Opera Scotland

Gladys Cranston Suggest updates

Born Glossop, Derbyshire.

American soprano.

Her British parents, the bass Ottley Cranston and soprano Louie Collier, both toured extensively with the J W Turner company. She herself spent several seasons touring with the Carl Rosa organization.

An article in the Dundee Courier and Argus of Friday, 10 February 1922 'By Our Lady Correspondent' introduces her to Dundee audiences:-

'Miss Gladys Cranston, of the Carl Rosa Company, was looking very fit after a round of golf at Carnoustie when I saw her yesterday afternoon. ''I am very fond of golf,'' she remarked, ''and play as often as I can. I enjoy playing on the Carnoustie Course very much, and I am quite delighted with Dundee itself.''

'Miss Cranston is as charming off the stage as on, and her brown eyes in their setting of pretty features framed with dark hair hold a fugitive twinkle suggestive of a keen sense of humour.

''I was born in Glossop, Derbyshire,'' she observed in the course of a short chat, ''but received all my musical education in Kansas City, Missouri, from my father, Ottley Cranston, and my mother, whose professional name was Louie Collier. They are both teaching there now, but they played together for a long time in Turner's Opera Company on this side of the Herring Pond. By the way, I am constantly coming across people - in Dundee, as well as elsewhere - who remember my father's performances.''

'''It is three years since I joined the Carl Rosa Company on coming to England. My favourite parts? Best of all, I think I like Juliet in Romeo and Juliet - I have only played that in America, of course. The dramatic role of Sieglinde in The Valkyrie also makes a special appeal to me, and I'm very fond of Mimì in La bohème, the title role in Madame Butterfly and Nedda in Pagliacci.'''