Lorraine Daniels

Lorraine joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company chorus in January 1976 having previously studied at Trinity College of Music, where she obtained her A.T.C.L. and L.T.C.L. in piano and singing and in 1974 won the Elisabeth Schumann Lieder Competition. 

During her first full season, she made occasional appearances in small parts touring Great Britain, America and Canada, but from August 1977 understudied Jane Metcalfe rising to principal mezzo-soprano for the Australian and New Zealand tour in 1979 and thereafter appearing as Edith, Iolanthe, Pitti-Sing, Phoebe, Tessa, Constance and Mad Margaret. 

After the closure of the Company in 1982, Lorraine made many concert and operatic appearances including concerts at the Barbican, the Royal Festival Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall, St. David's Hall and the London Palladium. She also toured with Donald Adams and Tom Round and in 1984, with The London Savoyards. In the same year, she toured North America and Canada with former D’Oyly Carte principals with ‘The Best of Gilbert & Sullivan,’ and may be heard singing selections from the G&S repertoire on a cassette recording of that title privately produced in 1995. These tours took place annually until she decided to become a singing and piano teacher and started a Stage School for children and a choir introducing G&S into schools around East Anglia with Principals from The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. She also appeared briefly as Pitti-Sing in the 1981 film ‘Chariots of Fire’.