J. M. Gordon

John McRobbie Gordon (1857 – 22 February 1944) was an English singer, actor, stage manager and director, best known as the influential long-time director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company after the death of W. S. Gilbert.

Gordon was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. Early in his career, he sang with the Dan Godfrey Quartet in Bournemouth.

Gordon joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1883 on tour in Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience as a member of the chorus. In 1884, he played the part of Colonel Calverley in Patience on tour. He remained with D'Oyly Carte until 1890, playing Piscator in The Carp (a one-act curtain raiser) when it accompanied Ruddigore, and Mr. Harrington Jarramie in Mrs. Jarramie's Genie (another curtain raiser), when it accompanied The Yeomen of the Guard, in each case at the Savoy Theatre in London. He was also in the choruses of Princess Ida, Trial by Jury, The Sorcerer, The Mikado, Ruddigore, Yeomen and The Gondoliers at the Savoy. In the 1890s, Gordon managed, and acted in, his own touring company of four performers, playing a series of short pieces including Mock Turtles. He also ran his own band. By the early 1900s, he was working as a freelance conductor and director for British amateur operatic societies. Among other works that he directed were Sullivan's The Emerald Isle, Planquette's Les cloches de Corneville, Cellier's Dorothy, Gilbert and Cellier's The Mountebanks and Gilbert's play Sweethearts.

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