Ada Dorée (1850 – 28 April 1916) was an English singer and actor who performed in

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs and including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...

Victorian burlesque Victorian burlesque, sometimes known as travesty or extravaganza, is a genre of theatrical entertainment that was popular in Victorian England and in the New York theatre of the mid-19th century. It is a form of parody in which a well-known oper ...

, and

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment, generally combining gender-crossing actors and topical humour with a story more or less based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or ...

from the 1870s to the 1890s. In her early life she was Ada Catherine Elizabeth Earée, and in her later years she used the name Ada Dorée-Thorne, adding that of her husband.

Life and career

Dorée was born in

Cockermouth Cockermouth is a market town and civil parish in the Cumberland unitary authority area of Cumbria, England. The name refers to the town's position by the confluence of the River Cocker into the River Derwent. At the 2021 census, the built u ...

, Cumberland, in 1850, as Ada Earée, the daughter of William Earée, a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

clergyman, and trained as a singer at the

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

, on a scholarship. She sang with groups known as the Philothespians and the South Kensington Amateurs before gaining professional roles in

, and

between the 1870s and the 1890s.David Stone
"Ada Dorée (1884-85)"
Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, at gsarchive.net, 6May 2007, accessed 11 April 2020"Alphamstone Marriage of the Rev. R. B. Earee" in ''The Bury and Norwich Post, and Suffolk Herald'', 15 August 1876, p. 6 1881 Savoy Theatre

In February 1884, Dorée joined a D'Oyly Carte touring company playing the contralto role of Lady Blanche 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 ...

's ''

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 ...

''. In August of that year, at Portsea, she married another member of the company,

Eric Thorne Frederick Thomas Thorne (1862 – 26 November 1922), stage name Eric Thorne, was an English singer and actor in musical theatre and comic opera. His professional career began in 1884 with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company where he worked for almos ...

;"Thorne Eric & Earee Ada Catherine E" in Marriages for Portsea, vol. 2b (1884), p. 840 after the

Banns of marriage The banns of marriage, commonly known simply as the "banns" or "bans" (from a Middle English word meaning "proclamation", rooted in Frankish and thence in Old French), are the public announcement in a Christian parish church, or in the town cou ...

had been published for Frederick Thomas Thorne "of this parish", and Ada Catherine Elizabeth Earée, of

Alphamstone Alphamstone is a village and civil parish in Essex, England. It is located south of Sudbury in Suffolk and is northeast from the county town of Chelmsford. The village is in the district of Braintree and in the parliamentary constituency of ...

. Her father was by then the Rector there, and her brother, Robert Brisco Earée was also a clergyman. In October 1884, D'Oyly Carte revived ''

The Sorcerer ''The Sorcerer'' is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It was the British duo's third operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaboration. The plot of ''The Sorcerer'' is based on a Christmas stor ...

'' 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 ...

, and Dorée was sent there to perform the secondary contralto part, Mrs Partlett. She continued with this until March 1885, then took the same role on tour until 9May, when the production closed and Dorée left the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Dorée's daughter Gladys Edith Hilda Earée Thorne was born at Alphamstone on 17 June 1885 and was baptized there a few weeks later."Doree-Thorne Gladys Edith H 17JE1885" in Deaths for Worthing, vol. 18 (1979), p. 2,496; "Gladys Edith Hilda Earee Thorne", Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813–1918, Alphamstone St Barnabas, Essex, ancestry.co.uk, accessed 9 April 2020 Dorée remained active in musical theatre. In the spring of 1888, she and Thorne both played in a touring production of ''The Punch Bowl'', a musical comedy about a prince who believes he is invisible. In September of the same year, they both appeared in ''Carina'' at the

Opera Comique The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, located between Wych Street, Holywell Street and the Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and K ...

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

, and in 1889 both performed in ''Faddimar'' at the

Vaudeville Theatre The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on the Strand in the City of Westminster. Opening in 1870, the theatre staged mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. The theatre was rebuilt twice, although each new buildin ...

. In the autumn of 1889, Dorée toured with

Auguste van Biene Auguste van Biene (16 May 1849 – 23 January 1913) was a Dutch composer, cellist and actor. He became best known for his composition ''The Broken Melody'', performed by the composer as part of a musical play of the same name. Van Biene gre ...

in '' Faust up to Date''. She was in a pantomime at the

Prince of Wales Theatre The Prince of Wales Theatre is a West End theatre in Coventry Street, near Leicester Square in London. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937, and extensively refurbished in 2004 by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, its current owner. The theatre ...

in 1890–1891, ''Faust up to Date'' again at the Gaiety Theatre in 1892, ''The Piper of Hamelin'', ''A Modern Don Quixote'', and ''Masters Sandford and Merton'' in 1893, and the burlesque ''Jaunty Jane Shore'' in 1894. In 1904, as "Madam Ada Dorée", she was left an

annuity In investment, an annuity is a series of payments made at equal intervals based on a contract with a lump sum of money. Insurance companies are common annuity providers and are used by clients for things like retirement or death benefits. Examples ...

, and a pony and trap, in the will of Thomas Craigie Glover, of Edinburgh, to thank her for looking after him following the death of his wife in 1895.Potted History No 2: Earlsferry HousePart2The Glovers
eliehistory.com On 2April 1911, as Ada Dorée-Thorne, she made a Census return for 4, Wharfedale Street,

Earl's Court Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...

, stating herself as head of the household, living on a "small annuity". With her was her unmarried daughter Gladys Dorée-Thorne, one servant, the servant's husband, and a visitor.

Death and aftermath

On 28 April 1916, Dorée died at St Saviour's Hospital,

St Pancras, London St Pancras () is a district in North London. It was originally a medieval Civil parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish and subsequently became a metropolitan borough. The metropolitan borough then merged with neighbouring boroughs and the are ...

, aged 66, leaving an estate valued at £1,589, with her daughter as executor. Within a few weeks, her husband married again. In 1922, he died at a nursing home in

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also ) is an area in London, England, and is located in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. Oxford Street forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropo ...

, leaving an estate valued for probate at £10,968 ."Thorne, Frederick Thomas of 1a Castletown-road West Kensington"
Probate Index for England and Wales 1923, at probatesearch.service.gov.uk, accessed 11 April 2020: "Probate London 30 January to Katie Seager Thorne widow. Effects £10,968 11s 2d." Their daughter Gladys remained unmarried and died at the age of 94 in

Worthing Worthing ( ) is a seaside town and borough in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 113,094 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Br ...

, on 22 December 1979. Probate was granted in the name of Gladys Edith Hilda Earee Doree-Thorne."Doree-Thorne, Gladys Edith Hilda Earee", Probate Index for England and Wales, 1980, probatesearch.service.gov.uk, accessed 11 April 2020

Notes

External links

*David Stone
Eric Thorne
in Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at gsarchive.net {{DEFAULTSORT:Doree, Ada 1850 births 1916 deaths English musical theatre actresses 20th-century English women singers 20th-century English singers 19th-century English women singers