Sybil Gordon (22 March 1902 – 17 December 1981) was an English singer and actress.Stone, David

Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, 23 September 2020, accessed 15 November 2020 She is best remembered for her performances in

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen com ...

roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1926 to 1931. Gordon started out as a concert singer. After her career with the D'Oyly Carte company, she moved to Canada, where she broadcast on the radio. In the 1981 film ''

Chariots of Fire ''Chariots of Fire'' is a 1981 historical drama, historical Sports film, sports drama film directed by Hugh Hudson, written by Colin Welland and produced by David Puttnam. It is based on the true story of two British athletes in the 1924 Summer ...

'', she is misidentified as the fiancée of Olympic runner

Harold Abrahams Harold Maurice Abrahams (15 December 1899 – 14 January 1978) was an English track and field athlete. He was Olympic champion in 1924 in the 100 metres sprint, a feat depicted in the 1981 film '' Chariots of Fire''. Early life and educati ...

Career

Gordon was born Sophia Solomon in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

. Early in her career, Gordon won first prize at the 1923

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

Music Competition, judged by Sir Steuart Wilson. At this time, she was singing as a

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano (, ), or mezzo ( ), is a type of classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A bel ...

. The following year, as a

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

, she sang regularly in

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

broadcasts of songs by

Walford Davies Sir Henry Walford Davies (6 September 1869 – 11 March 1941) was an English composer, organist, and educator who held the title Master of the King's Music from 1934 until 1941. He served with the Royal Air Force during the First World War, du ...

Roger Quilter Roger Cuthbert Quilter (1 November 1877 – 21 September 1953) was a British composer, known particularly for his art songs. His songs, which number over a hundred, often set music to text by William Shakespeare and are a mainstay of the English ...

and others, and

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

tic arias by composers including

Puccini Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long line of composers, s ...

and Massenet. She also performed in a series of concerts in

. The critic Samuel Langford wrote of her, "Her voice has a decided freshness and purity, and her interpretations, though not greatly varied, have confidence, alertness and charm." Gordon joined the chorus of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1926, singing on tour in England and Ireland and in a London season at the

Prince's Theatre The Shaftesbury Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London Borough of Camden. It opened in 1911 as the New Prince's Theatre, with a capacity of 2,500. The current capacity is 1,416. The title "Shaftesbury Theatr ...

. Beginning in 1927, she performed several soprano roles with the company: the Plaintiff in ''

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 increasingly used ...

'', Celia 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 ...

'', Lady Psyche in ''

Princess Ida ''Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant'' is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen; the next was ''The Mikado''. ''Princess Ida'' opened at the Savoy Thea ...

'', Zorah in '' Ruddigore'' and Fiametta in '' The Gondoliers''. Her performance with the company as Lady Psyche 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 ...

in 1929 was singled out by ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' for particular praise. She sings Fiametta on the 1927 D'Oyly Carte recording of ''The Gondoliers''. She also sang Celia in the radio broadcast of ''Iolanthe'' from the Savoy Theatre in February 1930. Gordon left the company at the end of the 1930 season, rejoining briefly in April 1931 as the Plaintiff in ''Trial by Jury''. In 1931, Gordon moved to Canada. There, from November 1931 to February 1932, she sang in radio broadcasts of all 13 extant Gilbert and Sullivan operas on the

CBC CBC may refer to: Media * Cadena Baja California or Grupo Cadena, a radio and television broadcaster in Mexico * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's radio and television public broadcaster ** CBC Television ** CBC Radio One ** CBC Music ** ...

, on the C-I-L-sponsored "Opera House of the Air". She died in Hatch End, Middlesex, at the age of 79.

''Chariots of Fire''

In the 1981 film ''

'', Olympic runner

's fiancée is misidentified as Sybil Gordon (portrayed by Alice Krige). In reality, his fiancée, whom he did not actually meet until a decade after the 1924 Olympics, was Sybil Evers, who sang small roles with D'Oyly Carte from 1930 to 1931.Chapman, James
''Past and Present: National Identity and the British Historical Film''
London: I.B. Tauris, 2005, p. 292 Also in the film, "Sybil Gordon" is depicted as singing Yum-Yum 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 ...

''; however, this was not a role that either Gordon or Evers sang with D'Oyly Carte.

Notes

Sources

*Rollins, Cyril; R. John Witts (1961). ''The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in Gilbert and Sullivan Operas.'' London: Michael Joseph.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Sybil English operatic sopranos 20th-century English women opera singers English mezzo-sopranos 1902 births 1981 deaths Singers from Manchester