Some years ago, I attempted to decipher the who, how, when, wherefore and so forth of the British bass singer known just as 'Mr Morley'. It was a frustrating task, I wasn't happy at all with the results, ('‘Mr Morley’ has been very difficult to sort out, and for all my efforts, I haven’t succeeded in really finding out the truth of his story.') and I consigned my incomplete article to the pending pool, where it has pended ever since. Until this week, when a playbill from his first appearance at Covent Garden appeared on e-bay ... The time has come, I decided, to have another crack at 'Mr Morley'.
MORLEY, John (b c1794)
In 1830, ‘Mr Morley’ ‘a pupil of Sir George Smart’ made a debut at Covent Garden as Delande in a version of La Gazza Ladra. For the next sixteen years (with some curious gaps) we can follow his better than average career as a bass singer, largely in the theatre, from Glasgow to New Orleans … but before? After? And what was his christian name? Was he married?
Well, I managed to find the christian name. Mr Morley spent some time in America, and the shipping lists for the right time (5 September 1836) include a John Morley, professor of music, aged 42 in the company of John Jones, tenor and … Ann Morley, aged 32, heading for an engagement with Wallack in New York. This being, initially, the only mention I could find of a name or an age, and a maybe wife, I have accepted them. But I have no other proof. And the ‘wife’ is decidedly dodgy.
The before? Well, maybe. I'm not at all sure. In 1817 a singing Mr Morley surfaces at the Surrey Theatre, playing tiny parts in Thomas Dibdin’s The Vicar of Wakefield, and the extravaganza Don Giovanni. I see him at the Coburg Theatre, too (Trial by Battle), but through 1818-1819 he climbed the ladder somewhat in the Surrey company (The Murdered Guest, The Ghost in Tom Thumb, The Heart of Midlothian, The Unknown, Scanderbeg, singing ‘La mia Dorabella’, Old Barnacle in The Spoiled Child, Three Times Three singing Dibdin's 'A Bit of a Nation'), before moving on to the East London New Theatre to play the title-role in the pantomime The Fire King. In 1821 he is at the English Opera House (James in The Miller’s Maid, Lawyer in Love’s Dream) … is it our man? Some of it? All of it? And if it is, where does he then disappear to, between 1821 and 1830. Ah! He's around. There he is, singing 'The Wolf' at a Benefit at the Coburg (9 November 1824). I'm pretty sure that last, at least, is the man we're after.
On 4 February 1830 Ninetta opened at Covent Garden with Morley featured alongside Misses Paton and Cawse and Mr Wood in the role originally named Fernando. The heroine’s father. The critics did not agree as to his effectiveness. One opined ‘we think he may soon hope to be one of the first, if not the first bass singer of the English stage’, another dubbed him ‘a great acquisition’ and another gave him credit for ‘a firm voice and displayed considerable talent in the management of it’. More restrained ‘A Mr Morley, a pupil of Sir George Smart, made his debut. His voice is a bass, of tolerable compass, but we think he has much to learn’, while another dissected him at length: ‘Mr Morley, an indifferent contrabasso, made his first appearance at Covent Garden as Delande; like Mr Wood, he sang during the whole evening nearly a semitone below concert pitch … may become a useful singer … has a dozen tolerable notes …’. This accusation of singing flat would be raised against Morley regularly, but only by some.
Morley went on to appear as Cedric in The Maid of Judah and as Dandini in Cinderella during the season. ‘Mr Morley has considerably improved as an actor; but his Dandini, to those who have witnessed the rich humour of Pellegrini and Santini in this part, was but respectable’. To those that hadn’t seen the Italian version of La Cenerentola, Mr Morley was fine, and he would play the role long and frequently.
In the off-season, Morley went to Vauxhall Gardens where he played and sang in the vaudevilles (Under the Oak, Adelaide or the Royal William) and the concerts (Bishop’s ‘At the rise of the sun’, Sidney Nelson’s ‘The Pilot’, 'Life is a River'). ‘The Pilot’ was published with the legend ‘sung by Mr Morley’, but when it became a big hit, the legend was changed to ‘sung by Mr Phillips’. And in September 1830 the Vauxhall bills included 'Mrs Morley' singing 'Tell Me, My Heart'. The couple would be seen together at the Argyll Rooms (26 July 1832) et al. When did that marriage happen?
Back at Covent Garden, he sang in the music attached to the drama Isabella, or the Fatal Marriage, took the part of Matteo (the heroine’s father) in Fra Diavolo, repeated his Dandini and Cedric from the previous season, and sang the role of Scander in Smart’s revision of Zemire und Azor ‘with fine tone and correct taste’. Once again, some differed: ‘A fine bass song, by the merchant, Scander, is too much for the physical powers of Morley, though he sings it with intelligence’. When the drama Napoleon Buonaparte was staged, he played the role of the superior of the Convent.
