Violet Melnotte

Violet Melnotte (2 May 1855–17 September 1935), was a stage performer and actress-manager and theatre owner of the late 19th century and early 20th century. She was the wife of Gilbert and Sullivan performer Frank Wyatt, whom she met when they both appeared in the hit operetta Erminie.

Melnotte performed in comic opera and pantomime in London and the British provinces for eight years before venturing into theatre management in 1885. After this, she continued to perform while managing several West End theatres. She and her husband built the Duke of York's Theatre in 1892, and she owned the theatre for four decades. In 1910 she built the Duke of York's Picture House in Brighton, a state-of-the-art facility.

Born in Birmingham in 1855 as Emma Solomon, the daughter of Henry Solomon (born 1831), a general dealer, and later a traveller in jewellery, and his wife Ellen (née Coley), in 1872 she married Thomas Hopkins in Birmingham and had a daughter, Ellen 'Nellie' (born c. 1876).

Melnotte made her professional debut in a pantomime at the Theatre Royal in Hull in the mid-1870s. She made her London debut in October 1876 as Fezz in Bluebeard at the Folly Theatre. In early 1877 Melnotte appeared as a Tittlebat-fisher in Richard D'Oyly Carte's operetta Happy Hampstead at the Royalty Theatre.

She performed in comic opera and pantomime in London and the British provinces for eight years before venturing into theatre management with the Avenue Theatre in 1885. She was manager of the Comedy Theatre when her Miss Violet Melnotte's Comic Opera Company launched the original British production of Edward Jakobowski's comic opera Erminie (1885), which went on to become an international sensation. Melnotte played the role of Cerise Marcel in the production.

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