Olive Sarah Gilbert (22 November 1898 – 19 February 1981) was a British singer and actress, who, in a career spanning seven decades, performed first in opera and then in many of Ivor Novello's musicals in London's West End.
After the First World War, Gilbert sang contralto and mezzo-soprano roles with the Carl Rosa Opera Company for more than a decade.
She also had roles in his Careless Rapture (1936), Crest of the Wave (1937), The Dancing Years (1939), Arc de Triomphe (1943), Perchance to Dream (1945) and King's Rhapsody (1949).
By 1919, she began her professional career in contralto and mezzo-soprano roles with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, such as Carmen, Delilah, Mignon, Nicklaus and Suzuki.
[2] In 1961 at the Palace Theatre, she first played Sister Margaretta in The Sound of Music, remaining in that show for its entire five-year London run.