BURGON, William Henry (b Croydon 5 January 1858; d 8 Marlborough Rd, Bedford Park, Acton 24 April 1898).
Bass-baritone Burgon had a somewhat curious career, quitting the forefront of the regular musical scene to tour his own modest, little operatic concert party around Britain.
‘Harry’ Burgon was born in Croydon, the son of solicitor William Burgon and his wife Anne Rabbeth née Gill, and he was musically educated at the London Academy of Music, studying under Gustave Garcia. He made his earliest appearances while still a young student: I see him appearing at Rivière’s Covent Garden Proms (13 October 1879) and at the Crystal Palace Wednesday morning concerts, as well as at Garcia’s own concert (15 June 1880), alongside Saint-Saens, Mrs Osgood, Shakespeare, Foli et al.
During the latter months of 1880, he was seen at the Promenade Concerts at both the Crystal Palace (to which he would regularly return over the years) and Covent Garden (‘I shot an arrow’), at the Glasgow Saturdays and at de Jong’s Free Trade Hall concerts in Manchester (‘Qui sdegno’, Mattei’s ‘Oh, hear the wild wind blow’, ‘The Yeomen’s Wedding’, ‘I fear no foe’) alongside Albani. The propinquity of the star was a little much for the local critic, who referred to the 22 year-old bass as a ‘foil’ for the soprano and spoke of his ‘moderate capabilities’. Derby was a little more reasonable: when he sang there in Engedi and The May Queen, with Annie Marriott and Barton McGuckin, he was credited with ‘decided promise’.
He sang in several London concerts, gaining notice when he joined Mme Lemmens-Sherrington, Mrs Fassett and Shakespeare in the Bach Choir’s performance of the Mass in B Minor, and took the music of the principal bass in the Sacred Harmonic Society’s Judas Maccabeus (11 November 1881). Come the festive season, he teamed with Annie Marriott/Mme Nouver, Hope Glenn and Joseph Maas in a series of Messiah performances (Sunderland, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen etc).
During 1882, he appeared in Solomon at what was announced as the last performance of the debilitated Sacred Harmonic Society, and fulfilled another oratorio and concert tour, with Helen Lemmens-Sherrington, Eliza Enriques and Vernon Rigby which included performances of the Stabat Mater, The Messiah, Samson and a variety of concerts (Barri’s ‘The Olden Time’, Behrend’s ‘Tell her from me’, ‘The Moon has raised’, ‘Yeoman’s Wedding’, ‘A si questa di mia vita’).
He was recalled to the reconstituted Sacred Harmonic Society to sing second to Santley in Redemption (23 February 1883), before in January 1884 he joined the ‘Royal English Opera Co’, for a Covent Garden season, in which he was seen as Mephistopheles in Faust and Arimanes in Satanella. This appears to have led directly to an engagement with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, for which his engagement was announced a few months later.
He opened with the Rosa 14 August 1884, at Dublin, cast as Gubetta in Lucrezia Borgia, and carried on as Zuniga in Carmen, Ferrando ‘very capably indeed’ in Il Trovatore, Arnheim in The Bohemian Girl, Baldassare in La Favorita (behind Ludwig), Count des Grieux in Manon, Father Tom in The Lily of Killarney, and King Charles in Maritana, as well as joining in a Christmas Stabat Mater in Liverpool with Marie Roze, Marian Burton and Barton McGuckin. It was a series of roles which hardly gave him the chance to make a sensation, but he was judged ‘most satisfactory’.
During the Rosa’s 1885 Drury Lane season, he created the role of Ostap in Nadeshda, and was a ‘capital’ Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro, and back on the road, repeated his Mephistopheles, and appeared as the Pastor in Fadette (Les Dragons de Villars), Lothario in Mignon and Don Guritano in Ruy Blas. However, when the company completed its 1886 season, Burgon left.
He appeared in concert through 1887, and in December visited Dublin for a series mounted by W Houston Collisson. It seems to have been here that the Burgon Operatic Recital Company was born. On 9 December, Collisson, in his third concert of his season, devoted half a concert to a concert of an act of Faust. Burgon took up his old role of Mephistopheles, Henry Beaumont sang Faust, local soprano Marie du Bedat was Marguerite and Amelia Sinico sang Siebel. The next night the concert was repeated as Dublin’s Leinster Hall. The singers went their ways – Burgon back to London to sing The Messiah and Moses in Egypt with the Sacred Harmonic Society – but, in May 1888, Collisson brought out his Faust concert again, this time with Madame Clarice Sinico replacing her daughter, and all three acts being sung in costume, back at the Ulster Hall. ‘Collisson’s concert party’ with Mrs Beaumont (Adelaide Mullen) and a couple of comprimarii added to their forces, Il Trovatore and Maritana added to their repertoire, and the manager at the piano, headed again for Dublin and spots beyond. By June, those ‘spots’ included the mainland of England, by September the troupe was installed at the York Exhibition and, now billed as ‘Mr W H Burgon’s Operatic Company’, at the Scarborough Spa. When the two ladies left the group, Miss Mullen and Joyce Maas took their places.
The company, with changing personnel, would survive for more than twelve years, until and after Burgon’s death, and in 1900 could still be seen, playing the Crystal Palace. For now, Burgon kept it staunchly alive, in between his other occasional engagements, usually with a company of little- and unknown artists – Kate McKrill, Claude Ravenhill, Margaret Ormerod, John Probert, Annie Lea, Eugenia Morgan, Charles Ellison, Mrs Graham Coles, Annie Layton, Hilton St Just, Jessie King – but, almost always, the familiar Mr Burgon.
Occasionally Mr Burgon was, however, otherwise engaged. He had not quite finished with the stage. After taking part in the tryout of Slaughter’s comic opera Marjorie, he joined D’Oyly Carte at the Palace Theatre to play Cedric of Rotherwood in Sullivan’s Ivanhoe and Louis XII in La Basoche. Carte double-cast his shows, so Mr Burgon carried right on touring his Operatic Recitals, and Henry Pope, and doubtless others, depped for him on Palace nights. His reviews in the Carte shows were excellent, but Burgon didn’t continue in that line. He went back to his team, playing operatic excerpts, concerts and even propelling his team into provincial oratorios on his coat-tails. The Bohemian Girl and Cavalleria rusticana were added to the regulars, then The Daughter of the Regiment, while The Sleeping Queen and I Pagliacci were given on occasions, as were selections from the Gilbert and Sullivan operas.
Burgon’s Crystal Palace and Promenade Concert dates continued in between time, and in 1894 (24 March) he took time out to appear as the King in performances of Maritana given by Augustus Harris at Drury Lane. In 1895, he was announced for the Boosey Ballad concerts, in 1897 (28 May) he sang at Crystal Palace one last time, before heading for the seaside and his company…
Harry Burgon died at the official age of 39. He left a wife, Zoe Joséphine Philomène née Chatenet (1862-1950), a son, Adrien or Adrian (1888-1970) and a daughter Edith Lina (Mrs Beecroft 1890-1963). Both the young people went into showbusiness, Edith – as Adeline Burgon – into music halls and musical comedy, up till her marriage in 1920, and Adrian with Harry Day’s companies and, latterly, as a radio vocalist.
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