Jessie Bond
Encyclopedia
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
singer and actress best known for creating the mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
soubrette
Soubrette
A soubrette is a female stock character in opera and theatre. The term arrived in English from Provençal via French, and means "conceited" or "coy".-Theater:...
roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
comic opera
Comic opera
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
s. She spent twenty years on the stage, the bulk of them with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
.
Musical from an early age, Bond began a concert singing career in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
by 1870. At the age of 17, she entered into a brief, unhappy marriage. After leaving her abusive husband, she continued her concert career and studied at the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
in London with such famous singing teachers as Manuel García
Manuel Patricio Rodríguez García
Manuel Patricio Rodríguez García , was a Spanish singer, music educator, and vocal pedagogue.-Biography:García was born on 17 March 1805 in the town of Zafra in Badajoz Province, Spain. His father was singer and teacher Manuel del Pópulo Vicente Rodriguez García...
.
At the age of 25, in 1878, Bond began her theatrical career, creating the role of Cousin Hebe in Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
, which became an international success. After this, she created roles of increasing importance with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in a series of successful comic operas, including the title role in Iolanthe
Iolanthe
Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh collaboration of the fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan....
(1882), Pitti Sing in The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
(1885), Mad Margaret in Ruddigore
Ruddigore
Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse, originally called Ruddygore, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan...
(1887), Phoebe in The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard; or, The Merryman and His Maid, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888, and ran for 423 performances...
(1888), Tessa in The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances , closing on 30 June 1891...
(1889) and others.
During the 1890s, she continued performing on the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
for several more years, while being courted by Lewis Ransome, a civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
. In 1897, at the age of 44, Bond married Ransome and left the stage. They were happily married for 25 years, moving to Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
, where Bond lived the life of a country squire's wife. She also occasionally gave charity concerts and assisted amateur theatre companies. She survived her husband by twenty years, living to the age of 89.
Beginnings
Surely, I felt, it would interest a public that still loves the Gilbert and Sullivan Operas, and even outside that public the human story of a girl's ambitions and aspirations, of her struggle with adverse circumstances and the gradual attainment of her desires, must have value if told simply and sincerely.... I am one of the last of my generation. I have outlived prejudices and animosities, and can look back on my own life as on an interesting story. ... An absolutely true story ... may perhaps encourage some weary young aspirant, and to do that would alone make it well worth while. |
| Preface to The Life and Reminiscences of Jessie Bond |
Jessie Charlotte Bond was born in Camden Town
Camden Town
-Economy:In recent years, entertainment-related businesses and a Holiday Inn have moved into the area. A number of retail and food chain outlets have replaced independent shops driven out by high rents and redevelopment. Restaurants have thrived, with the variety of culinary traditions found 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...
, the third of five children (and eldest daughter) born to John and Elizabeth Bond. John Bond was a pianomaker who gave his children a musical education. Bond's mother often took the children to see theatre. When Jessie Bond was six, her family moved to Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, where she grew up. At the age of eight, she played a Beethoven piano sonata
Piano sonata
A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement , two movements , five or even more movements...
in a concert. To help with family expenses, Bond taught music as a teenager. At the age of sixteen, she began to study singing, which she much preferred to teaching. The same year, at Hope Hall (now the Everyman Theatre
Everyman Theatre
The Everyman Theatre stands at the north end of Hope Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. Established in 1964 in a former cinema, it encouraged local talent and played a part in the development of new artistes and writers. The theatre was rebuilt between 1975 and 1977, and was closed again for...
) in Liverpool, she accompanied the music students of professor Isouard Prager. The next year, she made her own concert singing debut.
Bond's mother took her to see F. A. Schotlaender, the director of a choral society in Liverpool, who she hoped would be able to help Bond's singing career. Schotlaender was ten years older than Bond and had travelled, and the teenaged Bond became fascinated by him, breaking off her previous relationship. Under Schotlaender's tutelage, Bond's voice developed rapidly, and she soon became the leading contralto soloist at the Seel Street Benedictine Church (now known as St. Peter's Catholic Church) in the same city. Her father's enquiries revealed that Schotlaender was a "bad lot", and he forbade any engagement until Bond was older.
