Pacie Ripple (20 April 1864 – 16 April 1941) was an English operatic

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

known for playing in the operas of

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...

from 1889 to 1890 and again from 1903 to 1907. He later had a career as a performer in the United States. There he created roles in such long-running hits as ''

A Trip to Chinatown ''A Trip to Chinatown'' is a musical comedy in three acts by Charles H. Hoyt with music by Percy Gaunt and lyrics by Hoyt. In addition to the Gaunt and Hoyt score, many songs were interpolated into the score at one time or another during the run ...

'', ''

The New Moon ''The New Moon'' is an operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Mandel, and Laurence Schwab. The show was the third in a string of Broadway hits for Romberg (after ''The Student Prince'' (1924) and ...

'' and ''

Anything Goes ''Anything Goes'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The original book was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, heavily revised by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story concerns madcap ant ...

''. Later in life he told some colourful fibs about his birth, early training and career.

Early life and career

Ripple was born as Arthur Boole in

Ecclesfield Ecclesfield is a village and civil parish in the City of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, about 4 miles (6 km) north of Sheffield City Centre. Ecclesfield civil parish had a population of 32,073 at the 2011 Census. Ecclesfield wards ...

, Yorkshire, in 1864, the son of Maria ''née'' England (1840–1885) and Robert Boole (born 1835), a labourer in an iron works and later a foreman gasfitter. By 1881 Arthur Boole was working as an engine pattern maker in his native town. Later in life he claimed to have trained at the

Guildhall School of Music The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz ...

and to have worked for the director of the

Leeds Festival The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Festiv ...

before making his operatic début in Italy as the Duke in ''

Rigoletto ''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play ''Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had cont ...

''. He was a member of the chorus and an understudy in a touring

D'Oyly Carte Opera Company The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company is a professional British light opera company that, from the 1870s until 1982, staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere. Th ...

group when he made his first appearance in a named role in

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

on 10 June 1889, as the leading

, Colonel Fairfax, in ''

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. This was the eleventh ...

'' by

. His next named role was in February 1890 as Francesco in another

Savoy opera Savoy opera was a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impr ...

, ''

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 (at that time the ...

'', when he was among a number of performers imported from Britain to bolster the failing D'Oyly Carte production at

Palmer's Theatre Three New York City playhouses named Wallack's Theatre played an important part in the history of American theater, as the successive homes of the stock company managed by actors James W. Wallack and his son, Lester Wallack. During its 35-yea ...

in New York in February 1890. He remained in the United States when the production ended in April 1890 and, assuming the stage name Arthur Pacie, began to work for the American playwright and theatrical manager

Charles H. Hoyt Charles Hale Hoyt (July 26, 1859 – November 20, 1900) was an American dramatist and playwright. He was married twice, to stage actresses Flora Walsh and Caroline Miskel Hoyt, both of whom died young. The shock of the death of his second w ...

.Stone, David
Pacie Ripple
Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, 17 June 2017, accessed 9 September 2020 Pacie Ripple The Gondoliers

He made frequent appearances for Hoyt in New York between 1891 and 1897 as well as on tour, playing Norman Blood in ''

'', Howland Hooper in ''

A Milk White Flag Charles Hale Hoyt (July 26, 1859 – November 20, 1900) was an American dramatist and playwright. He was married twice, to stage actresses Flora Walsh and Caroline Miskel Hoyt, both of whom died young. The shock of the death of his second w ...

'', and Carroll Sweet in ''A Stranger in New York''. Following a tour of Australia and New Zealand he returned to England in 1900 using the stage name Pacie Ripple. On 20 November 1902 he appeared as Athos in a matineé performance of ''Original Musketeers'' at the

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Dr ...

and sang in oratorio and concerts. Ripple returned to the

on tour as principal tenor between March 1903 and December 1906, appearing as Ralph Rackstraw in ''

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, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, whic ...

'', Frederic in ''

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, W. S. Gilbert. Its official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 ...

'', the Duke of Dunstable in ''

Patience (or forbearance) is the ability to endure difficult circumstances. Patience may involve perseverance in the face of delay; tolerance of provocation without responding in disrespect/anger; or forbearance when under strain, especially when faced ...

