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Derek Oldham
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Derek Oldham
Derek Oldham (29 March 1887 – 20 March 1968) was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.
After performing in concerts as a boy soprano and working as a bank clerk, Oldham began a professional performing career in 1914. With the outbreak of World War I, he joined the Scots Guards, serving with valour. After the war, he joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, singing the tenor leads in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas for three years. He then starred in musicals and operettas in the West End in the 1920s, including Madame Pompadour, The Merry Widow, Rose-Marie and The Vagabond King. He returned to the D'Oyly Carte for brief periods from 1929 to 1937.
Oldham continued singing, recording and acting through the 1940s, also appearing in several films. He concentrated on legitimate theatre in the 1950s, acting until the age of 70. He maintained a lifelong interest in Gilbert and Sullivan, serving as an officer of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society. He finally retired to Hampshire during the last ten years of his life.
Oldham was born John Stephens Oldham in Accrington, Lancashire, the son of Thomas Oldham and his wife Harriett, née Stephens. He had an elder brother, George, and a sister. As a child, Oldham was a boy soprano in demand for over five years in oratorios (including Sullivan's The Golden Legend and The Prodigal Son), concerts (including "Neath My Lattice" from Sullivan's The Rose of Persia), and pantomimes. As a young man, he worked as a bank clerk and sang in amateur operatic societies.
He debuted on the professional adult stage in 1914, as Julien in The Daring of Diane, an operetta by Alfred Anderson and Heinrich Reinhardt, presented at the London Pavilion. He made an immediate mark: The Observer said that he "has an exceptionally charming tenor voice, uses it with fine art, and acts with engaging simplicity and sincerity." Later that year, at the Lyric Theatre, he played Bumerli in The Chocolate Soldier, in which he also won excellent notices. At the end of that year, after the outbreak of World War I, he joined the Scots Guards, a year later was commissioned in the East Lancashire Regiment and was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry in Macedonia in 1918. During the war, he formed a concert group to entertain his fellow servicemen, also producing The Chocolate Soldier not far from enemy lines.
Oldham was demobilised in July 1919 and joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company the following month, when the company opened its first London season in over a decade. He immediately assumed the leading Gilbert and Sullivan tenor roles of Alexis in The Sorcerer, Lord Tolloller in Iolanthe, Cyril in Princess Ida, Nanki-Poo in The Mikado, Colonel Fairfax in The Yeomen of the Guard, and Marco in The Gondoliers. The following year, he also took on the roles of Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore, Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance, and Richard Dauntless in Ruddigore. In 1921 he exchanged Cyril for Prince Hilarion in Princess Ida.
Oldham left the D'Oyly Carte company in 1922 to star in a great number of musicals and operettas during the 1920s at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and other West End theatres. His first musical was Whirled into Happiness at the Lyric Theatre, as Horace Wiggs, where his leading lady was his future wife, Winnie Melville. They married in 1923. She later joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company as a principal soprano for a single London season in 1929–1930. Oldham wrote, "The sheltered, almost student life of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company gave place to the hard glitter and luxury of the West End theatre – a world of restaurants, supper parties, and all the trappings that went with London theatrical life between the two wars". Other musicals in which Oldham starred included Madame Pompadour (1923, as Rene), The Merry Widow (1923, as Camille), and Rose-Marie (1925, as Jim). In 1927, Oldham and Melville starred together in the European première of The Vagabond King, he as François Villon, and she as Katherine de Vaucelles. They separated in 1933, and she died in 1937.
Oldham returned several times to D'Oyly Carte, appearing in the 1929–30 season and on tour in his old roles of Ralph, Frederic, Tolloller, Hilarion, Nanki-Poo, Fairfax, and Marco. In the 1934–35 season, he played these roles on the company's first major American tour in the 20th century. In 1936, during the company's season at Sadler's Wells, he played Hilarion, and he was leading tenor in the 1936–37 season, which included another long American tour. Oldham's presence was a condition demanded by the American promoters. During this tour he and Sylvia Cecil were excused by the company for one night to sing a programme of classical and popular favourites, including "Prithee, pretty maiden" from Patience, the evening before President Roosevelt's 2nd inauguration, at a party at the White House.
