Opera Scotland

Alice Aynsley Cook Suggest updates

English contralto.

Alice Aynsley Cook was the youngest sister of the bass Thomas Aynsley Cook, a long-time star of the Carl Rosa company. His daughter Annie married Eugene Goossens II, and Alice was therefore great-aunt of the various Goossens siblings, and is mentioned in Carole Rosen’s Goossens family biography. A regular performer at the Gaiety in the 1880s, she joined D’Oyly Carte in its early days as a soubrette and also sang in a range of musical comedies. She returned to D'Oyly Carte later on, touring in 1900 as Dancing Sunbeam in Sullivan's final completed operetta, The Rose of Persia.