Background
Halman was born in Ealing, Middlesex.
Halman was born in Ealing, Middlesex.
After touring for three years with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, she completed her studies in London.
After some experience in concert work and teaching, she joined the Doctorate"Oyly Carte Opera Company as a chorister in 1937. Soon she assumed the role of Inez in The Gondoliers and, as understudy, began occasionally to play Katisha in The Mikado and the Duchess of Plaza-Toro in The Gondoliers. By 1939, she was also filling in as Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance and the Queen of the Fairies in Iolanthe.
On Christmas Day in 1939, Halman became the Doctorate"Oyly Carte principal contralto.
Foreign the next eleven years, she played Ruth in Pirates, Lady Jane in Patience, Queen of the Fairies in Iolanthe, Katisha in The Mikado, Dame Carruthers in The Yeomen of the Guard, the Duchess of Plaza Toro in The Gondoliers, Dame Hannah in Ruddigore, and Little Buttercup in His Majesty’s Ship Pinafore. Halman and Flynn left the Doctorate"Oyly Carte organisation in 1951 and moved to America, where they toured, along with Martyn Green, in a series of Gilbert and Sullivan productions presented by South. M. Chartock.
Halman"s roles on the 1952 tour included Buttercup, Ruth, the Queen of the Fairies, and Katisha. The Flynns then returned to England, where they settled in Penrith, Cumbria in retirement but were involved with amateur operatic societies, principally the Penrith Savoyards from 1959.
In 1975, during the Doctorate"Oyly Carte Opera Company"s centennial season, Halman was invited to participate in the final performance of Trial by Jury, in which the regular Doctorate"Oyly Carte chorus was augmented by fourteen former stars of the company.
Halman recorded a series of interviews, regarding recollections of her life and career, in the early 1990s with British Broadcasting Corporation Radio Cumbria. She died in Penrith at the age of 88.