Helen Carte

Helen Carte Boulter (born Susan Helen Couper Black; 12 May 1852 – 5 May 1913), also known as Helen Lenoir, was a Scottish businesswoman known for her diplomatic skills and grasp of detail. Beginning as his secretary, and later marrying, impresario and hotelier Richard D'Oyly Carte, she is best remembered for her stewardship of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and Savoy Hotel from the end of the 19th century into the early 20th century.

Born in Wigtown, Scotland, she attended the University of London from 1871 to 1874 and pursued brief teaching and acting careers. In 1877 she obtained employment with Richard D'Oyly Carte and became his assistant and, later, business manager. She helped to produce the Gilbert and Sullivan and other Savoy Operas, beginning with The Sorcerer in 1877 and helped Carte with all his business interests. One of her principal assignments was to superintend arrangements for American productions and tours of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas.

She married Richard in 1888. During the 1890s, with her husband's health declining, Helen assumed increasing responsibility for the businesses, taking full control upon his death in 1901. She remarried in 1902 and continued to own the opera company and run most of the Carte business interests until her death. Although the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's operations decreased after Richard's death, Helen staged successful repertory seasons in London from 1906 to 1909, establishing that the Gilbert and Sullivan operas could continue to be revived profitably; the company continued to operate continuously until 1982.

By the time of her death in 1913, the opera company had become a repertory touring company. Helen engaged J. M. Gordon to preserve the company's unique style. In her will, she left the Savoy Theatre, the hotel business and the opera company to her stepson, Rupert D'Oyly Carte.

Susan Helen Couper Black was born in Wigtown, Scotland, the second of four children of George Couper Black (1819–1863), procurator fiscal and banker, and his second wife, Ellen, née Barham (1822–1902). One of her brothers, John McConnell Black, became a well-known botanist. Her grandfather, Robert Couper, M.D., was a Scottish physician and poet, and her great-uncle was George Couper, 1st Baronet, an army officer for whom the Couper baronetcy was created.

From 1871 to 1874, registered as Helen Susan Black, she attended the University of London and was a gifted student, passing the examinations for Special Certificates in mathematics and in logic and moral philosophy (the university did not award degrees to women until 1878). She also spoke several languages. After her studies, she supported herself by coaching students for examinations. She contemplated an acting career and took lessons in elocution, dancing and singing. Her first engagement was a two-month spell as a chorister and small part player in the pantomime at the Theatre Royal, Dublin in the 1876 Christmas season. She adopted the stage name Helen Lenoir, which, she later explained, had been the surname of her French ancestors until they anglicised it to "Black" upon settling in Scotland in the 18th century.

In February 1877 she travelled to London to audition for Richard D'Oyly Carte, who was setting up a provincial tour of a French farce adapted under the title The Great Divorce Case. He engaged her for a small role, which she played in Liverpool and other cities, before leaving the tour after a few weeks and obtaining work in Carte's entertainment agency offices in London. She was soon assisting Carte with the production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Sorcerer.

From the time that she became a secretary in Richard's agency in June 1877, Helen was intensely involved in his business affairs and had a grasp of detail and organisational and diplomacy skills that surpassed even Carte's. Frank Desprez, the editor of The Era, wrote, "Her character exactly compensated for the deficiencies in his." She eventually became the business manager of the company and was later responsible for the Savoy Hotel, into which she introduced the new hydraulic passenger lifts. One of Helen's early tasks was to produce the British copyright performance of The Pirates of Penzance in Paignton. She made seventeen visits to America to promote Carte's interests, superintending arrangements for American productions and tours of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas and American lecture tours of artistes managed by Carte, as well as supervising many of Carte's British touring companies. She also assisted in arranging American lecture tours for Oscar Wilde, Matthew Arnold and others. Helen, more than anyone else, was able to smooth out the differences between W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, in the 1880s, to ensure that the two produced more operas together. She also tactfully and sympathetically dealt with the personal and professional problems of the actors in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company casts. Desprez wrote in her obituary, "She never took advantage of anybody; but I never heard of her letting anybody take advantage of her."