Henry Bracy

Henry Bracy (8 January 1846 – 31 January 1917) was a Welsh opera singer, stage director and opera producer who is best remembered as the creator of the role of Prince Hilarion in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera Princess Ida. Bracy often played the leading tenor role in the works in which he appeared, becoming one of the most popular comic tenors of the Victorian era. His wife, Clara, was an actress.

After beginning his career in Plymouth, Bracy spent four years performing at London's Gaiety Theatre in the early 1870s. He and his wife then travelled to Australia, where they performed in French operettas for the rest of the decade. They returned to Britain in 1880, continuing in operetta roles. In 1884, Bracy originated the role of Hilarion, after which he further built his reputation in British comic opera and operetta. In 1888, the Bracys returned to Australia. After a season at the Sydney Opera House and touring in operettas, the Bracys joined the J. C. Williamson organisation, by which he was employed for most of his ensuing career, until 1914, as a performer, stage manager, stage director and casting agent. His occasional attempts at theatre management on his own behalf brought him financial losses and forced him to declare bankruptcy in 1897.

Bracy was born in 1846 as Samuel Thomas Dunn in Maesteg in South Wales, the son of an ironworks manager.

He began his theatrical career in 1866 at the Plymouth Theatre and spent three seasons with the company before making his London debut at John Hollingshead's Gaiety Theatre in 1870. Bracy appeared at the Gaiety for nearly four years. In 1873, Bracy was employed as a principal tenor with the Opera Comique in London.

In September 1873, Bracy and his wife, Clara T. Bracy, nee Thompson (sister of Lydia Thompson), travelled to Australia to perform in Jacques Offenbach's operetta Lischen et Fritzchen at the Theatre Royal in Melbourne, and Bracy appeared in 1874 as Rosencrantz in Hamlet. They continued in various parts in Australia before being engaged by Irish musical impresario William Saurin Lyster to lead a season of French operetta, with Bracy also stage managing. For Lyster, they performed in operettas for five years including in Lecocq's La fille de Madame Angot and Giroflé Girofla. Offenbach pieces included The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein, La belle Hélène, Barbe-bleue, La Périchole, La princesse de Trébizonde and Les brigands, and Hervé's Chilpéric was given. These were followed by the first Australian production of Les cloches de Corneville. Clara was well received by the press. During these years, the couple took a tour of the United States in 1876. In 1880, the couple returned to Britain, where Bracy undertook the role of Hector in the hit London production of Madame Favart, replacing Walter H. Fisher. He also appeared in roles during the early 1880s in Les Mousquetaires (1880 at the Globe Theatre); as Frittelini in Audran's long-running production of La mascotte (1881 at the Comedy Theatre), in which his song, "Love is Blind" was a great success; and, at the Avenue Theatre, in Madame Favart (1882), Bucalossi's Les Manteaux Noirs (1882), Olivette (1883), La Belle Lurette (1883) and Bluebeard (1883).

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