Fanny Holland
| Fanny Holland | |
|---|---|
Portrait of Fanny Holland
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| Born |
14 September 1847 London |
| Died | 18 June 1931 (aged 83) Bournemouth, Dorset |
| Occupation | Singer and comic actor |
| Years active | 1869–1899 |
| Spouse(s) | Arthur Law |
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.
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.
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 (1873). Holland also appeared in Gilbert's Topsyturveydom at the Criterion Theatre in 1874.
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). 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. 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.
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