On 8 March 1870, Schotlaender abducted the 17-year-old Bond on her way to sing at a church service, took her to a friend's house and forced her to stay the night with him. Schotlaender convinced her that she was "compromised" and that they must marry. The next day, she was taken to Manchester, and they were soon married. The marriage was a terrible experience for Bond, and she became pregnant and ill. "He ill-treated both my mind and my body, he denied me every comfort, often I had not even enough to eat. To add to my wretchedness, the inevitable baby was coming.... He had been violently ill-treating me, I was a broken, pitiful creature." Her family persuaded her to leave him after ten months of marriage. Bond also contracted smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
from the doctor who attended her, but she recovered. The baby, Sidney John Arthur Schotlaender, lived only six weeks. The couple lived separately for several years, and Bond finally divorced her husband in 1874.
St. George's Hall, Liverpool
St George's Hall is on Lime Street in the centre of the English city of Liverpool, opposite Lime Street railway station. It is a building in Neoclassical style which contains concert halls and law courts, and has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building...
at the end of January 1871. In November 1871, Mr and Mrs Howard Paul's Benefit at the Queen's Hall, Liverpool, featured J. L. Toole, and "Miss Jessie Bond and Miss Pattie Laverne both sing several new ballads". She became friendly with the baritone Charles Santley
Charles Santley
Sir Charles Santley was an English-born opera and oratorio star with a bravuraFrom the Italian verb bravare, to show off. A florid, ostentatious style or a passage of music requiring technical skill technique who became the most eminent English baritone and male concert singer of the Victorian era...
, who advised her to move to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
. Bond did so at the age of 21, studying with Manuel García
Manuel Patricio Rodríguez García
Manuel Patricio Rodríguez García , was a Spanish singer, music educator, and vocal pedagogue.-Biography:García was born on 17 March 1805 in the town of Zafra in Badajoz Province, Spain. His father was singer and teacher Manuel del Pópulo Vicente Rodriguez García...
and then J. B. Welch, and she continued to sing concerts both in the Provinces and in London. For example, in 1873, she was the contralto soloist in Mendelssohn's
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
Elijah
Elijah (oratorio)
Elijah, in German: Elias, is an oratorio written by Felix Mendelssohn in 1846 for the Birmingham Festival. It depicts various events in the life of the Biblical prophet Elijah, taken from the books 1 Kings and 2 Kings in the Old Testament....
in Birkenhead and in Handel's
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
Messiah in Liverpool. In 1875 at the Liverpool Institute, she sang in J. L. Hatton's
John Liptrot Hatton
John Liptrot Hatton was an English musical composer, conductor, pianist and singer.-Biography:...
Enchantress, and in the summer of 1877, she appeared at the Queen's Theatre
Queen's Theatre, Long Acre
The Queen's Theatre was established in 1867, as a theatre on the site of St Martin's Hall, a large concert room that opened in 1850. It stood on the corner of Long Acre and Endell Street, with entrances in Wilson Street and Long Acre...
in London in at least three of conductor Jules Rivière's promenade concerts. Impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era...
first heard her in a concert at St. George's Hall and suggested concert engagements for her.
H.M.S. Pinafore
In May 1878, Bond made her first appearance on the dramatic stage at the age of 25, creating the role of Cousin Hebe in W. S. GilbertW. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
and Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
's H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
. The role had been written for another performer, Mrs. Howard Paul. But Gilbert and Sullivan were unhappy with Mrs. Paul's vocal abilities, which were deteriorating. Finally, with only about a week to go before opening night, Carte hired Bond to play Cousin Hebe. At this stage of her career, Bond was not comfortable with spoken dialogue, and so her character was written out, or given nothing to say, in several scenes. After opening night, however, a portion of the recitative
Recitative
Recitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...
was converted to spoken dialogue, and Bond would have dialogue in all of the remaining roles that she created. She quickly grew to enjoy character acting.
In December 1878, Bond created the part of Maria in After All!
After All!
After All! is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by Frank Desprez and music by Alfred Cellier. It was first performed at the Savoy Theatre under the management of Richard D'Oyly Carte, along with H.M.S...
