Courtice Pounds
As a young member of D'Oyly Carte, Pounds played tenor leads in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas in New York and on tour in Britain and continental Europe from 1881 to 1887.
The operettas and musical comedies in which he starred included La poupée, The Duchess of Dantzic, The Belle of Mayfair, Princess Caprice, and the long-running hits Chu Chin Chow and Lilac Time.
[7] Arthur Sullivan recognised Pounds's talent and persuaded him to remain with D'Oyly Carte rather than join Christy's Minstrels, from whom he had received an offer.
[12][15] In late 1886, Pounds joined the company of John Stetson, the American manager, playing Hilarion and Nanki-Poo in authorised productions in New York.
[28][1] Pounds returned to the West End as Ange Pitout in La fille de Madame Angot (1893);[29] Connor Kennedy in Haydn Parry's Miami (1893);[30] and Mark Mainstay in Howard Talbot's Wapping Old Stairs (1894).
[31] Returning to D'Oyly Carte in 1894, Pounds played Picorin in Mirette[32] and created the role of Count Vasquez de Gonzago in The Chieftain late in 1894.
He then travelled to Australia, appearing in the first half of 1896 with J. C. Williamson's opera company in Yeomen, The Gondoliers,[36] Miss Decima,[37] The Vicar of Bray and Ma Mie Rosette.
[41] In February, Pounds returned to the West End, playing Lancelot in Edmond Audran's La Poupée, which ran until September 1898.
[42] Lancelot, a comic role, marked the beginning of Pounds's transition from juvenile leads to character and comedy parts in both straight and musical theatre.
He established himself as a popular Shakespearean character actor with Tree's company, as the clown Feste in Twelfth Night (1901),[50] the preposterous Sir Hugh Evans in The Merry Wives of Windsor,[4] and Touchstone in As You Like It (1907), of which The Times said he "acts even better than he sings, which is, of course, saying a good deal.
"[51] The Manchester Guardian wrote of him, "Courtice Pounds had all that Shakespeare asked of his clowns – the gift of song and a robustness of comedy that could change at will to a tender and poignant moment.
[53] Prominent among his musical comedy roles were Papillon in The Duchess of Dantzic (1903), which he created in both London (1903) and New York (1905);[3] Hugh Meredith in The Belle of Mayfair (1906), with his sister Louie in the cast;[54] the lead in Leo Fall's The Merry Farmer (Der fidele Bauer; 1907) and Jasomir in Fall's Princess Caprice (1912).
[43] He appeared in The Laughing Husband, the English version of the operetta Der lachende Ehemann by Edmund Eysler, in both London (1913) and New York (1914).
[55] The musical theatre authority Kurt Gänzl writes that Pounds's performance in these roles proved him "the most complete and versatile singing actor of his age.
A fund was set up to provide for him, and fellow-artists giving their services in fund-raising included Seymour Hicks and his wife Ellaline Terriss, Evelyn Laye, Huntley Wright, Walter Passmore, Derek Oldham, Gertrude Lawrence, and Geoffrey Toye.
[60] Four of Pounds's sisters (Lily, Louie – a successful actress in her own right – Nancy, and Rosy) also appeared with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.
With Rosina Buckman and Frederick Ranalow, he sang the trio "The first thing to do is to get rid of the body", from The Boatswain's Mate, accompanied by the composer, Dame Ethel Smyth (all three singers had appeared in the world premiere performance of the opera).
