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One of the most notable intakes of the 1890's was Isabel Jay, who became one of the Company's lead sopranos in the second half of the decade. Starting with a few days' trial run as Elsie Maynard during the 1897 revival of "The Yeomen of the Guard", and described (naturally) as "pretty", she brought to her roles an ideal G. & S. voice and temperament:
"Miss Isabel Jay's bright, alert acting and fascinating personality" (claimed the Era critic of her performance as Mabel in "The Pirates of Penzance") "would have condoned many deficiencies. But in addition to winning all hearts by her freshness and earnestness, Miss Jay gave us a delightfully easy and accomplished rendering of her share of the score, and the way in which she used a very valuable voice told of sound training and keen intelligence."
Or again:
"Miss Jay is in possession of a fresh and excellent voice" (this was referring to her performance as Patience) - and although she may not be so experienced an actress as the gifted lady [i.e. Leonora Braham] who created the part, she is endowed with sufficient nous to give refreshing piquancy to the lines with which she is entrusted"
The days of her greatest fame were to come later with musical comedy. But it was her time in G. & S. that, in after years, she remembered with the greatest affection. 'I do not think any part of my stage career yielded so much pleasure as my five years' association with the Savoy operas, she was to write more than twenty years later. At one performance, indeed, just before she left, she was so overcome with emotion that she did something that no other performer in D'Oyly Carte history has been recorded as doing: she actually broke down and had to leave the stage in the middle of a song.
Isabel Jay made occasional appearances as Elsie and Gianetta at the Savoy in 1897. She became leading soprano there upon the departure of Ruth Vincent in 1899. She replaced Ellen Beach Yaw in "The Rose of Persia" and then appeared in "The Pirates of Penzance", "Patience", and "Iolanthe".
Upon leaving the Savoy in 1902 she appeared in several West End musicals including "A Country Girl", "The Cingalee", "Veronique", and "The White Chrysanthemum". She retired from the stage in 1911.
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