Catherine Stephens
Encyclopedia
Catherine Stephens, Countess of Essex (1794–1882) was an English operatic singer and actress.
, and was born on 18 September 1794. Having shown like her elder sisters some musical ability, she was placed in 1807 under Gesualdo Lanza, with whom she remained five years. Under his care she sang in Bath, Bristol
, Southampton
, Ramsgate
, Margate
and other places, appearing early in 1812 in subordinate parts at the Pantheon as member of an Italian opera company, headed by Teresa Bertinotti
. At the close, in 1812, of her engagement with Lanza, her father placed her under Thomas Welsh
, as whose pupil she sang anonymously on 17 and 19 November in Manchester.
and Elizabeth Billington
. On 22 October she sang as Polly in the Beggar's Opera, and on 12 November as Clara in The Duenna
; also Rosetta in Love in a Village
. Lanza and Welsh both claimed the honour of instructing her. At the concert of ancient music in March 1814 she was assigned the principal soprano songs, and she sang later in the year in the festivals in Norwich
and Birmingham
.
At Covent Garden, where she remained with few interruptions from her first appearance in 1813 down to 1822, she at first received £12 a week; this was successively advanced to £20 and £25 a week.
; and on 7 June Eucharis in Telemachus.
Next season she was Sylvia in Cymon, Hermia in Midsummer Night's Dream, Imogen, Cora in Columbus, and on 12 March 1816 the first Lucy Bertram in Daniel Terry
's adaptation of Guy Mannering
. Among original parts in lesser works in the next season stands out Diana Vernon in Isaac Pocock's Rob Roy Macgregor. She also played Cowslip in the Agreeable Surprise.
, and in the premiere of Heart of Midlothian by Daniel Terry, on 17 April, she was Effie Deans. On 14 December she played Adriana in the Comedy of Errors
, converted by Frederick Reynolds
into an opera. In Terry's Antiquary on 25 January 1820 she was the first Isabella Wardour, and in an adaptation of Ivanhoe, which followed on 2 March, she was Rowena.
The following season she joined Robert William Elliston
at the Drury Lane Theatre
, less happily. For her benefit on 27 April 1823 she played Annette in the Lord of the Manor. In Samuel Beazley
's Philandering, on 13 January 1824, she was the first Emile, and in Reynolds's operatic version of the Merry Wives of Windsor, on 20 February, Mrs. Ford. On the production of an anonymous version of Faustus on 16 May 1825 she was the Adine (Margaret). Malvina in George Macfarren
's Malvina was seen on 28 January 1826; Edith Plantagenet in Knights of the Cross followed on 29 May. Gulnare in Dimond's Englishmen in India was seen on 27 January 1827.
In the following season she was again at Covent Garden, where she played Blanch Mackay in Carron Side, or the Fête Champêtre, on 27 May 1828.
, an octogenarian widower, who died on 23 April 1839. Lady Essex survived him forty-three years, taking an interest in theatrical matters. She died on 22 February 1882 in the house in which she was married, and was buried at Kensal Green
.
voice of her time, particularly of ballad
s. William Hazlitt
, who spoke of her and Edmund Kean
as the only theatrical favourites he had, wrote his first theatrical criticism on her in the Morning Chronicle
. After hearing her as Polly and as Mandane, Leigh Hunt said that they ‘are like nothing else on the stage, and leave all competition far behind;’ Thomas Noon Talfourd
recalled the days when he heard her send forth ‘a stream of such delicious sound as he had never found proceeding from human lips.’ William Oxberry gave her unmixed praise.
A portrait painted by John Jackson
hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, London; another by Dewilde, as Mandane in ‘Artaxerxes,’ is in the Mathews collection of the Garrick Club, which contains also an anonymous portrait. A portrait of her as Rosetta in ‘Love in a Village,’ showing a bright and intelligent face, accompanies the memoir in Oxberry's ‘Dramatic Biography.’ Other portraits of her were painted by Linnell and Sir William John Newton.
Early life
Stephens was the daughter of Edward Stephens, a carver and gilder in Park Street, Grosvenor SquareGrosvenor Square
Grosvenor Square is a large garden square in the exclusive Mayfair district of London, England. It is the centrepiece of the Mayfair property of the Duke of Westminster, and takes its name from their surname, "Grosvenor".-History:...
, and was born on 18 September 1794. Having shown like her elder sisters some musical ability, she was placed in 1807 under Gesualdo Lanza, with whom she remained five years. Under his care she sang in Bath, Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
, Ramsgate
Ramsgate
Ramsgate is a seaside town in the district of Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century and is a member of the ancient confederation of Cinque Ports. It has a population of around 40,000. Ramsgate's main attraction is its coastline and its main...
