Christene Palmer

Last updated

Christene M. Palmer is a retired Australian singer and actress, known for her performances in the contralto roles of Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company during the 1960s. Her performance as Katisha in The Mikado is preserved in the D'Oyly Carte 1967 film version of that opera.

Contents

Life and career

Palmer was born in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. During high school she studied singing, piano and harmony before going to Melbourne for further voice training and joined the Oriana Madrigal Choir. [1] [2] In 1952 she was a semi-finalist in the Star for Opera Quest for the Royal South Street Society. [3] The following year, she entered the Mobil Quest singing competition organised by the Vacuum Oil Company. [4] In 1958 and 1960, she sang roles with the Elizabethan Opera Trust and solos at the annual Bach Festivals in Melbourne. [5]

Palmer moved to London in 1961 to study at the National School of Opera there and performed on the concert stage and in opera, and was in the Glyndebourne Festival Opera chorus for two seasons, before joining the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1965. [6] She was with D'Oyly Carte for six years, singing the contralto roles in all nine of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas performed by the company during her tenure ( The Sorcerer was not performed by the company until just before she left in 1971). These roles were: Little Buttercup in H.M.S. Pinafore , Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance , Lady Jane in Patience , the Queen of the Fairies in Iolanthe , Lady Blanche in Princess Ida , Katisha in The Mikado , Dame Hannah in Ruddigore , Dame Carruthers in The Yeomen of the Guard , and the Duchess of Plaza-Toro in The Gondoliers . [6] At the same time, she occasionally performed in concerts with Gilbert and Sullivan for All. [6]

Palmer married Norman Wilfred Wright in 1970, who also appeared with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company as a tenor in the chorus, from 1969 to 1971, and then with other opera companies. They have 3 children together, Stephen (born 1971), [7] Chris (born 1974), and Catherine (born 1977) Wright.[ citation needed ] The family moved to Australia later in the 1970s, then returned to the UK in 1980 and settled in Nuneaton, where they directed productions for amateur opera companies, including the Coventry Savoyards. Wright performed with the Magic of Gilbert and Sullivan concert group and taught singing. [6] [8] [9]

Recordings, film and television

Palmer sang the same roles in the D'Oyly Carte television production of Patience (1965), [10] the animated film version of Ruddigore (1966) and the 1967 film version of The Mikado. [11] [12] In 2000 she appeared in the documentary Together Again: A Tribute to Kenneth Sandford, John Reed, and Thomas Round . [13]

In D'Oyly Carte recordings, she sang her usual roles in Princess Ida (1965), Pirates (1968) and Pinafore (1971). She also sang Lady Sangazure in the company's recording of The Sorcerer, a role that she never played on stage. She participated on two D'Oyly Carte highlights discs, A Gilbert and Sullivan Spectacular in 1965, and Songs and Snatches in 1970. [14]

Notes

  1. ↑ "Christene Palmer", Memories of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, accessed 23 July 2014
  2. ↑ Ayre, p. 258
  3. ↑ "Senior Vocal: 25th September 1952", Royal South Street Society, accessed 23 July 2014
  4. ↑ "Mobil Quest Third Heat", The Barrier Miner , 9 March 1953, p. 3, accessed 23 July 2014
  5. ↑ Ayre, pp. 258–59
  6. 1 2 3 4 Stone, David. "Christene Palmer" [ permanent dead link ], Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, 25 March 2003, accessed 23 July 2014
  7. ↑ The Savoyard, Vol. 10, No. 3, p. 4, The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, January 1972, accessed, 24 July 2014
  8. ↑ Stone, David. "Norman W. Wright", Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, 12 January 2008, accessed 23 July 2014
  9. ↑ Cresswell, Jeffrey. "Norman W. Wright", Where Are They Now, 8, accessed 23 July 2014
  10. ↑ Shepherd, Marc. "The 1965 D'Oyly Carte Patience Broadcast", the Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 5 April 2003, accessed 23 July 2014
  11. ↑ Shepherd, Marc. "The 1966 D'Oyly Carte Mikado Film", 15 April 2009, accessed 23 July 2014
  12. ↑ Palmer in The Mikado , British Film Institute website, accessed 23 July 2014
  13. ↑ Christene Palmer, Internet Movie Database
  14. ↑ Shepherd, Marc. Artists: P, the Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, accessed 23 July 2014

