{{Short description|British opera singer and actress (1887–1931)}} {{for|the CEO of ACORN|Bertha Lewis (activist)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}} {{Use British English|date=December 2016}} [[File:Lytton-Lewis-Patience-Parkslee.png|thumb|upright=1|alt=White woman in Victorian "aesthetic" costume carrying a white man, who looks comically terrified|Lewis with [[Henry Lytton]] in ''[[Patience (opera)|Patience]]'', 1922]] '''Bertha Amy Lewis''' (12 May 1887 – 8 May 1931) was an English opera singer and actress primarily known for her performances as principal [[contralto]] in the [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] [[comic opera]]s with the [[D'Oyly Carte Opera Company]].
Born in London and trained at the [[Royal Academy of Music]], Lewis began her professional career as a concert singer. In 1906 she joined the [[D'Oyly Carte Opera Company]] on tour, playing smaller roles. The year after her 1908 London début at the [[Savoy Theatre]], she was promoted to playing the principal contralto roles in ''[[H.M.S. Pinafore]]'', ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]'', ''[[The Mikado]]'' and the company's other Gilbert and Sullivan repertory. She left the company in 1910 and married the [[baritone]] [[Herbert Heyner]], with whom she performed in concerts, among other appearances.
Lewis returned to D'Oyly Carte in 1914, resuming her engagement as principal contralto. For more than 16 years, she portrayed all the leading contralto characters in the company's repertory: She died at the age of 43 in 1931 after sustaining fatal injuries in a car accident while on tour. She is sometimes considered the greatest of all the principal contraltos of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.
==Life and career== ===Early life and career=== Lewis was born in [[Forest Gate]], London on 12 May, 1887, the eldest daughter of William Thomas Lewis and his wife Emily {{nee}} Bacon.<ref name=ww>Parker, p. 565</ref> She was educated at the Ursuline Convent, [[West Ham|Upton]], and at the [[Royal Academy of Music]],<ref name=ww/> gaining an A.R.A.M. qualification.<ref name=savoyard>"Editorial notes", ''The Savoyard'', Vol. X, No. 1, May 1971, p. 6</ref> She appeared in amateur productions in east London mainly in [[farce]], including [[Arthur Wing Pinero|Pinero's]] ''[[Dandy Dick (play)|Dandy Dick]]'',<ref>"Performance by the Prospero Dramatic Society", ''Walthamstow and Leyton Guardian'', 30 November 1900, p. 6</ref> and made professional appearances on the concert platform.<ref name=Stone>Stone, David. [https://www.gsarchive.net/whowaswho/L/LewisBertha.htm Bertha Lewis], ''Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company'', 19 March 2007, accessed 23 January 2013</ref>
In 1906, aged nineteen, Lewis joined the [[D'Oyly Carte Opera Company]] on tour, making her début at the [[Grand Theatre, Southampton]], on 30 June 1906, as Kate in ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]'',<ref name=ww/> and then playing Saphir in ''[[Patience (opera)|Patience]]'', Leila in ''[[Iolanthe]]'' and Vittoria in ''[[The Gondoliers]]''.<ref>Rollins and Witts, p. 122</ref> In the following two years she added Ada in ''[[Princess Ida]]'' and First Bridesmaid in ''[[Trial by Jury]]'' to her roles.<ref>Rollins and Witts, pp. 123–124</ref> In 1908 she made her London début, at the [[Savoy Theatre]], in the part of Gwenny Davis in [[Philip Michael Faraday]] and [[Frederick Fenn]]'s ''[[A Welsh Sunset]]'', a curtain raiser to ''[[H.M.S. Pinafore]]''.<ref name=ww/><ref name=Stone/> Rejoining the D'Oyly Carte touring company in October 1908 she added Inez in ''The Gondoliers'' to her roles.<ref>Rollins and Witts, p. 125</ref>
Early in the 1909–10 tour Lewis succeeded Ethel Morrison as principal contralto, playing Little Buttercup in ''[[H.M.S. Pinafore]]'', Ruth in ''Pirates'', Lady Jane in ''Patience'', the Queen of the Fairies in ''Iolanthe'', Lady Blanche in ''Princess Ida'', Katisha in ''[[The Mikado]]'', Dame Carruthers in ''[[The Yeomen of the Guard]]'', and the Duchess of Plaza-Toro in ''The Gondoliers''.<ref name=rw126>Rollins and Witts, p. 126</ref> She played those roles until March 1910, when she left the company. In the same year she married the [[baritone]] [[Herbert Heyner]], with whom she performed in concerts.<ref name=ww/><ref>"The Meister Glee Concerts", ''Rugby Advertiser'', 3 May 1910, p. 4; and "Queen's Hall", ''North Wales Weekly News'', 28 July 1911, p. 1</ref> According to her entry in ''[[Who's Who in the Theatre]]'' she appeared in [[grand opera]], in the title role of [[Georges Bizet|Bizet]]'s ''[[Carmen]]'', as Delilah in [[Camille Saint-Saëns]]'s ''[[Samson and Delilah (opera)|Samson and Delilah]]'', and as Amneris in [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]]'s ''[[Aida]]''.<ref name=ww/>
===Principal contralto and death=== Lewis returned to the D'Oyly Carte company in December 1914, replacing [[Louie René]] as principal contralto. For more than 16 years after her return, Lewis portrayed all of the leading contralto characters in the company's repertory: Lady Sangazure in ''[[The Sorcerer]]'', Buttercup, Ruth, Lady Jane, Fairy Queen, Lady Blanche, Katisha, Dame Hannah in ''[[Ruddigore]]'', Dame Carruthers, and the Duchess of Plaza-Toro.<ref name=Stone/>
