Florence St. John
Encyclopedia
Florence St. John was an EnglishEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
singer and actress of the late Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
and Edwardian eras famous for her roles in operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
, musical burlesque, music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
, opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
and, later, comic plays.
Life and career
St. John was born Margaret Florence Greig in Plymouth, England. Her father, Andrew Greig, had been stationed in Plymouth with the army, where he married St. John's mother, Susannah Williams, but he left the army before St. John was born. Her father ran a boarding house, and her mother a shop. She had five brothers and sisters.St. John's public singing debut was at a charity concert in Plymouth when she was eight years old. When she was 12, her parents sent her to a private boarding school in Kensington
Kensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
to study music and voice with Madame Marie Karger.
Early career
At the age of 16, while home for the holidays, she was asked to substitute for the ailing vocalist of a touring dioramaDiorama
The word diorama can either refer to a nineteenth century mobile theatre device, or, in modern usage, a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum...
company. Soon, she began to tour with N. S. Hodges' diorama. Her rendition of Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
's "Meet Me Once Again" resulted in a permanent engagement. With Hodges, she performed in Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
's Rose of Auvergne and Breaking the Spell. At the age of seventeen, in 1872, she married the company's pianist and conductor, Alfred St. John.
After this, St. John sang in provincial music halls and as a ballad singer in concerts. Alfred became ill, and in 1875 they moved to London, where she sang at the Oxford Music Hall
Oxford Music Hall
Oxford Music Hall was a music hall located in Westminster, London at the corner of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road. It was established on the site of a former public house, the Boar and Castle, by Charles Morton, in 1861. The hall was converted into a legitimate theatre in 1917, but the...
under the name "Florence Leslie", and he taught music when he was well enough. He died in September of that year. By the end of the year, St. John had joined Charles Durand's English Opera Company on tour, where she began to use her married name on stage. With Durand, she began to play roles such as Clorinda, one of the stepsisters in Gioachino Rossini's Cinderella
La Cenerentola
La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, based on the fairy tale Cinderella...
; in Luigi Ricci
Luigi Ricci
Luigi Ricci , was an Italian composer, particularly of operas.He was the elder brother of Federico Ricci, with whom he collaborated on several works.- Life :...
's The Brewer of Preston (Il birraio di Preston); as Azucena in Il Trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
; and as Lazarillo in Maritana
Maritana
Maritana is a grand opera in three acts composed by William Vincent Wallace, with a libretto by Edward Fitzball . The opera is based on the play Don César de Bazan by Adolphe d'Ennery and Philippe François Pinel Dumanoir , which was also the source material for Jules Massenet's opéra comique Don...
.
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
Lithgow James joined the company. In September, St. John joined Walsham's English Opera Company on tour. She and James married in December (though touring with different companies). The couple reunited on tour with and Blanche Cole
Blanche Cole
Blanche Cole was an English soprano. Showing promise as a child, Cole went on to have a successful operatic career, during which she sang 21 roles in English versions of operas in London and the British provinces. She died at the age of 37.-Early years:Cole was born in Portsmouth, England, to a...
's opera company. St. John had a wide vocal range "as well as considerable histrionic versatility," and in these small touring companies, she often had to play contralto
Contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
roles.
The couple soon joined the Rose Hersee Opera Company, which included Richard Temple
Richard Temple
Richard Barker Cobb Temple was an English opera singer, actor and stage director, best known for his performances in the famous series of Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas....
. The Company gave a series of ten different operas at The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in...
in August 1877, and St. John appeared in such roles as Cherubino in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
, Urbano in Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most popular and spectacular examples of the style of grand opera. The opera is in five acts and premiered in Paris in 1836. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps....
by Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer was a noted German opera composer, and the first great exponent of "grand opera." At his peak in the 1830s and 1840s, he was the most famous and successful composer of opera in Europe, yet he is rarely performed today.-Early years:He was born to a Jewish family in Tasdorf , near...
, the title role in Maritana, Lelia in Satanella, the title role in La Cenerentola, Adalgisa in Norma
Norma (opera)
Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the bel canto tradition...
, Lady Allcash in Fra Diavolo
Fra Diavolo (opera)
Fra Diavolo, ou L'hôtellerie de Terracine is an opéra comique in three acts by the French composer Daniel Auber, from a libretto by Auber's regular collaborator Eugène Scribe...
, and Azucena in Il Trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
, among others. In December, she sang again at The Crystal Palace as Fidalma in performances of Cimarosa’s The Secret Marriage
Il matrimonio segreto
Il matrimonio segreto is an opera in two acts, music by Domenico Cimarosa, on a libretto by Giovanni Bertati, based on the play The Clandestine Marriage by George Colman the Elder and David Garrick...