'', Tolloller in ''

Iolanthe ''Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri'' () is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, first performed in 1882. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh of fourteen operatic collaborations by Gilbert ...

'', Cyril in ''

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 5 January 1884, for a ru ...

'', Nanki-Poo in ''

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 Gilbert and Sullivan, operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in London, whe ...

'', Fairfax in ''

'', and Marco in ''

''. In 1906 he and his wife Ada Ripple toured South Africa with D'Oyly Carte. Ripple played Fairfax in the D'Oyly Carte's first London repertory season, in ''Yeomen'' at the

Savoy Theatre The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre was designed by C. J. Phipps for Richard D'Oyly Carte and opened on 10 October 1881 on a site previously occupied by the Savoy Pala ...

in December 1906 followed by Marco in ''The Gondoliers'' in January 1907, following which he returned to touring in February 1907.

Later years

Ripple finally left the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in June 1907 and returned to the United States where he appeared in mostly musical comedies, in such works as Alvarez y Toledo in ''The Girls of Holland'' (1907); Herr von Trautenbach in ''

Baron Trenck ''Baron Trenck'' is a comic opera in three acts loosely based on the life of Baron Franz von der Trenck. The original German-language work was composed by Felix Albini to a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and Robert Bodanzky and premiered at t ...

'' (1912); Valiant Dunnybrig in ''

The Farmer's Wife ''The Farmer's Wife'' is a 1928 British silent romantic comedy film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Jameson Thomas, Lillian Hall-Davis and Gordon Harker. It is adapted from a 1916 play of the same name by British novelist, poet an ...

'' (1924–1925); Mr. John Weston in ''The Complex'' (1925); Abe Pintree in ''Three Doors'' (1925); Robert Stanton in

Mae West Mae West (born Mary Jane West; August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American stage and film actress, playwright, screenwriter, singer, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned over seven decades. She was known for her breezy ...

's scandalous play ''

Sex Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones (ova, oft ...

'' (1926–1927); ''Bye Bye Bonnie'' (1927); Inspector Ratchett in '' The Wrecker'' (1928); Monsieur Beaunoir in ''

'' (1928–1929); Monsieur D'Ayen in ''The Little Father of the Wilderness'' (1930); Jung in ''Overture'' (1930–1931); Fauntley in ''

The Good Companions ''The Good Companions'' is a novel by the English author J. B. Priestley. Written in 1929, it follows the fortunes of a concert party on a tour of England. It is Priestley's most famous novel and established him as a national figure. It won ...

'' at the

Forrest Theatre The Forrest Theatre is a live theatre venue at 1114 Walnut Street Center City area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It has a seating capacity of 1,851 and is managed by The Shubert Organization.

(1931); Besson in ''The Barrister'' (1932) and Terry in ''Under Glass'' (1933), before creating the small role of Bishop Dodson in ''

'' at the

Alvin Theatre The Neil Simon Theatre, originally the Alvin Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 250 West 52nd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1927, the theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was built for ...

in 1934. From 1932 to his death in 1941 Ripple travelled annually from New York to Philadelphia to act as the stage director for the Savoy Company, America's oldest company performing the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. On 20 April 1922 in St Louis in Missouri he married American-born actress Alice Estelle McComb Ripple (born 1890) who by marrying a British subject apparently lost her US nationality, as in 1931 she applied to become a naturalised American citizen. On her form she stated her husband had been born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, Ireland, in 1877, a fiction he included on various other official documents including census returns. In several interviews later in life Ripple made a number of false claims about his early career, including that he had been a principal tenor at the

for 7 years and had acted as

W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most f ...

's assistant stage manager. Ripple died in New York City in April 1941 aged 76.Pacie Ripple
in the New York, New York, Extracted Death Index, 1862–1948: Ancestry.com

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ripple, Pacie 1864 births 1941 deaths People from Ecclesfield Alumni of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama English operatic tenors 19th-century British male opera singers 20th-century British male opera singers People associated with Gilbert and Sullivan