Courtice Pounds

Charles Courtice Pounds (30 May 1861 – 21 December 1927), better known by the stage name Courtice Pounds, was an English singer and actor known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and his later roles in Shakespeare plays and Edwardian musical comedies. As a young member of D'Oyly Carte, Pounds played tenor leads in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas in New York and on tour in Britain and continental Europe from 1881 to 1887. After being promoted to principal tenor at the Savoy Theatre, he created the principal tenor roles in The Yeomen of the Guard (1888), The Gondoliers (1889), The Nautch Girl (1891) and Haddon Hall (1892), and played other principal roles. After leaving D'Oyly Carte in 1895, Pounds became a prominent performer during the transition of musical theatre from comic opera to musical comedy, creating roles in the West End in both genres from the late 1890s to the 1920s. The operettas and musical comedies in which he starred included La poupée, The Duchess of Dantzic, The Belle of Mayfair, Princess Caprice, and the long-running hits Chu Chin Chow and Lilac Time. He also played in variety and was well received in comedy roles in Shakespeare plays during the same period.

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