Opera Scotland

Olive Westwood Suggest updates

Born Wakefield 1882.

Died Waterford, February 1980.

English contralto.

Olive Westwood studied at Leeds College of Music and toured Britain with a visiting Italian company.  In the early years of the century she joined Moody-Manners, singing a repertoire including Carmen, Delilah and Azucena.  When Moody-Manners closed in 1915 she worked with other touring companies of the period, including the  Allington-Charsley,  Flintoff-Moore, and  Harrison-Frewin companies.  Together with the tenor Albert Bowyer, whom she had married in 1907, she formed the Bowyer-Westwood Company, which toured mostly in Ireland from 1925 to 1930.  After her husband's death, she continued her career with the O'Mara and Universal Opera companies.  After the end of World War II she taught singing in Blackpool. She died at the age of 98.

Source: Opera.