Ellen Shirley (1880-81)

Ellen Shirley was understudy to principal sopranos Marion Hood and Leonora Braham at the Opera Comique and, perhaps, the Savoy. She appeared as "one muta persona" in the Desprez & Cellier curtain raiser In the Sulks in 1880, and assumed the part of Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance for a time in January 1881 when Miss Hood left the Company. She also filled in briefly for Miss Braham as Patience in Patience in October 1881. A bit of an artist, her drawing of Gilbert, Sullivan, and Carte, captioned "The Electric Lights of the Savoy," appeared in The Era Almanack for 1882.