{{Short description|English singer and comic actress}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Fanny Holland | image = HollandFanny.jpg | image_size = Fanny Holland | caption = Portrait of Fanny Holland | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1847|9|14|df=yes}} | birth_place = London | death_date = {{Death date and age|1931|6|18|1847|9|14|df=yes}} | death_place = Bournemouth, Dorset | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | other_names = | occupation = Singer and comic actor | years_active = 1869–1899 | spouse = Arthur Law | partner = | children = | parents = }} '''Fanny Holland''' (14 September 1847 – 18 June 1931) was an English singer and comic actress primarily known as the creator of principal soprano roles in numerous German Reed Entertainments from 1869 to 1895.
Holland began her career as a concert singer. After a role in an operetta by Frederic Clay, she began to perform in the German Reed Entertainments in London, first in W. S. Gilbert and Clay's ''Ages Ago'' (1869). She eventually appeared in scores of German Reed productions, including four more by Gilbert, and in comic operas elsewhere, such as Gilbert's ''Topsyturveydom'' at the Criterion Theatre (1874), and with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Opera Comique, as Josephine in ''H.M.S. Pinafore'' from December 1879 to February 1880.
In 1877, she married actor-playwright Arthur Law, with whom she appeared with the German Reeds, sometimes in works written by her husband. She continued to perform with the German Reeds until 1895, when the company dissolved. She later appeared in Henry Arthur Jones's comedy ''The Manoeuvers of Jane'' at the Haymarket Theatre in 1898–1899.
==Life and career== Holland was born in London and trained at the Royal Academy of Music. She was the daughter of John Holland and his wife Meriel Ann ''nee'' Marshall.<ref name=VoE>{{cite book |title=Visitation of England and Wales |volume=7 |last=Howard |first=Joseph Jackson |author2=Frederick Arthur Crisp |year=1899 |page=64 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=btYKAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA64}}</ref>
For several years, she was a popular concert singer in London and the British provinces. Frederic Clay engaged her for a part in an operetta he had written. It was performed in Canterbury and included a song for Holland that she popularised, "She Wandered Down the Mountain Side." Soon after that experience, Holland made her London stage debut with the German Reed Entertainments at the Gallery of Illustration, in November 1869, as Rose in W. S. Gilbert and Clay's ''Ages Ago''. Holland eventually appeared in scores of German Reed productions. They included four more of Gilbert's German Reed pieces: ''Our Island Home'' (1870), ''A Sensation Novel'' (1871), ''Happy Arcadia'' (1872), and ''Eyes and No Eyes'' (1875). She also starred in ''Dora's Dream'', with music by Alfred Cellier and words by Arthur Cecil at the Gallery (1873). Holland also appeared in Gilbert's ''Topsyturveydom'' at the Criterion Theatre in 1874.
thumb|upright|left|Fanny Holland before 1878 Holland returned to the German Reeds in 1875. In 1877, she married actor-playwright Arthur Law, with whom she appeared with the German Reeds. The couple had a son named Hamilton Patrick John Holland Law (born 1879).<ref name=VoE/> During a two-year period, from 1879 to 1881, Law and Holland performed on tour as "Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Law's Entertainment," but the venture proved unsuccessful.<ref name=MaW>{{cite book | title = Men and women of the time: a dictionary of contemporaries | last = Plarr | first = Victor | edition = 15th | publisher = G. Routledge | year = 1899 | page = [https://archive.org/details/menandwomentime00plargoog/page/n543 625] | url = https://archive.org/details/menandwomentime00plargoog}}</ref> Holland then remained with the German Reeds at their new theatre, St. George's Hall, until 1895, except when she performed with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Opera Comique, as Josephine in ''H.M.S. Pinafore'' from December 1879 through February 1880, at the close of the run.<ref>Moss, Simon. [https://www.c20th.com/GSarchivegas.htm HMS Pinafore programme] at c20th Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, showing Holland as Josephine, accessed 11 March 2009</ref>
At St. George's she played in entertainments too numerous to list. In 1877 alone, she appeared in ''A Night Surprise'' by her husband, Arthur Law, writing under the pseudonym, "West Cromer"; ''Number 204'' by F. C. Burnand, with music by Mr. German Reed; ''A Happy Bungalow'', by Law, with music by King Hall; ''Once in a Century'' by Gilbert Arthur à Beckett, with music by Vivian Bligh; and ''Our New Doll’s House'' by W. Wye, with music by Cotsford Dick. Her fellow players, besides the German Reeds, and their son Alfred, included Law, Cecil, Corney Grain, Leonora Braham and Carlotta Carrington. Among many other works by her husband, she played in his 1882 play ''Nobody's Fault''.
In 1895, the German Reed partnership dissolved, following the deaths of Corney Grain and Alfred German Reed. One of Holland's last appearances at St. George's Hall was in an 1895 revival of ''Happy Arcadia'', under the management of Rutland Barrington. She later appeared in Henry Arthur Jones's comedy ''The Manoeuvers of Jane'' at the Haymarket Theatre in 1898–1899.
Holland died in Bournemouth at the age of 83.
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==References== * Gänzl, Kurt. ''The British Musical Theatre'', Macmillan, vol.I, London, 1986.
==External links== *[http://diamond.boisestate.edu/gas/whowaswho/H/HollandFanny.htm Fanny Holland] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060904161418/http://diamond.boisestate.edu/gas/whowaswho/H/HollandFanny.htm |date=4 September 2006 }} at Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte *www.gabrielleray.150m.com/ArchivePressText2003/20030426.html Information about, and review of, Holland
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Holland, Fanny}} Category:English operatic sopranos Category:English stage actresses Category:D'Oyly Carte Opera Company people Category:W. S. Gilbert mentors, protegees Category:1847 births Category:1931 deaths Category:19th-century British women opera singers