Nancy McIntosh

Nancy Isobel McIntosh (25 October 1866 – February 20, 1954) Her father was the president of a public company, the New York and Cleveland Gas Coal Company, and a member of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. The club's activities were blamed (but its members were not held legally responsible) for the failure of the South Fork Dam, which caused the Johnstown Flood in 1889 that resulted in the loss of over 2,200 lives in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Nancy's brothers were John Stone McIntosh (1860–1889), a businessman, and Burr McIntosh, a writer, publisher, photographer, war correspondent, radio personality, and stage and film actor; both were college athletes. Nancy attended Pittsburgh Female College from 1878 to 1882 and studied music. 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 also made a specialty of singing Scottish songs. During 1888 and most of 1889, she lived in Tennessee, where she nursed her brother John through his final illness.

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. and at The Crystal Palace, where she sang in Beethoven's Choral Symphony and selections from Wagner's Die Meistersinger. Early in 1893 McIntosh sang in a series of concerts under Sir Charles Hallé in Manchester, Wales and Bowness-on-Windermere, among other places.

Sullivan declined to audition her privately, and she was heard with several other singers on the next audition day at the Savoy Theatre, on 30 June 1893. Sullivan recorded in his diary that he was "Disappointed in her voice ... but I don't think she was at her best – however, she will do as she is nice, sympathetic and intelligent." She was soon engaged by Carte and debuted on the theatrical stage in October 1893 at the Savoy Theatre, creating the role of Princess Zara in Utopia, a role much expanded for her from its initial conception. According to scholar John Wolfson, Gilbert's expansion of the role damaged and unbalanced the script by detracting from its satire of government. 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. Utopia, Limited was to be McIntosh's only part with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, as Sullivan refused to write another piece in which she was to take part.

After Utopia

McIntosh became one of the last actress protégées of W. S. Gilbert's. She eventually lived with Gilbert and Lady Gilbert, and they considered her an "adopted" daughter, as they had no children of their own. During Utopia, she appeared in two performances as Dorothy in a revival of Gilbert's Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith (1894) and late that year created the role of Christina in Gilbert and Osmond Carr's His Excellency (1894–95) Nevertheless, Sullivan encouraged McIntosh to return to concert singing,

McIntosh appeared in the American tour of His Excellency in 1895–1896. She stayed in the U.S. and soon appeared in a revue, Miss Philadelphia, in that city. After spending part of 1896 in England with the Gilberts, She also played Hero in Much Ado About Nothing (singing a solo in the suite of incidental music), Julia Mannering in Guy Mannering, Miranda in The Tempest and La Favorita in The Circus Girl (all in 1897 at Daly's and on tour). After another break in mid-1897, McIntosh returned to the U.S. for another season of The Circus Girl and The Geisha, which continued into 1898. and at the same hall in 1909 she sang the soprano part in Walford Davies's Pastorale; "a most welcome reappearance", wrote The Times.

After more than a decade away from the operatic stage, McIntosh returned, at Gilbert's request, to appear as Selene, the Fairy Queen, in Gilbert and Edward German's flop, Fallen Fairies, at the Savoy Theatre in 1909. The theatre's management attributed much of the blame for the failure of Fallen Fairies to McIntosh. Critics said that she was "too much a tragedy queen"; the sensuality required by the role was "not her sphere". The work's tedious libretto, however, was as much to blame. C. H. Workman, the opera's producer and lead comic, replaced McIntosh after the first week of the opera's run, incurring the wrath of Gilbert, who banned him from playing in any of his pieces in Britain. McIntosh never appeared in an opera again, although she may have had concert engagements.

McIntosh died in London in 1954, and the remainder of the Gilbert estate went to the Royal General Theatrical Fund. This included stocks and revenues from the sale of Gilbert's papers to the British Museum and substantial royalties from the recordings of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas on the HMV and Decca labels. Her ashes were buried with those of Gilbert and Lady Gilbert in the churchyard at the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Stanmore.