| Variations of Name | Mavis Bennett-Levin | May Bennett |
| Biography | May Bennett began singing in local concerts at the tender age of nine, and in amateur operatic productions at 14. She next went to Birmingham to study singing, and subsequently audition with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. She joined the D'Oyly Carte Repertory Company chorus in March 1921. During the 1921-22 season she shared the small roles of the Lady Ella in Patience (with Elsie Griffin) and Kate in The Yeomen of the Guard (with Elsie Griffin and Helene Francois).
She appeared on the concert stage and in several London shows over the next few years, most notably in opera at the Old Vic under the name of Mavis Bennett, but she became an overnight sensation through the medium of radio. She was chosen to appear as vocalist with the Dutch violinist De Groot for his first BBC broadcast in 1925. Acclaimed as "The Nightingale of the Wireless," she was soon appearing regularly on radio both in England and on the Continent, and became a frequent recording artist for HMV.
In 1927 she was invited to participate in the D'Oyly Carte's company's first electrical recording of The Gondoliers. She accepted and sang the role of Casilda.
Mavis Bennett's radio and gramophone career ended in 1939 when an operation damaged her throat. She then turned to vocal teaching, a career that brought her much satisfaction. |