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Derek Oldham
Derek Oldham (29 March 1887 – 20 March 1968) was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.
After performing in concerts as a boy soprano and working as a bank clerk, Oldham began a professional performing career in 1914. With the outbreak of World War I, he joined the Scots Guards, serving with valour. After the war, he joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, singing the tenor leads in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas for three years. He then starred in musicals and operettas in the West End in the 1920s, including Madame Pompadour, The Merry Widow, Rose-Marie and The Vagabond King. He returned to the D'Oyly Carte for brief periods from 1929 to 1937.
Oldham continued singing, recording and acting through the 1940s, also appearing in several films. He concentrated on legitimate theatre in the 1950s, acting until the age of 70. He maintained a lifelong interest in Gilbert and Sullivan, serving as an officer of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society. He finally retired to Hampshire during the last ten years of his life.
Oldham was born John Stephens Oldham in Accrington, Lancashire, the son of Thomas Oldham and his wife Harriett, née Stephens. He had an elder brother, George, and a sister. As a child, Oldham was a boy soprano in demand for over five years in oratorios (including Sullivan's The Golden Legend and The Prodigal Son), concerts (including "Neath My Lattice" from Sullivan's The Rose of Persia), and pantomimes. As a young man, he worked as a bank clerk and sang in amateur operatic societies.
He debuted on the professional adult stage in 1914, as Julien in The Daring of Diane, an operetta by Alfred Anderson and Heinrich Reinhardt, presented at the London Pavilion. He made an immediate mark: The Observer said that he "has an exceptionally charming tenor voice, uses it with fine art, and acts with engaging simplicity and sincerity." Later that year, at the Lyric Theatre, he played Bumerli in The Chocolate Soldier, in which he also won excellent notices. At the end of that year, after the outbreak of World War I, he joined the Scots Guards, a year later was commissioned in the East Lancashire Regiment and was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry in Macedonia in 1918. During the war, he formed a concert group to entertain his fellow servicemen, also producing The Chocolate Soldier not far from enemy lines.
Oldham was demobilised in July 1919 and joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company the following month, when the company opened its first London season in over a decade. He immediately assumed the leading Gilbert and Sullivan tenor roles of Alexis in The Sorcerer, Lord Tolloller in Iolanthe, Cyril in Princess Ida, Nanki-Poo in The Mikado, Colonel Fairfax in The Yeomen of the Guard, and Marco in The Gondoliers. The following year, he also took on the roles of Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore, Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance, and Richard Dauntless in Ruddigore. In 1921 he exchanged Cyril for Prince Hilarion in Princess Ida.
Oldham left the D'Oyly Carte company in 1922 to star in a great number of musicals and operettas during the 1920s at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and other West End theatres. His first musical was Whirled into Happiness at the Lyric Theatre, as Horace Wiggs, where his leading lady was his future wife, Winnie Melville. They married in 1923. She later joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company as a principal soprano for a single London season in 1929–1930. Oldham wrote, "The sheltered, almost student life of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company gave place to the hard glitter and luxury of the West End theatre – a world of restaurants, supper parties, and all the trappings that went with London theatrical life between the two wars". Other musicals in which Oldham starred included Madame Pompadour (1923, as Rene), The Merry Widow (1923, as Camille), and Rose-Marie (1925, as Jim). In 1927, Oldham and Melville starred together in the European première of The Vagabond King, he as François Villon, and she as Katherine de Vaucelles. They separated in 1933, and she died in 1937.
Oldham returned several times to D'Oyly Carte, appearing in the 1929–30 season and on tour in his old roles of Ralph, Frederic, Tolloller, Hilarion, Nanki-Poo, Fairfax, and Marco. In the 1934–35 season, he played these roles on the company's first major American tour in the 20th century. In 1936, during the company's season at Sadler's Wells, he played Hilarion, and he was leading tenor in the 1936–37 season, which included another long American tour. Oldham's presence was a condition demanded by the American promoters. During this tour he and Sylvia Cecil were excused by the company for one night to sing a programme of classical and popular favourites, including "Prithee, pretty maiden" from Patience, the evening before President Roosevelt's 2nd inauguration, at a party at the White House.
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