Leonora Braham

Leonora Braham (born Leonora Abraham; 3 February 1853 – 23 November 1931) was an English opera singer and actress primarily known as the creator of principal soprano roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas.

Beginning in 1870, Braham starred for several years in the intimate musical German Reed Entertainments in London. In 1878, she moved to North America, where she continued to perform in comic opera. After returning to England, she was engaged by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, creating five of the leading soprano roles in the hit series of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, including the title role in Patience (1881), Phyllis in Iolanthe (1882), the title role in Princess Ida (1884), Yum-Yum in The Mikado (1885), and Rose Maybud in Ruddigore (1887). She also played Aline in the first revival of The Sorcerer (1884–85).

After leaving the D'Oyly Carte company, Braham continued to perform in England and widely on tour, starring in comic opera and grand opera in Australia, South America and South Africa. By the mid-1890s, she returned to Britain, playing in musical comedy and light opera, briefly rejoining the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. She then continued to perform until 1912 in Britain and America, including with Lillie Langtry in plays without music.

Braham was born into a Jewish family in Bloomsbury, London, the only daughter and eldest of three children of the writer and educator Philip Abraham and Harriet Abraham née Boss.

Braham's first professional stage appearance was at St George's Hall, London, in 1870, in a revival of Gilbert and Clay's Ages Ago. Mr and Mrs Thomas German Reed, the producers, starred with Braham. Braham received encouraging notices. She continued performing for the German Reeds for several years, creating various roles, while at the same time studying at the Royal Academy of Music, where she won the Llewelyn Thomas gold medal competition. In April 1878, she moved to Montreal, Canada, shortly after her wedding to her first husband, Frederick E. Lucy Barnes (1856–1880), a church organist, conductor and composer, in Birkenhead, near Liverpool. The two had a son, Stanton Barnes.

From December 1879, she played the title role in Gilbert and Clay's Princess Toto in New York and then in Boston and Philadelphia. The theatrical newspaper The Era wrote that she gave "a most excellent performance, both vocally and histrionically. She has a sweet, light soprano, finely cultivated, and executed very effectively". W. S. Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan and Richard D'Oyly Carte, in New York for the premiere of The Pirates of Penzance, saw her and liked her performance. Her husband died in early 1880 while in Canada, leaving her with a baby son. The death has been variously described as a suicide or an accident. Later that year, she played the leading role of Dolly in a revival of Alfred Cellier's The Sultan of Mocha, at the Union Square Theatre in New York.

When she returned to England, Braham briefly rejoined the German Reeds and was also performing in concerts. She was soon chosen to create the title role in Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience at the Opera Comique with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1881, in which she again received excellent notices. She remained the company's principal soprano until 1887, continuing as Patience when the opera transferred to the Savoy Theatre, and next creating the role of Phyllis in Iolanthe there in 1882, again to critical praise.

These were followed by the title role in Princess Ida in 1884. Braham was initially cast to sing the role of Lady Psyche in the latter opera, but was promoted during the rehearsal period, when the original choice for the part, American Lillian Russell, had a disagreement with W. S. Gilbert and was dismissed. Braham, generally regarded as a light lyric soprano, nevertheless received good notices in the demanding role. All of the other roles created by Braham with the company had been, and were to be, girls of humble birth whose spirit and charm attracts a rich or high-born mate, and Braham seemed well suited to these. Gilbert later wrote: "The part ... required a tall, dignified lady, [but] was given to Miss Braham at almost the last moment." In its review, The Times commented: "She does not stand 'Among her maidens, higher by the head', neither can she suppress, even in moments of danger and excitement, the beaming smile, so pleasant in itself and so little fitted to a stern reformer of womankind. But if not an imposing, Miss Braham is at least a charming Princess, who, moreover, delivers her speech with admirable correctness of metrical diction, and displays an agreeable voice."