1948 Joan Gillingham OPERA STAR Signed Letter DEAD at age 42 Pirates Mikado RARE

Description

Offered is an extremely rare handwritten letter from Opera star Joan Gillingham.
From August 1948-August 1951 Joan Gillingham was
the
D'Oyly Carte principal mezzo-soprano. She played Hebe, Edith in
Pirates
, Angela, Iolanthe, Pitti-Sing in
The Mikado
, Phoebe, and Tessa on a regular basis, though she did appear in the lesser parts of Kate (
Pirates
) and Peep-Bo (
Mikado
) on a few occasions during the 1948-49 season. In the summer of 1949 she added the last remaining mezzo role (Mad Margaret in
Ruddigore
) to her duties.
Although she was only with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company a few years, her beauty, vivacity, and charm made her a huge popular favorite. She had been planning to return to the Company after the 1951 summer holiday, but it wasn't to be. She was taken ill and underwent major surgery and, while she seemed to recover somewhat, she was never strong enough to rejoin the Company. She lived with her painful illness for seven years and died in 1958 at the early age of 42.
She may be heard on three D'Oyly Carte recordings:the 1949
H.M.S. Pinafore
(as Hebe), the 1949
Pirates of Penzance
(as Edith), and the 1950
Mikado
(as Pitti-Sing). She also participated in a 1951 BBC radio broadcast of
The Mikado
(again as Pitti-Sing). LOOK AT MY OTHER AUCTIONS!!!! The letter has a crease along right hand side.