Victorian Vocalists: Watson a name?

 

Much of my 2025 was spent in writing, expanding, editing, revising, illustrating etc two splendid works which first saw the light of page more than two decades ago. The results will be seen next year. Books do not incubate as quickly as eggs. The first will be my remake of Andrew Lamb's fine biography of Henry Russell ..

That project led me back into American fields I had not visited in many years, and new acquaintance with a pile of people -- exported English artists -- whom I had never really got to know, in spite of their being amongst the foremost vocalists of the East Coast 1830s. Mrs Bailey, Mrs Franklin, Mrs Watson ...

Mrs Bailey was 'late Miss Watson'. Mrs Watson ostensibly her mother. So I decided to have a shot at the pair of them. Well, no one else seemingly had. And remember, I said 'ostensibly'. I have been three whole working days on the Watsons, and here is what -- after discarding a welter of inaccuracies -- I have found.

Starting with Mr J Watson. John Watson. 'Organist', 'music master', 'composer'. 'Of the English Opera House and Covent Garden'.

Born where? When? No idea. Allegedly around 1795. Married a lady named Elizabeth. Surname? No idea. Probably a performer. Why this obscurity? 'Watson' is admittedly a name of great frequency. John and Elizabeth even more so. Less obscure is the result of their presumed marriage: seven children, between 1811 and 1828. 1811? When father was fifteen? Hmmmm. Anyway, the registers of St George the Martyr show the birth of Eliza Mary Watson, by John ex Elizabeth, on 31 January 1811, which seems to signify that either the Watsons were very precocious, or lied about their ages on subsequent documents. Alas, the family historians (with the help of the Watsons, who seem to have been somewhat dilatory about baptising their children) have got in a right muddle here.

I didn't, at first, dally too long over father John. It was his daughter, Mrs Bailey, I was after. But when, finally, I had sorted her out, I went back, a tried to find out a little more about papa. When two of his sons were baptised (7 August 1816) he was described as 'organist', by 1818 'professor of music', in 1821 'of 1 Judd Street, Brunswick Square', in 1823 'music master' of 14 Buckingham Street, Strand.  Interesting address that one. It was formerly the home of Samuel Pepys. Another interesting fact: both the latter addresses were also, contemporaneously, that of John Isaacs, longtime bass singer at the Covent Garden Theatre. So, at some stage, Mr Watson before 1820, has developed a relationship with Covent Garden. What was he doing there? Playing piano it seems. The first time I see his name in print is accompanying a Benefit concert for Garden small-part player, Charles Mears in 1821. June 29 he, his pupils Julia Hallande (https://kurtofgerolstein.blogspot.com/2024/03/star-mezzos-only-live-twice-miss.html) and Master Longhurst sponsored a concert at which 'a young lady pupil of Mr Watson' is featured. But the next year, Mr W goes up a notch: he is credited with composing and arranging the score 'agreeable selections and tasteful original compositions' for Gordon the Gypsy at the English Opera House, and then for the equally successful Presumption, or the Fate of Frankenstein -- 'overture and music composed by' -- at the same house. 

From there, while continuing to teach, he composed and arranged the music for a number of Covent Garden pantomimes ('composer and director of music' 'co-chorus master') and introduced his children, as well as his pupils, to music and the stage.

Now, here I got into a momentary tangle. Because reports of the time just refer to 'Miss Watson' and 'Master Watson'. I puzzled for half an afternoon, for example, over how our Charlotte had enrolled at the Royal Academy, in its initial year, at seven years of age. The answer was, of course, that the Miss Watson RAM, who was one of the institution's best vocalists in year one ('appears to be the most distinguished of the singers'), was older sister Eliza, rising 14. Eliza sang in some classy concerts, on bills with such stars as deBegnis, Curioni, Miss Stephens, Caradori, Sinclair and Braham. I spot her at the Melodists (father on piano) and in 1827 (24 May) at the Freemasons Hall where the bill included two Masters Watson -- brothers John and Henry. One of them, at least, is already 'of Covent Garden'. The boys were apparently eminently employable as juveniles. Father, a stalwart of The Melodists, introduced them there in 1826 as vocalists while they appeared at the theatre in children's parts.  John was Albert to the William Tell of Macready, sang a duet with Vestris ...  How old were they? Well, it seems that John MacMurdie Watson was born in 1814 and Henry Cood Watson around 1816. Family historians have opted for their mutual baptism date which was, in John's case at least, rather tardy! Anyway, neither had an adult career as a performer: John died at 11 Park Street, Bath, in April 1833, aged 19, while Henry found other areas for his attentions.

Mr Watson was a thoroughly useful musician, but he also had decided talents as a singing teacher and he produced a number of reputable sopranos (lady and boy) in the 1820s. The Masters Barker and Longhurst, Julia Hallande, Miss Noel, Elizabeth Hughes, Ann [Estcourt] Wells, the Misses Brandon. And his own family.

So finally we get to Charlotte. Christened Charlotte Johns Watson on 20 March 1818 from 10 Tottenham Court Road and apparently born 2 December 1817. Her first appearances seem to have been in 1829, at eleven years of age. She appeared as Filch in her father's one-nighter of The Beggar's Opera played reverse sex and in a season given by Sinclair at the Tivoli Gardens in Margate. Father, two sons, two daughters, Miss Hughes, Miss Wells ... a real family company. Charlotte was billed as Miss C Watson at this stage, but it would not be for long: in 1831(10 November) Eliza married Edward James Loder of Bath, and made the rest of her career as 'Mrs E Loder'. And in 1829 John Watson was declared bankrupt.

