THE D'OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY

Ivor Evans as the Usher in Trial by Jury

Ivor Evans (1952-53)

[Born Swansea c.1912, died Ilford, Essex 13 Oct 1993]

Ivor Evans got his start on the London Stage in grand opera at Sadler's Wells in 1945, and performed there regularly until February 1948.From July to September 1949 he appeared at the Palace Theatre, London, as Edvard Grieg in the operetta Song of Norway.

He made his D'Oyly Carte Opera Company debut in May 1952 when he was engaged to play the Usher in Trial by Jury, the Earl of Mountararat in Iolanthe, and Old Adam in Ruddigore, and to understudy Darrell Fancourt in the latter's principal baritone roles.

In the tumultuous 1952-53 season, Evans added Sergeant Bouncer in Cox and Box, Go-To in The Mikado, and the Lieutenant of the Tower in The Yeomen of the Guard to his regular duties, and filled in for the ailing Fancourt on numerous occasions as Dick Deadeye in H.M.S. Pinafore, the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance, Colonel Calverley in Patience, the Mikado of Japan in The Mikado, Sir Roderick Murgatroyd in Ruddigore, and Sergeant Meryll in The Yeomen of the Guard.

When the season ended on August 1 and Fancourt retired, Fancourt's mantle fell, not to Evans, but to Donald Adams. Evans decided to leave the Company himself at that point.

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