Florrie Draper’s choice contributions to these archives may be small in number but their significance reflects both the lady herself and the position she assumed within operatic life in Dublin over many decades: she chose to preserve items as diverse as Napoleone Annovazzi’s baton from his final performance (both in Dublin and anyhere – Lohengrin in 1983) to the only extant recording made by Irish mezzo-soprano Patricia Black.
From her earliest beginnings as a member of the performing chorus, she soon discovered her true vocation: in the wardrobe for the opera seasons, where she displayed an uncanny eye for how a theatrical costume should “hang” when it was being worn by a performer; she also developed a canny aptitude for decorating costumes with “bits and pieces” which brought the garment to life when viewed from afar. Her talents also extended to creating small hand props (such as the elegant silver rose in “Der Rosenkavalier”) which she fashioned with unfathomable ease, often against absurd constraints of both time and budget.
She became valued as both dresser and confidante for the many operatic divas who passed through Dublin and knew instinctively how to calm the atmosphere for star performers amidst the febrile atmosphere backstage…
Entertaining the whole performing company at parties which she hosted at her large house in Foxrock became a social highlight each opera season.
In later years, Florrie became one of the driving forces behind setting up the Opera Circle which met five times each year in the Dublin Arts Club for over 15 years. She remained a keen participant in opera excursions to Llandudno and Belfast, despite expressing mild disappointment when it became clear that a trip to visit La Scala in Milan was unlikely to be organised; she nevertheless made the most of what was on offer and remained lively and talkative about the high expectations she had of what cultural experiences brought to her life.
Her book of autographs which she began to gather from March 1934 (when she must have been only ten years old!) through the 1930s & 1940s (and possibly beyond) provides us with a particularly fascinating glimpse into her cultural life both within Ireland and on her forays over to London. Most signatures remain readily identifiable and are listed below (but we welcome suggestions as to who the unidentified signatories are).
Florence (“Florrie”) Draper 1924 – 2017
Adila Fachiri (Hungarian violinist)
???
Charles Manners (Irish bass and theatrical impresario)
J. C. Browner (Irish bass)
Elena Danieli (English soprano)
Ramon Novarro (Mexican film actor)
Joseph Flood (Irish tenor)
Roy Croft (Irish radio and stage personality)
Patricia Black (Irish Mezzo)
Joan Hammond (New Zealand soprano)
Robert Parker (Irish bass)
Eva Turner (English soprano)
Oda Slobodskaya (Russian soprano)
Josephine O’Hagan (Irish soprano)
Rita Lynch (Irish soprano)
Kenneth Neate (Australian tenor)
Gwen Catley (English soprano)
Hamilton Harty (Northern Irish composer and conductor)
Louis Kentner (Hungarian pianist)
Adrian Boult (English conductor)
Maggie Teyte (English soprano)
Richard Todd (Irish film actor)
Bill Johnson (American actor)
James Johnston (Northern Irish tenor)
May Devitt (Irish soprano)
Patricia Black (Irish Mezzo)
Barbara Lane (English soprano)
Eily Murnaghan (Irish soprano and producer)
Joan Butler (English soprano)
Frank Walshe (Irish tenor)
Moira Griffith (Irish soprano and chorus mistress)
Gwen Catley (English soprano)
Helen Paxton (Irish soprano)
Michael O’Higgins (Irish baritone)
Richard Mason (English bass)
Ivan Dixon (Welsh tenor)
Walter Widdop (English tenor)
Michael O’Duffy (Irish tenor)
Leslie Jones (Welsh baritone)
Tudor Davies (Welsh Tenor)
Terry O’Connor (Leader, Radio Éiream Orchestra 1926-1945; Conductor, Dublin String Orchestra & R&R)
???Jack O’Connor ???
??? Piers ???
Maire Larchet (viola player and daughter of John Larchet)
???
Francis Russell (Welsh Tenor)
Frank Sale (English tenor)
Roderick Jones (Welsh baritone)
??? Lina Munroe ???
Josephine Power ??? [Is she Josephine O’Hagan]
Jean Martinon (French conductor)
???
Joseph flood self portrait (Irish tenor)
Jack Cruse (Irish comedian and impresario)
Moira Lympany (English pianist)
Constant Lambert (English ? Composer and conductor)
Arthur Hammond (English conductor)
??? Henry Holst ???
Adrian Boult (English conductor)
??? Beatrice Harrison ???
Leyland White (English Baritone)
??? Gethyn Wickham George ???
Margaret Burke Sheridan (Irish soprano)
Marie Slowey (Irish soprano)
James Johnston (Northern Irish tenor)
??? Marguerite Reddison ???
