Geraldine Ulmar

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Life and career

Annie Geraldine Ulmar was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in the United States. She began singing in amateur concerts before she was a teenager.

Ideal Opera and D'Oyly Carte years

In 1879, she made her professional debut as Josephine in "H.M.S. Pinafore" on a ship in a lake in Boston's Oakland Garden. She soon joined the Boston Ideal Opera Company and remained with the company as leading soprano for the next six years, singing roles in "The Marriage of Figaro", "The Bohemian Girl", "Fra Diavolo", "Giralda", "The Chimes of Normandy", "Fatinitza", [ [http://www.oldandsold.com/opera/opera-37.shtml Information about "Fatinitza"] ] "Giroflé-Girofla", [ [http://www.oldandsold.com/opera/opera-31.shtml Information about "Giroflé-Girofla"] ] "Czar and Carpenter", and in Gilbert and Sullivan operas. [ [http://www.savoyoperas.org.uk/people/ulmar.html Article on Ulmar in "The Theatre", dated 1 August 1887] ]

" in Boston (in the title role).

Ulmar then returned to England, where she rehearsed the new opera, "Ruddygore", gave two matinee performances as Rose Maybud at the Savoy Theatre, and returned to New York to play Rose in the American production. In 1887, she returned to London to play Rose at the Savoy and then to play the soprano roles in the 1888 London revivals of "Pinafore", "The Pirates of Penzance" (Mabel) and "The Mikado". Ulmar created the roles of Elsie Maynard in "The Yeomen of the Guard" (1888), and in Gianetta in "The Gondoliers" (1889) before leaving the Savoy and the D'Oyly Carte organisation in 1890.

Later years

She next appeared in London as Marton in "La Cigale" (1890-91), then as Teresa in W. S. Gilbert and Alfred Cellier's "The Mountebanks" (1892) and Guinevere Block in "Little Christopher Columbus" (1893–94).

[
The Yeomen of the Guard"] Beginning in 1896, she toured as O Mimosa San in "The Geisha" with George Edwardes's touring company. After appearing as Jane Jingle in "Ladyland" (1904), Ulmar retired from the stage and devoted herself to teaching singing. Some of her students became well known, including Jose Collins and Evelyn Laye.

She was married for a time in the 1890s to composer-conductor Ivan Caryll. She died in Merstham Surrey, England.

References

* Introduction by Martyn Green.

External links

* [http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/whowaswho/U-V/UlmarGeraldine.htm Geraldine Ulmar] at Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte

* [http://www.savoyoperas.org.uk/people/ulmar.html Brief profile from 1887]

* [http://pinafore.www3.50megs.com/g-ulmar-p.html Photographs]