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Elsie Griffin (6 December 1895 – 21 December 1989) was an English opera singer, best known for her performances in the soprano roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Beginning her career by entertaining British troops in France during World War I, she popularised such songs as "Danny Boy". She was a principal soprano with the D'Oyly Carte from 1919 to 1926, also recording several of her roles with the company both during that time and afterwards. She married another D'Oyly Carte performer, J. Ivan "Jimmy" Menzies, in 1923. She continued her singing and acting careers into the 1950s, including tours with the Carl Rosa Opera Company from 1934 to 1937. ==Life and career== Elsie Griffin was born in Bristol, England, and sang onstage as a child prodigy.〔"Obituary: Elsie Griffin", ''W. S. Gilbert Society Journal'', Vol. 1, No. 6, 1990, pp. 176–77〕 She attended the St. Michael's on the Mount Primary School.〔("Blue plaque for Bristol opera singer Elsie Griffin" ), BBC News, 7 February 2012〕 She was joint winner in the mezzo-soprano category at the Bristol Music Festival in 1914.〔''The Musical Times'', May 1914, p. 2〕 During World War I, she made her professional debut in the concerts of Lena Ashwell's company, formed at the request of King George V, singing concerts to entertain Britain's troops in France. John Arlott wrote of her, "Hers was the voice in Fred Weatherly's songs, "Danny Boy" and "Roses of Picardy", that is preserved in the mind's ear of surviving 1914–18 trench fodder."〔Arlott, John. "Deaths", ''The Guardian'', 3 January 1990, p. 31〕 Her performances of these two songs made them into two of the most popular hits of the era.〔Stone, David. ("Elsie Griffin" ). ''Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company'', 27 August 2001, accessed 8 June 2010〕 After further concert work in 1918,〔''The Musical Times'', May 1918, p. 230〕 Griffin was engaged by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1919, immediately appearing on tour in the leading roles of Josephine in ''H.M.S. Pinafore'' and Gianetta in ''The Gondoliers'', and in the smaller part of Kate in ''The Yeomen of the Guard''. She soon added (sometimes sharing) the leading roles of Aline in ''The Sorcerer'', Mabel in ''The Pirates of Penzance'' and Phyllis in ''Iolanthe''. She also briefly played the small role of Lady Ella in ''Patience''. She was immediately singled out for praise: ''The Observer'' called her "a vocalist of real distinction".〔"At the Play", ''The Observer'' , 5 October 1919, p. 7〕 Her colleague, Derek Oldham said of her Mabel, "Every note dead in its centre, every run as clear as a whistle, and the whole number sung with an ease and mastery which has never been bettered."〔("Elsie Griffin" ) at the ''Memories of the D'Oyly Carte'' website, accessed 7 June 2010〕 In 1921, she added the roles of Yum-Yum in ''The Mikado'' and Rose Maybud in ''Ruddigore''. In 1923, Griffin married fellow D'Oyly Carte artiste Ivan Menzies. The couple had a daughter, Mahala Menzies.〔 She continued to play or share these principal soprano roles and sometimes the two smaller ones, finally adding to her repertoire the part of Casilda in ''The Gondoliers'' in 1925. She played Yum-Yum in the company's four-minute silent promotional film of ''The Mikado'' in 1926.〔Shepherd, Marc. ("The 1926 D'Oyly Carte ''Mikado'' Film" ). A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 15 April 2009, accessed 7 June 2010〕 In 1927, she left the company but returned from time to time to participate in recordings.〔 In 1929, Griffin appeared at the Playhouse Theatre in ''The Rose and the Ring''.〔''The Times'', 15 January 1929, p. 10〕 She performed frequently in concerts, oratorio and variety, giving on one occasion at the London Coliseum "a not over-exhilarating exhibition of that after dinner, drawing room type of singing which is happily a thing of the past."〔''The Times'', 15 October 1929, p. 14〕 As a broadcaster, Griffin was continually engaged by the BBC in a range of work from light duets,〔''The Times'', 22 August 1927, p. 8〕 comic duets (with her husband),〔''The Times'', 26 February 1929, p. 26〕 and solos,〔''The Times'', 30 March 1929, p. 8〕 to opera, appearing in broadcasts of Delibes's comic opera ''Le roi l'a dit'' with Heddle Nash and George Baker,〔''The Times'', 29 July 1929, p. 8〕 and ''Carmen''.〔''The Times'', 29 January 1935, p. 10; and 26 April 1935, p. 7〕 Griffin appeared in a British tour of ''Wild Violets'', and toured in South Africa in Gilbert and Sullivan operas and in ''Lilac Time'' in 1933 with the J. C. Williamson company. She also toured with the Carl Rosa Opera Company from 1934 to 1937, singing leading roles in ''Die Fledermaus'', ''The Barber of Seville'', ''Carmen'', ''Romeo and Juliet'', ''The Tales of Hoffmann'', ''Faust'' and ''The Elixir of Love''.〔 Her last stage role was in ''The Vanishing Island'', a Moral Re-Armament musical, in which she and her husband toured around the world from 1955 until 1957.〔''The Times'' disparaged the show: "Feeble ... halting ... half-hearted. ... Artistically it is as if Gilbert had gone solemn on Sullivan." See "London Hippodrome – The Vanishing Island", ''The Times'', 8 June 1956, p. 3〕 Despite chronic illness, in 1975, during the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's centennial season, Griffin and her husband participated in the final performance of ''Trial by Jury'', in which the company's regular chorus was augmented by fourteen former stars of the company.〔''The Savoyard'', Vol. 14, No. 2, September 1975〕 Griffin died in Blackheath, Surrey, in 1989, aged 94.〔 A blue plaque at St. Michael's on the Mount Primary School commemorates her life.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Elsie Griffin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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