Bridget D'Oyly Carte

rdf:langString Bridget D'Oyly Carte

rdf:langString Dame Bridget D'Oyly Carte DBE (25 March 1908 – 2 May 1985) was head of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1948 until 1982. She was the granddaughter of the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte and the only daughter of Rupert D'Oyly Carte. Though as a child she was not enthusiastic about Gilbert and Sullivan, after her father's death in 1948 Bridget D'Oyly Carte inherited all her family's business interests, including the opera company, which performed year-round and controlled the copyrights to the joint works of W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. She had begun to assist her father in managing the Savoy Hotel in 1933 and remained active in the hotel business, of which she was a major shareholder, until her death. She also undertook child welfare work. Carte engaged Frederic Lloyd as general manager of the opera company in 1951 and took steps to keep the Savoy operas fresh, with new productions and redesigned costumes and scenery. After the copyrights to the Gilbert and Sullivan works expired in 1961, she transferred the company to a charitable trust, which she headed. In the 1970s, the company experienced mounting losses. These, together with the refusal of the Arts Council to provide a grant, forced the closure of the company in 1982, although it re-formed after Carte's death and mounted productions up to 2003 and occasionally thereafter. In 1972 Carte founded the D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust to support charitable causes in the fields of the arts, medical welfare and the environment. She was created a DBE in 1975. With no children or surviving siblings, she was the end of her family line.