It began, like other similar ventures, with an advertisement in the newspapers inviting people to a public meeting. About the same time, and in a more personal approach, a letter was circulated to music lovers and friends, simply stating :’A meeting of those interested in the presentation of a Spring Season of Grand Opera in Dublin at the Gaiety Theatre will be held in the Central Hotel, Exchequer Street, at 8p.m. on Thursday next, February 20,1941. You are cordially invited to attend.’ The letter was signed by William O’Kelly (Capt.) and Miss Ann Clarke. It was the first indication of an unusual development in the capital’s operatic scene and was puzzling in so far as the Dublin Operatic Society was already mounting successful seasons at the Gaiety Theatre in South King Street. Furthermore, William O’Kelly was not only an Irish Army officer but a prominent member of the Dublin Operatic Society chorus since the mid-1930s. He was reckoned to be one of the prime movers behind the efforts to form a new society. ‘The DOS was falling apart at this time’, O’Kelly would say later in a Radio Eireann interview.
Nonetheless, the DOS had a proud history since it was founded in 1928 by maestro Adelio Viani, senior professor of singing at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and had made a notable debut with Rossini’s comic opera, “The Barber of Seville”. When Viani resigned in 1936 his work was carried on by the chairman George Sleator, a man with a passion for opera. A well-known jeweller, he was dapper and an elegant dresser but could be prickly. He was not slow, however, in propping up the society with his own money. Apart from staging popular Verdi and Puccini works, the DOS also presented Thomas’s tuneful “Mignon” and Donizetti’s much loved “L’Elisir d’Amore”, operas infrequently seen in Dublin. And he and his committee managed to engage first-class guest artists including English tenor Heddle Nash and soprano Elena Danieli who sang together in “La Traviata” in the society’s spring season of 1937. And for “Mignon” the principals were baritone Leslie Jones and leading Welsh tenor Ben Williams, and soprano May Devitt.
Sleator also provided opportunities for talented Irish artists such as Geraldine Costigan, May Devitt and baritone John Lynskey to take on leading roles. Lynskey was discovered in the west of Ireland where he was a blacksmith and invited to Dublin for vocal training. It was a smooth voice of fine range and natural colour. Among the society’s conductors were Captain J M Doyle, Dr Vincent O’Brien and Arthur Hammond from London. The society’s 1940 season was noteworthy for the arrival of the young soprano Joan Hammond to sing Pamina in DOS’s new production of “The Magic Flute”. She had been engaged to sing Mimi and Violetta at La Scala, Milan, in that year, when she was advised to leave Italy. Although she had been born in New Zealand, she liked to call herself ‘Aussie’; her parents had settled in Australia when she was a child. To Arthur Hammond (no relation), Miss Hammond possessed one of the most meltingly beautiful voices he had ever heard.
Ironically, it was Capt. O’Kelly who had discovered the Belfast tenor James Johnston for the Dublin Operatic Society when he heard him in Derry in “Merrie England”, the Edward German musical. So impressed was O’Kelly by the purity and tonal quality of the voice, that he invited him to Dublin where he was cast by George Sleator as the Duke of Mantua in “Rigoletto”. It was the first indication that the army officer and opera lover had a genuine flair for recognising real potential in voices.
For Sleator it was the beginning of a worrying period. At the best of times he found it almost impossible to break even with his operatic seasons, having to rely almost entirely on box-office takings to see the society through. Any new competition could be serious. Soprano Moira Griffith was one of the first to learn what was taking place behind the operatic scene. Her brother Andrew, a priest and founder member of the Our Lady’s Choral Society, had kept her informed. He was a friend of Louis Elliman, the proprietor of the Gaiety Theatre. ‘Andrew told me he was in Louis Elliman’s office in the Gaiety at the first meeting between Bill O’Kelly and Elliman when the matter of the new operatic society was being discussed. He said that Elliman was very enthusiastic about the plans and encouraged O’Kelly. It seems that the DOS owed money to the Gaiety Theatre and although Elliman was a friend of George Sleator he was not prepared to go on any further. The bills were mounting up and the DOS hadn’t the money to clear them.’ O’Kelly’s version of his meeting with Louis Elliman was summed up later in his own words: ‘I went along and met Louis Elliman. I hadn’t a shilling, just what I stood on and he said to me, “You go ahead and put on the operas and I’ll do the rest for you.
With a world war raging, resulting in the cessation of both operatic and theatrical tours from overseas to Dublin, Elliman, whose family also ran the 4,000-seater Theatre Royal in the city, was concerned about filling his theatres and welcomed any new musical societies, professional or amateur, capable of doing so. Obviously he saw in the sturdy O’Kelly someone with the vision and push to make a success of any new operatic society. To O’Kelly, complacency had set in in the Dublin Operatic Society and he felt it was going nowhere. He was already assured of the support of his friends and he was not slow to convey this point to Elliman, a businessman to his fingertips. Yet Sleator’s contribution to opera had been substantial and his mixture of charm and persuasiveness and knowledge of the subject had made him numerous friends. Moira Griffith regarded him as a gentleman, ever since she began singing minor roles for him like Flora in “Traviata”. The more she talked to her brother Andrew about him, the more her sympathy grew for him. We knew that he had poured lots of his money into the DOS and got no return. George just wasn’t a businessman he couldn’t delegate authority.
