Sims Reeves
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...
operatic, oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
and ballad tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
vocalist of the mid-Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
.
Reeves began his singing career in 1838 but continued his vocal studies until 1847. He soon established himself on the opera and concert stage and became known for his interpretation of ballads. He continued singing through the 1880s and later taught and wrote about singing.
Musical beginnings
Sims Reeves was born in Shooter's HillShooter's Hill
Shooter's Hill is a district and electoral ward in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich. It lies east of Blackheath and west of Welling, south of Woolwich and north of Eltham...
, in Greater London, England. His parents were John Reeves, a musician of Yorkshire origin, and his wife, Rosina. He received his earliest musical education from his father, a bass soloist in the Royal Artillery
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...
Band, and probably through the bandmaster, George McKenzie. By the age of fourteen he was appointed choirmaster of North Cray
North Cray
North Cray is a place in the London Borough of Bexley, southeast London, England, east southeast of Charing Cross. It lies on the River Cray and is in the Cray Meadows electoral ward which also includes Foots Cray...
church and performed organist's duties. He seems to have studied medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
for a year but changed his mind when he gained his adult voice: it was at first a baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
. He also learnt oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
, bassoon
Bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
, violin, and violoncello and other instruments. He later studied piano under Johann Baptist Cramer
Johann Baptist Cramer
Johann Baptist Cramer was an English musician of German origin. He was the son of Wilhelm Cramer, a famous London violinist and musical conductor, one of a numerous family who were identified with the progress of music during the 18th and 19th centuries.-Biography:Johann Baptist Cramer was born in...
.
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
in 1838 or 1839 as the Gipsy boy in H. R. Bishop's Guy Mannering, and as Count Rodolfo in 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...
(baritone parts). Later he performed at the Grecian Saloon, London, under the name of Johnson. He continued to study voice with Messrs. Hobbs and T. Cooke and appeared under William Charles Macready
William Charles Macready
-Life:He was born in London, and educated at Rugby.It was his intention to go up to Oxford, but in 1809 the embarrassed affairs of his father, the lessee of several provincial theatres, called him to share the responsibilities of theatrical management. On 7 June 1810 he made a successful first...
's management at Drury Lane
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....
(1841-1843) in subordinate parts in spoken theatre and in Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
's King Arthur
King Arthur (opera)
King Arthur or, The British Worthy , is a semi-opera in five acts with music by Henry Purcell and alibretto by John Dryden. It was first performed at the Queen's Theatre, Dorset Garden, London, in late May or early June 1691....
("Come if you dare"), Der Freischütz
Der Freischütz
Der Freischütz is an opera in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind. It premiered on 18 June 1821 at the Schauspielhaus Berlin...
(as Ottokar), and Acis and Galatea in 1842 when Händel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
's pastoral was mounted on the stage with William Clarkson Stanfield
William Clarkson Stanfield
Clarkson Frederick Stanfield was a prominent English marine painter; he is often though inaccurately called William Clarkson Stanfield.-Early life:...
's scenery.
In summer 1843 Reeves studied in Paris under the tenor and pedagogue Marco Bordogni
Marco Bordogni
Giulio Marco Bordogni , usually called Marco Bordogni, was an Italian operatic tenor and singing teacher of great popularity and success, whose mature career was based in Paris.-Biography:...
of the Paris Conservatoire. Bordogni was responsible for opening and developing the upper (tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
) octave of his voice into the famous rich and brilliant head notes. From October 1843 to January 1844 Reeves appeared in a very varied programme of musical drama, including the roles of Elvino in 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...
and Tom Tug in Charles Dibdin
Charles Dibdin
Charles Dibdin was a British musician, dramatist, novelist, actor and songwriter. The son of a parish clerk, he was born in Southampton on or before 4 March 1745, and was the youngest of a family of 18....
's The Waterman, at the Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
theatre, and over the next two years also performed in Dublin, Liverpool and elsewhere in the provinces. In the same period, especially from 1845, he continued his studies abroad, notably under Alberto Mazzucato
Alberto Mazzucato
Alberto Mazzucato was an Italian composer, music teacher, and writer.Mazzucato was born in Udine. Trained at the Padua Conservatory, he composed eight operas between 1834 and 1843, of which his most successful was Esmeralda...
