Violet Oppenshaw
British singer
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Violet Ella Oppenshaw Webber (3 June 1888 – 21 June 1975), born Violet Ella Kay, was a British contralto singer. Her stage name was sometimes printed as Openshaw.
3 June 1888
Violet Oppenshaw | |
|---|---|
| Born | Violet Ella Kay 3 June 1888 Bayswater, London, U.K. |
| Died | 21 June 1975 (aged 87) Havant, Hampshire, U.K. |
| Other names | Violet Webber, Violet Openshaw |
| Occupation | Singer |
| Relatives | Henry Kay (uncle) Anton Dolin (cousin) |
Early life and education
Oppenshaw was born in Bayswater, London, the daughter of Alfred Harvey Kay and Emily Jane Kay; her father was a military officer. Cricketer Henry Kay was her uncle, and dancer Anton Dolin was her cousin.[1] She attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and studied privately with Helen Armstrong, Pietro Neri-Baraldi, Allen Gill, and Henry Wood.[2][3]
Career
Oppenshaw was a contralto singer, mainly heard in oratorio performances.[3] She made her London debut in 1907, at Aeolian Hall.[2] and sang at holiday concerts in Wales in 1909.[4] She was a soloist when the Western District Choral Society performed Handel's Messiah at Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1911.[5] "She is apt to get intensity of expression at the cost not only of the rhythm but the tempo of her music," a 1913 Birmingham reviewer said of Oppenshaw. "At present she is inclined to underline her favourite emotional effects a trifle too thickly."[6] The same reviewer in 1914 still found her "over-eager", but concluded that she was "a promising young singer."[7] In 1914 she sang at a London benefit for the Women's Emergency Corps.[8]
Oppenshaw can be heard on dozens of recordings between 1910 and 1917, including a 1917 recording of The Mikado by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.[9][10] She was a member of the "Zono Minstrels" quartet, white singers performing British-composed "plantation songs" in recordings for the Zonophone label.[11][12]
In 1922, Oppenshaw sang songs by composers Easthope Martin, Landon Ronald, and May Brahe at the Enoch Ballad Concerts in Westminster.[13] She appeared on musical programs in Bournemouth in 1923.[14]
Personal life and legacy
Oppenshaw married naval officer James Trery Webber in 1914.[15] They had a daughter, Margaret.[16] They celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in 1974,[17] and she died in 1975, at the age of 87,[18] at her daughter's home in Havant, Hampshire.[19] The Guildhall School of Music and Drama has a Violet Openshaw Memorial Prize, for the outstanding contralto student at the school.[20]