, composed by Alfred Cellier
Alfred Cellier
Alfred Cellier was an English composer, orchestrator and conductor.In addition to conducting and music directing the original productions of several of the most famous Gilbert and Sullivan works and writing the overtures to some of them, Cellier conducted at many theatres in London, New York and...
, when that companion piece was added to the bill with Pinafore. In late 1879, Bond travelled to America with Gilbert, Sullivan and D'Oyly Carte to give American audiences their first opportunity to see the authentic H.M.S. Pinafore, rather than the pirated versions that had sprung up in American theatres. While in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, she created the role of Edith in Gilbert and Sullivan's next opera, The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
. This was followed by a U.S. tour of Pinafore and Pirates. Just before the American tour, Bond had developed an abscess in her leg. This never fully healed and would be with her throughout her stage career. In her autobiography, she wrote:
- The abscess in my ankle was painful and persistent.... Owing to faulty treatment and want of rest my ankle became perfectly stiff, as it is to this day. Of course, I said as little as possible about it, for even partial lameness would spoil my chances on the stage. I doubt if the management ever knew; the public certainly didn't; and those who saw me dancing and capering light-heartedly about the stage for twenty years little thought under what difficulties I did it, and the pain I often suffered.
In fact, the management knew about Bond's abscess, since Sullivan's diary records that both he and Gilbert visited her during her temporary incapacity, and Sullivan paid the doctor's bill.
Pirates through Iolanthe
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
chorister for approximately twelve years, from 1880 to 1891. Neva created the role of Isabel in the London production of The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
.
Bond, already ambitious, asked Gilbert if he might be able to increase the size of her role. Gilbert tried to mollify her in a letter, concluding, "I am writing such a particularly good part for you in the new piece that I should be distressed beyond measure if you should leave us. I've never said as much as this to any actor or actress before. I don't say it to induce you to play so insignificant a part as Edith, for if you left us now, and came back to us to play that part, I should be satisfied. But if you didn't play it, my calculations would be all upset, and I should lose a dear little lady for whom I have always had a very special regard." True to Gilbert's word, Edith was followed by a string of roles of increasing importance. First was Lady Angela in Patience
Patience (opera)
Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride, is a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. First performed at the Opera Comique, London, on 23 April 1881, it moved to the 1,292-seat Savoy Theatre on 10 October 1881, where it was the first theatrical production in the...
(1881–82). Bond did not much like the role, writing later that she did not relate to the sentimental lady of luxury indulging in the aesthetic craze. At the same time, Bond was becoming known to theatregoers and attracting the attention of young men. Having had such bad experiences with romance in the past, Bond ignored such attentions. One poem sent to her by an admirer ran in mock-Gilbertian style as follows (in part):
- Whene'er I chance/A backward glance,/At times when, off my filbert
- With you (my "mash!"),/I blew my cash/On Sullivan and Gilbert!
- I loved you then/With all my pen/(My heart's amanuensis),
- And folks who read/Sat up and said/"His love for her immense is!"
- Nor were they wrong ;/Your merry song —/You sing divinely, sweetly!
- Your lively dance/And roguish glance/Had captured me completely!
- I don't complain!/I'd still remain/A pris'ner now and ever!
- From such a Bond/'Tis far beyond/My humble wish to sever!
- Now, pray don't scold,/I know I'm bold,/But, still, I'm not a sinner. For,
- Remember this,/I've known you, miss,/Since you were in a Pinafore!
After the company had moved into the new Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
, Bond met the Prince of Wales
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
on several occasions, who assisted her career, securing singing engagements for her.
Bond wrote of her next role, "It was like a dream come true when I saw my own name in the title role" of Iolanthe
Iolanthe
Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh collaboration of the fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan....
(1882–84). Bond's first entrance as Iolanthe was across a "stream". She wrote in her memoirs about a performance of Iolanthe: "Realism can be carried too far, as it was when one night a zealous property man said to me: 'It'll be just like the real thing to-night, Miss Bond. I've put some frogs into the water!' 'Then you'll just have to fish them out again,' I retorted, 'and the curtain won't go up until you do.' They had to catch those frogs in an inverted umbrella. Everybody got splashed and agitated, and the performance was delayed for some time." The critics praised Bond's portrayal of the title character: "Miss Jessie Bond... may be credited with all the grace, delicacy, and fascination we should expect from a fairy mother, and her singing of the really exquisite melody in the last scene was one of the most successful items in the entire opera."
