Pacie Ripple (20 April 1864 – 16 April 1941) was an English operatic tenor known for playing in the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan from 1889 to 1890 and again from 1903 to 1907. He later had a career as a performer in the United States. There he created roles in such long-running hits as A Trip to Chinatown , The New Moon and Anything Goes . Later in life he told some colourful fibs about his birth, early training and career.
Ripple was born as Arthur Boole in Ecclesfield, Yorkshire, in 1864, the son of Maria née England (1840–1885) and Robert Boole (born 1835), a labourer in an iron works and later a foreman gasfitter. By 1881 Arthur Boole was working as an engine pattern maker in his native town. [1] Later in life he claimed to have trained at the Guildhall School of Music and to have worked for the director of the Leeds Festival before making his operatic début in Italy as the Duke in Rigoletto . [2]
He was a member of the chorus and an understudy in a touring D'Oyly Carte Opera Company group when he made his first appearance in a named role in Wigan on 10 June 1889, as the leading tenor, Colonel Fairfax, in The Yeomen of the Guard by Gilbert and Sullivan. His next named role was in February 1890 as Francesco in another Savoy opera, The Gondoliers , when he was among a number of performers imported from Britain to bolster the failing D'Oyly Carte production at Palmer's Theatre in New York in February 1890. He remained in the United States when the production ended in April 1890 and, assuming the stage name Arthur Pacie, began to work for the American playwright and theatrical manager Charles H. Hoyt. [2]
He made frequent appearances for Hoyt in New York between 1891 and 1897 as well as on tour, playing Norman Blood in A Trip to Chinatown , Howland Hooper in A Milk White Flag , and Carroll Sweet in A Stranger in New York. Following a tour of Australia and New Zealand he returned to England in 1900 using the stage name Pacie Ripple. On 20 November 1902 he appeared as Athos in a matineé performance of Original Musketeers at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and sang in oratorio and concerts. Ripple returned to the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company on tour as principal tenor between March 1903 and December 1906, appearing as Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore , Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance , the Duke of Dunstable in Patience , Tolloller in Iolanthe , Cyril in Princess Ida , Nanki-Poo in The Mikado , Fairfax in The Yeomen of the Guard , [3] and Marco in The Gondoliers . [2] In 1906 he and his wife Ada Ripple toured South Africa with D'Oyly Carte. [4] Ripple played Fairfax in the D'Oyly Carte's first London repertory season, in Yeomen at the Savoy Theatre in December 1906 followed by Marco in The Gondoliers in January 1907, following which he returned to touring in February 1907.
Ripple finally left the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in June 1907 and returned to the United States where he appeared in mostly musical comedies, in such works as Alvarez y Toledo in The Girls of Holland (1907); Herr von Trautenbach in Baron Trenck (1912); Valiant Dunnybrig in The Farmer's Wife (1924–1925); Mr. John Weston in The Complex (1925); Abe Pintree in Three Doors (1925); Robert Stanton in Mae West's scandalous play Sex (1926–1927); Bye Bye Bonnie (1927); Inspector Ratchett in The Wrecker (1928); [5] Monsieur Beaunoir in The New Moon (1928–1929); Monsieur D'Ayen in The Little Father of the Wilderness (1930); Jung in Overture (1930–1931); Fauntley in The Good Companions at the Forrest Theatre (1931); Besson in The Barrister (1932) and Terry in Under Glass (1933), before creating the small role of Bishop Dodson in Anything Goes at the Alvin Theatre in 1934. [6] [7] From 1932 to his death in 1941 Ripple travelled annually from New York to Philadelphia to act as the stage director for the Savoy Company, America's oldest company performing the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. [2] [8]
On 20 April 1922 in St Louis in Missouri he married American-born actress Alice Estelle McComb Ripple (born 1890) who by marrying a British subject apparently lost her US nationality, as in 1931 she applied to become a naturalised American citizen. On her form she stated her husband had been born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1877, a fiction he included on various other official documents including census returns. [9] In several interviews later in life Ripple made a number of false claims about his early career, including that he had been a principal tenor at the Savoy Theatre for 7 years and had acted as W. S. Gilbert's assistant stage manager. [2]
Ripple died in New York City in April 1941 aged 76. [10]
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. This was the twelfth comic opera collaboration of fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan.
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company is a professional British light opera company which, from the 1870s until 1982, staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere. The company was revived for short seasons and tours from 1988 to 2003, and since 2013 it has co-produced four of the operas with Scottish Opera.
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.
Charles Herbert Workman was a singer and actor best known as a successor to George Grossmith in the comic baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas. He was variously credited as Charles H. Workman, C. Herbert Workman and C. H. Workman.
Walter Henry Passmore was an English singer and actor best known as the first successor to George Grossmith in the comic baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.
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.
Leo Sheffield, born Arthur Leo Wilson, was an English singer and actor best known for his performances in baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.
Charles Courtice Pounds, better known by the stage name Courtice Pounds, was an English singer and actor known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and his later roles in Shakespeare plays and Edwardian musical comedies.
Helen Carte Boulter, also known as Helen Lenoir, was a Scottish businesswoman known for her diplomatic skills and grasp of detail. Beginning as his secretary, and later marrying, impresario and hotelier Richard D'Oyly Carte, she is best remembered for her stewardship of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and Savoy Hotel from the end of the 19th century into the early 20th century.
John Dean 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.
Harry Henry Russell, better known as Scott Russell, was an English singer, actor and theatre manager best known for his performances in the tenor roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He was the brother-in-law of D'Oyly Carte contralto Louie René.
Robert Evett was an English singer, actor, theatre manager and producer. He was best known as a leading man in Edwardian musical comedies and later managed the George Edwardes theatrical empire.
Charles Eric Goulding was a British operatic tenor and actor best known for his performances with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in the Gilbert and Sullivan repertory.
Charles Kenningham was an English opera singer and actor best remembered for his roles in the 1890s with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.
Hugh Enes Blackmore was a British opera and concert singer and actor. Known as the "Iron-Throated Tenor", he is best remembered for his performances of tenor roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. His career with D'Oyly Carte spanned almost 30 years, ending with a season as the company's stage manager, and was later a teacher of operatic singing and acting.
Barry Clark is an English opera singer and actor. Beginning in the 1970s, Clark played tenor roles in the Savoy Operas for over a decade with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He then sang in various opera companies, including New Sadler's Wells and Scottish Opera, and played in musicals on the West End. Later, Clark concentrated on oratorio and, in recent years, appeared with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, among others.
Llewellyn "Lyn" Cadwaladr was a Welsh operatic tenor who originated roles in, or starred in early tours of, comic operas and operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan, Solomon and Stephens, Robert Planquette and others in the Victorian era, often in America for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He was touring as Ralph in H.M.S. Pinafore when he was asked to create the role of Frederic in the ad hoc 1879 British copyright performance of The Pirates of Penzance.
Charles Roby Walenn was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the comic baritone roles of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas with touring companies of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1887 to 1909 and later, off and on through the 1920s, with J. C. Williamson in Australia. Later in his career, he became known for London engagements in the title role of Rev. Spalding in The Private Secretary, which he first played at the Savoy Theatre in 1917, where he had never performed in the Savoy operas.
Rudolph Lewis was a bass-baritone known for creating several small roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas including Go-To in The Mikado (1885) and Old Adam Goodheart in Ruddigore (1887).
Frederick Strafford Moss was a British tenor and actor. He appeared in the Savoy operas of Gilbert and Sullivan from 1897 to 1913, mainly in touring companies of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, following which he had a career in musical theatre on the West End stage until 1931.