Louisa Bodda-Pyne (30 April 1828 – 20 March 1904) was an English soprano and opera company manager.

Biography

Life and career

Born into a theatrical family as Louisa Fanny Pyne, she was the youngest daughter of the

alto The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: '' altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In four-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in ch ...

George Griggs Pyne (1790–1877)."Marriages", ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 20 October 1868, pg. 1 Her elder sister Susanna Pyne (1821–86) was also an accomplished singer and her uncle James Kendrick Pyne (1785–1857) was a tenor whose son and grandson, both named

James Kendrick Pyne James Kendrick Pyne (5 February 1852 – 3 September 1938) was an English organist and composer. Biography He was born in Bath into a musical family. His father, also James Kendrick Pyne (1810–1893) was an organist at Bath Abbey for 53 years ...

, were distinguished organists. Her niece, Blanche Whiffen, had a long career in America on stage and later in cinema. Louisa Pyne was the manager, with the

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

William Harrison, of the Pyne & Harrison Opera Company which toured the Americas in the 1850s. In 1857 she and Harrison founded the Pyne and Harrison English Opera Company at the

Lyceum Theatre, London The Lyceum Theatre ( ) is a West End theatre located in the City of Westminster, on Wellington Street, just off the Strand in central London. It has a seating capacity of 2,100. The origins of the theatre date to 1765. Managed by Samuel Arno ...

. The company later moved to the

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and listed building, Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) an ...

and, in 1858, under the shortened name of the Royal English Opera, gained a lease at what is now the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

from December 1858 until 1864. The following year, Pyne, along with William Harrison, W. H. Weiss and Madame Weiss, formed a new company under Edward Tyrrel Smith at Astley's Theatre Royal. On 12 October 1868, she married the singer Frank H. Bodda remaining so until his death aged 69 on 14 March 1892. Louisa Pyne died at her home Cambridge Gardens,

North Kensington North Kensington is an area of west and northwest London. It is north of Notting Hill and south of Kensal Green predominately in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and partly in the London Borough of Brent and City of Westminster. The ...

on 20 March 1904.''

'', 22 March 1904

References

External links

Louisa Pyne
English soprano, Luminous-Lint * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pyne, Louisa 1828 births 1904 deaths English sopranos Women of the Victorian era 19th-century English singers Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists 19th-century British women musicians 19th-century English businesswomen 19th-century English businesspeople 19th-century English women singers