Iolanthe was followed by Princess Ida
Princess Ida
Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. Princess Ida opened at the Savoy Theatre on January 5, 1884, for a run of 246 performances...
(1884), in which Bond played the role of Melissa. Bond played the role of Constance in the first revival of The Sorcerer
The Sorcerer
The Sorcerer is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It was the British duo's third operatic collaboration. The plot of The Sorcerer is based on a Christmas story, An Elixir of Love, that Gilbert wrote for The Graphic magazine in 1876...
(1884–85). The role had originally been written for a soprano, and some of the music was transposed down to suit Bond's lower range and tessitura
Tessitura
In music, the term tessitura generally describes the most musically acceptable and comfortable range for a given singer or, less frequently, musical instrument; the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding texture or timbre...
. Another feature of this revival was the pairing of Bond's character with that of Rutland Barrington
Rutland Barrington
Rutland Barrington was an English singer, actor, comedian, and Edwardian musical comedy star. Best remembered for originating the lyric baritone roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas from 1877 to 1896, his performing career spanned more than four decades...
's. The combination was so successful that in later Savoy operas, Bond and Barrington were generally paired together.
The Mikado and Ruddigore
Bond next created the role of Pitti-Sing in The MikadoThe Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
(1885–87), one of the "three little maids from school." Sometimes, inspiration for plot points in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas was provided by characteristics of the performers themselves. For instance, Gilbert noted in an interview that the fact that the female singers to be engaged for The Mikado, Leonora Braham
Leonora Braham
Leonora Braham , born Leonora Lucy Abraham, was an English opera singer and actress primarily known as the creator of principal soprano roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas....
, Bond, and Sybil Grey
Sybil Grey
Sybil Grey was a British opera singer during the Victorian era best known for creating a series of minor roles in productions by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, including roles in several of the famous Gilbert and Sullivan operas, between 1880 to 1888...
, were all of short stature inspired him to make them schoolgirls—three "little" maids—and to treat them as a closely linked trio throughout the work as much as possible. Bond, however, knew how to stand out on stage. During preparations for The Mikado, she persuaded the wardrobe mistress to make the obi
Obi (sash)
is a sash for traditional Japanese dress, keikogi worn for Japanese martial arts, and a part of kimono outfits.The obi for men's kimono is rather narrow, wide at most, but a woman's formal obi can be wide and more than long. Nowadays, a woman's wide and decorative obi does not keep the kimono...
of her costume twice as big as that of the other "little maids". She wrote: "I made the most of my big, big bow, turning my back to the audience whenever I got a chance, and waggling it. The gallery was delighted, but I nearly got the sack for that prank! However, I did get noticed, which was what I wanted."
After seven years with D'Oyly Carte, and still earning money from private and concert singing engagements, Bond's salary had risen to the point where she was able to move into a better flat and hire a maid. Though she was happy with her success, Bond (somewhat like Sullivan) longed to devote herself to singing serious music. She wrote that when she was in a thoughtful mood, she would consider the following:
- "I had worked so hard at serious music, I had loved it so much and been so successful, that it was not without a pang that I gave it all up to sing little songs and choruses that were, after all, child's play to me. ...[O]ften my heart ached when I thought of those days when I lived in an atmosphere of music of the highest order, and could express my inmost self in it. ...[S]ometimes when I thought things over I felt how far I had fallen from that first austere ideal, and wished that fame and success could have come in a higher sphere."
During the run of The Mikado, Bond met Lewis Ransome, a young civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
from a wealthy Quaker family. He had just returned from America, and the two compared travel experiences. Ransome admitted that, after watching The Mikado, he had mentioned to his sister that he "liked the little one with the big sash best. So next day when she saw a photograph of you in a shop window she went in and bought it. She gave it to me and I have it now." Thus, despite Bond's aversion to romance, began a long friendship that led, twelve years later, to Bond's second marriage. Ransome, several years younger than Bond, proposed marriage on many occasions over the course of the relationship, but Bond told him that she would not marry while she continued on the stage. Over the years, the two spent many of Bond's days off (Sundays) relaxing together in the country.
