Leslie Rands

Leslie Rands (7 January 1900 – 6 December 1972) was an English baritone and actor born in Chichester, England, who built his career primarily through the Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He sang in the Chichester Cathedral choir as a youth and pursued formal training at the Royal School of Music before joining the D'Oyly Carte touring company as a chorister in 1925. In 1926 he married D'Oyly Carte soprano Marjorie Eyre. That same year he took on several roles, including Cox in Cox and Box, Samuel in The Pirates of Penzance, Sir Richard Cholmondeley in The Yeomen of the Guard, and Giuseppe in The Gondoliers. Pish-Tush in The Mikado was added to his repertoire in 1927.

From 1928 onward, Rands assumed the principal baritone parts in the D'Oyly Carte repertoire. These included Counsel to the Plaintiff and the Learned Judge in Trial by Jury, Doctor Daly in The Sorcerer, Captain Corcoran in H.M.S. Pinafore, the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance, Archibald Grosvenor in Patience, Strephon in Iolanthe, and Florian in Princess Ida, alongside continuing appearances as Pish-Tush, Cholmondeley, and Giuseppe.

Rands appeared on Broadway between 1934 and 1939, with credits that included Trial by Jury, The Hot Mikado, Iolanthe, H.M.S. Pinafore, and The Gondoliers. His D'Oyly Carte recordings document the range of his principal roles across this period: Strephon on the 1929 Iolanthe recording, Grosvenor on the 1930 Patience, Giuseppe on the 1931 Gondoliers excerpts, Doctor Daly on the 1933 abridged Sorcerer, and Pish-Tush on the 1936 Mikado.

Rands departed the D'Oyly Carte company in 1947. Two years later, he and Eyre joined former D'Oyly Carte colleagues Richard Walker, Helen Roberts, and John Dean for a tour of Australia and New Zealand with the J. C. Williamson Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, where he performed as Mountararat and the Mikado. Following that tour, he returned to England and reunited with former company members to record Captain Corcoran and Counsel for the Plaintiff on Decca's 1949 LP recordings of H.M.S. Pinafore and Trial by Jury.

In 1952, Rands and Eyre appeared together in a charity production of Merrie England, performing the roles of the Earl of Essex and Jill-All-Alone during a week's run at Priory Park in Chichester. He subsequently directed amateur Gilbert and Sullivan societies. Rands died in Chichester on 6 December 1972.