THE D'OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY

Pattie Laverne

Pattie Laverne (1876)

[Born Camden Town, London 10 Dec 1844, died London 24 Apr 1916

Pattie Laverne (born Martha Maria Mardon) first appeared before the public as a concert singer at the Hanover Square Rooms. She went on to sing in both concert and oratorio at St. James's Hall in London and the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. Her first appearance on stage was at Preston, as the title character in Offenbach's opera The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein with the Gaiety Company in August 1871.

In 1872, Miss Laverne became a member of the Opera Comique Company in London. There she took principal roles in L'Oeil Crêvè, The Bohemians, and Kissi-Kissi in 1872-73, and Clairette in Lecocq's La Fille de Madame Angot the following season. In 1874, also at the Opera Comique, she appeared, under D'Oyly Carte management, as Margotte in The Broken Branch, an English translation of Gaston Serpette's La Branche Cassee.

Miss Laverne was a principal soprano with Mr. D'Oyly Carte's Opera Bouffe Company playing Carte's own Happy Hampstead, and La Fille de Madame Angot, on tour from June to August 1876. Earlier that year she had appeared as Trainette in London in Procida Bucalossi's comic opera Pom (Royalty, March-April 1876), and later that year took the title role in Alfred Cellier's Nell Gwynne (Prince's Theatre, Manchester, October-November 1876). She appeared on tour as Boulette in Barbe Bleue in 1877. In the early 1880s she toured in leading roles in Australia and America.

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