Ruddigore
Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse, originally called Ruddygore, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan...
(1887; originally spelt "Ruddygore"), which she regarded as her favourite of all the Gilbert and Sullivan roles, "for it gave me the chance to show what I really could do as an actress." The part was her largest to date, and Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte made her audition it for them to be sure that she could handle the responsibility. "It was an awful ordeal. I saw the three white faces looming out of the darkness as they sat close together; criticizing me, talking me over, with cold managerial detachment. It nearly killed me. Perhaps it gave an added realism and abandon to my simulated madness, for indeed I was nearly mad with fear — but at any rate I came through triumphantly, they were all three of them delighted." Bond was particularly nervous on opening night. "I shook and tottered so much that Mad Margaret's staff was no mere adjunct, but an absolute necessity. Without it I should have fallen as I stood in the wings waiting to go on. Then some one gave me a push; I was there, on the stage, in the glare of the footlights, hundreds of eyes fixed on me, tier upon tier of dim white faces rising from floor to ceiling in the gloom. It was enough; I forgot myself, I was Mad Margaret and no one else. I made an immense success." Cellier and Bridgeman seconded this assessment:
- "There were two particularly noteworthy features in the performance of 'Ruddigore.' First to be mentioned was the acting of Miss Jessie Bond in the part of 'Mad Margaret.' Among the host of her admirers few had given the popular Savoy soubrette credit for such great ability as a genuine comedy-actress, for never before had the opportunity been afforded her to display her latent talent—Jessie Bond's triumph came as a surprise to all.... So true to real life was the portrayal of Mad Margaret that Mr. Forbes Winslow, the famous authority on mental disorders, wrote a congratulatory letter to Miss Bond and inquired where she had found the model from which she had studied, and so faithfully copied the phases of insanity. No greater compliment could have been paid the actress."
Bond next appeared in the first revivals of H.M.S. Pinafore (1887–88), Pirates (1888), and The Mikado (1888) recreating her earlier roles. She had developed an enthusiastic following among the audiences at the Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
. Between Savoy shows, Bond was able to appear in To the Death by fellow savoyard Rutland Barrington
Rutland Barrington
Rutland Barrington was an English singer, actor, comedian, and Edwardian musical comedy star. Best remembered for originating the lyric baritone roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas from 1877 to 1896, his performing career spanned more than four decades...
(1888) and Locked In (1889).
Yeomen and The Gondoliers
The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard; or, The Merryman and His Maid, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888, and ran for 423 performances...
(1888–89). Of this role, Bond wrote, "My share in the most beautiful of all the Gilbert and Sullivan operas was delightfully easy and natural. When Gilbert gave it to me at the first reading he said, 'Here you are, Jessie, you needn't act this, it's you.'" Gilbert was even more nervous than usual on the first night of Yeomen and came backstage to give his best wishes to the cast. Bond wrote, "I am afraid he made himself a perfect nuisance behind the scenes, and did his best, poor fellow, to upset us all. These first nights were very hard on me... and nearly always my understudy was called upon to officiate on the second night of a play, while I lay exhausted in my bed. [In Yeomen], the curtain rises on Phœbe alone at her spinning wheel, and Gilbert kept fussing about... until I was almost as demented as he was. At last I turned on him savagely. 'For Heaven's sake, Mr. Gilbert, go away and leave me alone, or I shan't be able to sing a note!' He gave me a final frenzied hug, and vanished."
The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances , closing on 30 June 1891...
(1889–91), Bond's roles were at least as important as any other female role. By the time The Gondoliers was in preparation, Gilbert felt that his regular principal cast members were becoming too demanding and that the precision and style of D'Oyly Carte productions could be maintained only if there were no "stars". He endeavoured to make the nine leading roles as co-equal as he could. Bond, aware of her importance to the company, declined to appear unless her salary was raised from twenty pounds to thirty pounds a week. Gilbert bitterly resisted the raise, but Bond prevailed. "I was the only one who asked for a rise, and Gilbert was furious with me. All the time we were rehearsing [The Gondoliers] he never spoke to me, and only acknowledged my existence by sometimes saying sneeringly: 'Make way for the High-Salaried Artiste!' ...Passing storms like this did occasionally ruffle the course of our friendship, but on the whole it flowed on deep and strong."