He played the part of Bazil in the English remake of The Marriage of Figaro, and in the theatre’s 'version' of Robert le diable as The Fiend Father he played the High Priest, while Reynoldson got the plum bass part of Bertram. This time the press was on Morley’s side, and wrote that he would have sung it better.
In the Benefit season he played Gabriel in Guy Mannering (‘Safely Follow Him’), the Huntsman in The Lord of the Manor (‘When the Orient’), Philip in John of Paris and Somerdyke in The Slave (‘The Sea’, ‘Love and War’ with Wilson), and he and Wilson repeated their duet when they sang in the Paganini concerts. Morley’s other numbers included ‘Hai gi vinta la causa’ and The Freebooters ‘When I think on the wrongs’.
When a ballet version of Masaniello was produced at Covent Garden, he was among the cast of singers who provided the vocal music, when Comus was staged, he lined up alongside Phillips and Wilson as the Bacchantes (‘By the gaily circling glass’), when Midas got its periodic showing, he was Silenus then Jupiter, in Macbeth a singing witch then Hecate, in The Beggar’s Opera Matt o’ the Mint, in The Haunted Tower Charles, and he also had roles in two new productions, a version of Zampa christened The Bridal Promise, and an Auber hotchpotch (23 March 1833) dubbed The Coiners, or the Soldier’s Oath (Martin Pedrillo). Once again he was the heroine’s father, once again ‘Mr Morley had the part of an innkeeper, in which he contributed to the musical force of the piece, but not much to its dramatic’.
In October he and Wilson took a month’s guest engagement at Edinburgh where in conjunction with the resident Miss Byfeld they took part in Guy Mannering (‘deep yet mellow tones’, ‘‘O’er the mountains’ with energy and power’), Love in a Village, The Waterman, The Lord of the Manor, Fra Diavolo, No Song no Supper, Rob Roy and, with notable success for Morley, Der Freischütz in which he appeared as Caspar.
Back in London, he did not rejoin the Covent Garden troupe. On 19 March 1834, at the Lowther Grand Concert Rooms, King William Street, West Strand, Mr Morley’s First Concert took place, and he was engaged for the Haymarket Theatre. He opened there 13 June as Bazil in Figaro with Miss Turpin and Eliza Paton and went on to play Artabanes in Artaxerxes and Hecate in Macbeth.
He returned to the Haymarket in 1835 to play Belville in Rosina, and the following year to Covent Garden, now under the management of Osbaldistone, for Quasimodo (Clopin), No Song No Supper (William), the unfortunate The Rose of the Alhambra and to play Ephraim ‘a rich usurer’ in Rodwell’s The Sexton of Cologne. And when Midas came up, he played Jupiter.
And then came that American trip. The fact that he made the trip with the tenor Jones, would make it seem they went under contract to someone. Katharine Preston, in her Opera on the Road, says that he, along with Maria Turpin and Henry Horncastle went out for James Wallack. Since Morley had been with brother Henry Wallack at Covent Garden, it is not improbable. But Jones …?
Anyway, if this was so, he apparently went twelve months before his engagement was to start. And he went with ‘Mrs Morley’. I notice that her pet number was ‘On the Banks of the Blue Moselle’. By Rodwell.
I first pick Morley ('principal bass singer of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden') up at the National Theatre, playing Olifour in The Maid of Cashmere, Asatroth in La Tentation, The Castle of Andalusia, Rosina (et al?) with Celeste, Plumer and Miss Watson. I see the couple up giving concerts in Baltimore, and New Orleans in March of 1837 in the company of one Ravaglia, the trumpeter Gambati, Mr Bishop et al. He was perhaps a little overbilled as ‘the celebrated primo basso from Covent Garden’ but New Orleans welcomed both the singers.
In September they reached Wallack’s National Theatre, New York. Morley opened as Rodolfo in La Sonnambula, with Miss Turpin and Henry Horncastle, and followed up with Celeste and Charlotte Watson in The Maid of Cashmere. Both the piece and its stars scored a fine success. He was, for the umpteenth time, Basilio in The Barber of Seville.
