Catherine Hayes
Encyclopedia
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
-born opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
diva
Diva
A diva is a celebrated female singer. The term is used to describe a woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, and, by extension, in theatre, cinema and popular music. The meaning of diva is closely related to that of "prima donna"....
to achieve international acclaim.
Limerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, but her father deserted the family, causing great financial distress. The young Catherine Hayes worked as a charwoman
Charlady
A charlady, char or charwoman was an English house cleaner. The term has the same roots as "chore woman," one hired to do odd chores around the house. A char or chare was a turn in the sixteenth century, and which gave rise to prefix being used to denote people that worked in domestic situations...
at Lord Limerick
Earl of Limerick
Earl of Limerick is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of Ireland. The earldom was created for the first time in 1686 for Sir William Dongan, 4th Baronet, with remainder, failing male issue of his own, to his brothers Robert, Michael and Thomas and the heirs male of their bodies...
's home at Henry Street where she sang as she worked and was heard by a Dr. Knox, the Church of Ireland Bishop. He arranged sponsorship for her to study under Antonio Sapio in Dublin where she gave her first public performance in 1839 at the age of 19. Seven years later Catherine Hayes was prima donna at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
, Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
and in 1849 she gave a Command Performance for Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
with the Royal Italian Opera Company. She returned to Limerick in March 1850 where she gave a performance of Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
's La sonnambula
La sonnambula
La sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur.The first...
at the Theatre Royal.
Catherine Hayes toured extensively in Europe, America and Australia. She was the first Irish international star and the first ever opera star to tour Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. She sang for the Hawaiian royal family in Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii. Honolulu is the southernmost major U.S. city. Although the name "Honolulu" refers to the urban area on the southeastern shore of the island of Oahu, the city and county government are consolidated as the City and...
and a street was named in her honour in San Francisco where she married her manager, William Avery Bushnell in 1857. She was the highest paid singer of her time attracting huge fees for her performances.
Catherine Hayes died in August 1861 at the age of 35 and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in Kensal Green, in the west of London, England. It was immortalised in the lines of G. K. Chesterton's poem The Rolling English Road from his book The Flying Inn: "For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen; Before we go to Paradise by way of...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. During her lifetime she was a generous supporter of many charitable works in Ireland including the restoration of St Mary's Cathedral in Limerick as well as many causes abroad.
A Shopping Centre is now being built next to the location of her birth place. It is being called The Opera Centre in her honour. Her birthplace is also being converted into a Museum.
She was the great-great-aunt of the American actress Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes Brown was an American actress whose career spanned almost 70 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theatre" and was one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award...
.
Catherine Hayes, Kathleen Mavourneen and a world tour
The Irish soprano Catherine Hayes (1818–1861), the Hibernian prima donna, was the first Irish woman to sing at La Scala in Milan. She learned Kathleen Mavourneen while training in Dublin. It became her signature tune during concerts and she sang it for Queen Victoria and over 500 royal guests during a concert performed at Buckingham Palace in June 1849.During several very successful years in Italy, Catherine Hayes became the foremost Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
in the 1840s. She toured around the world between 1851 and 1856, literally circumnagivating the globe, performing in operas and singing concerts. The trip began in New York in 1851 and over the next few years, she appeared in over 40 other cities on the east coast of the USA and Canada. From there she toured extensively across the US - Charleston SC, Savannah GA, New Orleans and Baton Rouge LA, Memphis and Nashville TN, San Francisco and Sacramento CA, (1851–53) Lima (Peru), Valparaiso and Santiago (Chili)(1853–54), Honolulu Hawaii (July 1854), Sydney, Melbourne, Geelong and Adelaide (Australia)(1854 and again in 1855), Bendigo, Hobart (Tasmania 1856), Calcutta, Singapore, Java (1855). (From Basil Walsh's book)