Related Research Articles

Rosina Brandram

Rosina Brandram was an English opera singer and actress primarily known for creating many of the contralto roles in the Savoy operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

Kenneth Sandford English actor and singer

Kenneth Sandford was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in baritone roles of the Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Bertha Lewis British opera singer and actress

Bertha Amy Lewis was an English opera singer and actress primarily known for her work as principal contralto in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

Donald Adams

Charles Donald Adams was an English opera singer and actor, best known for his performances in bass-baritone roles of the Savoy operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and his own company, Gilbert and Sullivan for All.

Gillian Knight is an English opera singer and actress, known for her performances in the contralto roles of the Savoy operas. After six years from 1959 to 1965 starring in these roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, Knight began a grand opera career.

Philip Potter

Philip White Potter was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the principal tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1961 to 1971. Potter recorded several of his roles with D'Oyly Carte, and his performance as Nanki-Poo is preserved in the company's 1966 film of The Mikado.

Ann Drummond-Grant

Ann Drummond-Grant was a British singer and actress, best known for her performances in contralto roles of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

Marjorie Eyre was an English singer and actress, best known for her performances in the soprano and mezzo-soprano roles of the Savoy Operas. She performed with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company for more than two decades and later performed with the J. C. Williamson Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company. She married another D'Oyly Carte performer, Leslie Rands, in 1926.

George Cook was an English opera singer and actor, best known for his performances in the bass and bass-baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

Ella Halman British opera singer and actress

Ella Louise Halman was an English opera singer and actress, best known for her performances in the contralto roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. She married another D'Oyly Carte performer, L. Radley Flynn, in 1940.

Betty Joyce Wright was a British singer and actress, best known for her performances in the principal mezzo-soprano roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. She was married for a time to another D'Oyly Carte star, Peter Pratt.

Patricia Leonard

Patricia Leonard was an English opera singer, best known for her performances in mezzo-soprano and contralto roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

Pauline Wales was an English singer and actress best known for her performances in the mezzo-soprano roles of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

Jean Hindmarsh is a retired English singer and actress. She is best known as a principal soprano with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in the 1950s and 1960s.

Muriel Dickson

Muriel Dickson was a Scottish soprano who was particularly known for her performances in the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. After performing with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company for seven years, she sang for four seasons with the Metropolitan Opera and went on to a concert career. In later years, she taught singing at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and privately.

Peggy Ann Jones is an English opera singer and actress, best known for her performances in the mezzo-soprano roles of the Savoy operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. During a fifteen-year career with that company, beginning at age 19, she was particularly known for her interpretations of the title role in Iolanthe, Pitti-Sing in The Mikado, Phoebe Meryll in The Yeomen of the Guard, and Mad Margaret in Ruddigore. She later performed on television, in films and in musicals in London's West End. Jones's best-known recordings include the role of Pitti-Sing on both the 1973 D'Oyly Carte Mikado and the company's 1966 film version of The Mikado.

Thomas Lawlor (bass-baritone) Irish opera singer

Thomas F. Lawlor was an Irish opera singer. In the 1960s, he became known for his performances in mostly baritone roles of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. In the 1970s and 1980s, he performed over 60 operatic roles, usually as a bass-baritone, with various British opera companies. He was also a director in the opera department of the Royal Academy of Music and at Trinity College of Music. In later years, he moved to the US, where he continued to perform, direct and teach.

Lyndsie Holland

Lyndsie Holland was an English singer and actress, known for her performances in the contralto roles of the Savoy Operas.

Evelyn Gardiner

Evelyn Gardiner, born Enid Mary Griffin, was an English opera singer and actress known for her work as principal contralto in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and J. C. Williamson, as well as for other stage acting. In 1933, Gardiner earned a pilot's licence and claimed to be only the second British actress ever to do so.

Dorothy Gill was a British opera singer and actress, best known for her performances in the contralto roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.