Opera Scotland

Catherine Ferguson Suggest updates

Mezzo-soprano.

Catherine Ferguson was a member of the D'Oyly Carte company.  She specialised in performing some, though not all, of the mezzo roles which had been modelled on the comic talents of Jessie Bond.

These were Constance (Sorcerer);  Hebe (HMS Pinafore);  Edith (Pirates of Penzance);  Lady Angela (Patience);  Iolanthe (Iolanthe);  Melissa (Princess Ida);  Pitti-Sing (Mikado);  Mad Margaret (Ruddigore);  Phoebe Meryll (Yeomen of the Guard);  Tessa (Gondoliers).

It can be noted that Mad Margaret in Ruddigore is not included in the early years.  This work had an undeserved reputation as a bit of a dud, and had not been performed since its initial tour some thirty years before.  After a radical revision by Geoffrey Toye it would reappear in the early twenties, when Catherine Ferguson may be said to have ''re-created'' the role..