(1813-1877), the dramatic composer and teacher then newly appointed singing instructor at the 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 ,...
Conservatory.
His debut in Italian opera was made on 29 October 1846 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...
in Milan as Edgardo in Donizetti's 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....
, partnered by Catherine Hayes
Catherine Hayes
Catherine Hayes [married name Bushnell] was the first Irish-born opera diva to achieve international acclaim....
: he got a fine reception, and Giovanni Rubini paid his respects in person. (This role became Reeves's greatest, and his wife therefore nicknamed him 'Gardie'.) For six months he sang at the principal Italian opera houses, and finally in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, where he was rescued from his contract and returned to England.
1844-48: English debuts in opera and concert
He returned to London in 1847, appearing in May at a benefit concertBenefit concert
A benefit concert or charity concert is a concert, show or gala featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate humanitarian crisis. Such events raise both funds and public awareness to address the cause at...
for William Vincent Wallace
William Vincent Wallace
William Vincent Wallace was an Irish composer and musician.-Early life:Wallace was born at Colbeck Street, Waterford, Ireland. Both parents were Irish, his father, of County Mayo, was a regimental bandmaster....
, and in June at one of the 'Antient Concerts'. In September 1847 he sang in Edinburgh with Jenny Lind
Jenny Lind
Johanna Maria Lind , better known as Jenny Lind, was a Swedish opera singer, often known as the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she is known for her performances in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and across Europe, and for an extraordinarily...
. His first principal role on the English operatic stage was with Louis Jullien's English Opera company at 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,...
in December 1847 in Lucia, in English text, with Mme Dorus Gras (Lucia) and Willoughby Weiss
Willoughby Weiss
Willoughby Hunter Weiss was an English oratorio and opera singer and composer. He became one of the most celebrated bass singers of the 19th century, and sang in the premieres of many English works....
, winning winning immediate and near-universal acclaim, not least from Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
, who conducted the performance. (Berlioz mistook him for an Irishman.) In the same season, in Balfe
Michael William Balfe
Michael William Balfe was an Irish composer, best-remembered for his opera The Bohemian Girl.After a short career as a violinist, Balfe pursued an operatic singing career, while he began to compose. In a career spanning more than 40 years, he composed 38 operas, almost 250 songs and other works...
's The Maid of Honour (based on the subject of Flotow's Martha
Martha (opera)
Martha, oder Der Markt zu Richmond is a 'romantic comic' opera in four acts by Friedrich von Flotow, set to a German libretto by Friedrich Wilhelm Riese and based on a story by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges....
), he created the part of Lyonnel. In May 1848 he joined Benjamin Lumley
Benjamin Lumley
Benjamin Lumley, opera manager and solicitor, was born Benjamin Levy, in 1811, the son of a Jewish merchant Louis Levy, and died 17 March 1875 in London.-Beginnings at His Majesty's Theatre:...
's company at Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
and sang Linda di Chamounix
Linda di Chamounix
Linda di Chamounix is an operatic melodramma semiserio in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto was written by Gaetano Rossi. It premiered in Vienna, at the Kärntnertortheater, on May 19, 1842.-Performance history:...
with Eugenia Tadolini
Eugenia Tadolini
Eugenia Tadolini was an Italian operatic soprano. Admired for the beauty of her voice and stage presence, she was one of Donizetti's favourite singers. During her career she created over 20 leading roles, including the title roles in Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix and Maria di Rohan and Verdi's...
, but he severed the connection when Italo Gardoni
Italo Gardoni
Italo Gardoni was a leading operatic tenore di grazia singer from Italy who enjoyed a major international career during the middle decades of the 19th century...
was brought in to sing Edgardo in Lucia opposite Jenny Lind. But that autumn in Manchester he sang in Lucia and 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...
, days after Lind appeared in the same works there, and Reeves obtained the better houses. Reeves sang La Sonnambula and Lucia at Covent Garden in October.
In oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
, Reeves first sang The Messiah in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland, during 1844. In February 1848 he sang Handel's Judas Maccabaeus
Judas Maccabaeus (oratorio)
Judas Maccabaeus is an oratorio in three acts composed in 1746 by George Frideric Handel based on a libretto written by Thomas Morell. The oratorio was devised as a compliment to the victorious Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland upon his return from the Battle of Culloden...
, at Exeter Hall
Exeter Hall
Exeter Hall was a hall on the north side of The Strand, London, England. It was erected between 1829 and 1831 on the site of Exeter Exchange, to designs by John Peter Gandy, the brother of the visionary architect Joseph Michael Gandy...
for John Hullah, Acis and Galatea in March and Jephtha
Jephtha
Jephthah is a character in the Old Testament's Book of Judges, serving as a judge over Israel for a period of six years . He lived in Gilead and was a member of the Tribe of Manasseh. His father's name was also Gilead...
in April and May. He was, meanwhile establishing himself as the leading ballad-singer in England. In September 1848 at the Worcester
Worcester
The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...
festival he took a solo in 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....
, and sang in Beethoven's Christ on the Mount of Olives
Christus am Ölberge
Christus am Ölberge , Op. 85, is an oratorio by Ludwig van Beethoven portraying the emotional turmoil of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane prior to his crucifixion. It was begun in the fall of 1802, soon after his completion of the Heiligenstadt Testament, as indicated by evidence in the...
, and packed the hall in a recital of Oberon
Oberon (opera)
Oberon, or The Elf King's Oath is a 3-act romantic opera in English with spoken dialogue and music by Carl Maria von Weber. The libretto by James Robinson Planche was based on a German poem, Oberon, by Christoph Martin Wieland, which itself was based on the epic romance Huon de Bordeaux, a French...
. At the 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...
Festival he was sensational in Elijah and Israel in Egypt. After his November appearance at the Sacred Harmonic Society in Judas Maccabaeus, a critic wrote, 'the mantle of Braham
John Braham
John Braham was a tenor opera singer born in London, England. His long career led him to become one of Europe's leading opera stars. He also wrote a number of songs, of minor importance, although The Death of Nelson is still remembered...
is destined to fall' (on Reeves). Critic H. F. Chorley
Henry Fothergill Chorley
Henry Fothergill Chorley was an English literary, art and music critic and editor. He was also an author of novels, drama, poetry and lyrics....
wrote that Reeves had created 'a positive revolution in the interpretation of Handel's oratorios.'
Italian opera
Reeves toured in Dublin at Theatre Royal in 1849, for Mr Calcraft. After his successful engagement he attended the debut there of the IrishIrish 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...
soprano Catherine Hayes
Catherine Hayes
Catherine Hayes [married name Bushnell] was the first Irish-born opera diva to achieve international acclaim....
, in Lucia: her Edgardo, Sig. Paglieri, was hissed from the stage, and Reeves was obliged to stand in for the performance. His London Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
Italian debut was in 1849, as Elvino in 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...
, opposite Fanny Tacchinardi Persiani
Fanny Tacchinardi Persiani
Fanny Tacchinardi Persiani was an Italian soprano particularly associated with bel canto composers, such as Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, and early Verdi...
(the creator of the title role in Lucia): he made a great effect of full lyrical declamation in Tutto e sciolto... Ah! perche non posso odiarti?. After his Edgardo in Lucia, Reeves' Elvino was generally considered his finest role in Italian opera. In the winter of 1849 he returned to English opera, and in 1850 at Her Majesty's he made a further great success in Verdi's Ernani
Ernani
Ernani is an operatic dramma lirico in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Hernani by Victor Hugo. The first production took place at La Fenice Theatre, Venice on 9 March 1844...
, opposite the Elvira of Mdlle Parodi and Carlo of Giovanni Belletti, who was about to embark on an American tour at the invitation of Jenny Lind. In encores, the cry of 'Reeves!' became widespread.
