A very modest Victorian Vocalist

 

When I began my series of articles on Victorian Vocalists I did so, largely for my own pleasure and instruction, with a set of criteria in mind. I was not going to write about the international megastars of the era, who have had entire books and biographies written about them. Where was the point? I was going to reseach and write not only about the less well-known people, but about Thomasina, Richard and Harriet whose lives and careers hadn't been heretofore recorded, but who made up an essential part of the Victorian music world. The bottom of the pyramid. Thus, my articles range from 40 pages, down to one page. 

Today is a one-pager, and I must admit that, until this week, I had never really noticed her. Most probably passed her by thinking the Madame Riechelmann was just another German, popped over for the London season of 1881 ... 

But she wasn't. She was thoroughly British. Born in Morice Town, near Plymouth, in Devon.

Mary Susanna CREWE (b Morice Town 10 November 1849; d Harrogate 29 May 1922) was the daughter of a seafaring man, Frederick William Crewe, and his wife Mary née Williams. From Plymouth, they and their family moved to St Helier, Jersey, and, it seems, at some time to that other maritime centre, Malta. And, there, Mary jr was married and her first child born. And where, allegedly, she started singing.

Her huband was a musician from Hamburg. Or Homburg. His name was Karl Franz Riechelmann and their son Fritz was born in 1873. Followed by three daughters. Around 1880, the family removed to England and 26 November 1881 Mary made what seems to have been her first London appearance at the Crystal Palace. She sang a couple of veriest chestnuts: 'The Last Rose of Summer' and 'Ob die Wolke' but more adventurously an aria from Salvatore Rosa. The Crystal Palace concerts were not as grand as they sound. The afternoon sessions were used to feature vocalists mostly never heard before, and mostly never again. But it was a start.

Over the years that followed, I see Mary twice or thrice annually at venues like the South Parade Pier, Portsmuth, Kensington Town Hall, The People's Palace, at a Hospital Benefit which boasted Santley at the top of it bill and even at Kuhe's 1885 concert, with Sims Reeves, Trebelli, Hersee and Lloyd. Singing now, not operatic music, but the popular ballads of the day ('Daddy', 'The Better Land', Star of Bethlehem', Song of Ruth). But mostly it was lesser dates - Llandudno, Hastings' Clarence Pier, with the Red Hungarian Band, the odd Exhibition. The most substantial engagement seems to have been at Northampton Town Hall, where she sang in The Woman of Samaria with Emily Foxcroft, A L Fryer and Henry Cross; the most popular at St Neots, to where she returned for a number of years.

Her notices were never bad. Her voice was described as 'sweet' and 'rich', as she continued on into the 1890s, making her living as a singing teacher (101 Shirland Rd). She seems however to have continued, some of the time, without a husband. Charles Reichelmann apparently retuned to Malta at some stage. He can be spotted there in 1909 ... His daughter's marriage certificate of 1911 says he is 'deceased'. So, by then, maybe he was. Whether the family went too, I knew not. But somebody else has looked into the family and here are a lot of the answers. They've got Mary's name wrong, but, hey ..

In 1890, I see Mary singing with the Nonconformist Choir Union, in amateur comapny, back at the Crystal Palace, for the Welsh Church at St James's Hall, at the Portsmouth Town Hall Saturday pops (she had seemingly gone back to living with her parents in St Helier), at Oxford, Ilfracombe, at Steinway Hall for one Anna Biesener, and finally at Exeter Hall (27 October 1894), which had been taken by one Canon McCormick to display his lecture on the the Siege of Derry.

Mary's son, Fritz Ludwig Crewe (1873-  m Grace Mary Colley) also went into the singing teaching world for a while. Daughter Renee Henrietta (1877-1885) died aged 8. The surviving daughters were Anna May (Mrs David Thomas Rose 11 May 1875; ), Elsa Ida (Mrs Howes-Howell of Durban 1879-) , Melita Mary (Mrs William Nixon, 24 June 1881-Worthing 31 March 1952) , Dorothy Emily (Mrs Müller, Mrs John Tetley 3 April 1887; 3 January 1975).

One more Victorian vocalist. My first Maltese?