, Margate
Margate
-Demography:As of the 2001 UK census, Margate had a population of 40,386.The ethnicity of the town was 97.1% white, 1.0% mixed race, 0.5% black, 0.8% Asian, 0.6% Chinese or other ethnicity....
and other places, appearing early in 1812 in subordinate parts at the Pantheon as member of an Italian opera company, headed by Teresa Bertinotti
Teresa Bertinotti
Teresa Bertinotti was a celebrated Italian soprano and voice teacher. She created leading roles in several operas, including Simon Mayr's Ginevra di Scozia.-Biography:...
. At the close, in 1812, of her engagement with Lanza, her father placed her under Thomas Welsh
Thomas Welsh (composer)
Thomas Welsh was an English composer and operatic bass. Welsh spent most of his life in London and is now particularly remembered for his light-hearted stage works.-Life:...
, as whose pupil she sang anonymously on 17 and 19 November in Manchester.
Operatic and acting career
On 23 September 1813 she appeared at Covent Garden as Mandane in ‘Artaxerxes,’ obtaining a conspicuous success, especially in the airs ‘Checked by duty, racked by love,’ and ‘The soldier tired of war's alarms,’ and being compared to Angelica CatalaniAngelica Catalani
Angelica Catalani was an Italian opera singer, the daughter of a tradesman.At Sinigaglia, she was educated at the convent of Santa Lucia at Gubbio, where her soprano voice soon became famous....
and Elizabeth Billington
Elizabeth Billington
Elizabeth Billington was a British opera singer born in London, her father being a German clarinetist named Carl Friedrich Weichsel , and her mother Fredericka Weichsel née Weirman , a popular singer. Her brother, Charles Weichsel Elizabeth Billington (1765 or 1768 in London – 25 August 1818 in...
. On 22 October she sang as Polly in the Beggar's Opera, and on 12 November as Clara in The Duenna
The Duenna
The Duenna is a three-act comic opera, mostly composed by Thomas Linley the elder and his son, Thomas Linley the younger, to an English-language libretto by Richard Brinsley Sheridan...
; also Rosetta in Love in a Village
Love in a Village
Love in a Village is a ballad opera in three acts that was composed and arranged by Thomas Arne. A pastiche, the work contains 42 musical numbers of which only five were newly composed works by Arne. The other music is made up of 13 pieces borrowed from Arne's earlier stage works, a new overture...
. Lanza and Welsh both claimed the honour of instructing her. At the concert of ancient music in March 1814 she was assigned the principal soprano songs, and she sang later in the year in the festivals in Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
and Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
.
At Covent Garden, where she remained with few interruptions from her first appearance in 1813 down to 1822, she at first received £12 a week; this was successively advanced to £20 and £25 a week.
1813 to 1818
On 1 February 1814 she was the original Mrs. Cornflower in the Farmer's Wife of Charles Dibdin, junior. She played Ophelia to the Hamlet of Young and that of Kemble, and on the first occasion (21 March) introduced into the character the song of "Mad Bess", for which she was hissed. She played Matilda in Richard Cœur de Lion, and on 31 May, as Desdemona to Young's Othello, sang the original air of "My mother had a maid called Barbara". On 1 February 1815 she was the original Donna Isidora in William Dimond's Brother and Sister; on 7 April Donna Orynthia in the Noble Outlaw, founded on the Pilgrim of Beaumont and FletcherBeaumont and Fletcher
Beaumont and Fletcher were the English dramatists Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, who collaborated in their writing during the reign of James I ....
; and on 7 June Eucharis in Telemachus.
Next season she was Sylvia in Cymon, Hermia in Midsummer Night's Dream, Imogen, Cora in Columbus, and on 12 March 1816 the first Lucy Bertram in Daniel Terry
Daniel Terry
Daniel Terry was an English actor and playwright, known also as a close associate of Sir Walter Scott.-Life:He was born in Bath about 1780, and was educated at the Bath grammar school and subsequently at a private school at Wingfield , Wiltshire, under the Rev. Edward Spencer...
's adaptation of Guy Mannering
Guy Mannering
Guy Mannering or The Astrologer is a novel by Sir Walter Scott, published anonymously in 1815. According to an introduction that Scott wrote in 1829, he had originally intended to write a story of the supernatural, but changed his mind soon after starting...
. Among original parts in lesser works in the next season stands out Diana Vernon in Isaac Pocock's Rob Roy Macgregor. She also played Cowslip in the Agreeable Surprise.
1819 to 1828
On the first production of the Marriage of Figaro on 6 March 1819 she was Susanna to the Figaro of John ListonJohn Liston
John Liston , English comedian, was born in London.He made his public debut on the stage at Weymouth as Lord Duberley in The Heir-at-law...
, and in the premiere of Heart of Midlothian by Daniel Terry, on 17 April, she was Effie Deans. On 14 December she played Adriana in the Comedy of Errors
Comedy Of Errors
Comedy Of Errors was a Glasgow-based progressive rock band formed in January 1984. Their first recording was a demo called "Ever be the Prize", and was recorded at a studio in Blanefield in 1985, and followed by a mini album in 1986....