, with an English adaptation by W. Grist, directed by Temple, who also played Geronimo.
Star of light opera
Alexander Henderson engaged St. John in 1878 to sing Germaine in the hit operetta, Les Cloches de CornevilleLes cloches de Corneville
Les cloches de Corneville is an operetta in three acts, composed by Robert Planquette to a French libretto by Louis Clairville and Charles Gabet based on a play by Gabet.In 1876, the director of the Théâtre des Folies-Dramatiques, Louis Cantin, hired Planquette to compose the operetta,...
by Robert Planquette
Robert Planquette
Jean Robert Planquette was a French composer of songs and operettas.Several of Planquette's operettas were extraordinarily successful in Britain, including Les cloches de Corneville , the length of whose initial London run broke all records for any piece of musical theatre up to that time, and Rip...
with an English libretto by H. B. Farnie, in the provincial touring company (Alfred was cast opposite her as Henri, Marquis of Corneville). Towards the end of the record-setting London run, she took over the role in London, against her husband's wishes. The first London role that she created was the title role in Farnie's English-language version of Offenbach's Madame Favart
Madame Favart
Madame Favart is an opéra comique, or operetta, in three acts by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Alfred Duru and Henri Charles Chivot.-Performance history:...
, at the Strand Theatre
Royal Strand Theatre
The Royal Strand Theatre was located in Strand in the City of Westminster. The theatre was built on the site of a panorama in 1832, and in 1882 was rebuilt by the prolific theatre architect Charles J. Phipps...
in 1879. She received high praise from the critics and her performance in the hit production made her a star. London's Daily News wrote that she was "a young actress of very pleasing appearance, who acts with remarkable vivacity and grace, possesses a mezzo-soprano voice of really fine quality, and sings in a style that indicates a thoroughly sound training...." The piece went on to run for over 500 performances, and St. John stayed until near the end of the run, when her doctor advised her to take a break before the next piece, which was already scheduled.
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
on tour. In Madame Favart, St. John played opposite flamboyant French actor Claude Marius Duplany, and the co-stars fell in love, finally moving in together. James obtained a divorce from St. John in 1881, and Duplany's wife divorced him. Meanwhile, the couple starred together again in Farnie's next operetta, Olivette, composed by Edmond Audran
Edmond Audran
Achille Edmond Audran was a French composer best known for several internationally successful operettas, including Les noces d'Olivette , La mascotte , Gillette de Narbonne , La cigale et la fourmi , Miss Helyett , and La poupée .After Audran's initial success in Paris, his works also became a...
. This opened in September 1880 and lasted for another astonishing run of 467 performances. After this, Duplany became the manager of the Avenue Theatre, and he and St. John starred there first in a revival of Madame Favart, and then in Manteaux Noirs (1882), Offenbach's posthumous La Belle Lurette, and Barbe-bleue
Barbe-bleue
Barbe-bleue is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, in three acts by Jacques Offenbach to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy based on Charles Perrault's 1697 story.-Performance history:...
(both in 1883). After these, they toured together in La Belle Lurette.
In 1884, Henderson produced Farnie's Nell Gwynne
Nell Gwynne (operetta)
Nell Gwynne is a three-act comic opera composed by Robert Planquette, with a libretto by H. B. Farnie. The libretto is based on the play Rochester by William Thomas Moncrieff. The piece was a rare instance of an opera by a French composer being produced first in London...
, with St. John in the title role, then Farnie's The Grand Mogul, composed by Audran, with St. John as Djemma, and a revival of Barbe-bleue. In 1885, St. John starred in The Lady of the Locket at the Empire Theatre
Empire Theatre
Empire Theatre or Empire Theater may refer to:In the United Kingdom:*Empire Theatre of Varieties, now the Empire, Leicester Square, City of Westminster, London*Glasgow Empire Theatre, Glasgow*Hackney Empire, in Hackney...
but fell ill after three months. At the end of the year, she created the title role in Erminie
Erminie
Erminie is a comic opera in two acts composed by Edward Jakobowski with a libretto by Claxson Bellamy and Harry Paulton, based loosely on Charles Selby's 1834 Robert Macaire...
, but she was pregnant and soon had to leave the cast, and the role was taken over by Marie Tempest
Marie Tempest
Dame Marie Tempest DBE was an English singer and actress known as the "queen of her profession".Tempest became the most famous soprano in late Victorian light opera and Edwardian musical comedies. Later, she became a leading comic actress and toured widely in North America and elsewhere...