During the run of The Gondoliers, Queen Victoria called for a royal command performance of the show at Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
. Bond wrote,
- "I quaked a little as we began our quartet 'A Right-down Regular Royal Queen.' But [this and Barrington's solo] numbers seemed to amuse the real Queen more than anything else in the opera, and, indeed, who could so well as she see the point of them? The very fact of her choosing this opera from all the others to be played before her shows how vivid was her sense of fun, and how truly British was her willingness to laugh at herself. There was... only one encore... [a]nd who do you suppose was singled out for that honour? Who but I who write this, little Jessie Bond... for my song in the first act, 'When a Merry Maiden Marries.'"
Last years on stage
George Dance (dramatist)
George Dance was an English lyricist and librettist in the 1890s and an important theatrical manager at the beginning of the 20th century....
, Desprez
Frank Desprez
Frank Desprez was an English playwright, essayist, and poet. He wrote more than twenty pieces for the theatre, as well as numerous shorter works, including his famous poem, Lasca.-Life and career:...
, and Solomon
Edward Solomon
Edward Solomon was a prolific English composer, as well as a conductor, orchestrator and pianist. Though he died before his fortieth birthday, he wrote dozens of works produced for the stage, including several for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, such as The Nautch Girl, among others.-Early...
's The Nautch Girl
The Nautch Girl
thumb|right|250px|Solomon , with Gilbert and Sullivan irate at his success at the SavoyThe Nautch Girl, or, The Rajah of Chutneypore is a comic opera in two acts, with a book by George Dance, lyrics by Dance and Frank Desprez and music by Edward Solomon...
(1891). Although her salary continued to rise, she was less happy at the Savoy after Gilbert's departure. She took a three-month leave from the D'Oyly Carte organisation in August 1891, together with Rutland Barrington, performing a series of "musical duologues" and sketches, written mostly by Barrington and composed by Edward Solomon
Edward Solomon
Edward Solomon was a prolific English composer, as well as a conductor, orchestrator and pianist. Though he died before his fortieth birthday, he wrote dozens of works produced for the stage, including several for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, such as The Nautch Girl, among others.-Early...
, on a provincial tour, where they received good notices and profits. Bond also did some of the writing. She had passed up the opportunity to create a role in Gilbert's next opera, The Mountebanks at the Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre (London)
The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster.Designed by architect C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier and B. C. Stephenson hit, Dorothy, which he transferred from the Prince of Wales Theatre to open...
(1892), as she was still under contract to Carte. She and Barrington returned to the Savoy in November, but Bond left the D'Oyly Carte organisation at the end of the run of The Nautch Girl in January 1892, as there was no role for her in the next Savoy opera
Savoy opera
The Savoy Operas denote a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte built to house...
, The Vicar of Bray
The Vicar of Bray (opera)
The Vicar of Bray is a comic opera by Edward Solomon with a libretto by Sydney Grundy which opened at the Globe Theatre, in London, on 22 July 1882, for a run of only 69 performances. The public was not amused at a clergyman's being made the subject of ridicule, and the opera was regarded by some...
. Bond was unwilling to accept the part offered to her in the next Savoy piece, Haddon Hall
Haddon Hall (opera)
Haddon Hall is an English light opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by Sydney Grundy. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on September 24, 1892 for a modestly successful run of 204 performances...
(1892).
Ivan Caryll
Félix Marie Henri Tilkin , better known by his pen name Ivan Caryll, was a Belgian composer of operettas and Edwardian musical comedies in the English language...
, Poor Jonathan (1893), Corney Courted (1893), a revival of Pickwick by Solomon and F. C. Burnand (1893) and others. She enjoyed good runs as Helen Tapeleigh in the musical comedy
Edwardian Musical Comedy
Edwardian musical comedies were British musical theatre shows from the period between the early 1890s, when the Gilbert and Sullivan operas' dominance had ended, until the rise of the American musicals by Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin and Cole Porter following World War I.Between...