_sims_reeves_by_alessandro_ossani.jpg)
Daniel Auber
Daniel François Esprit Auber was a French composer.-Biography:The son of a Paris print-seller, Auber was born in Caen in Normandy. Though his father expected him to continue in the print-selling business, he also allowed his son to learn how to play several musical instruments...
's opera, and remained on the stage for four or five years after their marriage. Emma Reeves idolised her husband and in later years became almost obsessively attentive to his comfort and reputation. In February 1851 they returned to Dublin, where Reeves was to have performed with the soprano Giulia Grisi
Giulia Grisi
Giulia Grisi, also known as Madame De Candia was an Italian opera singer...
: she, however, was indisposed, and Mr. and Mrs. Reeves appeared together there instead in the lead roles in Lucia di Lammermoor, La Sonnambula, Ernani and Bellini's I Puritani. Reeves also played there Macheath in the Beggar's Opera. Emma and Sims Reeves had five children, of whom Herbert Sims Reeves and Constance Sims Reeves became professional singers.
Dublin was followed immediately by Lumley engagements at the Théâtre des Italiens, Paris, where he sang Ernani, Carlo in Linda di Chamounix (opposite Henriette Sontag
Henriette Sontag
Henriette Sontag was a German operatic soprano of great international renown. She possessed a sweet-toned, lyrical voice and was a brilliant exponent of florid singing.-Life:...
) and Gennaro in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia
Lucrezia Borgia (opera)
Lucrezia Borgia is a melodramma, or opera, in a prologue and two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after the play by Victor Hugo, in its turn after the legend of Lucrezia Borgia. Lucrezia Borgia was first performed on 26 December 1833 at La Scala, Milan with...
. In 1851 Reeves sang Florestan in Fidelio
Fidelio
Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...
to Sophie Cruvelli
Sophie Cruvelli
Sophie Johanne Charlotte Crüwell, vicountess Vigier, stage name Sophie Cruvelli was a German opera singer. She was a dramatic soprano who had a brief but stellar public career especially in London and Paris in the middle years of the 19th century. She was admired for her vocal powers and as a...
's Leonore, and some thought he outshone her.
1850s: focus on concerts
During the next three decades, Reeves was the leading tenor in Britain. He had the honor of singing privately for Queen Victoria and Prince AlbertPrince Albert
Prince Albert was the husband and consort of Queen Victoria.Prince Albert may also refer to:-Royalty:*Prince Albert Edward or Edward VII of the United Kingdom , son of Albert and Victoria...
. Michael Costa
Michael Costa (conductor)
Sir Michael Andrew Angus Costa was an Italian-born conductor and composer who achieved success in England.-Biography:He was born in Naples as Michaele Andrea Agniello Costa, to a family, according to some, of Sephardic stock...
, 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...
and the other leading British composers of the period wrote tenor parts specifically for him. He could command fees as high as £200 per week for his appearances.
Reeves was generous to younger singers, and this generosity later redounded to his own benefit. In around 1850, Reeves gave encouragement to James Henry Mapleson
James Henry Mapleson
James Henry Mapleson was an English opera impresario, probably the leading figure instrumental in the development of opera production, and of the careers of singers, in London and New York City in the second half of the 19th century.-Life and career:Mapleson was born in London, England...
, who applied to him for advice as a singer, sending him off to study with Mazzucato at the 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 ,...
conservatory. In 1855 he gave the young 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...
friendly encouragement, recommending that he should contact Lamperti in his forthcoming studies in Italy, and they were afterwards introduced during the interval of a Royal Philharmonic concert. Reeves's concert association with Santley continued until the last year of his life. Mapleson, who became an important theatre manager, promoted Reeves's operatic appearances of the 1860s.
During the 1850s, Reeves's career moved away from the stage and increasingly focused upon concert work. Reeves sang throughout the English provinces. Michael Costa
Michael Costa (conductor)
Sir Michael Andrew Angus Costa was an Italian-born conductor and composer who achieved success in England.-Biography:He was born in Naples as Michaele Andrea Agniello Costa, to a family, according to some, of Sephardic stock...
(afterwards Sir Michael) composed two oratorios for the triennial 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...