. St. John's father died that December. She and Duplany had not yet married and now took care of that detail on Christmas Day, 1885. Their son, Claud Reginald Duplany, was born on 30 March 1886. As soon as St. John was ready to go back to work, Erminie was revived with the original cast and then toured.
In the autumn of 1886, St. John moved to the Prince of Wales's Theatre and played Jaquette in Andre Messager
André Messager
André Charles Prosper Messager , was a French composer, organist, pianist, conductor and administrator. His stage compositions included ballets and 30 opéra comiques and operettas, among which Véronique, had lasting success, with Les p'tites Michu and Monsieur Beaucaire also enjoying international...
's La Béarnaise, followed by another revival of Madame Favart at the Avenue Theatre in 1887. St. John fell ill again and left the cast. During this illness, she met Arthur Cohen, who would become her fourth husband ten years later. She went to Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
at the end of the year to recuperate further, and Cohen followed. Untrue rumours of a relationship between St. John and Cohen were circulated, and her husband grew jealous. More marital problems arose, the couple quarrelled frequently, and St. John left her husband in late 1888.
Gaiety Theatre, London
The Gaiety Theatre, London was a West End theatre in London, located on Aldwych at the eastern end of the Strand. The theatre was established as the Strand Musick Hall , in 1864 on the former site of the Lyceum Theatre. It was rebuilt several times, but closed from the beginning of World War II...
company, under the management of George Edwardes
George Edwardes
George Joseph Edwardes was an English theatre manager of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond....
, playing Marguerite in Faust up to Date
Faust up to date
Faust up to Date is a musical burlesque with a score written by Meyer Lutz . The libretto was written by G. R. Sims and Henry Pettitt...
, which was brought to America (1889-90) and later toured the British provinces in the same work. St. John and the tour were warmly received in the U.S. According to The Licensed Victuallers’ Mail, an American fan sang humorously about how St. John pronounced her last name, as follows:
- Oh, tell me why should Miss St. John
- Pronounce her name as Sin Jin?
- It would be better, two to one
- I’ve heard a hundred people say,
- To substitute the hard g for j,
- For then she would be singin’.
She returned to England to play the title role in the burlesque Carmen up to Data
Carmen up to Data
Carmen up to Data is a musical burlesque with a score written by Meyer Lutz. The piece was a spoof of Bizet's 1875 opera Carmen. The libretto was written by G. R. Sims and Henry Pettitt....
in the provincial tryout in Liverpool in September 1890 and then at the Gaiety, followed in 1891 by a provincial tour of the piece. One reviewer marvelled that St. John, coming from humble roots, "draws a salary in London of £3,500 a year, whilst in America her services command £100 a week. The Prime Minister of England is not so well paid."
Now almost 37 years old, St. John took over the teen-age title role in Miss Decima at Toole's Theatre in January 1892, then went on tour with Planquette's Rip van Winkle
Rip Van Winkle (operetta)
Rip Van Winkle is an operetta in three acts by Robert Planquette. The English libretto by Henry Brougham Farnie was based on the stories The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving after the play by Dion Boucicault and Joseph Jefferson.-Performance history:The operetta...
, returning after the summer to the Gaiety Theatre for a revival of Faust up to Date. In October, she and Arthur Roberts starred in In Town
In Town (musical)
In Town is a musical comedy written by Adrian Ross and James T. Tanner, with music by F. Osmond Carr and lyrics by Ross. It was produced by George Edwardes at the Prince of Wales Theatre, opening on 15 October 1892, and transferred to the Gaiety Theatre on 26 December 1892, running for a...
, which became a hit and ushered in the age of the Edwardian musical comedy
Edwardian Musical Comedy
Edwardian musical comedies were British musical theatre shows from the period between the early 1890s, when the Gilbert and Sullivan operas' dominance had ended, until the rise of the American musicals by Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin and Cole Porter following World War I.Between...
. In 1893, she moved to the Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre (London)
The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster.Designed by architect C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier and B. C. Stephenson hit, Dorothy, which he transferred from the Prince of Wales Theatre to open...
in the burlesque Little Christopher Columbus
Little Christopher Columbus
Little Christopher Columbus is a burlesque opera in two acts, with music by Ivan Caryll and Gustave Kerker and a libretto by George R. Sims and Cecil Raleigh. It opened on 10 October 1893 at the Lyric Theatre in London and then transferred to Terry's Theatre, running for a total of 421...
.
