t h e r o s a t r o u p e
Winifred Griffiths
Winifred Griffiths
Winifred Griffiths, born at Wolverhampton on 23 June 1902, began singing as a child at local concerts. Vocal training followed and led to a successful audition for the Rosa; she joined them as a soprano chorister at Rochdale in January 1919. Her earliest traced appearance, and probably company debut, was in her home town a few months later. She appeared as the doll Olympia in Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann at the Grand Theatre Wolverhampton on 27 September. This was an important rôle in an opera of many rôles. Olympia is a human-like automaton who attracts Hoffmann, and the rôle combines singing the famous Doll Song with associated mechanical body language. The Newcastle Daily Chronicle considered that ‘Miss Winifred Griffiths study of the beautiful automaton was perfect.’ Winifred repeated the rôle for some ten performances and also occasionally sang the Shepherd Boy in Wagner’s Tannhäuser before leaving the company in the summer of 1922.
The remainder of her career, apart from a season with the Joseph O’Mara Opera Company in the late nineteen twenties, was in variety, seaside concerts in the summer, urban concerts and pantomime in the winter. She married in 1929 and left the stage about 1940 for family commitments. She died at Wolverhampton on 24 November 1977.
Winifred Griffiths as Olympia
The family remember that Winifred was proud of her association with the Rosa. She joined at only sixteen years with her elder sister Clara supporting her in a company secretarial post. Thus her debut as Olympia was made only three months after her seventeenth birthday. The young lady from Wolverhampton had every right to be proud as she was almost certainly the youngest artist ever to sing a major role with the company.
The Rosa Trust wishes to thank Wendy Percival for information about her grandmother’s career and the use of the photographs of Winifred as herself and as Olympia.
© 2021 John Ward