Charlotte, billed as 'the musical prodigy' (as was Fanny Woodham and several others) appeared at Whitechapel's Pavilion Theatre (3 October) cast in the multiple role of Old and Young (The Four Mowbrays), and as Giovanni in Don Giovanni in London. Miss Wells joined her for more performances at the Panarmonicon, King's Cross (Guy Mannering, No Song No Supper, Old and Young) and they visited Dublin, Liverpool and Manchester (Cherubino, Price Arthur in King John, Giovanni in London, Midas, Bombastes Furioso, Paul and Virginia). I am sure father came too. Because Liverpool was to be eventful.

The violinist Niccolò Paganini visited Britain to give concerts at London's King's Theatre. But the prices demanded by the management were so high (allegedly £9,000) that the whole thing fell temporarily through. Clearly, the star made lesser demands for his British appearances out of town: at Clifton and Bath, where Mr Loder was accompanist, at Manchester, and at Liverpool's Theatre Royal (9 January 1832). He didn't need (or, probably, want) a glamorous supporting programme -- he himself was the glamour -- so the 'fill-in' artists on his concert programmes were those who happened to be on hand. George Horncastle and his sister, Mrs Lloyd, Mr [Henry Blaine] Hunt of Covent Garden, Mr Hart .. plus Miss Wells and Miss Watson, who had been playing Cinderella and the Fairy Queen in Cinderella, and Mr Watson, now, on piano. Virtuoso numbers were not required. Charlotte sang 'The Light Guitar', 'I will not chide the archer boy', 'Let Me Wander', 'The Keel Row', joined in the inevitable 'Blow, Gentle Gales'  .. the others gave bits of Rossini and Bellini ...   Paganini did the virtuoso stuff.

The combination worked well, the concerts were decidedly successful, and the Watson team (sometimes not advertised) remained part of many of the subsequent Paganini programmes through Leeds, Chester ('a very clever child being also an excellent actress'), Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, York, Halifax et al. The papers ventured that the violinists had amassed a profit of £22,000 by his visit. I imagine John Watson's bankruptcy may have benefitted a little! Thereafter, the girls continued on their way, with 'of the Paganini concerts' attached to their billing and with father driving the business, through fine provincial engagements, until ...

Paganini, pursued by all sorts of tales, returned to England in 1833. At his first concerts he was supported by the little Misses Smith (Paganini was fond of too-young girls), by Juliet Bellchambers and a baby pianist named Elizabeth Jones, and a hoax rumour was circulated that he was to marry a young English lady 'of fortune and great talents'. As the violinist progressed in August to provincial dates, however, he again hooked up with the old team: Miss Wells, Miss Watson and father the pianist. Coventry ('the ladies sang very prettily and most of their pieces were encored'), Salford, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Newcastle, Durham, Lancaster, Berwick, Birmingham, York, Leicester , Derby, Cambridge, Leamington ... Charlotte gave 'The Bonnie Wee Wife', 'Teach me to forget', 'The Banks of Allan Water' and duetted 'Sull' aria' and 'The Keel Row' with Anne, between the violin displays. 

When the team revisited certain dates they had, necessarily, a change of programme. Charlotte gave 'The merry mountain horn', 'Archer Boy', 'The Swiss Drover Boy' 'The Soldier's Tear'; Anne 'Comin' thro the rye', 'Kate Kearney' , 'Una voce poco fa' and 'Soave Immagine', and they duetted Bishop's 'Lo! when showers descending' ('Au clair de la lune') and father's arrangement of 'The Keel Row'. Things did not always go smoothly on the business front, and it was reported that Paganini had gone into partnership with Watson to prevent his being cheated by theatre-managers. 'The concert arranged by Mr Watson' read the bills. 

Paganini, after a goodly three months, departed for St Petersburgh. But it was not 'goodbye'. The Watson team travelled to Europe to support the Signor in concerts in Belgium and France. And a new series of concerts 'under the direction of Mr Watson' was announced for April at the Hanover Square Rooms and the Adelphi Theatre. Miss Watson topped the rather 'mediocre' list of vocalists .. and Charlotte now gave 'Di piacer'. The press credited her with 'a most pleasing style .. she only requires a little more confidence to render her a most acceptable addition to the exisiting corps of female vocalists'. Watson took his team to the country -- I see them at Gloucester (29 April), Stourbridge (1 May), Liverpool (5-6 May), Manchester (7 May), Worcester (9 May) ... his 'last concert' was 6 June at the Hanover Square Rooms. Charlotte sang 'Idole de ma vie' and 'Il soave bel contento'. At nearly 17 years of age, she had come on ... On 17 June, however, She announced a Benefit of her own, at the Victoria Theatre 'in consequence of her father's recent embarrassments'. And top of the bill was ... Paganini!

A fortnight later the press screamed 'Extraordinary elopement. Paganini and Miss Watson'.

Much 'corroborative detail' found its way to the press. The Sunday Times at their head. 

Verisimilitude?

There would be other stories. However, it seems that Paganini -- who wrote at length to the press with his version of the affair -- was willing to marry her. Although a father, he had never been married, and having at last come to a somewhat ravaged 'old age' (he was 52), often ill and near the end of his brilliant career ... and she was, he insisted eighteen not sixteen. He was wrong.

