page_title: Florence St. John
section_title: Star of light opera
hierarchical_section_title: Florence St. John / Life and career / Star of light opera
caption_attribution_description: Florence St. John in Carmen up to Data.
context_page_description: Margaret Florence Greig, known by her stage name Florence St. John, was an English singer and actress of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras famous for her roles in operetta, musical burlesque, music hall, opera and, later, comic plays.
  St. John began her career while still a teenager. By 1879, St. John was starring in new London productions, often creating roles, beginning with the title role in an English version of Madame Favart, which earned her critical praise. Despite occasional illnesses, she created the leading soprano roles in the light operas Olivette, Barbe-bleue, Nell Gwynne and Erminie, among several others. In 1888, she joined the Gaiety Theatre company, playing Marguerite in the hit Victorian burlesque Faust up to Date, which toured America, and then the British provinces. She then starred in Carmen up to Data.
  In the early 1890s, St. John continued to pay at the Gaiety and also toured in the operetta Rip van Winkle. In 1892, she starred in In Town, which became a hit and ushered in the age of the Edwardian musical comedy. This was followed by the hit the burlesque Little Christopher Columbus.
context_section_description: Alexander Henderson engaged St. John in 1878 to sing Germaine in the hit operetta, Les Cloches de Corneville by Robert Planquette with an English libretto by H. B. Farnie, in the provincial touring company (Alfred was cast opposite her as Henri, Marquis of Corneville).  Towards the end of the record-setting London run, she took over the role in London, against her husband's wishes. The first London role that she created was the title role in Farnie's English-language version of Offenbach's Madame Favart, at the Strand Theatre in 1879. She received high praise from the critics and her performance in the hit production made her a star.  London's Daily News wrote that she was "a young actress of very pleasing appearance, who acts with remarkable vivacity and grace, possesses a mezzo-soprano voice of really fine quality, and sings in a style that indicates a thoroughly sound training...." The piece went on to run for over 500 performances, and St. John stayed until near the end of the run, when her doctor advised her to take a break before the next piece, which was already scheduled.
  Her husband had reluctantly moved to London with her in 1879.  The couple stayed with her parents, who had moved to London, but he had trouble getting work there.  Later in the year he joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company on tour.  In Madame Favart, St. John played opposite flamboyant French actor Claude Marius Duplany, and the co-stars fell in love, finally moving in together.  James obtained a divorce from St. John in 1881, and Duplany's wife divorced him. Meanwhile, the couple starred together again in Farnie's next operetta, Olivette, composed by Edmond Audran.  This opened in September 1880 and lasted for another astonishing run of 467 performances.  After this, Duplany became the manager of the Avenue Theatre, and he and St. John starred there first in a revival of Madame Favart, and then in Manteaux Noirs (1882), Offenbach's posthumous La Belle Lurette, and Barbe-bleue (both in 1883).  After these, they toured together in La Belle Lurette.
  In 1884, Henderson produced Farnie's Nell Gwynne, with St. John in the title role, then Farnie's The Grand Mogul, composed by Audran, with St. John as Djemma, and a revival of Barbe-bleue.  In 1885, St. John starred in The Lady of the Locket at the Empire Theatre but fell ill after three months. At the end of the year, she created the title role in Erminie, but she was pregnant and soon had to leave the cast, and the role was taken over by Marie Tempest.  St. John's father died that December.  She and Duplany had not yet married and now took care of that detail on Christmas Day, 1885.  Their son, Claud Reginald Duplany, was born on 30 March 1886.  As soon as St. John was ready to go back to work, Erminie was revived with the original cast and then toured.
  In the autumn of 1886, St. John moved to the Prince of Wales's Theatre and played Jaquette in Andre Messager's La Béarnaise, followed by another revival of Madame Favart at the Avenue Theatre in 1887.  St. John fell ill again and left the cast.  During this illness, she met Arthur Cohen, who would become her fourth husband ten years later.  She went to Monte Carlo at the end of the year to recuperate further, and Cohen followed.  Untrue rumours of a relationship between St. John and Cohen were circulated, and her husband grew jealous.  More marital problems arose, the couple quarrelled frequently, and St. John left her husband in late 1888.
  In October 1888 she joined the Gaiety Theatre company, under the management of George Edwardes, playing Marguerite in Faust up to Date, which was brought to America (1889–90) and later toured the British provinces in the same work. St. John and the tour were warmly received in the US. According to The Licensed Victuallers' Mail, an American fan sang humorously about how St. John pronounced her last name, as follows:
  Oh, tell me why should Miss St. John
  Pronounce her name as Sin Jin?
  It would be better, two to one
  I’ve heard a hundred people say,
  To substitute the hard g for j,
  For then she would be singin’.
  She ret
caption: In Carmen up to Data, 1890
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