I scan e-bay every morning with my first cup of tea. And just occasionally the site turns up a splendid surprise. Today was one of those occasions.
In my last 30 years of research, I've come upon some droll characters. Most of them seem, I wonder why, to be tenors. Mr Burley from Scarborough was one of the drollest. I did not expect, ever, to come upon a photograph of this very minor Victorian Vocalist ... but ...
Yes. He looks rather as I suspected he might have ...
BURLEIGH, Tesseman [BURLEY, Thomas James] (b Scarborough, x St Crux 13 October 1844; d Toronto, Canada 2 February 1901)
Mr Tesseman Burleigh (as he called himself, most of the time) was an unfortunate Victorian vocalist. Given a chance at the limelight early, and undoubtedly unadvisedly, he dug himself into a hole and spent the rest of his career trying to get himself out.
Thomas Burley was born in Yorkshire, the son of a greengrocer, Andrew Burley and his wife Charlotte née Tesseman, and, in his early twenties -- whilst working as an engine fitter -- sang at local concerts. He subsequently went to London and studied there with Henry Deacon, with whom he appeared in concert in Wales. The only record I have of his appearing in a London concert, at this time, is at Mme Sainton-Dolby’s 1868 evening (3 June) at St James’s Hall, on a large and very rich bill, topped by the Italian opera’s Nilsson, Trebelli, Gardoni, Bettini and Gassier. Tesseman then spent some time in Italy, and made his reappearance on home soil at Miss Austin’s concert on 22 May 1871. He gave Brizzi’s ‘Ave Maria’, ‘Adelaide’ and duetted Lucantoni’s ‘Il convuego’ with Miss Austin, and the press noted: ‘His singing would have been more pleasing had it been less boisterous’.
However, Mr Tesseman, evidently, pleased one important person: Colonel Mapleson, for her was hired as a junior member of the Italian opera company. He made his first appearances in concert, at Liverpool (‘Una furtiva lagrima’, ‘Da quell’istante’), Edinburgh and Newcastle, and the reaction was frankly disastrous. The music press wrote: ‘We are at a loss to know upon what grounds that gentleman has succeeded in enlisting himself under the Mapleson banner’.
‘Signor Tesseman of the Italian opera’ appeared in a handful of concerts over the following seasons, and on 18 November 1872 put up his own programme at York, assisted by Anita Leoni and the Signori Zoboli and Rocca. The occasion was a fiasco. In 1874 and 1875 he turned up in several concerts at St George’s Hall, St James’s Hall and the Hanover Square Rooms, and deputised for Wilbye Cooper in Gollmick’s cantata The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, in 1876 he sang with the Welsh Choral Union, alongside Edith Wynne and Elena Angele, and he returned regularly to his native Scarborough in concert. In 1878 he announced his ‘Farewell’ concert there, prior to his departure for America (‘Adelaide’, Mazzini’s ‘When I am gone’). But he wasn’t gone. I see his name attached to a production of A Cruise to China in 1880. His name, however, had been long forgotten in operatic circles, when he was taken on in 1881 as a member of the William Parkinson touring opera (‘T B Tesseman’), and then by Samuel Hayes, for his unfortunate opera season at the Lyceum (Mietelore in Dinorah, Rustighello in Lucrezia Borgia, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Tonio in La Figlia di reggimento, Bois Rosé in Les Huguenots).
After that, he remained unheard of, surfacing only in 1885, if he is the ‘T C Burleigh’ touring in Rip van Winkle, and in 1887, when he took Pony Moore of the Moore and Burgess Minstrels to court for sacking him after a very short part of a year’s contract. ‘He had trained in Italy’, it was reported, ‘where he enjoyed several engagements as leading tenor’ ... [he was] also engaged by Mapleson and the Royal Italian opera …’. Moore said that the singer had been engaged subject to trial, and had failed the trial, and the court agreed with him.
I spot ‘Signor Tesseman’ (still) singing at Brook Green in 1886, giving his Brizzi ‘Ave Maria’ (still) at Aptommas’s concert in May 1888, and then, one last time, in 1891, producing a pantomime-type entertainment with children at the Royalty Theatre.
Having completed this little piece, I chanced upon the following article. Somebody has evidently found a good deal of interest in 'Mr Tesseman Burleigh'. It seems that his private life was as disordered as his professional one, and his first marriage to Priscilla daughter of Richard Harris Tindall of East Mount, Scarborough, was followed by a second union to one Florence Winne …
Signor Thomas Tesseyman Burley, man of no moral character
…When of a sufficient age Thomas was placed as a Chorister in the [York] cathedral under Dr Cambridge (recte; Camidge) where he displayed no special feature as a treble singer, but afterwards, developed a tenor voice of excellent quality. After leaving the Minster he joined the band of the 16th Lancers and played the Saxhorn. Through the instrumentality of a generous patron, who had been struck by he quality of his voice, he was trained for an opera singer and sent to Italy to complete his studies. In this he was very successful and obtained an opening to sing at the Opera house at San Carlo Naples, where he appeared as Thaddeus and made a good impression on his hearers as, in addition to his excellent voice, he was also of a prepossessing appearance. Oct 1st 1870 he concluded his engagement at the Opera House at Bergamo where he performed in the Huguenots. After completing his engagement at Naples, he returned to England but could not obtain a place on the London stage, although on May 27th 1871 he sang at the Queens rooms, therefore came up North and sang at several concerts. At Scarborough he appeared and was received with some enthusiasm, the Mayor inviting him to his house where unfortunately his fine voice and good looks made such an impression on Miss Tindall that she fell in love with him and, to her he proposed and she accepted. After marriage came the awakening of the unsuspecting bride who found her husband to be a man of no moral character and treated her in the most cruel and heartless manner, using the money he had obtained from her for his own selfish and dissolute tastes. A divorce was, however, obtained and a sum of money paid to him to satisfy his needs. He gave a concert in his native place which attracted one of the most fashionable audiences that has been seen in the concert room. On May 27th 1871, he made his last appearance at the Queens Rooms, Hanover Street London in conjunction with Charles Halle (Halle Orchestra), Madame Norman, Neruda, M. Paque, Miss Austin, the latter and Signor Burley very highly applauded for their rendering of ‘Adelaide’. He was afterwards specially engaged to sing at St James' Hall with Adeline Patti, Madame Titiens, Mme Sinico, Mme Trebelli, Bellini, and Miss Edith Wynne. ApThomas as the harpist, also performed. He had planned a concert in York in the October. A downward course was his future. Engagements, even on the concert platform, became less frequent and the society he frequented tended to debase him, his inclinations being favourable to such influence and in the end his English career was completed by his emigration to Canada, where he ultimately settled and married an actress and died in Toronto on Feb 2nd 1901 at the age of 56 years’.
Well! How about that! And yes, there he is being the ‘eminent tenor’ in concert in Niagara in 1895, and then teaching singing in Toronto. And self-publishing a singing manual (1896). And, heavens, here he is in A Souvenir of Musical Toronto (1899). And … this man has been written about all over the place! Here, in 1872, a wandering tourist bumps into him in Turin ... ‘Signor Tesseman whom I last saw in the part of Oberon with Titiens on the Dublin stage ..’. So Mapleson did let him on the stage!
What a tale! What a ******
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