As for John Watson, he was also going through difficult times, and not only financially. His promising son, John, had died the previous year. As for his marriage ... well, he was almost certainly already involved in a manner most unfatherly with Anne Wells ... and his two trump cards -- Charlotte and Paganini -- what could a man do? Well, we can't know the family secrets, but only events. On 12 August 1834, John 'aged 39', accompanied by Anne 'aged 25', Charlotte 'aged 17' and young William Kitchener Watson 'aged 13' arrived in New York. It seems Anne may have been pregnant, as a son was born to her in 1835. He was christened John William Paganini Watson. So the 'elopement' had evidently not harmed Watson's relationship with the famous man!

Charlotte and her father were quickly on display. 29 August they appeared at the double-bassist Signor Casolani's concert at Niblo's Garden ('her first appearance in America') and the newspapers did not hesitate to recall the Paganini episode. But Charlotte was more than just a success de curiosity. 'She is the sole theme of conversation in musical circles this morning and her singing is admitted on all hands to be highly distinguished by taste and sweetness. She is, moreover, a very pretty, modest-looking girl, and sings without any painful effort or contortion. Her bird-like notes flow from her in a rich and full tide of harmony, as naturally and easily as the pearls dropt from the lips of the little maiden in the fairy tale ...'. Mr Niblo promptly signed her up for the last nights of his season. 3 September she gave her 'Banks of Allan Water', 'Di piacer' and 'The Drover Boy of Appenzell' while the other soprano solos were delivered by -- yes -- a Mrs Franklin. Of whom more later! 10 September she gave 'The Soldier's Tear'. Bid me discourse'. 'The Bonnie Wee Wife' and a piece 'As wakes the sun at early dawn' composed by her father 'of the Royal Academy of Music', 16 September she sang 'Sweetly o'er my senses stealing' and the Donna de lago 'Elena o tu' and the much-liked 'Bonnie Wee Wife', 19 September she took a Benefit, 31st she was appended to a display of fireworks, 2 October she sang at a Benefit and gave 'Home, Sweet Home' and Donizetti's 'Seconda, O ciel pietosa' (Gianni di Calais). 10 October she sang for English expatriate musician W A King at the Masonic Hall, before being engaged for the Park Theatre . There she trotted out her Four Mowbrays, her Cherubino, Julia in Guy Mannering, The Spoil'd Child, Cinderella, Midas, and Rosina teamed with the fine English singer known just as Miss S Phillips. At her Benefit, she played Macheath and Mary Coop in Charles the Second. A critic found that Charlotte sang in the 'English style' while Miss Phillips sang in the 'Italian style'. The 'English' style was clearly popular. After just a few months in America, Charlotte had established herself as one of New York's most in-demand singers.

The Misses Watson and Phillips continued at the Park Theatre in January 1835, Charlotte both performing in the operas and giving her musical farces: Biondelle in Native Land, Madge in Love in a Village ... 'we were particularly pleased with [her] simple and unaffected style'. After a sally to Washington and Philadelphia ('the celebrated Miss Watson'), the girls returned to the Park where they were produced in The Mountain Sylph. One paper sulked 'Miss Watson is a most substantial looking sylph and the butterfly wings which she wears tied to her shoulders give a ludicrous air to her little, plump, chubby figure'. He was clearly out of sorts, as he dismissed the whole piece as 'too poor for criticism'. She played Paul in a version of The Pet of the Petticoats remusicked by father, Distaffina in Bombastes Furioso, Augusta Polonsky in A Husband at First Sight and then, come June, Anne was back. As 'Mrs Watson'. 

Anne made her American debut at the opening concert of the season at Niblo's (3 June 1835). 'Director of the concerts Mr Watson', vocalists Mrs Watson, Miss Watson, Mr Archer (pupil of Mr Watson) ...  the two girls sang Vaccai's duet 'Sei pur tu' but elsewhere alongside 'By the Margin of Fair Zurich's Waters' (arranged by Mr Watson), Anne gave an Auber piece 'arranged by Mr Watson', 'Jock of Hazeldean' and 'Una voce' while Charlotte sang 'They have given thee to another'. Mrs and Miss were now widely associated in concerts sacred and profane, which did not stop Charlotte from playing her party pieces at the Park. Both girls introduced solos and duets arranged and/or composed by father, ('The sweet birds are wining from Arbor to Spray', 'The Savoyard's Return') and Charlotte was heard in pieces ranging from Masaniello to 'When a Little Farm We Keep', 'Kathleen O'More' and The Spoil'd Child (with songs and a sailor's hornpipe) and something titled 'I'm an arch little black-eyed daughter' was published under the banner 'sung by Miss Watson'. Far from being deemed short and fat, Charlotte was hailed as 'the fascinating Miss Watson', 'looked sweet and sung divinely' and one columnist heaped panegyrics on her charms and talents weekly ('Gad I wish she was up for a husband. What a tremendous jam she will have'). Little did he know.

Visits to Philadelphia were frequent and I see a programme at the Chestnut Street Theatre (10 Decmeber 1835) where Anne and Charlotte played in The Cabinet and the afterpiece was the eternal Spoil'd Child with Charlotte as the child and her father played by her father!

Again in 1836 the two played at the Park Theatre -- new, but mostly old vehicles -- and new, but mostly old songs. One 'new' one was a duet 'Light may the boat row' theoretically by W A King, of old acquaintance.