Richard Hanrahan got to know Sleator when he joined the DOS chorus. ‘I found him a nice man with a genuine love of opera. I mean, it was his whole life, apart from his Jeweller’s shop. He was a great man for taking chances, a risk-taker you might say. He never knew where his next penny was coming from. I remember he worked very hard for the cause of opera and in order to keep the society afloat he put money he couldn’t afford into it. And he was the kind of man who inspired loyalty in one and there were singers who would sing for nobody else except George..’
Nick Lewis, a Dun Laoghaire builder and a chorister in the DOS, had heard the rumours about efforts to start a new company and he wondered if Dublin would be able to support the two. He had joined the DOS as a baritone and sang beside Capt. O’Kelly. He came to the view that both O’Kelly and Sleator, who he happened to like, were ambitious go-getters and there could be a clash of personalities. ‘I was enjoying my singing and didn’t take much notice of what was going on behind the scenes.’
Meanwhile the response to the meeting at the Central Hotel was enthusiastic and the attendance filled one large room. It was jointly chaired by Capt. O Kelly and Michael Dinnigan. O’Kelly explained that they were there to discuss the holding of a grand opera season at the Gaiety Theatre in May of that year 1941 and that they would endeavour to build up a society worthy of the art of opera. It was their duty to the opera-loving public of Dublin to do so. He told the gathering that their principal singers would include Eily Murnaghan, John Lynskey and Patricia Black. Rehearsals would start on the following Monday and the big rehearsal room in the Theatre Royal had been placed at their disposal.
Capt. O’Kelly was elected chairman and Michael Dinnegan as the vice chairman. Bertie Timlin, a civil servant and a former DOS chorister, was elected honorary secretary, while Capt. J M Doyle would be the group’s musical director. It was expected that John F Larchet, professor of music at University College Dublin, would be the first president. Surprisingly, the society was named the Dublin Grand Opera Society, a name that appeared provocatively close to Sleator’s Dublin Operatic Society. It was said at the time that Capt. O’Kelly was anxious to have the word ‘Grand’ but its inclusion caused bitterness and resentment in the Sleator camp. And despite the breakaway of chorus members from his society, about one-third in all, he was determined to carry on and already had finalised plans for his 1941 spring season at the Olympia Theatre.
Falling out with Elliman over money did, if anything, act as a spur to Sleator who could still draw on the support of guest artists like Heddle Nash and Elena Danieli and others. He wasn’t prepared to sit back and let the new society monopolise the operatic scene. To Moira Griffith, however, he had spent nearly all his money propping up the Dublin Operatic Society. She felt sorry for him. In her view the DGOS was little more than the DOS without George Sleator and this was the reason she decided to join O’Kelly’s society.. ‘I didn’t mind which society I was attached to as long as I was enjoying my singing,’ recalled Nick Lewis. He held the view that Sleator and his committee had done a good job and no-one could deny that. However, he too like others in the DOS chorus saw his future with the DGOS.
Capt. O’Kelly also saw the more amusing side of things. Asked later about his new society, he quipped, ‘Imagine it – an army officer forming an opera society during the war years.’ But he said he was reassured by the fact that they could draw on some excellent principals such as tenors James Johnston and John Torney as well as soprano May Devitt and mezzo-soprano Patricia Black. Having his army colleague Capt. Jim Doyle as musical director pleased him perhaps most of all.
Despite the war raging on various fronts, Dublin remained a busy entertainment city with crowds flocking to cinemas, theatres and musical shows. Travel restrictions, including the absence of electric trams in the evening, proved no real deterrent as Dubliners used the bicycle in many cases as the chief mode of transport. With food and coal often scarce, especially for the poor, entertainment acted as a tonic, the cinema perhaps most of all. Capt. O’Kelly and his colleagues had no doubt that Dublin was ready for amore progressive operatic company. The cigar-smoking and dapper Louis Elliman – ‘Mr Louis’ to his friends in the business – was of the same mind. He was no opera buff but said he had been enormously impressed from the beginning by Capt. O’Kelly’s sheer determination to get the new company off the ground.
For a new society the programme for the first season certainly looked an ambitious one. Four operas would be staged – “La Traviata”, “Il Trovatore”, “Faust” and “La Boheme”. Moira Griftith was approached by Capt. O’Kelly to sing Leonora in Verdi’s “Il Trovatore”, and although George Sleator also wanted her to sing the part for the DOS, she now saw herself as a DGOS guest artist. The same thing applied to others like May Devitt and James Johnston. Everyone seemed encouraged by the new found enthusiasm that was to be the modus operandi of new society.
Nowhere was it more evident than at the rehearsals under chorus mistress Julia Gray. An excellent pianist, she was outstanding at her job and an inspiration to chorus members. Among them were Maura Mooney and her husband Gerard who had a good baritone voice. ‘We worked very hard for Julia and we all wanted the season to be a big success,’recalled Maura. ‘It was important that everyone did their best. Bill O’Kelly and Bertie Timlin were also in the chorus and no different from the rest of us. I remember we had men and women from all kinds of occupations, from banks, the Corporation and shops. It was such fun to be singing together.’
(Extracted from “Love and Music: The Glorious History of the Dublin Grand Opera Society” by Gus Smith, 1998)
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