Leonora Braham

Leonora Braham (3 February 1853 – 23 November 1931), born Leonora Lucy Abraham, was an English opera singer and actress primarily known as the creator of principal soprano roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas.

Beginning in 1870, Braham starred for several years in the intimate musical German Reed Entertainments in London. In 1878, she moved to North America, where she continued to perform in comic opera. After returning to England, she was engaged by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, creating five of the principal soprano roles in the hit series of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, including the title role in Patience (1881), Phyllis in Iolanthe (1882), the title role in Princess Ida (1884), Yum-Yum in The Mikado (1885), and Rose Maybud in Ruddigore (1887). She also played Aline in the first revival of The Sorcerer (1884–85).

After leaving the D'Oyly Carte company, Braham continued to perform in England and widely on tour, starring in comic opera and grand opera in Australia, South America and South Africa. By the mid-1890s, she returned to Britain, playing in musical comedy and light opera, briefly rejoining the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. She then continued to perform until 1912 in Britain and America, including with Lillie Langtry in plays without music.

Braham was born into a Jewish family in Bloomsbury, London.

Braham's first professional stage appearance was at St. George's Hall, London, in 1870, in a revival of Gilbert and Clay's Ages Ago. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas German Reed, the producers, starred with Braham. Braham received encouraging notices. She continued performing for the German Reeds for several years, but moved to Montreal with her first husband, Frederick E. Lucy Barnes, in 1878. In April 1878, Braham had won the Llewelyn Thomas gold medal competition at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1879, she played the title role in Gilbert and Clay's Princess Toto in New York and then in Boston. The theatrical newspaper The Era wrote that she gave "a most excellent performance, both vocally and histrionically. She has a sweet, light soprano, finely cultivated, and executed very effectively". In 1880 she was engaged in Alfred Cellier's The Sultan of Mocha, playing the role of Dolly, in New York. Her husband committed suicide in 1880 in North America.

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