And so it went on. The girls - especially the teenaged Charlotte -- were drawing, top of the bill, stars on the East Coast.

On 25 February 1837, to the hair-tearing despair of the New York Herald columnist, Charlotte married. Her husband was a gent named Thomas Bailey 'of Winchester' (not Manchester), 'formerly of Montreal'. They were to have a couple of children -- Charlotte Emily b 20 June 1839; d 15 August 1919, (Mrs Lucas Thompson), and Charles Edward (b Baltimore 15 July 1847) in years to come, but Mrs Bailey remained as popular as a performer as ever had been Miss Watson.

'Mrs Watson' also gave birth to two more children, Victoria and Harry ...

I have, in the meanwhile, followed up the other Watsons. William goes awol after his arrival in America. But 29 August 1840 the real Mrs Watson, Elizabeth, arrives on Columbia's shores with her three remaining daughters -- Mrs Edward Loder (28), Eleanor Amelia (16) and Harriet Ann Keeley (14) -- and her son Henry Cood (23, professor of music). Henry was to have the most success of the bunch. Like certain other of us, he switched from performing music to writing about it and he became respected as what has been latterly described as 'America's first real music critic'. 

Henry Cood Watson

Eliza Loder (separated from her husband) continued her splendid career at the highest level ('Ocean thou mighty monster', 'Softly Sighs') until the 1850s, while teaching, among others, the two youngest Miss Watsons. I see them in 1843 (28 March 1843) with auntie at William Anthony King's concert. Harriet Ann would become Mrs King. 

Another  performer who piqued my interest was a 'Miss Wells'. Anne had been masquerading as Mrs Watson since the emigration, a fact which the American gossip press regularly paragraphed, so who , then, was the 'Miss Wells' who appeared with the team on occasion? Well, it appears she was Anne's sister, Jane. And who are the Master and Miss Wells, solo dancing at the Park Theatre and Niblo's in 1837-1842? 'Two talented children'. Their father seems to have been their choreographer. Jane (1814-1893) is a singer, and I spot her first at Anne's Benefit in October 1838. In 1839, the sisters are together at Philadelphia... Jane married (Mrs du Solle) and returned to England. I'll leave the little dancers to another time.

Mrs Bailey carried on where Miss Watson had led through much of the 1840s, appearing with Jane Shirreff, with Edward and Anne Seguin, and as Adalgisa to the controversial Norma of Emily Sutton. She was Annette to Shireff's Agnes in Freischütz, Felix in La gazza ladra, she was Pandora in Olympic Revels and played in everything from sacred oratorio (Elizene in The Israelites in Egypt) to burlesque (Mary Wagstaff in Billee Taylor) plus a season at the Park with Anna Bishop in 1847, singing Pierotto to her Linda di Chamonix, Lisa to her Sonnambula . She appeared in concert with Vincent Wallace ('her usual sweet and pleasing style'), with Sivori and de Begnis when the Washington critic judged her 'Casta Diva' better than that of Adelaide Kemble ... but 'she has for several years past quietly settled down in private life .. giving instruction in music'.

Alas, not for long. Charlotte succumbed to ill-health, and died suddenly at Philadelphia 6 August, just a month after Anne (7 July 1854).  Father John had gone 3 September. The era of the Watson team was over. Eliza Loder lived to the age of 67 (February 1880), mother Elizabeth died in New York 29 November 1863. 

 The story of Charlotte and Paganini has been fictionalised, filmed, affubled with all sorts of incorrect 'facts' which have come down to this day as 'history'. The Internet sports a variety of these imaginative tales. Otherwise, the once 'celebrated' Mrs Bailey is quite forgot. Except by those who affection the tale (fictional or factual) of Signor Paganini.

Mrs Franklin next. New article,

When Rózsi became Susi and a Hungarian hit musical

A KIS GRÓF Operett in 3 acts by Ferenc Martos. Music by Áladár Rényi. Király Színház, Budapest, 9 September 1911.

 Produced in 1911, in a period when the blossoming Hungarian operett tradition was turning out some of the most interesting works in Europe, A kis gróf, composed to a libretto by top text-writer Ferenc Martos, was premièred on the 23rd (or, according to some sources, 26th) birthday of the hitherto untried Áladár Rényi.

Ferenc Martos

The tale was a very simple one, of the popular 'French' flavour, finding its virtue in Martos's telling. The little count of the story was Count László d'Ennery (Ernö Király), son of the Count Guidó Agárdy (Imre Szirmai), whose father has decided that he shall wed the decidedly attractive and rich American widow Dorothy Howard (Anna Lonzay, the Dudley of Budapest's San Toy). Unfortunately, László is a very inexperienced young man so, prior to marriage with a woman who has already experienced all an American millionaire has to offer, he sets out to get some practice with a lady of the stage. Rózsi (Sári Fedák) is the chosen one. Of course, the practice soon turns serious. Papa intervenes determinedly, Rózsi tries some self-sacrificing pretences, but by the end of the evening young love has had its way, especially as Dorothy, who prefers older men, has both given the `little count's' romance a helping hand, and turned her attractions, most successfully, on to her intended's father.

 The score was in the traditional mode, featuring Hungarian-flavoured waltzes and marches -- as in Rózsi's `Kettesben csókok közt ...' and her Katonasári induló,
respectively -- whilst Dorothy tra-la-laed out the refrain to a tale of `Daphnis és Chloé' in soubrette style and the fun was looked after by star comic Márton Rátkai (Roth) with such pieces as the `Csetneki Roth' couplets.

