Page 25 - Redditch People

Redditch People

Birmingham to study singing, and subsequently auditioned with the D'Oyly Carte Opera
Company. She joined the D'Oyly Carte Repertory Company chorus in March 1921. During
the 1921-22 season she shared the small roles of the Lady Ella in Patience (with Elsie
Griffin) and Kate in The Yeomen of the Guard (with Elsie Griffin and Helene Francois).
When she was still sharing Ella and Kate in October 1922, she left the D'Oyly Carte.

She appeared on the concert stage and in several London shows over the next few years,
most notably in opera at the Old Vic under the name of Mavis Bennett, but she became
an overnight sensation through the medium of radio. She was chosen to appear as
vocalist with the Dutch violinist De Groot for his first BBC broadcast in 1925, and her voice
lit up the switchboards. Acclaimed as "The Nightingale of the Wireless," she was soon
appearing regularly on radio both in England and on the Continent, and became a frequent
recording artist for HMV.

The D'Oyly Carte belatedly recognized the talent that got away, and in 1927 she was
invited to participate in the Company's first electrical recording of The Gondoliers. She
accepted and sang the role of Casilda.

Mavis Bennett's radio and gramophone career ended in 1939 when an operation damaged
her throat. She then turned to vocal teaching, a career that brought her much satisfaction.
She died in Stalbridge, Dorset on the 28 January 1990.

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