THE D'OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY

Winifred Hart Dyke as Fleta in Iolanthe

Winifred Hart Dyke (1900-03)

[Born Colchester 10 Sep 1881, died North Walsham Mar 1976]

Winifred Hart Dyke was educated at Bath and Stuttgart, then prepared for the stage at Madame Cavallazzi Mapleson's ballet school. It was her ability as a dancer that seems to have brought her to the D'Oyly Carte where she first appeared as "Sigh-of-the-Sea" in The Rose of Persia on tour with D'Oyly Carte Opera Company "D" in 1900. She made her first appearance in a named part at the Savoy in October 1901, replacing Lulu Evans as Nora in The Emerald Isle. For the first London revival of Iolanthe (December 1901-March 1902), she was Fleta, and then took the part of Marjorie in Hood & German's Merrie England (at the Savoy and our tour, April 1902-03) and Butterfly in the same collaborators' A Princess of Kensington (at the Savoy and on tour, January-September 1903, after which the London Company disbanded).

Along with many of her Savoy colleagues, Miss Hart Dyke next appeared at the Adelphi in The Earl and the Girl (December 1903), in which a solo dance was interpolated for her. She subsequently performed at the Adelphi in Little Hans Anderson (1903), the Vaudeville in The Catch of the Season (1905-06), the New in Amasis (1906-07) and the King's Theatre, Hammersmith in The Girl From Across the Border (1908). In all of these productions her dancing was a featured part.

Her uncle, Herbert Thorndike, appeared briefly at the Savoy in 1901 in Basil Hood and Franco Leoni's Ib and Little Christina.

D Index  |   "D'Oyly Carte Who Was Who" Home Page