 A kis gróf ran straight through to its 50th performance at the Király Színház on 28 October and, in spite of the fact that it was succeeded in November by an even bigger success in the shape of Jacobi's Leányvásár, it maintained its popularity, was played at the Budai Színkör (25 May 1912), and reached its 250th Budapest performance in November 1913. In the meanwhile it had begun to be seen elsewhere. 

Vienna's Carltheater production (ad Julius Wilhelm), which reallotted the characters' names and rechristened the work Susi, starred Mizzi Zwerenz as Susi alongside Hubert Marischka (Stefan), Dora Keplinger (Aglaia von Rosetti), Blasel (Dr Haring) and Richard Waldemar (Szigetvary) and opened for the 1912 Christmas season. It proved a distinct hit, running right through the winter and spring -- with a slight break for the visit of the Budapest Király Színház company, during which it emigrated to Ronachers `Établissement Parisien' -- till the summer recess (143 performances). It returned again both to open the new season and as an occasional matinée during the 1913-14 hit run of Nedbal's Polenblut. It was brought out again in 1917 for further performances.

Susi was produced in Stockholm (1 April 1913) and in Munich (5 November 1913), Leipzig, in Italy (ad Carlo Vizzotto) and all round central Europe, later the same year, and Lew Fields staged a version in America with José Collins (now Suzi), Connie Ediss (Lina Blazer), Robert Evett (Stefan), Lew Hearn (Herr Horn) and Melville Stewart (Count Emmerich) starred. In spite of being greeted as `far above the average musical comedy' it was rubbished by the New York Times, bumped from the Casino to the Shubert Theater, and then out to Boston after just 55 performances. In true Broadway style, it was a version (ad Otto Harbach) which had been regularly botched, but Fields had showed a little more taste than some of his fellow producers by taking his `additional songs' from the best Continental sources. The interpolations, whose melodies at least melded stylistically with the original score, included a Lehár tune relyricked as `The Best Toast of All' and a piece of Lincke performed under the gulpful title `Teenie, Eenie, Weenie'.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the piece carried merrily on ....

Austria: Carltheater Susi 20 December 1912; Germany: Leipzig Susi May 1913; USA: Casino Theater Suzi 3 November 1914

The waltz 'Fascinating Night' was issued on a piano roll and on Columbia Records as played by Charles Prince's Band. 

The foxtrot 'Tickling Love Taps' which seems to have been by Lincke also won recordings. It is elsewhere credited to Rényi, but mostly to nobody.

RÉNYI, Aladár (b Kolozsvár, 9 September 1885; d in a concentration camp, 1944).

 Rényi studied at the Budapest Zeneakadémia and had his first operett produced at the Király Színház at the age of 26. A kis gróf had a great success and it went on to be produced the following year at the Carltheater in Vienna under the title Susi, returning to the Király Színház in its German version during the Carltheater company's visit to Budapest in 1913. Susi was successfully played in Germany and staged on Broadway (Casino Theater, 1914) before Rényi's second work, Tiszavirág, was produced in Budapest. He wrote two further operetts, as well as chamber music, songs and piano music, but without again finding the success of his first stage work.

1911 A kis gróf (Ferenc Martos) Király Színház 9 September

1915 Tiszavirág (István Bródy, László Vajda) Király Színház 27 March

1917 Vandergold kisasszony (Sándor Hevesi, Zsolt Harsányi) Városi Színház 24 October

1926 Kitty és Kató (Martos) Király Színház 30 April

 

Horse doctoring or, Every Harness Trainer's Dream ...

 

On Weymouth Sands: an Edwardian concert party

 

I've never been to Weymouth. But a century ago it was a favourite seaside holiday town, tricked out with all the 'traditional' seaside entertainments of the period ... bathing machines rather than bikinis!

I imagine the 'American Studio' was where you went to 'have your picture took'. The Gentlemen's Saloon? Beer, perhaps? But, of course, what interested me was the booth centre foreground ..

The Lyric concert party. Entertainment al fresco. Half a dozen gents in straw boaters and an eager audience of sunshaded holidaymakers ..

And this seems to be a snap of our chaps!

So, who were they? Well, they actually scribbled their names on the back of the card ...

So, with the help of the bill half-shown in the photo, I was able to decipher them ..

Amateurs? No, indeed! Several of these gents were to have long careers in music-halls, on piers and in entertainments of all kinds. 

I wonder who put the team together. It is a bill of largely one type of material. Comic songs. Yes, Mr Daniels could tenorise out a ballad, Mr Sterling could tootle out a tune on his cornet, Mr Fredericks had a ventiloquist speciality ... but mostly it was comedy material ... all good holiday fun!

Alas, the signatures do not tell us which gent is which, but here they are ...

I know. Five only match the programme. Freddy MAYNE (of whom I know nothing) seems to be depping for the nonce for Mr Fredericks.

