Philip Ritte (8 January 1871 – 14 December 1954) was a British

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 ...

of the early 20th century. He made his stage debut in London's West End singing in

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 ...

and other comic operas and musicals. He went on to enjoy great popularity as a concert singer of ballads during the

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

era and the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and also as a performer in concert parties at The Oval,

Margate Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and Westbrook, Kent, ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. He made a number of recordings.

Early years and personal life

Philip Ritte was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, Scotland, in 1871 as Philip Rittenberg, the son of Bernhard Rittenberg (of

Lithuanian Jewish Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks () are Jews with roots in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (covering present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, the northeastern Suwałki and Białystok regions of Poland, as well as adjacent areas o ...

descent) and Bertha Wasserzug (of

Polish Jew The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...

ish descent). He was one of seven children. He was educated at Cowper Street School in London and studied art before moving on to study music. In 1899 he married Henrietta Helena "Lillie" Latte; his profession at this time being given as that of a

lithographic Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

artist on the marriage certificate. They had four children. In 1918 he changed his name to Philip Ritte.

Stage and singing career

Ritte made his singing debut as a chorister with the

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 ...

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 ...

from June 1899 to November 1901, beginning with ''

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, which ...

'' and ''

Trial by Jury A jury trial, or trial by jury, is a legal proceeding in which a jury makes a decision or findings of fact. It is distinguished from a bench trial in which a judge or panel of judges makes all decisions. Jury trials are used in a significant ...

'' and ending with the original production of ''

The Emerald Isle ''The Emerald Isle''; ''or, The Caves of Carrig-Cleena'', is a two-act comic opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and Edward German, and a libretto by Basil Hood. The plot concerns the efforts of an Irish patriot to resist the oppressive "re-ed ...

''. From 1903 to 1904 he played a small part (the First Watchman) in ''

The Cherry Girl ''The Cherry Girl'' was an Edwardian musical comedy in two acts based on a book by Seymour Hicks with lyrics by Aubrey Hopwood and music by Ivan Caryll. It opened at the Vaudeville Theatre in London's West End on 21 December 1903. The original ...

'' at the

Vaudeville Theatre The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on the Strand in the City of Westminster. As the name suggests, the theatre held mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. It opened in 1870 and was rebuilt twice, although each ...

in London. From 1904 and for eight years he made annual appearances at the London Ballad concerts held at both the

Queen's Hall The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect Thomas Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it ...

and

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...

. He performed in numerous concerts at most of the leading provincial British theatres. In 1907 he joined "Randall Jackson's Concert Party" at the Oval in

in which he had Hugh E. Wright,

Carrie Tubb Caroline Elizabeth Tubb (17 May 1876 – 20 September 1976) was an English soprano of the early 20th century, and later a teacher of singing at the Guildhall School of Music. She made her debut at London's Royal Opera House in 1910, where she appe ...

and Fred Wildon as fellow artists, and it was this association which gained him his eventual popularity. For several summers Ritte ran his own companies in the

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Hov ...

Westgate Westgate or West Gate may refer to: Companies * Westgate Resorts, a real estate company and timeshare company * Westgate Department Stores, the department store division of Anglia Regional Co-operative Society in the United Kingdom Events * Westg ...

and

Swanage Swanage () is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck and one of its two towns, approximately south of Poole and east of Dorchester. In the 2011 census the civil ...

areas of the south coast of England. In 1912 the Ariel Grand record catalogue made the following appraisal of his career:

Since his first appearance as a member of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, twelve years ago, Mr. Ritte's career has been an uninterrupted success. He has appeared before enthusiastic audiences in all the principal London concert halls and is well known in oratorio in the largest provincial centres.

Recordings

In 1909 Ritte recorded fewer than ten songs for

HMV Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom. The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...

Zonophone Zonophone (early on also rendered as Zon-O-Phone) was a record label founded in 1899 in Camden, New Jersey, by Frank Seaman. The Zonophone name was not that of the company but was applied to records and machines sold by Seaman's Universal Talki ...

label. Between 1910 and 1911 he made a number of recordings for

Pathé Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French people, French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest ...

. He recorded about seven discs for

Beka Records Beka Records was a record label based in Germany, active from about 1903 to 1925. Before World War I, Beka also made gramophone records for the United Kingdom market under the Beka-Grand Records label. The company became a subsidiary of the Car ...

, and had nineteen entries in the 1912 Ariel Grand record catalogue. He also recorded for the Albion and

Coliseum The Colosseum ( ; it, Colosseo ) is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world t ...

labels. He used the pseudonym Harold Harmsworth for some of his recordings. A selection of his songs, with recording date (where known) and record company is given below: * " I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen", 1909, Zonophone * "

When You and I Were Young, Maggie "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" is a folk song, popular song, and standard written by George W. Johnson and James Austin Butterfield. Origin Although Springtown, Tennessee, has a small monument outside an old mill claiming the song was writt ...

", 1909, Zonophone * "

Love's Old Sweet Song "Love's Old Sweet Song" is a Victorian parlour song published in 1884 by composer James Lynam Molloy and lyricist Graham Clifton Bingham. The first line of the chorus is "Just a song at twilight", and its title is sometimes misidentified as su ...

", 1909, Zonophone * " The Golden Shore", 1909, Zonophone * " I Hear You Calling Me", 1910, Pathé * " Because", Albion * "

Roses of Picardy "Roses of Picardy" is a popular British song with lyrics by Frederick Weatherly and music by Haydn Wood. Published in London in 1916 by Chappell & Co, it was one of the most famous songs of the First World War and has been recorded frequently u ...

", Coliseum * " Kathleen Mavourneen", Beka In 1927, he made a short film ''Philip Ritte and His Revellers'' in the short-lived DeForest

Phonofilm Phonofilm is an optical sound-on-film system developed by inventors Lee de Forest and Theodore Case in the early 1920s. Introduction In 1919 and 1920, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patents on a sound-on-film process, ...

sound-on-film process.

Death

He died in

Willesden Willesden () is an area of northwest London, situated 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Charing Cross. It is historically a parish in the county of Middlesex that was incorporated as the Municipal Borough of Willesden in 1933, and has formed ...

, London, England in 1954, aged 83.

References and notes

External links

Website with details about who was who in the D'Oyly Carte
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritte, Philip 1871 births 1954 deaths People educated at Central Foundation Boys' School British tenors Musicians from Edinburgh Jewish singers Scottish people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent