Selling up and buggering off ...

 

That's the name of the Sheffield-based e-bay store amongst whose grand stock I've been revelling with my dawntime cuppa today ...

There are photos from the Corri Opera Company, but also a fine collection of music-hall folk, not always identified ...

Here we have the splendid comic singer, Arthur Lloyd, early in his career. 

In those early days he toured a troupe including his brother, Robert, and his sister, Minnie. Hadn't seen a photo of her before.

There is also a very nice portrait of 'The Great' Vance ...

And, from the world of the 'Entertainment' the inimitable Mrs Howard Paul and her less than inimitable husband ..

And Charles [Henry] DUVAL (b Rusholme 27 October 1846; d at sea 23 February 1889) monologuist, who purveyed a programme entitled Odds and Ends ('proprietor of an itinerant theatre' in 1869) through the 1870s before going off to be a mounted volunteer in the Transvaal. He authored a book With a Show through South Africa on his return, when he picked up where he had left off with fine success. He also penned a column, All the World Round, with pen and pencil ... alas, on his final trip to the East, he didn't get back. His mind left him, and he disappeared overboard from the ship bringing him and his wife Mary [Dorcas] née Burke, back home 23 February 1889. Verdict: suicide.

There are a number of portriats of local ladies, some pretty ordinary and familiar photos of theatre celebrities, from Buckstone to Trebelli and Lucca, but the other prize item for me, with my esoteric era and area of interest, was a pair of photos of 'Mr Bond'. Twenty years ago I paid way over the odds for an ebay photo of Herbert Bond, tenor. I just knew I'd never find another. And I was furious that the underbidder didn't even know who he was! I attached it gleefully to the article (unpublished) I had written and felt very complacent. Well, here he is again.

In costume, even, as Masaniello in La Muette de Portici. Corri Opera Company in Newcastle ...

And here is his sad story ...

BOND, [George] Herbert (b Brighton c 1839; x Chapel Royal, Brighton 30 December 1840; d Bull Hotel, Wakefield 2 November 1869)

 

The tenor Herbert Bond was born into a musical family. His father, Charles John Bond (b London 15 December 1805; d 47 Montpelier Rd, Brighton 25 March 1878), was a well-known Brighton professor of music, singing teacher (star pupil: ‘Alberto Laurence’), pianist and concert giver, ‘celebrated for forty years’, and thirty-six years organist of Trinity Church in the town that he made his home. His mother, Isabella Maria née Leathem (1809-1892), of Anglo-Indian stock, was a very capable soprano singer. The couple caused something of a sensation in Brighton when, in 1843, they erected a room in the garden of their house in Montpelier Road and, therein, installed a full-sized organ (‘from CCC to F in altissimo, the solo stops are beautifully voiced and the pedal organ is full and effective’). With a choir of twenty, and themselves as soloists, they there presented concerts, featuring large selections from the favourite oratorios (‘under the immediate patronage of the Right Hon the Earl and Countess of Chichester’) which ensured their notoriety. The Bonds’ concerts intermittently featured professional vocalists, but when the season was not flowing, the family still were, and the concert room was used, instead, as the venue for performances by the amateurs whom the diligent couple trained. Their concert of 15 April 1852 was one such. Mr Bond thundered out his organ accompaniments (sometimes, it appears, a little too thunderously), Mrs Bond and Mr J Marshall (‘pupil of Mr Bond’ and the future ‘Alberto’) sang singly and together, and Kent’s anthem ‘My song shall be of mercy’ was performed with Master [Herbert] George Bond and another unnamed treble taking the solo lines.

 

The young Herbert made his first public appearance as a tenor singer at Brighton Town Hall, at one of the still regular concerts sponsored – in more professional surroundings -- by his parents, on 21 October 1861. Mrs Bond was still top of the bill, then came Lucy Leffler, a young contralto vocalist with a fine career ahead of her, and the long-serving Mr Henry Whitehouse of the Chapel Royal, Windsor, billed here as ‘from Exeter Hall’, plus Mr Bond on the piano and G Herbert Bond, tenor, ‘his first appearance in Brighton’. And, as far as I am aware, anywhere else.

However, it didn’t take the striving singer long to get into gear. The next season he was up in London making what seem to be his first metropolitan concert appearances. The earliest I have spotted is at Miss Fanny Partridge’s soirée musicale (12 May 1862) at 2 York Place, Portman Square, alongside Eleonora Wilkinson, a lady named ‘Louise Helen’, baritone Ciabatta and, of course, Miss Partridge herself, and on 10 June he was one of the vocalists, with Sophia Messent and Leonard Walker, at one of Mr Aptommas’s series of harp recitals, delivering ‘M’appari’ and ‘Eily Mavourneen’. The Era noticed that he had ‘a tenor voice of very pleasing quality and sings with taste and feeling’. He was clearly wholly unknown, for the Times listed him as two people – Mr Herbert and Mr Bond – and The Era reviewed him as Mr Hubert Bond. ‘Mr Bond is a tenor’ commented the Musical World ‘and sang with laudable endeavour, if with no very great effect, the air ‘M’appari tutt’ amor’ from Martha and the ballad ‘Eily Mavourneen’ from The Lily of Killarney.’

Over the next couple of seasons, George appeared in a handful or two of concerts –  at Isabelle Schuster’s matinee at South Belgravia (7 July) alongside Linas Martorelle and Sig Nappi, at Allan Irving’s soirée musicale (10 June 1864) in the company of Mathilde Enequist, Florence Lancia, Reichardt, Eleonora Wilkinson and a Mrs Radcliffe Staunton Abbot (née Lizzie Perkins), and at Mrs George Vining’s soirée (6 July 1864) again with Lancia, Irving, Aptommas and Eliza Hughes &c – before securing what must have seemed a surprising engagement.

 

The Pyne and Harrison opera company having gone into retirement, English opera at Covent Garden had been taken over by the Opera Company (Limited), who would attempt to run an opera season there in the same manner that the earlier managers had done. And among the tenors who were listed in their prospectus, alongside Henry Haigh, Charles Adams from Berlin ‘his first appearance in England’, Mr W H Coates (‘his first…’), and that supreme comic and comprimario player Charles Lyall, was Mr H Bond ‘his first appearance’. Herbert actually appeared on the first night of the new company’s existence, 15 October 1864, in their opening production of Masaniello, cast in the ungrateful supporting role of Alphonso. The Era gave him credit ‘his voice is of pleasing quality and the music appertaining to the character he gave smoothly and with correct execution’, but the Times found that his performance of grand opera was insufficiently grand: ‘a tenor with a light and agreeable voice and considerable taste, but on the whole rather too lackadaisical.’ Masaniello seems, however, to have been Herbert’s only role in the rather unfortunate first season of the Opera Company (Limited), and by January he was back on the concert stage – Ralph Wilkinson’s Benefit at the Gallery of Illustration, the Inaugural beanfeast for G B Allen’s Bayswater Academy of Music at Westbourne Hall, and so forth – until singer-manger George Perren took him on to play an opera season at the Pavilion Theatre in Whitechapel. 

 

Perren and Elliot Galer were the first tenors of the company, but Herbert shared next billing with ‘the new tenor’ Mr Bennett. Until William Parkinson was added to the list. A lot of tenors for two to three weeks of a season. It didn’t leave anything significant for George. A 13-night season at Greenwich’s New Theatre soon after, under the management of James Leffler, staged to give Rose Hersee her operatic debut, featured Perren and William Harrison as its principal tenors, and George took part, again, as a second stringer.

 

In 1865 and 1866 the young tenor started to be seen very much more regularly on the concert stage. He appeared at the Hanover Square Rooms in Elena Angele’s first concert (5 June 1865), and at the Dispensaire française concert (‘Mori’s ‘Sunshine of Love’, ‘Di quel di’ with Louisa Pyne) alongside Lancia, delle Sedie, Agnesi, Lemmens-Sherrington, Carolina Zeiss and Emily Soldene, he was featured as the vocalist for the Beethoven Society, delivering ‘Salve dimora’ from Faust, and on 12 June he promoted a concert of his own at Collard’s Rooms. Louisa Pyne, Miss Angele, Allan Irving and George Patey, the harpist Aptommas and Sig Romano (piano) made up the bill, and father Bond played some of the accompaniments.

 

In between times he appeared as Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor in James Leffler’s opera company (Greenwich 3 July 1865) on the occasion of Rose Hersee’s debut as an operatic prima donna, and as Thaddeus when the company mounted The Bohemian Girl. 

 

He performed in Brighton on a regular basis, but he also spent several months in Scotland and the north, singing on several occasions at the Glasgow Saturday Evening concerts on programmes with Helen Lemmens-Sherrington, Edith Wynne, Julia Elton, Mrs Howard Paul and the ilk. The temperance folk usually had a wee quibble with new and unfamiliar singers and Herbert was no exception. He was credited with ‘good taste, but a little more spirit thrown into [his songs] would have been a decided improvement’. In January 1866 he can be seen at Greenock, singing the tenor solos in The Creation alongside northerners Helena Walker and David Lambert (‘a fine high tenor voice’) and in concert (‘The Gathering of the Clans’, ‘Bonnie Mary of Argyle’ &c).

 

Back in London, he sang at the Beaumont Institution with Sims Reeves, Parepa et al, and purveyed Costa’s ballad, ‘My heart to thee’, round the city and suburban concerts (Rose Hersee’s, Sig Romano’s &c), and when Gustave Garcia and Walter Bache, effortfully promoting the music of Wagner, included a selection from Tannhäuser in their concert of 23 May 1866, he took a prominent part. Rose Hersee sang Elizabeth’s prayer, and George took the top tenor line in the Act II septet.

 

In May of 1866, he had another short stint on the stage, when he appeared with Annie Thirlwall’s company at Bradford in place of an overlapped-engagements Henry Haigh. This time he got to be first tenor, as Thaddeus to Annie’s Arline. ‘He is a singer of much promise’ nodded The Era ‘His voice, though not very powerful, is musical, and he sang the music very tastefully and was much applauded’. On the Wednesday he went on as Manrico (and the Miserere had to be encored), Thursday it was Faust and Friday Haigh arrived. Three performances as leading tenor. But there would soon be plenty more.

For the meanwhile, however, it was back to the ever-increasing round of concerts. Between June and September, he was seen at the latest Rose Hersee (‘Questa o quella’) and Elena Angele concerts, in more performances here and there of ‘My heart to thee’, at Maria Merest’s concert (22 June 1866) singing that lady’s ‘Farewell, it was only a dream’, in Mrs Raby Barrett’s at Collard’s rooms, with a rather more ambitious programme of ‘Una furtiva lagrima’ and ‘La donna è mobile’, at Florence Braze’s concert (‘Salve dimora’), G Lansdowne Cottell’s concert, the Brighton Popular Concerts singing Balfe’s new ‘Lady Hildred’, and so forth.

 

But September 1866 brought the end of all this concertising, for it was in that month that Herbert was hired as principal tenor with the touring ‘Grand English Opera Company from Covent Garden’. Henceforth, he would troupe the roads of England singing all the lead roles, in all the favourite operas, with one group of singers and managers or another, almost without pause.

 

In this first case, the singers and the managers were one and the same, for when the advertisements went out George’s was the only name on the bill which was not that of a member of the Corri family: Henri Corri baritone, Eugene Dussek (brother, né Corri) bass, Haydn Corri (nephew) second baritone, Annie Thirlwall (Mrs Eugene Dussek) soprano, Emma Adami (daughter of Henri) contralto. They didn’t breed a tenor, so they had to buy one. The company started out at the Exchange Hall in Grantham on 25 September, beginning their stay with Faust, La Sonnambula, and Maritana (‘Mr Bond received an encore for ‘Ah! let me like a soldier fall’’), followed by Il Trovatore andMartha (‘Mr Bond received an encore for ‘She appeared clothed in light’’) before setting off for Doncaster, Derby and dates beyond.  Doncaster found him merely ‘an agreeable tenor’, but Bolton decreed ‘Of Mr Bond as a tenor too much praise cannot be awarded, one great thing in his favour being that he not only sings the music but gives distinct utterance to every word he utters, a want too often found in operatic performers.’ Sheffield decided that his performance in The Barber of Seville was ‘marred by an apparent lack of confidence’, but allowed that ‘his songs were delivered with much taste and feeling’ and liked him better as Nemorino when ‘he sang very sweetly’. Halifax agreed on the ‘great care and sweetness of tone’ of his singing. The Rose of Castille, The Bohemian Girl, Fra Diavolo, The Love Spell, The Barber of Seville, Dinorah, The Daughter of the Regiment, Guy Mannering and the little Georgette’s Wedding were all in the repertoire by Christmas, and Herbert-George delivered the tenorial goods in each and all (except, of course, the last) of them. And, all the while, no-one mentioned anything in review but the attractive sound of his voice, the well-schooled method, the perfect diction. Nothing on his acting. Nothing on his looks. Just the sweet, perfectly controlled voice.

 

In the new year, the composition of the company underwent some changes. In fact, it got heavily de-Corrified. Ida Gilliess (the future Mrs Henri Corri no2) came in, as did the seriously weighty Emma Heywood and her debutante daughter Fanny, Emma Adami departed, and so did the Dusseks, but throughout the ups and downs (and, I suspect, family rows) George remained the company’s tenor, singing now opposite Annie Thirlwall, now opposite Miss Gilliess (Norma, A Masked Ball, Ernani &c), intermittently opposite Fanny Heywood and on one occasion, when the company visited Liverpool in November 1867, opposite Edith Wynne. This guest performance of Maritana was announced as Miss Wynne’s ‘first appearance as a lyric artist’. It wasn’t, but it certainly was a rare stage occasion for the great Welsh vocalist. 

 

In the end, George Bond performed as lead tenor with Henri Corri for some two and a half years. By the end they were saying ‘Mr Bond rendered the music of Manrico in capital style’, ‘the acting and singing of Mr Bond were much admired’ and, after a long season in Edinburgh, he was proudly described by the press as ‘the favourite tenor’. 28 year-old George had got thoroughly into the swing of his new position, and was up there now with Haigh, Parkinson, Galer and co as one of the principal tenors of the healthy English touring opera scene.