The 'best' name here is Tom CARNEY (b Islington 5 February 1860; d Barnsbury 4 December 1911). Born as Henry PENN[E]Y, he spent his early years as a carman, before I see him for the first time performing (1887) under his new name around Islington ('The Irish Restaurant', 'Kate Carney', 'Barnum's Exhibition', 'Nancy Magee', 'The Celebration of Mary Burke'), Hoxton, Hackney, Shoreditch et al. 'A real Irish singer'. 'A capital Irish comedian and an excellent dancer'.  Newhaven, Chatham, Norwich and an engagement at the Britannia Pier, Great Yarmouth which would be repeated for many a year. Tom ('vocal comedan and dancer') made up many a bill in suburb and seaside, at the Sebright and the Bedford music halls, and by the later 'nineties ventures as far afield as Birmingham, Belfast, Newcastle and Sheffield, Hull, Shields and Dublin, returning always to the home counties and the seaside. He had just returned home from his latest season in Yarmouth, when he died suddenly, at the age of 52, in 1911, leaving a widow and five children.

Leo STERLING [KITE, Leonard Alexander] (b Portsmouth October 1873; d Sydney, Australia 29 October 1963) was the son of a serviceman (Royal Marines) and as a youngster himself joined the Corps as a drummer. In his early twenties, he became, instead, a 'humorous singer, cornet player and burlesque dancer' with Lowestoft's Olympian Pierrots. He appeared in pantomime with Graham Falcon and in 1899 supported Walter Cole, giving trombone imitations an a mini-operetta along with soprano 'Jeannette Latour' (Mary Adelaide LOVE). 'The Comedian with the Cornet' appeared at the Royal Aqurium for a considerable period, married Miss Love, and eventually the couple emigrated to Australia where they worked into the 1920s ('Jeannette' was now 'Addie Love').

Gus DANIELS (b 19 May 18**) is a little less transparent, so I am guessing he was not 'Daniels'. He began his working life in suburban London as a music hall tenor ballad singer ('Alice Where art thou?' 'My Sweetheart', 'Fill up your glasses with me boys', 'The World Went Very Well Then', 'I dream of thee', 'The Best of Friends Must Part', 'One of the Queen's Navee') from Tottenham to Kennington, to Poplar and Limehouse in the mid-'nineties. He soon became 'character vocalist' ('London Day by Day') or 'descriptive vocalist ('Visions from home') and covered the country - Newcastle, Hull, Belfast, Bradford, Manchester, Leeds -- and gave patriotic songs at the Bedford, the Marylebone, the Sebright, the Empire in Bow, the Grand, Clapham. By 1907 he was 'baritone' rather than 'tenor' ('The Flower of the Desert', 'Johnnie is coming home', 'It is a grand old story'). I know not what became of him, but he was still to be heard in Stamford Hill in smokos and working men's clubs thereafter, and at the end of the 'twenties he was still getting up for a song in his latter-day home of Southend. Of his personal life I know only that he fathered a son 30 August 1895 ... but it would help if I knew his real name!

Carl FREDERICKS [PINKETT, Charles Frederick] (b Bath 1867; d Weston-super-Mare November 1926) led life as a telegraph boy (sacked!), a grocer's assistant and a commercial traveller before going into show business (1894) as a 'ventriloquist and dancer, comedian and comic conjuror'. He advertised himself as 'the refined ventriloquist'. He appeared with Poole's Myriorama, on the beach at Teignmouth  and in an act with his dancing wife-with-coloured-lights, Mdlle Cordelia (Gertrude Maud BOOL) and family. He developed a concert party, Les Vivandieres, around them ('very popular seaside artists') which kept going for something like a decade, as he mutated into 'Carlton Fredericks', producer of local pantomimes and even a musical comedy Little Babette featuring daughter, Della. He died, in the saddle, in 1926.

Alfred LIVERICK (b Thornton, Yorks 1866; d Penarth 27 December 1937) had a shorter career than his fellow players. I see him in 1899 in Croydon, at Hastings and several other southern dates as dame in pantomime, at Hastings, Whitstable and Exmouth in pierrot shows, and managing seasons in minor dates. 1907 (Merrymakers Pierrots at Duns) seems to have been toward the end of his performing career, before became manager of George H Pitt's filmhouse in Blaernavon, and then of the Golden Lion Hotel, Penarth. He had been mine host of Penarth seventeen years at his death.

Harry DOWSETT 'eccentric comedian' was allegedly from Taunton. Since he made his earliest appearance in the late 90s in Exeter and Tiverton, maybe that is so. His chief credit as a performer was with Poole's Myriorama, with which he featured over a number of years, but after 1913 I see him no more. 

Bert HUNTLEY escapes me. Perhaps he's the BH 'a very capable humorous entertainer' in East Ham and West Ham in 1917-1920. 

But, all in all, not a bad lot for a fit-up booth on a beach. I wish I could identify who is who, and precisely when ... but you can't have everything.

Oh, the photo of the boys came with another Weymouth item

Not the same group. Not named. Not dated ... but ...

I guess this was the opposition. 1906.

EMILY: Home for the holidays

 

Our dear little(ish) mare Emily is home.  

She wasn't really scheduled to come home. When we sent her down to Invercargill and the tender care of trainer, Kirstin Green, I remarked. 'I hope I see her again, because she won't come back to Gerolstein until she becomes a broodmare'. Nature makes fools of us all.

Emily has had a fantastic time in Southland. She has won no less than five races (bringing her total to eight) in just one season .. added to a multitude of 2nds and 3rds ...

