27th February 1900

Singer Olive Rae makes her London debut

Opera singer Olive Rae was born into a Scottish family living in the Indian city of Madras. The family returned to Edinburgh when Olive was in her early teens, and she later travelled to France to be trained as a singer. After a few lower-key performances, she made her London debut in 1900 and, in doing so, attracted coverage in the national press.

Multilingual performances

A review in the following day’s edition of The Scotsman noted that the benefits of her training in Paris was evident in the French songs that she performed and “her singing in German and Italian only attains a slightly lower degree of excellence”. However, “not that she lacks ‘temperament’ or capacity for expression, but at present there is a slight tendency to sameness of vocal colouring, which limits her resources…”

The London Evening Standard had also been in attendance and, on the 28th, called it “a pleasant entertainment in every respect”.