, converted by Frederick Reynolds
Frederick Reynolds
Frederic Reynolds was a British dramatist. During his literary career composed nearly one hundred tragedies and comedies, many of which were printed, and about twenty of them obtained temporary popularity...
into an opera. In Terry's Antiquary on 25 January 1820 she was the first Isabella Wardour, and in an adaptation of Ivanhoe, which followed on 2 March, she was Rowena.
The following season she joined Robert William Elliston
Robert William Elliston
Robert William Elliston was an English actor and theatre manager.He was born in London, the son of a watchmaker. He was educated at St Paul's School, but ran away from home and made his first appearance on the stage as Tressel in Richard III at Bath in 1791...
at the Drury Lane Theatre
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
, less happily. For her benefit on 27 April 1823 she played Annette in the Lord of the Manor. In Samuel Beazley
Samuel Beazley
Samuel Beazley was an English architect, novelist and playwright. He became the leading theatre architect of his time and the first notable English expert in that field....
's Philandering, on 13 January 1824, she was the first Emile, and in Reynolds's operatic version of the Merry Wives of Windsor, on 20 February, Mrs. Ford. On the production of an anonymous version of Faustus on 16 May 1825 she was the Adine (Margaret). Malvina in George Macfarren
George Macfarren
George Macfarren was a playwright and the father of composer George Alexander Macfarren. Macfarren's first play, Ah! What a Pity, or, The Dark Knight and the Fair Lady, was produced on 28 September 1818 at the English Opera House; for the next several decades, a Macfarren play was produced...
's Malvina was seen on 28 January 1826; Edith Plantagenet in Knights of the Cross followed on 29 May. Gulnare in Dimond's Englishmen in India was seen on 27 January 1827.
In the following season she was again at Covent Garden, where she played Blanch Mackay in Carron Side, or the Fête Champêtre, on 27 May 1828.
Concert singer
High as was the reputation Stephens made in opera, it was still higher as a concert singer. She sang with John Duruset in Dublin in July 1821 and again in 1825; and in Edinburgh in 1814. She also visited Liverpool and other places. Until her retirement in 1835 she starred at concerts and festivals.Later life
On 19 April 1838 Miss Stephens married, at 9 Belgrave Square, George Capel-Coningsby, 5th Earl of EssexGeorge Capel-Coningsby, 5th Earl of Essex
George Capel-Coningsby, 5th Earl of Essex FSA was an English aristocrat and politician, styled Viscount Malden until 1799.-Life:...
, an octogenarian widower, who died on 23 April 1839. Lady Essex survived him forty-three years, taking an interest in theatrical matters. She died on 22 February 1882 in the house in which she was married, and was buried at Kensal Green
Kensal Green
Kensal Green, also referred to as Kensal Rise is an area of London, England. It is located on the southern edge of the London Borough of Brent and borders the City of Westminster to the East and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to the South....
.
Reputation
Miss Stephens was held to have the sweetest sopranoSoprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
voice of her time, particularly of ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
s. William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt was an English writer, remembered for his humanistic essays and literary criticism, and as a grammarian and philosopher. He is now considered one of the great critics and essayists of the English language, placed in the company of Samuel Johnson and George Orwell. Yet his work is...
, who spoke of her and Edmund Kean
Edmund Kean
Edmund Kean was an English actor, regarded in his time as the greatest ever.-Early life:Kean was born in London. His father was probably Edmund Kean, an architect’s clerk, and his mother was an actress, Anne Carey, daughter of the 18th century composer and playwright Henry Carey...
as the only theatrical favourites he had, wrote his first theatrical criticism on her in the Morning Chronicle
Morning Chronicle
The Morning Chronicle was a newspaper founded in 1769 in London, England, and published under various owners until 1862. It was most notable for having been the first employer of Charles Dickens, and for publishing the articles by Henry Mayhew which were collected and published in book format in...
. After hearing her as Polly and as Mandane, Leigh Hunt said that they ‘are like nothing else on the stage, and leave all competition far behind;’ Thomas Noon Talfourd
Thomas Noon Talfourd
Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd, SL , was an English judge and author.The son of a well-to-do brewer, he was born at Reading, Berkshire ....
recalled the days when he heard her send forth ‘a stream of such delicious sound as he had never found proceeding from human lips.’ William Oxberry gave her unmixed praise.
A portrait painted by John Jackson
John Jackson (painter)
John Jackson was an English painter.Jackson was born in Lastingham, Yorkshire, and started his career as an apprentice tailor to his father, who opposed the artistic ambitions of his son...
hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, London; another by Dewilde, as Mandane in ‘Artaxerxes,’ is in the Mathews collection of the Garrick Club, which contains also an anonymous portrait. A portrait of her as Rosetta in ‘Love in a Village,’ showing a bright and intelligent face, accompanies the memoir in Oxberry's ‘Dramatic Biography.’ Other portraits of her were painted by Linnell and Sir William John Newton.