Nancy McIntosh
Nancy Isobel McIntosh (25 October 1866 – February 20, 1954)[1] was an American-born singer and actress who performed mostly on the London stage.
She became one of the last of W. S. Gilbert's actress protégées and continued her acting and singing career in Britain and America for several years.
She was athletic, like her brothers, "an expert horsewoman, had won prizes in sculling matches, could shoot and fence, played baseball and cricket and enjoyed swimming and diving", as well as tennis.
She commenced a singing career, making her concert debut on 3 March 1887 at YMCA Hall in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, produced by William H. Sherwood, and winning effusive reviews.
[3] On 1 November 1887, she appeared with Sherwood in the first of several Chickering Musical Bureau concerts in Boston, Massachusetts, singing pieces by, among others, Tosti, Chopin, Bach and Wagner.
"[8] McIntosh travelled to England with her father in 1890 (shortly after the flood disaster), where she apparently suffered an illness and was unable to sing for about a year.
[10] Early in 1893 McIntosh sang in a series of concerts under Sir Charles Hallé in Manchester, Wales and Bowness-on-Windermere, among other places.
[3] In February 1893, Henschel held a dinner party where W. S. Gilbert asked McIntosh if she was interested in singing on stage.
Later that year Gilbert asked Arthur Sullivan to hear her audition as the lead soprano in their forthcoming opera, Utopia, Limited.
[7] In letters to Sullivan, Gilbert said of her: "She is rather tall, extremely fair – very nice looking, without being beautiful – good expressive face – no appreciable American twang.
[1] According to scholar John Wolfson, Gilbert's expansion of the role damaged and unbalanced the script by detracting from its satire of government.
[13] Reviewers generally agreed that the inexperienced McIntosh was not a good actress, and during the run of Utopia, which lasted into June 1894, her lack of confidence and ill health combined to affect her performance.
After spending part of 1896 in England with the Gilberts,[3] she returned to New York to star at Daly's Theatre in the title role of The Geisha (1896–97).