Go-Bang
Go-Bang
Go-Bang is an English musical comedy with words by Adrian Ross and music by F. Osmond Carr.The piece was produced by Fred Harris and opened at the Trafalgar Square Theatre on 10 March 1894. It ran for 159 performances. The show starred Harry Grattan, George Grossmith, Jr., Arthur Playfair,...
(1894) and Nanna in Gilbert and F. Osmond Carr's His Excellency
His Excellency (opera)
His Excellency is a two-act comic opera with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by F. Osmond Carr. The piece concerns a practical-joking governor whose pranks threaten to make everyone miserable, until the Prince Regent kindly foils the governor's plans...
(1894–95). In 1894, she also played in Wapping Old Stairs, by Stuart Robertson and Howard Talbot
Howard Talbot
Richard Lansdale Munkittrick, better known as Howard Talbot , was an American-born, English-raised conductor and composer of Irish descent...
(with Courtice Pounds
Courtice Pounds
Charles Courtice Pounds , better known by the stage name Courtice Pounds, was an English singer and actor known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and his later roles in Shakespeare plays and Edwardian musical comedies.As a young member...
and Richard Temple), and Pick-me-up at the Trafalgar Square Theatre (with George Grossmith, Jr.
George Grossmith, Jr.
George Grossmith, Jr. was a British actor, theatre producer and manager, director, playwright and songwriter, best remembered for his work in and with Edwardian musical comedies...
and Letty Lind
Letty Lind
Letitia Elizabeth Rudge, better known as Letty Lind , was an English actress, dancer and acrobat, best known for her work in burlesque at the Gaiety Theatre, and in musical theatre at Daly's Theatre, in London....
). During these years, Bond owned a fox terrier
Fox Terrier
Fox Terrier refers primarily to two different breeds of the terrier dog type: the Smooth Fox Terrier and the Wire Fox Terrier. Both of these breeds originated in the 19th century from a handful of dogs who are descended from earlier varieties of British terriers, and are related to other modern...
named Bob. She returned to the Savoy to play Pitti-Sing in the revivals of The Mikado that ran off and on from November 1895 to February 1897. When the revivals were over, Bond left the stage.
After he had first seen her perform in The Mikado in 1885, Bond's friendship with Lewis Ransome continued and deepened. Subject to an increasing number of short illnesses that prevented her from performing, and tiring of life in the theatre, Bond finally agreed to marry Ransome, and the couple wed in May 1897. "When I told Gilbert he was so angry that I don't think he ever quite forgave me; he would not accept my health as an excuse, he was unreasonable, as, alas, he often was! 'You are a little fool!' he said. 'I have often heard you say you don't like old women,' I retorted. 'I shall soon be old. Will you provide for me? Will Sir Arthur? Will Carte? No, of course you won't. Well, I am going to marry a man who will.'"
Bond wrote of her feelings at the end of her last performance: "Twenty years of hard work, twenty years of fun and frolic and jolly companionship, twenty years of living in an atmosphere of tuneful nonsense, with the glare of the footlights in my eyes and the thunders of applause in my ears. How terribly I should miss it all! And domesticity, that all my life I had fled from, had caught me at last." Bond and Ransome spent three years in London, where Bond entertained her neighbours and theatrical friends with musical soirees and dinner parties. She also participated in charity benefits, such as a performance of H.M.S. Pinafore for the benefit of the families of soldiers and sailors, on 6 January 1900, in the village of Maiden Bradley
Maiden Bradley
Maiden Bradley with Yarnfield is a small Wiltshire civil parish near the Somerset border and the home of the Duke of Somerset. The B3092 road that joins Frome to Mere runs through the middle of the village of Maiden Bradley....
. In 1900, the lease on Ransome's family business (Ransome and Co., later Ransome and Marles, a manufacturer of bearings and wood-working machinery) ran out, and it relocated to Newark
Newark-on-Trent
Newark-on-Trent is a market town in Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands region of England. It stands on the River Trent, the A1 , and the East Coast Main Line railway. The origins of the town are possibly Roman as it lies on an important Roman road, the Fosse Way...
, Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
, to reduce costs. Bond and Ransome moved near the new factory to a large house in Farndon
Farndon, Nottinghamshire
Farndon is a small village on the Fosse Way or A46 Roman road, 2.5 miles south-west of Newark-on-Trent, on the banks of the River Trent. The name Farndon means "Fern Hill". It is thought to be the site of the Roman fort Ad Pontem or "the place by the bridges." The parish church of St...