Later years
Now approaching the age of 40, St. John was engaged by the D'Oyly Carte Opera CompanyD'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
in October 1894 as a replacement in the title role of Mirette
Mirette (opera)
Mirette is an opéra comique in three acts composed by André Messager, first produced at the Savoy Theatre, London, on 3 July 1894.Mirette exists in two distinct versions. The first version of the libretto was written in French by Michel Carré but this was never performed. English lyrics were...
by Messager at the Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
, giving a boost to the ailing production. The Eras reviewer wrote, "Mirette has gained in favour, and the other artists, stimulated by Miss St. John's presence, act and sing with greater animation."
After this, she created the role of Rita in Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
and F. C. Burnand's The Chieftain
The Chieftain
The Chieftain is a two-act comic opera by Arthur Sullivan and F. C. Burnand based on their 1867 opera, The Contrabandista. It consists of substantially the same first act as the 1867 work with a completely new second act...
at the Savoy (1894-95), earning good notices. She then toured briefly in 1895 with a D'Oyly Carte company as Mirette and as Winifred in The Vicar of Bray
The Vicar of Bray (opera)
The Vicar of Bray is a comic opera by Edward Solomon with a libretto by Sydney Grundy which opened at the Globe Theatre, in London, on 22 July 1882, for a run of only 69 performances. The public was not amused at a clergyman's being made the subject of ridicule, and the opera was regarded by some...
. On 9 June 1896, St. John played the plaintiff in a benefit performance of Trial by Jury
Trial by Jury
Trial by Jury is a comic opera in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its...
for Kate Vaughan at the Gaiety Theatre, with Rutland Barrington
Rutland Barrington
Rutland Barrington was an English singer, actor, comedian, and Edwardian musical comedy star. Best remembered for originating the lyric baritone roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas from 1877 to 1896, his performing career spanned more than four decades...
as the judge and many other D'Oyly Carte singers, and the benefit also featured Marie Tempest, Letty Lind
Letty Lind
Letitia Elizabeth Rudge, better known as Letty Lind , was an English actress, dancer and acrobat, best known for her work in burlesque at the Gaiety Theatre, and in musical theatre at Daly's Theatre, in London....
and other famous performers.
St James's Hall
St. James's Hall was a concert hall in London that opened on 25 March 1858, designed by architect and artist Owen Jones, who had decorated the interior of the Crystal Palace. It was situated between the Quadrant in Regent Street and Piccadilly, and Vine Street and George Court. There was a...
. In January 1896, her separated husband, who had been ill, died on the journey home from a South Africa tour. In February 1897, St. John married Arthur Cohen, her fourth husband. The marriage was not happy, but the couple stayed together until 1901. Meanwhile, in September 1897, St. John returned to the theatre in an Edwardes production of La Périchole
La Périchole
La Périchole is an opéra bouffe in three acts by Jacques Offenbach. Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote the French-language libretto based on the 1829 one act play Le carrosse du Saint-Sacrement by Prosper Mérimée, which was revived on 13 March 1850 at the Théâtre-Français...
at the Garrick Theatre
Garrick Theatre
The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a...
.
In 1897-98, she rejoined the D'Oyly Carte at the Savoy, playing the title role in The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein. Though she received generally good notices, St. John bridled at the famously strict direction at the Savoy and later complained that she had not been allowed to "do any business of my own." The Times
Times
The Times is a UK daily newspaper, the original English language newspaper titled "Times". Times may also refer to:In newspapers:*The Times , went defunct in 2005*The Times *The Times of Northwest Indiana...
review supports her judgment: "The English stage has no artist so well fitted as Miss Florence St. John to do full justice to Offenbach... her artistic singing would more than carry this off if she could recover the abandon of some of her former efforts. ...she looks the part to perfection, but she seems so afraid of overdoing the suggestion and roguery which are essential that she makes the impersonation seem sadly tame. It is as if she were overwhelmed with the atmosphere of the theatre in which she finds herself, or were affected more than all the rest by the prudish spirit in which the work has been approached."
Florodora
Florodora is an Edwardian musical comedy and became one of the first successful Broadway musicals of the 20th century. The book was written by Jimmy Davis under the pseudonym Owen Hall, the music was by Leslie Stuart with additional songs by Paul Rubens, and the lyrics were by Edward Boyd-Jones...
(1900-01), taking over the role from Evie Greene
Evie Greene
Edith Elizabeth Greene was a much-photographed English actress and singer who played in Edwardian musical comedies in London and on Broadway. She is most notable for starring as Dolores, the central character in the international hit musical Florodora...
