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Dame Bridget Cicely D'Oyly Carte, DBE (25 March 1908 – 2 May 1985), was the granddaughter of impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte and the only daughter of Rupert D'Oyly Carte. She was head of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1948 until 1982. Though as a child she was not enthusiastic about Gilbert and Sullivan, after her father's death in 1948, Bridget D'Oyly Carte inherited the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, which performed and controlled the copyrights to the joint works of W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, as well as all of her family's business interests. She had begun to assist her father in managing the Savoy Hotel in 1933, also undertaking child welfare work. She hired Frederic Lloyd as general manager of the opera company in 1951 and moved to keep the Savoy operas fresh, marketing them as a bridge between popular and classical music. After the copyrights to the Gilbert and Sullivan works expired in 1961, she transferred the opera company to a charitable trust that she headed. Mounting losses, and the refusal of the Arts Council to provide a grant, forced the closure of the company in 1982, although the company re-formed after Carte's death and mounted several productions through 2003. In 1972, Carte founded the D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust to support charitable causes in the fields of the arts, medical welfare and the environment. She was created a DBE in 1975. With no children of her own or surviving siblings, she was the end of her family line. ==Life and career== Bridget D'Oyly Carte was born at Suffolk Street, Pall Mall, London, and educated in England and abroad. Her father was Rupert D'Oyly Carte, and her mother was the former Lady Dorothy Milner Gathorne-Hardy (1889–1977), the youngest daughter of the 2nd Earl of Cranbrook. In 1926, when she was only 18, she married her first cousin, John David Gathorne-Hardy, the fourth Earl of Cranbrook (1900–1978),〔Both were grandchildren of John Stewart Gathorne-Hardy, 2nd Earl of Cranbrook.〕 an explorer and naturalist. As a result of her marriage, Carte was styled as Countess of Cranbrook, and her married name was Gathorne-Hardy.〔Lundy, Darryl, ed.("Bridget Cicely Carte" ). ''ThePeerage.com'', 28 September 2010〕 They soon separated and finally divorced in 1931; she relinquished her title and resumed her maiden name by deed poll in 1932, also dropping the name Cicely, which she disliked.〔("D’Oyly Carte, Dame Bridget", ) ''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2007, accessed 30 March 2011 〕 She then resumed her education at Dartington Hall in Devon from 1931 to 1933, a school with a long musical tradition, taking courses in dance, teacher training, art and design. There she met designer Peter Goffin who became a long-time friend.〔Taylor, C. M. P. ("Carte, Dame Bridget Cicely D'Oyly (1908–1985)", ) ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', 2004, Oxford University Press, accessed 20 June 2009 〕 The accidental death of her only brother, Michael (1911–1932), made Carte the heir to her father's hotel and theatre interests. As a child, however, she had been reluctant to assume the family legacy. She later told ''The Gramophone'' magazine: "At home, you know, we weren't allowed to ''hum'' Gilbert and Sullivan; in fact we were fined for it, because it annoyed my father. We were allowed to sing it properly, but my brother and I couldn't – in my family the fact that I wasn't Mozart at about three years old was thought of as rather disappointing. So I went through a phase when I was very anti-Gilbert and Sullivan; I became rather a highbrow, and my father thought I was a bit of a snake-in-the-grass because of it."〔"Wimbush, Roger. ("Here and There" ), ''The Gramophone'', March 1975, pp. 1630–33 (p. 33 in online version), accessed 22 February 2011〕 From 1933 to 1939, Carte was an assistant to her father at the Savoy Hotel, taking responsibility for furnishing and interior decoration, for which she had training and aptitude.〔Obituary notice, ''The Times'', 3 May 1985, p. 11〕 Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, however, she undertook child welfare work and continued with it until her father's death in 1948.〔 The family home was Coleton Fishacre, a house that her parents had built in Devon between Paignton and Kingswear in 1925. The house is still known for its design features and garden with exotic tropical plants.〔''Country Life'', 25 October 2007, pp. 78–80〕 After her parents' divorce in 1941, Bridget D'Oyly Carte took over the house, which her father, who lived in London, would visit for long weekends. Shortly after her father's death, she sold Coleton Fishacre, and it is now owned by the National Trust.〔("Coleton Fishacre" ), National Trust, accessed 30 March 2011〕 In 1949 she bought Shrubs Wood, Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, designed by the architects Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff. Here she pursued her love of gardening and gave summer parties for disadvantaged or disabled children.〔 In 1953, Carte was a member of the committee overseeing the decorations for the Coronation Ball at the Savoy Hotel in honour of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.〔''The Times'', 15 November 1952, p. 10〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bridget D'Oyly Carte」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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