. Gilbert wrote to her that "The Savoy is not the same without you."
Later life
Although Bond's life as a performer in the theatre had ended at age 44, she occasionally gave charity concerts thereafter. Unlike Bond's first marriage, her second was a happy one. Initially reluctant to leave London, Bond reported, "We entertained a good deal, and gave hunt lunches and shooting parties of our own, so my time was well filled up, and I missed London less than I could have believed." She founded and directed the Newark Amateur Dramatic Society, an amateur dramatic club, whose performances supported local charities. The couple also often visited London and did some travelling abroad.
Donald Wolfit
Sir Donald Wolfit, KBE was a well-known English actor-manager.-Biography:Wolfit, who was "Woolfitt" at birth was born at New Balderton, near Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire and attended the Magnus Grammar School and made his stage début in 1920...
, whom she first saw perform when he was ten years old. Her first action on his behalf was to advise his concerned parents not to try to prevent him from pursuing a career on the stage. Together with George Power, Leonora Braham
Leonora Braham
Leonora Braham , born Leonora Lucy Abraham, was an English opera singer and actress primarily known as the creator of principal soprano roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas....
and Julia Gwynne
Julia Gwynne
Julia Gwynne was an English opera singer and actress best remembered for her performances with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1879 to 1883...
, she was one of four artistes of the original D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
who attended a reunion at the Savoy Hotel
Savoy Hotel
The Savoy Hotel is a hotel located on the Strand, in the City of Westminster in central London. Built by impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan operas, the hotel opened on 6 August 1889. It was the first in the Savoy group of hotels and restaurants owned by...
in 1914 (see photograph below). The four then posed for a group photograph beside the Sullivan monument in the Victoria Embankment Gardens
Victoria Embankment
The Victoria Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment, a road and river walk along the north bank of the River Thames in London. Victoria Embankment extends from the City of Westminster into the City of London.-Construction:...
. Her husband died in May 1922, after 25 years of marriage. Two years later, Bond moved out of the large house to Newark and later to Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, and often visited London.
In the 1920s, Bond wrote several articles about her memories of Gilbert and Sullivan and her years with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company for The Strand Magazine and The Gilbert & Sullivan Journal. Her autobiography, The Life and Reminiscences of Jessie Bond, the Old Savoyard, was published in 1930. In that book, she expressed great admiration particularly for Gilbert, but also for Sullivan and D'Oyly Carte, and she bemoaned overacting by performers in the "modern" era. In March 1930, the Gilbert and Sullivan Society invited the original three little maids to a reunion in London to celebrate the 45th anniversary of The Mikado.
In her last years, Bond entertained wounded World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
servicemen, playing the piano and singing at a south coast home for disabled soldiers and sailors. An obituary in The Evening Standard reported: "Every day for more than a year, until just recently, she was taken out in her wheelchair. After a breath of sea air ... she would always go into her favourite hotel for a drink and would often sit down at the piano and entertain the company with some of her old Gilbert and Sullivan tunes. She often used to go to a home for wounded ex-servicemen of the last war [and] would give an impromptu entertainment, playing and singing her old songs. She liked to go to parties and would always play and sing." The Worthing Gazette stated that Bond continued to be much loved in her later years, and people came to see her from all over Britain to pay homage in her old age. The Worthing Herald wrote: "Despite her great age, Miss Bond preserved a quick and active mind, and hated to be fussed over."
She died in 1942 at age 89 in Worthing.
External links
- Jessie Bond at Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte
- Review of Jessie Bond's career from 1885
- Jessie Bond's book
- http://www.paulcobb.force9.co.uk/robin_hood/therevival01.htmSite containing the text of a poem by Donald WolfitDonald WolfitSir Donald Wolfit, KBE was a well-known English actor-manager.-Biography:Wolfit, who was "Woolfitt" at birth was born at New Balderton, near Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire and attended the Magnus Grammar School and made his stage début in 1920...
referring twice to the "great Jessie Bond"] - Article about a theatre group in which Bond performed in later years
Photographs