 

In the usual game of musical tenors, it was Parkinson who moved into George’s place with Corri, whilst he shifted over and up to the company run by George Loveday and Oliver Summers, taking the spot previously held by Haigh, for their new season of touring. The young Sophia Mariani was prima donna, her mentor Charles Durand the baritone, and Oliver Summers, Fanny Leng (Mrs Summers), John Grantham, de Lancey, Stanley Potter and Richard Arthur, Ellen Payne and Ella Collins supported. The company opened at Portsmouth (24 April 1869) with the usual run of operas: Maritana, Lurline, Il Trovatore, The Barber of Seville, The Bohemian Girl, Un ballo in maschera (thus billed) and The Rose of Castille. George, once again, was praised for his ‘cultivated tenor voice’. At Norwich, Lizzie Haigh-Dyer arrived to share the soprano roles en route, and Norma, La Sonnambula, Faust, Lucrezia Borgia,  Don Giovanni, L’Elisir d’amore  and Rigoletto were added to the repertoire. Norwich voted George ‘one of the best tenor singers that has appeared at this theatre for some years past’.  Leicester concurred ‘Mr Herbert Bond, a tenor entirely strange to our theatre, has made his mark and his pleasant voice and fine presence are both of advantage to him’. Liverpool nodded ‘Mr Herbert Bond’s Faust was an artistic rendering, the more noticeable feature being the trying air ‘Salve dimora’, which was rendered with much taste and finish and greatly applauded.’ George’s party piece. Leeds voted him ‘a very even and accomplished tenor ... a capital actor and stage tactician.’, and in Newcastle he had to repeat both his songs in Maritana …

 

On 25 October the company arrived in Wakefield and opened at the Corn Exchange. Herbert wasn’t well, and after one act of Maritana he was unable to continue. The company’s comic tenor, John Grantham, stepped in. A bad cold, the paper reported. When the company left for Halifax and Huddersfield on the Sunday morning, he was so ill he could not go with them. He died in his hotel room on the Tuesday. Aged thirty-one. Of a cold?

 

Herbert George Bond left several published songs including ‘When Twilight dews’ (1861),  a version of Thomas Hood’s  ‘It was not in winter’ (1862) ‘Jessie’s Wedding’ (1863), Wither’d leaves’ (1864) and ‘One thought of thee’.  

Is it a coincidence that this small selection of photos also includes one of Tom Hood?

Sigh. I wish it included the other members of the Corri company ... Annie Thirlwall, Eugene Dussek, Ida Gilliess, John Manley, Henry and Haydn Corri, even Edward Cotte, Alfred Leslie, Tom Grundy ... I am guessing this is the company's visit to the Newcastle Opera House in May-June 1868. When they played Il Trovatore, Barber of Seville, Lucrezia Borgia, La Sonnambula, Faust, The Bohemian Girl, Norma, Don Giovanni, Un Ballo in maschera, L'Elisir d'amore ... but I don't spy Masaniello!  George played Alfonso to the fisherman of Charles Adams in 1864 .. but ... in spite of much digging, I have no record of his ever playing the title role. This was George's stage debut ... I am wondering more and more if these cdvs might come from his own estate ...

I guess I'll never know. But thank you Mr Buggering for letting me see them. And ...

PS this is 'little Nellie Hayes' 'youngest daughter of Mr James Hayes of Belfast' from Liverpool (b c 1852). She sang 'Killarney' and other Irish ballads round Yorkshire in the late 60s and the 70s ... advertised as having sung Balfe's song 100 times at London's Palais Royal.  She featured with Dr Corry's diorama ('The Last Rose of Summer' etc), and with Howard Paul (which I guess is how she got into this bundle) for some years. She married James Turner (b Durham 1846) in Swansea 1 June 1876 and the couple worked halls and theatres well into the 20th century. A daughter Ellenor Martha Turner was born in Durham in 1879, then a Thomas and an Alice. I see Nellie and James 'artist and photographer' in Shropshire in 1891, and Nellie  'theatrical, married' in Worthenbury in 1911 ..  

I had best dig some more!  And somebody .. snap up these slices of C19th musical and theatre history ..

Because the most desirable slice has been snapped up. Gilbert and Sullivan collectors have long wanted a good photo of Frederick Sullivan. Now, thanks to Andy (Mr SU&BO) our little team (2 Davids, Allister and I) has one. As soon as I saw it I mailed USA, Australia and England with a red alert. England jumped the quickest ... and Fred is on his way to Leicester! I wish he had put in his appearance in time for my book ...

Fred!