. She made only one known recording, a single Berliner disc of "He Loves Me; He Loves Me Not," from Florodora, which was reproduced on the Pearl LP set "The Art of the Savoyard: Volume II" (GEMM 282/3). She did, however, continue singing in the St. James's Hall Ballad Concerts and in numerous benefits and charity concerts.
In early 1902, now 47 years old, St. John turned to "straight" theatre, starting with a tour in the title role of English Nell, which had been played in London by Marie Tempest. In the autumn, she played Mrs. Brandram in Mrs. Willoughby's Kiss at the Avenue Theatre. In 1903, she played Mrs. Greaves in Billy's Little Love Affair at the Criterion Theatre
Criterion Theatre
The Criterion Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Piccadilly Circus in the City of Westminster, and is a Grade II* listed building. It has an official capacity of 588.-Building the theatre:...
, followed in December of that year by the farce, Madame Sherry at the Apollo Theatre
Apollo Theatre
The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. Designed by architect Lewin Sharp for owner Henry Lowenfield, and the fourth legitimate theatre to be constructed on the street, its doors opened on 21 February 1901 with the American...
. She also appeared at the star-studded final performance at the "Old" Gaiety Theatre on 4 July 1903, singing Marguerite in an excerpt from Faust up to Date and led the singing of Auld Lang Syne
Auld Lang Syne
"Auld Lang Syne" is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and set to the tune of a traditional folk song . It is well known in many countries, especially in the English-speaking world; its traditional use being to celebrate the start of the New Year at the stroke of midnight...
. Other famous performers included Henry Irving
Henry Irving
Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as...
, Gertie Millar
Gertie Millar
Gertrude "Gertie" Millar was one of the most famous English singer-actresses of the early 20th century, known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedies....
, Seymour Hicks
Seymour Hicks
Sir Arthur Seymour Hicks , better known as Seymour Hicks, was a British actor, music hall performer, playwright, screenwriter, theatre manager and producer. He married the actress Ellaline Terriss in 1893...
, George Grossmith, Jr.
George Grossmith, Jr.
George Grossmith, Jr. was a British actor, theatre producer and manager, director, playwright and songwriter, best remembered for his work in and with Edwardian musical comedies...
, Rutland Barrington, Arthur Williams
Arthur Williams (actor)
Arthur Williams was an English actor, singer and playwright best remembered for his roles in comic operas, musical burlesques and Edwardian musical comedies...
, Letty Lind
Letty Lind
Letitia Elizabeth Rudge, better known as Letty Lind , was an English actress, dancer and acrobat, best known for her work in burlesque at the Gaiety Theatre, and in musical theatre at Daly's Theatre, in London....
, Harry Grattan
Harry Grattan
Harry Grattan was a British stage actor, singer, dancer and writer best known for his performances in musical comedies around 1900.- Life and career :...
, Edmund Payne
Edmund Payne
Edmund Payne , was an actor, comedian, singer and dramatist best known for his comic appearances in Edwardian Musical Comedy. His father was Edmund Payne, a master cabinet builder and his mother was Eliza Payne née Ince....
and Richard Temple.
With her career now on the decline and her income much less, St. John toured the provincial variety theatres, for the next several years, with her own company in a piece entitled My Milliner's Bill, or by herself singing ballads. She did appear at the Royalty Theatre
Royalty Theatre
The Royalty Theatre was a small London theatre situated at 73 Dean Street, Soho and opened on 25 May 1840 as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School and finally closed to the public in 1938. The architect was Samuel Beazley, a resident in Soho Square, who also designed St James's Theatre, among...
in London in 1905 in a short run of The Diplomatists. Her mother died in 1904. St. John's last theatrical appearance was in late 1909 as Lizi in The Merry Peasant at the Strand Theatre
Novello Theatre
The Novello Theatre is a West End theatre on Aldwych, in the City of Westminster.-History:The theatre was built as one of a pair with the Aldwych Theatre on either side of the Waldorf Hotel, both being designed by W. G. R. Sprague. The theatre opened as the Waldorf Theatre on 22 May 1905, and was...
.
Known to her many friends as "Jack", St. John died in London a little more than two years later at the age of 56 and was cremated at Golders Green at a quiet ceremony attended by her son Reginald and the composer Leslie Stuart
Leslie Stuart
Leslie Stuart was an English composer of early musical theatre, best known for the hit show Florodora and many popular songs. Stuart began writing songs in the late 1870s, including songs for blackface performers, such as "Lily of Laguna"; songs for musical theatre; and ballads such as "Soldiers...
, among others.