Ann Drummond-Grant

Ann Drummond-Grant (1905 – September 11 1959) 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.

Life and career

Ann Drummond-Grant was born in Edinburgh and studied singing in Scotland. She sang for five years as leading soprano in a parish church, played in small opera and musical comedy troupes, and did some radio singing and concert work.

oprano years

In 1933, Drummond-Grant joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company chorus. In 1936, she began to play the small parts of Celia in "Iolanthe", Zorah in "Ruddigore", and Fiametta in "The Gondoliers". She soon began playing the roles of Plaintiff in "Trial by Jury" and Lady Psyche in "Princess Ida", and she also made occasional appearances in the more prominent soprano roles of Josephine in "H.M.S. Pinafore", the title roles in "Patience" and "Princess Ida", and Gianetta in "The Gondoliers".

In 1937, Drummond-Grant became one of D'Oyly Carte's principal sopranos. She began the season as the Plaintiff, Josephine, Patience, Phyllis in "Iolanthe" (sharing the role), Princess Ida, and Elsie Maynard in "The Yeomen of the Guard". She was selected to play Aline when "The Sorcerer" was revived briefly in 1938. However, the company was hiring new sopranos, including Helen Roberts, and Drummond-Grant lost roles or had to share them. She left the company at the end of 1938.

Drummond-Grant married D'Oyly Carte musical director, Isidore Godfrey, in 1940. She played throughout the 1940s in non-musical theatre pieces, operettas (notably "Waltzes from Vienna" with Thomas Round) and musical comedies.

Return as principal contralto

In 1950, she returned to the D'Oyly Carte organisation, at first as an alto chorister and understudy to principal contralto Ella Halman. She filled in a few times as Ruth in "The Pirates of Penzance", Katisha in "The Mikado", Dame Carruthers in "Yeomen" and the Duchess of Plaza-Toro in "The Gondoliers". In 1951, following Halman's departure from the company, Drummond-Grant became principal contralto, appearing over the next seven and a half years as Little Buttercup in "Pinafore", Ruth, Lady Jane in "Patience", the Queen of the Fairies in "Iolanthe", Lady Blanche in "Princess Ida" (starting in 1955), Katisha, Dame Hannah in "Ruddigore", Dame Carruthers, and the Duchess.

Drummond-Grant gave her last performance on May 23 1959, in Bournemouth, before being forced from the stage by the illness that would claim her life less than four months later at the age of 54.

Recordings

There are no known recordings of Drummond-Grant as a soprano. In the early 1950s, she recorded several of the principal mezzo-soprano roles from the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, although she had never played them on stage. These included Mad Margaret in "Ruddigore" (1950), Phoebe Meryll in "Yeomen" (1950), Iolanthe (1951), and Lady Saphir in "Patience" (1951). Of her contralto roles, she recorded Lady Blanche (1955), Katisha (1957) and Ruth (1957). She was Lady Sangazure in the 1953 recording of "The Sorcerer", a role she never played on stage, as the opera was not in the D'Oyly Carte repertory at the time. She was also Katisha in a 1955 BBC broadcast.

References

*cite book|last=Ayre|first=Leslie|year=1972|title=The Gilbert & Sullivan Companion|location=London|publisher=W.H. Allen & Co Ltd Introduction by Martyn Green.

External links

* [http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/whowaswho/D/Drummond-GrantAnn.htm Ann Drummond-Grant] at Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte
* [http://pinafore.www3.50megs.com/ad-grant.html Profile of Drummond-Grant]