Sydney Granville

Sydney Granville (born Walter Dewhurst; 1880 – 27 December 1959) was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

After early theatrical work in musical comedy, straight plays and grand opera, he joined the D'Oyly Carte company, at first in the chorus, then in lyric baritone roles and finally in the comic bass-baritone parts of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. With brief breaks when he performed for other managements, Granville was with D'Oyly Carte from 1907 to 1942.

Life and career Granville was born Walter Dewhurst in Bolton, Lancashire. a romantic drama, The God of War, and in grand opera with the Moody-Manners Opera Company.

Early career – lyric baritone Granville joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company chorus in 1907, soon understudying the role of Lord Mountararat in Iolanthe at the Savoy Theatre in London. When the season ended, he toured with the company in the chorus and played the small role of Selworthy in the curtain raiser After All!. and he understudied Henry Lytton in the role of Dick Deadeye in Pinafore. He played in pantomime as the Demon Killjoy in Cinderella at the London Palladium. He rejoined D'Oyly Carte, during its 1915–16 tour, playing only Strephon and Luiz in a nine-opera repertoire. The Manchester Guardian commented on his neglect, "Mr. Sydney Granville, who has been heard too little, was a delightful Strephon." In the next season, he lost the role of Strephon to Leo Sheffield when the latter rejoined the company. Granville left D'Oyly Carte for the second time in 1917.

Following the death of the veteran D'Oyly Carte performer Fred Billington in November 1917, Sheffield took on most of his bass-baritone roles. A year later, Granville returned to play the lyric baritone roles that Sheffield had earlier played. These roles were the Counsel, Boatswain, Samuel, Strephon, Florian in Princess Ida, Pish-Tush, the Lieutenant, and Luiz, later swapping the Counsel for the Usher in Trial, adding the Colonel and later Grosvenor in Patience, and swapping Luiz for Giuseppe in The Gondoliers. In 1921 Granville added to his repertoire the role of Cox in Cox and Box, and by 1924, he had given up the smaller roles of Samuel and the Lieutenant.

Later career – "heavy" baritone right|frame|as Sir Despard in Ruddigore In 1925 Granville left the company for the third time, touring in Australia and New Zealand with the J. C. Williamson organisation in 1926–27 in the Gilbert and Sullivan bass-baritone roles that he would later play with D'Oyly Carte. Returning to England in 1927, he made several radio broadcasts for the BBC, including The Red Pen, "a sort of opera" by A. P. Herbert and Geoffrey Toye. He toured in Robert Stolz's musical The Blue Train, and then played Lockit in The Beggar's Opera, at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, in 1928. In 1938, The Observer wrote that Granville "has worked up from stripling parts like Strephon to become, after twenty-five odd years, one of the great Savoy veterans." By 1939, he had given up the Judge and Willis.

"Granny," as he was known in the D'Oyly Carte company, was married to the chorister and small-part player Anna Bethell (known principally for playing Mrs. Partlett in The Sorcerer whenever it was revived. Bethell later served as stage director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1947–49 and for the J. C. Williamson Gilbert and Sullivan Company.

Granville died in Stockport, Cheshire, in 1959 at the age of 79.

Recordings Granville was Pooh-Bah in the 1939 Technicolor film version of The Mikado.

With D'Oyly Carte, he participated in the following His Master's Voice recordings of the operas: H.M.S. Pinafore (1922 – as Captain Corcoran and Boatswain), Princess Ida (1924 – Florian), Iolanthe (1929 – Private Willis), Pinafore (1930 – Boatswain), abridged Gondoliers (1931 – Don Alhambra), abridged Pirates (1931 – Sergeant), Ruddigore (1931 – Despard), abridged Yeomen (1931 – Shadbolt), and Mikado (1936 – Pooh-Bah).