Darrell Fancourt

[3] His mother, Amelia (Amy) de Symons, née Lewis-Barned (1865–1931),[4] was "a clever vivacious young artist of the musical comedy type".

[5][8] At the Royal Academy, he studied singing with his mother's former teacher, Sir Henry Wood,[3] and Alberto Randegger,[9] and drama with Richard Temple, creator of many of the Savoy roles in which Fancourt was later famous.

[11][13] The Times said of an Aeolian Hall recital in 1912, "Mr. Fancourt has some noble notes in his voice, except when he forces it occasionally ... Schubert's Tod und das Mädchen was remarkably well characterized; it was quite his best and he made it into a thing of great beauty.

[15] In 1917, while still serving in the army, Fancourt married a beautiful Welsh singer, Eleanor Evans, at St Mark's Church, Hamilton Terrace, London.

[22] In 1921, when Cox and Box and The Sorcerer were revived, Fancourt added the roles of Sergeant Bouncer and Sir Marmaduke Pointdextre to his repertoire.

Roderic's song 'When the night wind howls', as Fancourt sings it in the second act of Ruddigore, is at the meridian of that opera and one of the glories of Gilbert-and-Sullivan in the contemporary theatre.

[21] Frederic Lloyd, who joined the D'Oyly Carte in 1951 and had studied the company's history, told an interviewer that Fancourt invented his interpretation, concerned that the earlier movements used during the Mikado's song could be taken as a Fagin-like caricature.

"[35] A later Times review commented more favourably: "Mr Darrell Fancourt... can (and did) add a terrifying aspect to the benignity of his humaner punishment manifesto, and left us wondering how his vocal cords ever managed to function normally after those expressions of emphasis with which he punctuated its paragraphs.

So he has given us a Mikado who really does curdle the blood, with a voice like a steam hammer slowly crushing a ton of Brazil nuts, and a make up of ghastly villainy, and a fiendish, gurgling laugh, which must be heard to be appreciated.

In his last year, he continued to perform although he was very ill.[13] Fancourt received the OBE in June 1953 in the Coronation Honours shortly after announcing his forthcoming retirement.

[40] The Illustrated London News commented, "He will be the greatest loss to professional Gilbert-and-Sullivan since Henry Lytton retired … Besides his voice and presence, he has the priceless gift of attack.

"[39] Fancourt was too ill to make his scheduled final appearance, and as a last gesture he asked a friend to take his make-up to his successor, Donald Adams.

[38] Fancourt participated in nineteen D'Oyly Carte recordings between 1923 and 1950 in the following roles: Mountararat (1922, shared with Peter Dawson, and 1930), Dick Deadeye (1922, shared with Frederick Hobbs, 1930 and 1949), Sir Roderic (1924, 1931 and 1950), Arac (1925 and 1932), Colonel Calverley (1930 and 1952), Sir Marmaduke in an abridged Sorcerer (1933), the Mikado (1926, 1936 and 1950), the Pirate King (1931 abridged set and 1950), and Sergeant Meryll (1950).