Owen Brannigan (English bass)
Noel Purcell (Irish comedian and film star)
John Lynskey (Irish baritone)
Eily Murnaghan (Irish soprano and opera producer)
John Torney (Northern Irish tenor)
Charles Lynch (Irish pianist and conductor)
George Chitty (English tenor or baritone)
James Johnston (Northern Irish tenor)
Isobel Baillie (English soprano)
??? A(u)stra Desmond ???
Frederic Lamond (Scottish pianist)
Joan Hammond (New Zealand soprano)
Sean Mooney (Irish bass)
Leslie Jones (Welsh baritone)
Vere Laurie (Irish bass, producer and impresario)
Alan Reeve ???
Anew McMaster (Irish classical actor)
Georgette Rondel (Irish artist)
Edmond Donleavy (English baritone)
??? Tim Doyle’s horror – Johnston ???
Ruth Packer (English soprano)
Renee Flynn (Irish soprano)
Patricia Black (Irish mezzo)
Arthur Askey (English comedian)
Peter Morgan (Irish baritone)
Arthur Hammond (English conductor)
Edith Furmedge (English mezzo contralto)
Ruth Naylor (Australian Soprano)
Gabby Vallé (singer with DGOS)
??? Vincent Goodwin ????
Margaret Ritchie (English? soprano)
Ingrid Hageman (soprano; from Glyndebourne and Bath Festival)
Victoria Sladen (English soprano)
Mary Cherry (English soprano)
??? Goldie Gray ???
Eamonn O’Gallochoar (Irish composer)
James Doyle (conductor and musical director of DGOS)
Hamlyn Benson (manager of Gaiety Theatre)
Elena Danieli (American/Welsh Soprano)
Monica McNamee (Irish Soprano)
??? Henri Berbie ???
??? Luigi Tosini ???
??? Ernest Ingram ???
??? Aidan Flana ???
Augustine Desmond Fitzgerald (Irish conductor of sacred music)
Florrie Draper, one of the best known members of the society, says she became hooked on opera in the early forties. Her mother, May Fitzgerald Draper, was a violinist and in 1940 was leader of the orchestra for a short season by the Dublin Operatic Society at the Gaiety Theatre, although she wasn’t playing in “The Magic Flute”, one of the four operas being presented that spring. After soprano Joan Hammond, who was singing Pamina, complained to George Sleator that in her view the orchestra was inadequate he immediately asked May Draper to take over as leader of the strings. Since she was unfamiliar with the music she sent her daughter Florrie into the Gaiety to collect the opera score. ‘I was twelve at the time,’ recalls Florrie, ‘and when I arrived in the theatre the singers were on stage rehearsing. There was this large woman and I thought her voice was wonderful, the best I’d ever heard. Someone told me in a whisper that she was Miss Joan Hammond. Later on when my mother was playing for the DGOS season I did the walk-on part of the Page in “Tannhauser”, holding Miss Hammond’s train. From that moment the stage fascinated me and I became hooked on opera. I was an angel in “Faust” and was in the ballet troupe in “La Traviata”. I thought the whole thing was magical, a fairytale. And when I began to study at the College of Art I kept up my interest and eventually joined the chorus and from there to the wardrobe department. I never got a penny for my work but I didn’t mind; I just loved being part of the scene and making friends.’
(Extracted from “Love and Music: The Glorious History of the Dublin Grand Opera Society” by Gus Smith, 1998)
Florrie Draper enjoyed watching the romantic scene surrounding the DGOS, and while working in the costume department had sometimes to listen to sopranos complain that their boyfriends or husbands overseas were upset because they hadn’t heard from them. Florrie found it all amusing, though understandable, and had sympathy for some of the artists. ‘Some of them could be emotional and I used to be afraid it would upset their singing. I’d give a bit of advice for what it was worth and I don’t know whether they took it or not.’ It was said that Maestro Annovazzi frowned on female artists staying out late if they had a demanding week of opera. He was known to get cross and rebuke them. Mostly, however, artists were discreet about their affairs and it was sometimes difficult to draw a distinction between friendship and a relationship. Once or twice Annovazzi was called on by Colonel O’Kelly to sort out ‘messy affairs’ and ‘infatuations’ and he did not hesitate to remind a tenor or baritone of their marital responsibilities back home in Italy. For the most part the visitors enjoyed themselves and made the Gaiety their spiritual home, cooking pasta and spaghetti in room No. 7 upstairs (The Wardrobe) and trying at the same time to make themselves understood to their Irish friends.
(Extracted from “Love and Music: The Glorious History of the Dublin Grand Opera Society” by Gus Smith, 1998)
Opera in Ireland 