Nellie Briercliffe
Encyclopedia
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
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...
.
After playing in the provinces early in her career, Briercliffe joined the D'Oyly Carte, touring for over three years in the Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
soubrette
Soubrette
A soubrette is a female stock character in opera and theatre. The term arrived in English from Provençal via French, and means "conceited" or "coy".-Theater:...
roles. She left the company to play in London's the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
, but rejoined D'Oyly Carte for their 1919–20 London season. After this, she played on the West End in musicals
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
and comic plays, with a three year hiatus from 1924 to 1927, until she finally retired in 1931. She recorded seven of her D'Oyly Carte roles.
Life and career
Briercliffe was born in BoltonBolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...
, the daughter of Robert Briercliffe and his wife. She performed extensively in the British provinces before making her debut in London. In December 1913, she appeared at the Haymarket Theatre
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...
in a curtain-raiser, A Dear Little Wife. She also sang in the concert hall.
She joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
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...
in October 1914 after Rupert D'Oyly Carte
Rupert D'Oyly Carte
Rupert D'Oyly Carte was an English hotelier, theatre owner and impresario, best known as proprietor of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and Savoy Hotel from 1913 to 1948....
saw her performance at the Haymarket and "was much struck by her vivacity". She was cast immediately in the principal soubrette
Soubrette
A soubrette is a female stock character in opera and theatre. The term arrived in English from Provençal via French, and means "conceited" or "coy".-Theater:...
roles of the Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
operas as follows: Hebe in H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
, Edith in The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
, Angela in Patience
Patience (opera)
Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride, is a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. First performed at the Opera Comique, London, on 23 April 1881, it moved to the 1,292-seat Savoy Theatre on 10 October 1881, where it was the first theatrical production in the...
, Iolanthe in Iolanthe
Iolanthe
Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh collaboration of the fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan....
, Melissa in Princess Ida
Princess Ida
Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. Princess Ida opened at the Savoy Theatre on January 5, 1884, for a run of 246 performances...
, Pitti-Sing in The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
, Phoebe in The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard; or, The Merryman and His Maid, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888, and ran for 423 performances...
and Tessa in The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers
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...
. When The Sorcerer
The Sorcerer
The Sorcerer is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It was the British duo's third operatic collaboration. The plot of The Sorcerer is based on a Christmas story, An Elixir of Love, that Gilbert wrote for The Graphic magazine in 1876...
was revived in 1916, she added the role of Constance. Briercliffe "quickly established herself as a favorite with London audiences" and toured constantly with the company for more than three years.
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...
Pamela, at the Palace Theatre
Palace Theatre, London
The Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster in London. It is an imposing red-brick building that dominates the west side of Cambridge Circus and is located near the intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road...
with Lily Elsie
Lily Elsie
Lily Elsie was a popular English actress and singer during the Edwardian era, best known for her starring role in the hit London premiere of Franz Lehár's operetta The Merry Widow....
and Owen Nares
Owen Nares
Owen Ramsay Nares had a long stage and film career and, for most of the 1920s, was Britain's favourite matinée idol and silent film star...
. She then took over the role of Joy Chatterton in the long-running musical The Boy
The Boy (musical)
The Boy is a musical comedy with a book by Fred Thompson and Percy Greenbank , music by Lionel Monckton and Howard Talbot and lyrics by Greenbank and Adrian Ross...
at the Adelphi Theatre
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...
. She rejoined D'Oyly Carte for the 1919–20 London season, when the company returned to London for the first time in a decade, at the Prince's Theatre, playing all her former roles. In 1920 she returned to musical comedy in London, appearing with Jack Buchanan
Jack Buchanan
Walter John "Jack" Buchanan was a British theatre and film actor, singer, producer and director. He was known for three decades as the embodiment of the debonair man-about-town in the tradition of George Grossmith Jr., and was described by The Times as "the last of the knuts." He is best known in...
in Wild Geese by Ronald Jeans and Charles Cuvillier
Charles Cuvillier
Charles Cuvillier was a French composer of operetta. He won his greatest successes with the operettas La reine s'amuse and with The Lilac Domino, which became a hit in 1918 in London.-Biography:Cuvillier was born in Paris, and studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Gabriel Fauré and...
