Rupert D'Oyly Carte
Rupert D'Oyly Carte (born November 3, 1876 in London , † September 12, 1948 there ) was an English hotelier, theater owner and impresario . He was known in his day as the owner of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company , the Savoy Hotel and the Savoy Theater in London. These ventures were founded by his father Richard D'Oyly Carte .
Life
Rupert D'Oyly Carte was born in Hampstead , London in 1876 and was the younger son of the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte (1844–1901) and his first wife Blanche Julia, nee. Prowse (1853-1885). He attended Winchester College, one of the most prestigious English schools. He then worked for an auditing company. In 1894 he became his father's assistant. In 1898 he moved into the administration of the Savoy Hotel, which also included his father and Sir Arthur Sullivan . In 1899 he was promoted to deputy managing director. After Richard D'Oyly Carte's death in 1901, his second wife, Helen, whom he married in 1888, took control of most of his businesses. Rupert's older brother, Lucas, a lawyer, was not involved in the family businesses and died of tuberculosis at the age of 34.
In 1903, at the age of 27, Carte took over from his late father as chairman of the Savoy Group, which included the Savoy Hotel, Claridge's Hotel, Berkeley Hotel, Simpson's-in-the-Strand and the Grand Hotel in Rome . Carte married Dorothy Milner Gathorne-Hardy (1889–1977) in 1907, the third and youngest daughter of the second Earl of Cranbrook. They had two children: Bridget (1908–1985) and Michael (1911–1932). Rupert's stepmother Helen died in 1913, leaving him all of her shares in the Savoy Group, the Savoy Theater and the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.
In the First World War, Rupert D'Oyly Carte served in the Royal Navy . After his return he immersed himself again in the theater work. In his first London season in 1919-20, he performed ten of the 14 comic operas by Gilbert and Sullivan , preserving much of Gilbert's original productions. Only in certain cases did he allow changes to Gilbert's texts.
Rupert D'Oyly Carte quickly grasped the possibilities of the new medium of the gramophone . After the First World War he directed a series of complete recordings of the scores of the operas on the HMV label . First of all, guest singers who were familiar with this technology were chosen. Later, full members of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company were also used. With the introduction of the electrical recording process in 1927 and the resulting considerably improved recording quality, a new round of recordings began. Carte also saw the potential of radio broadcasts and worked with the BBC on live broadcasts of D'Oyly Carte productions. In 1929, Carte had the 48-year-old Savoy Theater rebuilt and modernized. The theater was gutted and completely rebuilt based on designs by Frank A. Tugwell. The theater reopened that same year. In 1932 an opera by Gilbert and Sullivan was broadcast on the radio for the first time in its entire length.
1925 could Carte and his wife near Kingswear in the county of Devon a country house building, which Coleton Fishacre was called. The house is still known for its design and garden with exotic plants. Although initially only built as a country house, Dorothy D'Oyly Carte lived on the property as her main residence from the late 1920s.
In 1932, Michael D'Oyly Carte had an accident at the age of 21 in a traffic accident in Switzerland. Rupert D'Oyly Carte was deeply affected by the death of his son Michael, so that his interest in opera and hotels seemed to fade. The couple could not get over the early death of their son and divorced in 1941. Dorothy D'Oyly Carte moved to the Bahamas and married St Yves de Verteuil.
Carte died in the Savoy Hotel on September 12, 1948 after a brief illness at the age of 71. A memorial service for him was held in the Savoy on September 23, 1948. His ashes were scattered on the headland at Coleton Fishacre. The management of the family empire went to his daughter Bridget D'Oyly Carte. The Savoy Group remained under the control of the Carte family and its employees until 1994.
literature
- Michael Ainger: Gilbert and Sullivan - A Dual Biography. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2002, ISBN 0-19-514769-3 .
- Tony Joseph: D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, 1875-1982: An Unofficial History. Bunthorne Books, London 1994, ISBN 0-9507992-1-1 .
- Cyril Rollins, R. John Witts: The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in Gilbert and Sullivan Operas: A Record of Productions, 1875-1961. Michael Joseph, London 1962.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | D'Oyly Carte, Rupert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English hotelier, theater owner and impresario |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 3, 1876 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London , UK |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 12, 1948 |
| Place of death | London , UK |