{{Image frame|align=center|caption=Lewis in five of her roles: (l to r) Fairy Queen, Lady Blanche, Ruth, Lady Sangazure and Dame Hannah|content= {{Image array | height = 260 | width = 180 | perrow = 5 | border-width = 0 | image1 = Bertha Lewis (Parkslee 12) (cropped).jpg | alt1 = woman in costume as a fairy | image2 = Bertha Lewis as Blanche.jpg | alt2 = woman in costume as a female don | image3 = Bertha Lewis (Parkslee 32) (cropped).jpg | alt3 = woman in costume as a pirate | image4 = Bertha Lewis (Parkslee 53) (cropped).jpg | alt4 = woman in costume as an aristocrat | image5 = Bertha Lewis (Parkslee 60) (cropped).jpg | alt5 = woman in costume as an old villager }} }}
[[File:Bertha Lewis Grave.jpg|thumb|upright=0.6|right|Grave of Bertha Lewis in Cambridge City Cemetery]] Lewis died at the age of 43 in May 1931 after sustaining fatal injuries in a car accident. She was travelling from Manchester to Cambridge in a car driven by [[Henry Lytton]] in a rainstorm while the two were on tour with D'Oyly Carte. Lytton was injured in the accident but recovered and returned to performing after a few months. Lewis was in the hospital for five days before dying of her injuries. [[Mary of Teck|Queen Mary]] made personal enquiries, and the newspapers and the [[BBC]] gave daily news reports about her condition. She was buried in [[Cambridge City Cemetery]] and, although it was a double grave, she lies there alone. Her husband did not attend her funeral.<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16786244 "Deaths: Heyner (Bertha Lewis)]", ''[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]'', 17 June 1931, p. 10</ref>
Lewis is sometimes cited as the greatest contralto in the history of the D'Oyly Carte Company.<ref>[https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1657603/souvenir-cutout-of-bertha-lewis-souvenir-the-artograph-company "Souvenir cutout of Bertha Lewis as Lady Jane in Patience"], Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 26 June 2025</ref> Her powerful voice (preserved on recordings), clear diction and formidable stage personality were praised.<ref name=Stone/> Of her performance in the production of ''The Mikado'' in 1926, ''The Times'' wrote that she "was majestic as Katisha ... getting a serious dramatic significance into her part and illustrating the fact that the humour of Gilbert and Sullivan comes out best by serious treatment".<ref>"Princes Theatre", ''The Times'', 20 September 1926.</ref> The critic [[Audrey Williamson]] wrote, "Gilbert has given [Katisha] the most dramatic entrance of almost any character in the operas, and few contraltos can have equalled the late Bertha Lewis in this scene. Majestic in presence, she took the stage like a thunderbolt".<ref>Williamson, p. 168</ref>
==Recordings== With the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, Lewis recorded Buttercup (part in 1922, all in 1930), Ruth (1931), Lady Jane (1930), Queen of the Fairies (1929), Lady Blanche (1924), Katisha (1926), Dame Hannah (1924) and The Duchess of Plaza-Toro (1927). She participated in a 1926 BBC radio broadcast of ''The Mikado'', live from the opening night of the D'Oyly Carte London season, in a cast including Lytton, [[Darrell Fancourt]], [[Leo Sheffield]] and [[Elsie Griffin]], and appeared as Katisha in a four-minute silent promotional film made to promote that [[Charles Ricketts]]-redressed ''Mikado''.<ref>Shepherd, Marc. [http://www.cris.com/~oakapple/gasdisc/artist/artist.htm Bertha Lewis in the Artist Index] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080703011452/http://www.cris.com/~oakapple/gasdisc/artist/artist.htm |date=3 July 2008}}, Gilbert and Sullivan Discography (2005)</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
==Sources== * {{cite book|last=Ayre|first=Leslie|year=1972|title=The Gilbert & Sullivan Companion|location=London|publisher=W H Allen|isbn=0396066348}} * {{cite book|last=Jones|first=Brian|year=2005|title=Lytton, Gilbert and Sullivan's Jester|location=London|publisher=Trafford Publishing|isbn=1412054826}} * {{cite book|last=Rollins|first=Cyril|year=1962|author2=R. John Witts|title=The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in Gilbert and Sullivan Operas: A Record of Productions, 1875–1961| location=London|publisher=Michael Joseph|oclc=504581419}} * {{cite book | last=Williamson | first=Audrey | title= Gilbert and Sullivan Opera: A New Assessment| year=1953 | location=London | publisher=Rockliffe | oclc=249910852 }}
==External links== *[http://pinafore.www3.50megs.com/b-lewis.html Profile of Lewis] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070603030532/http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~melbear/potted6.htm Another profile of Lewis]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Bertha}} [[Category:1887 births]] [[Category:1931 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century English actresses]] [[Category:20th-century English singers]] [[Category:20th-century English women singers]] [[Category:Actresses from Essex]] [[Category:Burials at the Cambridge City Cemetery]] [[Category:English contraltos]] [[Category:English opera singers]] [[Category:British operatic contraltos]] [[Category:Actors from the London Borough of Newham]] [[Category:Road incident deaths in England]] [[Category:Singers from Essex]] [[Category:People from Forest Gate]]