; as Dulcenea in Oh! Julie, composed by H. Sullivan Brooke and Herman Darewski
Herman Darewski
Herman Darewski was a British composer and conductor of light music. His most successful work was perhaps The Better 'Ole, which ran for over 800 performances in its original London production in 1917...
, at the Shaftesbury Theatre
Shaftesbury Theatre
The Shaftesbury Theatre is a West End Theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London Borough of Camden.-History:The theatre was designed for the brothers Walter and Frederick Melville by Bertie Crewe and opened on 26 December 1911 with a production of The Three Musketeers, as the New...
; and as the Shepherdess in the children's play, The Shepherdess Without a Heart 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...
, of which The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
wrote, "Many a young heart must have been lost yesterday afternoon to Miss Nellie Briercliffe. … She looked delightful, she sang sweetly, and she acted so prettily that there was a general sigh of regret when she became a china figure once again."
In September 1921, she married Major George Thirlwall Philipson but continued on the stage. In 1924 she starred in a "fantastic ballad opera", Kate, Or, Love Will Find Out the Way, after which she took a three-year break from the stage. She returned to the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
in January 1927 in John Galsworthy
John Galsworthy
John Galsworthy OM was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter...
's drama, Escape, and in the same year succeeded her sister-in-law, Mabel Russell Philipson
Mabel Philipson
Mabel Philipson was a British actress and politician. She was the third female member to serve in the House of Commons after this became legally possible in 1918, representing Berwick-upon-Tweed....
, as Blanquette in The Beloved Vagabond, at the New Theatre
Noël Coward Theatre
The Noël Coward Theatre, formerly known as the Albery Theatre, is a West End theatre on St. Martin's Lane in the City of Westminster. It opened on 12 March 1903 as the New Theatre and was built by Sir Charles Wyndham behind Wyndham's Theatre which was completed in 1899. The building was designed by...
. In 1928 she appeared in Christabel Marillier's musical version of The Rose and the Ring
The Rose and the Ring
The Rose and The Ring is a satirical work of fiction written by William Makepeace Thackeray, originally published at Christmas 1854...
, conducted by Malcolm Sargent
Malcolm Sargent
Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works...
.
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,...
. Of her previous roles, she reprised Angela, Iolanthe, Melissa, Pitti-Sing, Phoebe and Tessa, and added a new role, Mad Margaret in Ruddigore
Ruddigore
Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse, originally called Ruddygore, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan...
. After the season ended, she appeared in Fountain of Youth, "an amusing comic opera of country life," by W. Graham Robertson with music by Alfred Reynolds
Alfred Reynolds (composer)
Alfred Reynolds was a composer of light music for the theatre.He was born in Liverpool and educated at Merchant Taylors' School and later in France. He studied with Engelbert Humperdinck in Berlin....
at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, and finally in a non-musical costume drama, The Immortal Lady by Clifford Bax
Clifford Bax
Clifford Bax was a versatile English writer, known particularly as a playwright, a journalist, critic and editor, and a poet, lyricist and hymn writer. He also was a translator, for example of Goldoni...
in 1931.
Briercliffe, known in the D'Oyly Carte company as "Budgie", was popular with audiences for her vivacious stage presence. One writer noted:
- [F]or the older members like myself who saw them all in person there was nobody to come up to Nellie Briercliffe. In my opinion she had everything. Her stage presence was superb: dainty, petite and with a kind of fairy grace which you could never forget. Certainly there never has or will be another Iolanthe like her. ... I can still see her in the supplication song, standing in the dim light and that glorious voice full of the pathos which tended to bring tears to your eyes. It was indeed a splendid voice, lovely and mellow and you sometimes wondered where all the power came from her slight frame. And yet she also had an impish sense of humour ... as Tessa, as Melissa in Ida (the best I have ever seen). What humour she extracted from this part and also from Phoebe ... this sense of humour was something which to me made her stand out above the others.
Briercliffe died in Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
in 1966, aged 77.
Recordings
Briercliffe participated in all seven D'Oyly Carte recordings made for HMVHMV
His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
between 1929 and 1932, as Phoebe, Edith, Iolanthe, Hebe, Angela, Margaret and Melissa.