57. 2024 (19 September) Winton EMILY

58. 2024 (4 October) Wyndham EMILY

59. 2024 (13 December) Winton EMILY

60.2025 (17 July) Winton EMILY

61.2025 (10 August) Invercargill EMILY

 

Then, a wee while back, just after she had carried off the Winter Championships, it went wrong. She galloped. She doesn't gallop. She galloped again. Call the Doctor. Thank goodness we did. She was diagnosed with a large bone chip in her fetlock. The X-Rays scurried to America for a second opinion. From my friend, Lyndall, horse vet exceptional. Yes. Bone chip. Fixable. Otherwise OK.

I put away the stallion catalogue, and called in VetSouth. It all happened so quickly, I didn't have time to fret too much. I just said 'do whatever needs to be done'. And they did. 

What next? Oh, a few weeks and she'll be fine. No, said Wendy. No, said Kurt. She is a feisty, darling 6-year-old. She can come home to Gerolstein, Wendy will mother her, lavish care and love on her ... and in the new year she can go back south and start over again ... Yes, I know all the maxims: 'don't let down an aged trotting mare ...'. Well, bugger the maxims. Emily comes first ..

I shall gloss over the poor girl's voyage from Invercargill to Gerolstein. Thank you for you kindness, Amber Lethaby. Majestic Horsefloats .. you've fallen apart at the seams. The worst service we've had from you in 20 years as clients. Smarten up. But she's here!

I, who can barely walk from here to the gate (walking frame arrives Monday) positively skipped down to her small paddock of deep grass to see her ...    I know, it's like children: you're not supposed to have favourites, but this wee lady is indubitably my number one in 25 years of owning horses ...

We have bought her a nice new Koolrug (30 degrees and flies here .. this is NOT Southland), a pretty red halter (they don't do my yellow any more, it seems), a new brush, new leads (they used to be $5 now they're $30) .. lots of healthy eats ... anyone know who sells diamond horseshoes in Rangiora!?

Even at the risk of roaring hayfever and a tumble on to the gravel, I shall be down to hug her every day!

Welcome home, li'l EMILY!

One funambulist and a fistful of fine actors. 1821.

 

This Birmingham bill is 204 years old. Yes, I know it isn't dated, but its vintage is easily discerned. One of the artists billed on it died in 1822 and 12 June was a Tuesday in 1821. 

However, this affiche took my eye for several reasons. 

Why does a rope-walker/dancer get the larger part of the bill over the performance of the hugely popular Guy Mannering? A few weeks earlier he had got a very yawnsome reception at Bristol. This enigmatic Mr Wilson would continue his act for some fifteen years, his reviews got better, and he returned to Birmingham a number of times, also to Bath, Cheltenham and environs, and reached his peak at Vauxhall Gardens ..  His performance menu reads like a fun routine ... I assume he didn't fall off his rope in dramatic circumstances which would have allowed him to make the faits divers columns, sop I know no more about him ...

Secondly. Why does the bill contain no reference to the encadrement? No manager. No proprietor. No musical conductor ...   Well, the theatre's proprietor does apparently appear herein, but only because he liked to go on in supporting roles from time to time .. 

Mr Richard Collier. Concerning whom I know nowt more. 

The manager was to be much, much more consequent. His name was ... Alfred Bunn. Yes, 'the poet Bunn'. Later to be of Drury Lane and The Bohemian Girl. Maybe he knew what he was up to, not attaching his name to a 'danseur à la corde'. But maybe he was wise to stand a little apart ... things got a bit hairy up in Birmingham round about this time.

So, what about the Guy Mannering cast? This is Bunn's company for the season. There are names in there that are decidedly not negligible. And some, which mean nothing to me, but which seem to have been more than respectable.

The standout is Mrs Waylett, here in the early stages of her grand career. And the final stages of her unfortunate marriage. 

Harriet Waylett, née Cooke (b 7 February 1797) was from Bath. She had played at the local theatres from her teens as Miss Cooke, but in 1819 (17 July) she committed the folly of marrying one John Providence Waylett. In Coventry. So I suppose she was engaged there..   In 1821, the couple were hired by Bunn for Birmingham and disaster struck. Mr Waylett was put up as Shakespeare's Richard (2 or 3?) and found himself hissed and booed and ridiculed ... Mrs Waylett, on the other hand, was very much appreciated, and after her performance as Lucy Bertram she was engaged for London's Adelphi Theatre. Without Mr Waylett. And at the beginning of thirty years as 'one of the sweetest and best of English ballad singers'. Without Mr Waylett.

Mrs Waylett

Then there is Mr [James] Thorne. He, too, would go on to a most successful career as a performer, including nearly a decade in rich company and good roles under Arnold at the English Opera House in the Strand. He seems to have been a wide-ranging baritone of charm ('light, elegant and tasteful', 'considerable versatility'), capable of taking both tenor and bass roles ('sang cleverly .. adroitly avoided difficulties') -- indeed, I see him on one occasion singing the roles of both Henry Phillips and Joseph Wood in one opera! His performance career was in its early days in 1821, although he had sung at Drury Lane alongside Braham, and at the Ancient Music and Choral Fund since his first steps in 1817 and been on the Birminham books since 1820. He was to be the first English Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte, Kassova in Der Vampyr and Masetto in The Libertine amongst a host of roles in London in the season, and at Edinburgh, Birmingham, Liverpool, Bath or Glasgow between times. Of his personal life I have found little, save that his name was James and that he wed Hannah Maria Cushing, harpist and organist of Bury's Octagon Chapel in 1821. 

