THE D'OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY

Clinton Elder (1894)

[Born Detroit 28 Sep 1864, died Ypsilanti, Michigan 18 Dec 1939]

Tenor Adam Clinton Elder toured with Agnes Huntingdon in the mid-1880s in roles including Florac in the opera-comique The Musketeers. His first recorded appearance on the New York Stage was in a concert at the Fourteenth Street Theatre in December 1887. Several concert appearances are recorded before his first dramatic role in New York as Philip de Bellegarde in Planquette's Captain Therèse (Union Square Theatre, February 1892).

After a brief trip to London in 1891, in which he also performed in concert, Elder rejoined Huntingdon and toured in Captain Therese and Paul Jones. He was later engaged to play Captain Fitzbattleaxe with D'Oyly Carte's American Utopia Limited Company, appearing in New York and Boston from March 26 to June 1, 1894. It was Elder's only role with the D'Oyly Carte organization. Elder remained in America after Utopia closed, appearing that summer as Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance at Boston's Tremont Theatre.

Elder appeared often in New York musical productions over the next several years, including as the Defendant in Trial by Jury with the Castle Square Opera Company in 1899. His last role there was Frederick, Prince of Pisa, in a revival of The Mascot also by the Castle Square Company (American Theatre, 1900). In 1901, after a summer season at Uhrig's Cave near St. Louis, Elder moved to Missouri, reverted to concert singing and took up teaching.

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