Sydney Granville

Sydney Granville (1880 – 27 December 1959) was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

After early theatrical work in musical comedy, straight plays and grand opera, he joined the D'Oyly Carte company, at first in the chorus, then in lyric baritone roles and finally in the comic bass-baritone parts of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. With brief breaks when he performed for other managements, Granville was with D'Oyly Carte from 1907 to 1942.

Granville was born Walter Dewhurst in Bolton, Lancashire. His early stage appearances were on tour in a musical comedy entitled Dorcas, a romantic drama, The God of War, and in grand opera with the Moody-Manners Opera Company.

Granville joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company chorus in 1907, soon understudying the role of Lord Mountararat in Iolanthe at the Savoy Theatre in London. When the season ended, he toured with the company in the chorus and played the small role of Selworthy in the curtain raiser After All!. The next season, at the Savoy, he played John Lloyd in Fenn and Faraday's A Welsh Sunset, given as a curtain raiser to H.M.S. Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance, and he understudied Henry Lytton in the role of Dick Deadeye in Pinafore.

On tour with D'Oyly Carte from 1908 to 1914, Granville played a variety of Gilbert and Sullivan roles, including the Counsel to the Plaintiff in Trial by Jury, Boatswain in Pinafore, Samuel in The Pirates of Penzance, Colonel Calverley in Patience, Strephon in Iolanthe, Arac in Princess Ida, Pish-Tush in The Mikado, the Lieutenant of the Tower in The Yeomen of the Guard, and Luiz in The Gondoliers.

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