A sad tale is that of Joseph Francis Higman (b 1790; d Maiden Lane, July 1822). Mr Higman 'of Covent Garden and Drury Lane' was the happy possessor of a 'deep bass voice'. A shoo-in for a performance of 'The Wolf' and the role of Gipsy Gabriel. Alas, not for long ..

Then there is Joseph Mallinson (b Norfolk c 1777; d Weston, Bath 30 September 1853). Mr Mallinson began in the theatre as a teenager on the Norwich circuit, but in 1804 he moved to the Bath and Bristol Theatres where he became a fixture, much appreciated for his comic talents (Ralph in Lock and Key, Robin in The Waterman &c)  and, in particular, his way with a comic song ('Miss Levi, Miss Abrahams and Miss Moses'). He appeared round the country (Hull, Brighton, Birmingham &c) and put in the occasional appearance in London -- from the Haymarket Theatre to Vauxhall Gardens -- but returning each time to Bath. He is billed here as 'his first appearance for five years'.

Mrs T[homas] Hill (b Portsmouth c 1793; d London 30 May 1848) was born Harriet Maria Kelly daughter of Portsmouth theatre manager Henry Kelly. Although primarily a light comic actress, she studied singing with Henry Bishop and amongst a host of roles -- notably at the Haymarket Theatre where she was engaged for over a decade, and where she created the role of Phoebe in Paul Pry -- she was seen in such musical pieces as Love in a Village (Lucinda), John of Paris (Olivia), The Marriage of Figaro (Susanna), No Song, No Supper (Louisa), Clari (Ninetta), Lionel and Clarissa (Jenny), The Mountaineers (Zorayda), Rosina (William). When, in the off-season, she visited the larger provincial houses she was wont to interpolate such as 'Bid me discourse', 'Cherry Ripe', 'The Lover's Mistake' or 'Buy a Broom' into the proceedings. She also replaced Miss Paton as Polly in The Beggar's Opera at the Haymarket in 1824, and in 1828 repeated her Julia Mannering at Cheltenham. In the 1840s she was active in the Dublin theatre.

Elsewhere, my searches have been sabotaged by names. Mr Mathews (or Matthews) 'of Covent Garden'? Which one? Mr Butler? Surely not the one who played Hamlet and Othello and ...  the Popes? Again, which ones? Master Saunders is 'of Bath'. He dances. And has since he was three years old. 'The most astonishing dancer of his age in the kingdom'. Oh he dances on a tightrope. At Astleys. Oh  .. there were THREE Master Saunderses, Master T and Master S[amuel Deshayes] (d 1898) .. and Master G! .. and one calls himself 'Edouard' then 'junior' .. and there is a Miss as well 'on the slack wire' at the Olympic! They are visible up to 1834 .. and in 1841 he returned at the Pavilion .. I wonder what he did in Guy Mannering!

I can follow these folk for a few years but .. then it gets harder!

Our Mr Butler was one of the early representatives of Emery's role of Yorkshireman Dandie Dinmont at Drury Lane (October 1819) alongside Braham where he made a considerable success. The London press averred that he was 'from the Birmingham Theatre .. a completely successful debut'. Another said rightly that he had played 'one season at the Haymarket' (1817, Sheepface in The Village Lawyer, from the Theatre Royal, York). He was 'loudly applauded in the Highland dance'.

In that same Birmingham season The Marriage of Figaro was produced with Mallinson as Figaro, Thorne as Fiorello, Mrs Hill as Cherubino, Mrs Waylett as Susanna, Butler as Antonio ..   When they did Rob Roy Thorne was Osbaldistone, Butler is Dougal, Higman is Major Galbraith, Mallison is Nicol Jarvie, Mathews is Rashleigh. In 1823, in The Slave Thorne is Captain Clifton, Mrs Waylett is Zelinda, Butler is another Yorkshireman, Sam Sharpset ...

Well bingo! Persistence pays. George Blyth[[e] Butler (b Yorkshire 1795; d Cumberland Row, Newcastle 24 November 1838). Son of the Samuel Butler of the Richmond Theatre, brother of actor Samuel William Butler .. comedian .. lies in Jesmond Old Cemetery .. thank you Find-a-Grave ...

I see, a few weeks after this performance, Mr Butler and Mrs Pope ('of the Theatre Royal, Bath') are billed at Sheffield, in December they are members of deCamp's company at Newcastle  ... In 1822 Mrs Pope from Bath is making her first appearance at the Surrey ..
But here, in the season's prospectus, she is said to be 'of Drury Lane'. Sigh, 'Mrs Pope of Drury Lane' died in 1818 aged 75 ...  You see the problem?

I guess she is the Mrs Pope of the Theatre Royal Edinburgh, engaged at Bath in April 1819. Playing Cordelia, Lady Townley and .. Meg Merrilees!   Perhaps the Mrs Pope playing Ophelia at Newcastle in 1818, with a Mr Pope as Horatio? 

Well, that's been a jolly little exercise. But it still leaves me wondering why the funambulist got the bigger part of this curious playbill ...

On to another!

 

The mysterious Mr Morley: primo basso Covent Garden ..

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.

20 November he moved to the Surrey Theatre to create the Lord of Lorn in Rodwell’s The Lord of the Isles (‘Merrily while the deer’). ‘Wilson's sweet tenor voice, with Morley's deep bass. Miss Somerville's brilliant execution, and Miss Land's clear notes, harmonised exquisitely’. The same team followed up with a revival of The Mountain Sylph.

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!