Festival with lead tenor parts written for Reeves. The first, Eli, was presented in 1855, and (unusually in oratorio) encores were demanded. The effect of the solo and chorus Philistines, Hark the Trumpet Sounding was electric, and was witnessed in the audience by the three great Italian tenors Mario, Gardoni and Enrico Tamberlik
Enrico Tamberlik
Enrico Tamberlik was an Italian tenor who sang to great acclaim at Europe and America's leading opera venues. He excelled in the heroic roles of the Italian and French repertories and was renowned for his powerful declamation and clarion high notes.-Career:Born in Rome, some sources claim that...
with astonishment.
Reeves scored his greatest triumphs in oratorio at the Handel Festivals at The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in...
. At the inaugural festival of June 1857 he delivered Messiah, Israel in Egypt and Judas Maccabaeus, and these were repeated at the Handel centennial festival of 1859, when he was in company with Willoughby Weiss, Clara Novello, Mme Sainton-Dolby
Charlotte Helen Sainton-Dolby
Charlotte Helen Sainton-Dolby , was an English contralto.She was born in London, studied at the Royal Academy of Music from 1832 to 1837, Crivelli being her principal singing-master. In 1837 she was elected to a King's scholarship, and first appeared at a Philharmonic concert in 1841...
and Giovanni Belletti. In Sound an Alarm during that festival, Reeves created a sensation, and the audience stood to applaud him. Yet the Musical World considered that his "The Enemy Said" from Israel in Egypt surpassed even that, and was the vocal feat of the festival.
At the opening of the Leeds Town Hall in 1858 he was a soloist in the premiere of the pastorale The May Queen by William Sterndale Bennett
William Sterndale Bennett
Sir William Sterndale Bennett was an English composer. He ranks as the most distinguished English composer of the Romantic school-Biography:...
.
Return to the stage
After a period of absence from the stage, in 1859-60 an English version of Gluck's Iphigénie en TaurideIphigénie en Tauride
Iphigénie en Tauride is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck in four acts. It was his fifth opera for the French stage. The libretto was written by Nicolas-François Guillard....
by H. F. Chorley was presented by Charles Hallé
Charles Hallé
Sir Charles Hallé was an Anglo-German pianist and conductor, and founder of The Hallé orchestra in 1858.-Life:Hallé was born in Hagen, Westphalia, Germany who after settling in England changed his name from Karl Halle...
at Manchester, with Reeves, 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...
, Belletti and Catherine Hayes
Catherine Hayes
Catherine Hayes [married name Bushnell] was the first Irish-born opera diva to achieve international acclaim....
, and two private performances were also given at the Park Lane
Park Lane (road)
Park Lane is a major road in the City of Westminster, in Central London.-History:Originally a country lane running north-south along what is now the eastern boundary of Hyde Park, it became a fashionable residential address from the eighteenth century onwards, offering both views across Hyde Park...
home of Lord Ward. Mapleson had obtained Reeves, Santley and Helen Lemmens-Sherrington
Helen Lemmens-Sherrington
Helen Lemmens-Sherrington was the leading English concert and operatic soprano of the 1860s.- Early life :Born in Preston, England, in 1834, Helen Sherrington studied singing at Rotterdam and Brussels...
for a summer and winter season from Benjamin Lumley
Benjamin Lumley
Benjamin Lumley, opera manager and solicitor, was born Benjamin Levy, in 1811, the son of a Jewish merchant Louis Levy, and died 17 March 1875 in London.-Beginnings at His Majesty's Theatre:...
, and in 1860 they had a major success in George Macfarren
George Alexander Macfarren
Sir George Alexander Macfarren was an English composer.-Life:George Alexander Macfarren was born in London on 2 March 1813 to George Macfarren, a dancing-master, dramatic author, and journalist, and Elizabeth Macfarren, née Jackson. At the age of seven, Macfarren was sent to Dr...
's Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
(text by John Oxenford
John Oxenford
John Oxenford , English dramatist, was born at Camberwell, London, England.-Life:He began his literary career by writing on finance...
