DECK, [?Joseph] Richard (b Guebwiller, Alsace, 27 September 1821; d London, 1882)
The career of the bass singer, Richard Deck, is somewhat murked in mystery. In fact, very little would be remembered about him at all, were it not for the fact that he, apparently, at some stage during whatever years he spent in England, had an encounter with the writer George Bernard Shaw, which has resulted in his being mentioned in all those books written, down the years, about Mr Shaw.
In those biographies we are told that he was ‘an Alsatian basso profundo opera singer’ with extremist (anarchist, communard, Proudhonist) political views, that he was ‘a brother of the famous French ceramist’, Joseph-Théodore Deck (1823-1891), that Shaw spent, at one time, ‘three nights a week visiting his house … to learn French and help Deck improve his English. .’ at which time, the singer was ‘a poverty-stricken old man … with a room in Kentish Town’. Not that old! He died at 60. Shame that they don’t specify when this happened.
My own first sighting of Richard Deck, as a vocalist, occurs 14 March 1846, at the concert given by one Mlle Péan de la Rochejagu, at the Paris Hôtel de Ville, singing her operetta Lully with Mesdames Sabatier and Cico. The next, in February 1848, when, with his ‘belle voix de basse’, he turns up at a concert given by MM Savart, Ropicquet and Mlle Girod, chez Mons Fite, in Paris, alongside a Mlle Boutet ‘pupil of Rubini’.
I spot him next, in January 1851, as ‘première basse et des Hermann-Léon’ at the theatre of Montauban, in a season opening with Lucie de Lammermoor: ‘M. Deck, première basse, dont le timbre de voix est parfaitement approprié à la nature des rôles dits de Hermann-Léon, chante avec facilité, et prend une bonne part au succès des pièces. Dans la Dame blanche, il a toujours été convenable, et, certes, le rôle qu'il remplissait n'est pas écrit pour faire briller l'artiste’.
‘Le rôle un peu difficile du capitaine Rolland (Mousquetaires de la reine) a été mal joué, mais bien chanté par M. Deck. Ce jeune artiste manque d'expérience, d'habitude, mais sa voix est fort belle. C'est un bloc de marbre d'où peut jaillir un chef-d'oeuvre; il n'y a qu'à le travailler, le ciseler et le polir’.
In Le Barbier de Séville ‘L'air de la Calomnie, a également valu des bravos à M. Deck’.
The company also included a young and pretty Madame Deck who seems to have been more skilled on the piano than as the Queen in La Part du diable and Isabelle de Bavière in Charles VI.
Then, in 1857, he turns up in London, vaguely mentioned as being ‘primo basso profundo from the Grand Opera at Dresden’. The occasion is Jullien’s Benefit at the Royal Surrey Gardens (29-30 June), for which Deck was engaged as a deputy for an ailing Karl Formes. He sang ‘In diesem heil’gen Hallen’ and joined in a selection from Don Giovanni with the Gassiers, which earned him praise for ‘a first-rate organ and knew how to use it’.
In the 1857-8 season, Richard Deck was seen regularly on the concert platforms of London, usually with his Zauberflöte aria. I spot him at the Réunion des arts, singing Carafa’s ‘Le Valet de chambre’ with Mme Borchardt ('Made a great impression by the quality of his powerful bass voice, and the energy of his style'); at Jullien’s concerts at Her Majesty’s Theatre giving ‘La ci darem’ with Jetty Treffz; at the Crystal Palace with Mme Borchardt, and with Mlle Finoli, giving Mazel’s ‘L’orage à la grande chartreuse’; at St Martin’s Hall, with Spohr’s Faust aria ‘Stille noch dies Wuthverlangen’ and the inevitable Sarastro aria, or, billed as ‘the celebrated German basso’ at the Alhambra Monstre Concerts. On 27 March 1858 he was on the bill at the opening concerts of the St James’s Hall.
In May and June of 1858, he appeared in a whole run of public and private concerts, the last of which on 16 July at the Crystal Palace, alongside Sims Reeves, Louisa Pyne, the Weisses and Charlotte Dolby, and giving his ‘Isis und Osiris’ ... in Italian.
Richard Deck had evidently been well enough appreciated during his year or so on English platforms, but the 1858 season done, he simply vanishes. No little British paragraphs saying ‘Herr Deck who is so well-known here ... is now doing such-and-such’. Nothing. Where is he?
And thus it stays for a whole decade. Until, in April 1869, he resurfaces in London, at the New Philharmonic Society, with his same old Zauberflöte aria, and launches into a second period, of little more than a year, on the British concert platform. The engagements were, this time, a little less classy and a little less frequent, and after just a fair season Deck went out on the road, apparently as a replacement for Perunini (the Bath press suggested that ‘Perunini’ was Deck under another name), singing the bass music in a little concert party put together by Louisa Bodda Pyne and her husband. He gave his Zauberflöte and ‘Miei rampolli’ and joined in the company’s ensemble music, for something like six months around some medium and small provincial dates. And here, for the first time in ages, I see Madame Deck (the same one?) accompanying her husband, in a masonic concert.
Back in town for the 1870 season, he turns up just occasionally on bills of mostly second-rate concerts, ‘Herr Ricardo Deck’ accompanied by ‘Mme Deck’ (4 May), and the last appearances which I have spotted are on 10 July 1870, at Madame Montserrat’s concert, singing a French operatic trio, and in 16 July 1870, at a charity affair, in which he performed an aria from Le Châlet and the Carafa duet.
My last sighting of him is in an advertisement, in October of the same year, seeking engagements from a boarding house at 45 Tavistock Square. Well, no. My last sighting is in the death records of the British nation, which include a Richard Deck who died in St Pancras in 1882, at the age of 59. I imagine it is he. Or is it?
Because, peculiarly enough, Richard Deck does not seem to appear in any other official document that I can find, and notably in the censi. Maybe his ‘anarchist’ politics included such civil disobediences as skipping censi.
But, after the Franco-Prussian war, Richard Deck of London filled in a form declaring his date and place of birth as an Alsatian 'optant' -- choosing French nationality -- so we have at least one solid fact (on his say so) to go on. Son of François-Pierre Deck (1789-1846) and Rose née Ferne (1791-1852)? Of course, it means his age on his death certificate is wrong, but that's nothing unusual ...
So, there it is. A very incomplete record of the life and career of a very curious basso. Maybe more will surface some day. Maybe all those ‘empty’ years may be filled. And maybe not. But for the meanwhile, here you are, ye next hundred Dickens dissectors! The truth about the old man in the garret, for your footnotes! Gimme a credit!
PS In an Alsatian journal of 1933 I find .. "Richard Deck, brother of Théodore Deck ... was Königlicher Hofsánger in Dresden .. went to England and sang with his wife, a good pianist, in many concerts". Many? When? Where?
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