles Lecocq. The French libretto was by Albert Vanloo and Eugène Leterrier.-Performance history:...
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 1874. 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 his performance, "It was for him a hazardous task to essay a character which is identified with Mario Widmer, one of the most fascinating jeunes premieres at present on the stage: and it is gratifying to say that Mr. Fisher suffered little if at all by comparison". Fisher's good looks and pleasing voice led him to a promising early career "at the Philharmonic, Royalty, Olympic and other theatres [where] he became the original exponent of many notable operatic and dramatic works. By Messrs. Montague, James and Thorne, he was selected [to create] the part of Jack Wyatt (Two Roses) in the provinces."
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 1875 and was the original Defendant 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 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...
at the Royalty Theatre
Royalty Theatre
The Royalty Theatre was a small London theatre situated at 73 Dean Street, Soho and opened on 25 May 1840 as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School and finally closed to the public in 1938. The architect was Samuel Beazley, a resident in Soho Square, who also designed St James's Theatre, among...
. He also played Piquillo, the 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...
lead, in the accompanying presentation of Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
's La Périchole
La Périchole
La Périchole is an opéra bouffe in three acts by Jacques Offenbach. Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote the French-language libretto based on the 1829 one act play Le carrosse du Saint-Sacrement by Prosper Mérimée, which was revived on 13 March 1850 at the Théâtre-Français...
. Rutland Barrington
Rutland Barrington
Rutland Barrington was an English singer, actor, comedian, and Edwardian musical comedy star. Best remembered for originating the lyric baritone roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas from 1877 to 1896, his performing career spanned more than four decades...
wrote of Fisher, "He had a charming and sympathetic voice, and was one of the very few tenors it has been my good fortune to meet who could act as well as sing." Fisher repeated the roles of the Defendant and Piquillo through the 1875-76 season, and on tour in 1876 with Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era...
, he played the Defendant, Piquillo and a leading tenor role in La fille de Madame Angot
La fille de Madame Angot
La fille de Madame Angot is an opéra comique in three acts by Charles Lecocq. The French text was by Clairville, Paul Siraudin and Victor Koning.-Performance history:...
. He also played the Costermonger in Carte's own one-act operetta, Happy Hampstead. During this engagement, however, he "became unreliable" (a euphemism for alcoholism) and was asked to leave the D'Oyly Carte company. In 1879, Fisher was back in London playing in Tita in Thibet
Tita in Thibet
Tita in Thibet is an English two-act musical play by Frank Desprez. It opened at the Royalty Theatre in London on 1 January 1879....
as Brum opposite Kate Santley
Kate Santley
Kate Santley was an American-born English actress, singer, comedienne, and theatre manager. Her brother was the English baritone, Sir Charles Santley, famous in Wagner's Flying Dutchman among other roles.-Musical theatre career:...
at the Royalty. The next year he was Hector in Madame Favart
Madame Favart
Madame Favart is an opéra comique, or operetta, in three acts by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Alfred Duru and Henri Charles Chivot.-Performance history:...
. In 1881, he toured in the title role of Billee Taylor
Billee Taylor
Billee Taylor, or The Reward of Virtue is "a nautical comedy opera" by Edward Solomon, with a libretto by Henry Pottinger Stephens.The piece was first produced at the Imperial Theatre in London on 30 October 1880, starring Arthur Williams as Sir Mincing Lane and Frederick Rivers as Billee. It...
and appeared in Bristol with his old company.
Later years
Fisher played the Rev Henry Sandford in the original production of The Vicar of BrayThe Vicar of Bray (opera)
The Vicar of Bray is a comic opera by Edward Solomon with a libretto by Sydney Grundy which opened at the Globe Theatre, in London, on 22 July 1882, for a run of only 69 performances. The public was not amused at a clergyman's being made the subject of ridicule, and the opera was regarded by some...
at the Globe Theatre
Globe Theatre (Newcastle Street)
The Globe was a Victorian theatre built in 1868 and demolished in 1902. It was the third of five London theatres to bear the name. It was also known at various times as the Royal Globe Theatre or Globe Theatre Royal. Its repertoire consisted mainly of comedies and musical shows...
in 1882. He next appeared with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in the baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
role of Archibald Grosvenor 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...
with Carte's principal touring company in the Autumn of 1883. After another break from the company (he was again in Bristol for part of this period), he reappeared with a D'Oyly Carte touring company in 1887. He was soon playing other baritone roles, Captain Corcoran 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 Samuel 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...
, on tour until June 1888. He then returned to tenor parts, touring as Frederic in Pirates and 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...
until September 1888. The next year, Fisher had another engagement with a Carte touring company in 1889 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...
as Leonard Meryll, filling in as Colonel Fairfax for the last week of the tour in December 1889. The Manchester Guardian called his Leonard, "excellent … a great improvement on what we have previously seen and heard in the part."
Fisher married comedienne Lottie Venne
Lottie Venne
Lottie Venne was a British comedienne, actress and singer of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, who enjoyed a theatre career spanning five decades. Venne began her stage career in musical burlesque before moving into farce and comedy. She appeared in several works by each of F. C. Burnand and W. S...
, with whom he had appeared on tour and in The Happy Land. Their children were the actor Tom Shelford (H. J. Ford) and the actress Audrey Ford (later Mrs. James Welch).
Fisher died during the 1890s.