Lark Ellen Home Scenes

3. Ellen Beach Yaw at 75 in 1944

In 1898 and 1899, Yaw was singing in private concerts in London, and at one of these, at the home of Mrs. Fanny Ronalds, she so impressed Sir Arthur Sullivan that he prevailed upon the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company to cast her as the Sultana Zubedyah in his comic opera The Rose of Persia, which opened on November 29, 1899 at the Savoy Theatre in London. Sullivan went so far as to write a special high cadenza for her song "Neath My Lattice," a cadenza that only she could sing. Yaw's first two nights were shaky, though the reviews were mixed, and both the music director, Francois Cellier, and Mrs. Carte advocated for her replacement. Sullivan at first agreed, writing in his diary on 2 December, "I told [Cellier] I was afraid [that Yaw] would not improve, that she hadn't got it in her.... I don't quite see what it's all about -- Miss Yaw is not keeping people out of the theatre as Cellier and the Cartes imply.