Christene Palmer

Christene M. Palmer is a retired Australian singer and actress, known for her performances in the contralto roles of Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company during the 1960s. Her performance as Katisha in The Mikado is preserved in the D'Oyly Carte 1967 film version of that opera.

Palmer was born in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. During high school she studied singing, piano and harmony before going to Melbourne for further voice training and joined the Oriana Madrigal Choir. In 1952 she was a semi-finalist in the Star for Opera Quest for the Royal South Street Society. The following year, she entered the Mobil Quest singing competition organised by the Vacuum Oil Company. In 1958 and 1960, she sang roles with the Elizabethan Opera Trust and solos at the annual Bach Festivals in Melbourne.

Palmer moved to London in 1961 to study at the National School of Opera there and performed on the concert stage and in opera, and was in the Glyndebourne Festival Opera chorus for two seasons, before joining the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1965. She was with D'Oyly Carte for six years, singing the contralto roles in all nine of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas performed by the company during her tenure (The Sorcerer was not performed by the company until just before she left in 1971). These roles were: Little Buttercup in H.M.S. Pinafore, Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance, Lady Jane in Patience, the Queen of the Fairies in Iolanthe, Lady Blanche in Princess Ida, Katisha in The Mikado, Dame Hannah in Ruddigore, Dame Carruthers in The Yeomen of the Guard, and the Duchess of Plaza-Toro in The Gondoliers. At the same time, she occasionally performed in concerts with Gilbert and Sullivan for All.