J. H. Ryley

John Handford Ryley (c. 1841 – 28 July 1922) was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the comic baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, particularly in America. His second wife was D'Oyly Carte performer, actress and playwright Madeleine Lucette Ryley.

Ryley married actress Marie Barnam in 1864, and they had a daughter, Wallace (b. 1869). The couple performed a comic duet and dance act in London and on tour, and they were engaged at the Gaiety Theatre, London in 1872. A New York critic later claimed that their "Dancing Quakers" routine was parodied by Margaret and Despard in Gilbert and Sullivan's 1887 opera Ruddigore. Ryley also appeared at The Gaiety in a musical play, Ali Baba a la Mode, in 1872. He and Barnam soon separated. In 1875, Ryley played Fernando in the comic opera Cattarina by Robert Reece and Frederic Clay at the Charing Cross Theatre and later on tour. In Manchester in 1876, he played Captain Flint in The Sultan of Mocha by Alfred Cellier. Later that year, he created the role of Zapeter in W. S. Gilbert and Clay's Princess Toto at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham and on tour in the provinces and next played Amen Squeak in Nell Gwynne by Cellier at Prince's Theatre in Manchester.

Ryley joined Richard D'Oyly Carte's Comedy-Opera Company Ltd. in 1878, appearing as John Wellington Wells in the first provincial production of The Sorcerer, and the Learned Judge in Trial by Jury on the same bill. In September 1878, the company gave the first provincial tour of H.M.S. Pinafore, with Ryley as Sir Joseph Porter. In October the company added Congenial Souls, a one-act farce written by Ryley using music by Jacques Offenbach, to the program as a curtain raiser. This appears to be the only play written by Ryley. Madeleine Lucette (1858–1934) appeared together with Riley on tour with the D'Oyly Carte company in 1878, and she played Clara in his curtain raiser, while he played Adolphus. In 1879, Ryley was chosen to play Sir Joseph in the first authentic American production of Pinafore at New York City's Fifth Avenue Theatre, which opened on December 1, 1879. On December 31 of that year, in the same theatre, he created the role of Major General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance and continued with the role in the U.S. tour until June 1880. Over the next several years, Ryley and the much younger Lucette both performed in America, sometimes together, over the next several years, behaving as if married, and eventually lived in New Rochelle, New York, together with his daughter Wallace. They were not legally married until 1890, however, after Ryley finalized his divorce from his first wife.

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