After the New York season, the Morleys set out on the concert path again. He played the operas in Boston (‘Messrs Horncastle and Morley are among the most accomplished vocalists of the day’), and they sang in New York in concert. Mrs was adjudged ‘a passable concert vocalist – nothing more’ but ‘Morley's voice was never in better order or his intonation more pure ... he is evidently improving’. He took the bass solos in the performances of the New York Sacred Music Society (Creation, St Paul, Messiah) and the press declared ‘the bass recitatives and songs were sustained by Mr Morley better than is usual in this country’ before mumbling that he was a bit flat. ‘Mr M possesses all the qualities of an excellent vocalist... He sings like a musician…’. Mrs wasn’t quite so well noticed, but when she sang at de Begnis’s concert she ‘gave satisfaction’ ‘a mezzo-soprano of considerable power and flexibility with good intonation’.
Morley was soon back on the stage. Rosalbina Caradori-Allan had arrived in America and Morley appeared at the National alongside her in a version of The Elixir of Love. As Belcore, he sang Maometto’s celebrated ‘Sorgete’. He teamed with the other newcomers, Jane Shirreff and Edward Seguin in La Gazza Ladra and the comparison between the two basses was inevitable. Morley was adjudged to have the better voice, but Seguin by far the better method. He joined Mrs Allan again for The Siege of Rochelle, and when Cinderella was staged, this time he was Pompolino, in Guy Mannering he was Gabriel, in The Quaker he was Steady, and in The Mountain Sylph he repeated his Hela. He played at the Park Theater (July 1838) as Caspar in Der Freischutz in La Gazza ladra, at the National as Pompolino to Jane Shirreff's Cinderella , Lenoir in Gazza ladra .... In July 1839, I spot both of the Morleys in Philadelphia in concert. Soon after, he went home. He. Not they. ‘Mrs Morley’ seems to have stayed in America. Or to have promptly returned.
On his return, Morley joined the Drury Lane company (Captain Dorrington in Englishmen in India, Dandini, the Bailie in My Lord is not my Lord, Jupiter in Midas), and later in 1840 was part of the ill-fated venture at the Prince’s Theatre where he played yet another father, Servitz, in the short-lived Fridolin.
So is he the John Morley, professor of music, aged 44, with an Elizabeth Lane (48), an Elizabeth Morley aged 24, and an Emma (24), Charles (26) and Elizabeth (4) Holder in the 1841 census of Allen Street, Lambeth? Looks like it. Even if the given age doesn't quite tally. Are these relatives? Ann seems to have remained in America. She is at Castle Garden, duetting with Dr Clare William Beames.
In 1841 he teamed with Wilson and Miss Delcy as a star team, touring with productions of Fra Diavolo, La Sonnambula and Der Freischütz, and in August took part in the production on Martinuzzi, or The Patriot at the English Opera House. Quite where he went in 1842, I know not, but I see him in 1843 back in Dublin, singing Rob Roy with the stock company, and La Sonnambula, Norma, Fra Diavolo and Der Freischütz with Mrs Wood. In 1844, I spot him in burlesque in Liverpool, in concert in Limerick, and singing The Messiah in Glasgow (‘a bass or baritone of much depth and softness and although not powerful amazingly flexible’ ‘singular truth and beauty’), and in a return to the opera stage with a group headed by Mr and Mrs Alban Croft. The tenor was a young man billed as J S[ims] Reeves. They played a large part of the year, giving Fra Diavolo, Der Freischütz, The Mountain Sylph, La Sonnambula, The Beggar’s Opera, The Bohemian Girl (Devilshoof),The Barber of Seville, Macbeth et al, Morley winning particular success with 'The Gipsies' Laughing Song', but when the group returned from Glasgow to Ireland, Morley vanished. Mr Croft took up the role of Ashton … and Morley …?
I see him just once more. On 19 October 1846 he gave an ‘American Entertainment’ at the Strand Theatre: Crossing the Atlantic: Traits and Travels in America. Louis Emmanuel, who had toured the previous year with Ransford and Ellen Lyon, played the piano, Morley ‘late of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden’, gave broad ‘American’ anecdotes and sang a selection of his favourite songs, and it was apparently a jolly enough evening, except for ‘the painful inaccuracy of his intonation’. Perhaps that is why he, at this stage, disappeared.
‘Mrs Morley’ ('the celebrated vocalist of the London concerts') is seen in concerts, particularly of sacred music ('Mrs Morley always sings sweetly'), and notably with the Seguins in the Rossini Stabat Mater, in New York up till 1845 … I see the 'accomplished music teacher and singer of 92 Franklin Street' in October of that year getting her purse pinched in a Bowery omnibus.
Crovilli ...hmmm ...
And there my story, for the meanwhile, ends. Still lots and lots of lacunae. And, truthfully, we have no evidence that his/their name was factually 'Morley'!
Help please!
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