) at Her Majesty's, again under Hallé's direction. This new composition had several very effective passages written for Reeves in his role as Locksley, including "Englishmen by birth are free", "The grasping, rasping Norman race", "Thy gentle voice would lead me on", and a grand prison scena. This proved more successful in ticket sales than the alternate Italian nights of Il Trovatore and Don Giovanni despite the rival attractions of the soprano Therese Tietjens and the tenor Antonio Giuglini
Antonio Giuglini
Antonio Giuglini was an Italian operatic tenor. During the last eight years of his life, before he developed signs of mental instability, he earned renown as one of the leading stars of the operatic scene in London...
.
In 1862, Reeves presented Mazeppa, a cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
written for him by Michael Balfe. In July 1863 Reeves appeared for Mapleson as Huon in Oberon
Oberon (opera)
Oberon, or The Elf King's Oath is a 3-act romantic opera in English with spoken dialogue and music by Carl Maria von Weber. The libretto by James Robinson Planche was based on a German poem, Oberon, by Christoph Martin Wieland, which itself was based on the epic romance Huon de Bordeaux, a French...
- the role written for Braham - with Tietjens, Marietta Alboni
Marietta Alboni
Marietta Alboni was a renowned Italian contralto opera singer. Together with the charismatic Maria Malibran, she was considered the greatest deeper-voiced female singer of the nineteenth century.-Biography:...
, Zelia Trebelli
Zelia Trebelli-Bettini
Zelia Trebelli-Bettini , also known as Zelia Gilbert or by her stage name Trebelli, was a French opera singer.Mme Trebelli's artistry was greatly admired by George Bernard Shaw, who wrote about her a number of times in his various reviews...
, Alessandro Bettini, Edouard Gassier and Santley. After touring that winter as Huon, Edgardo and in the title role of Gounod's Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
, (with Tietjens) in Dublin, in 1864 he appeared at Her Majesty's in Faust and was especially complimented for the dramatic instinct of Faust's soliloquy in Act I and the superb energy of the duet with Mephistopheles which closes the Act. Reeves's reviewer in this role remarks on the fine condition of his voice at this date. Although the critic Eduard Hanslick
Eduard Hanslick
Eduard Hanslick was a Bohemian-Austrian music critic.-Biography:Hanslick was born in Prague, the son of Joseph Adolph Hanslick, a bibliographer and music teacher from a German-speaking family, and one of his piano pupils, the daughter of a Jewish merchant from Vienna...
was told that the voice had already 'gone' in 1862, Herman Klein
Herman Klein
Herman Klein was an English music critic, author and teacher of singing. Klein's famous brothers included Charles and Manuel Klein...
thought that it was still in its prime in 1866: 'a more exquisite illustration of what is termed the true Italian tenor quality it would be impossible to imagine: and this delicious sweetness, this rare combination of 'velvety' richness with ringing timbre, he retained in diminishing volume almost to the last.'
Oratorio and cantata
In May 1862 at St James's HallSt James's Hall
St. James's Hall was a concert hall in London that opened on 25 March 1858, designed by architect and artist Owen Jones, who had decorated the interior of the Crystal Palace. It was situated between the Quadrant in Regent Street and Piccadilly, and Vine Street and George Court. There was a...
, Reeves took part in what he believed was the first complete performance in England of the St Matthew Passion of J. S. Bach. This was under William Sterndale Bennett
William Sterndale Bennett
Sir William Sterndale Bennett was an English composer. He ranks as the most distinguished English composer of the Romantic school-Biography:...
, with Mme Lemmens-Sherrington, Mme Sainton-Dolby, and Willoughby Weiss. Of this performance Reeves (who usually respected a composer's scoring absolutely) wrote:
'The tenor part... is in many places so unvocal, and the intervals are so awkward to take, that I was obliged to re-note it: without, of course, disturbing the accents or making it in any way unsuitable to the existing harmony. As soon as I had finished my work, to which I had devoted the greatest possible care, I submitted it to Bennett, who, except in one place, approved of all that I had done; and it was my version of the tenor part which was sung at Bennett's memorable performance, and which is still sung even to this day.'
Adelina Patti
Adelina Patti was a highly acclaimed 19th-century opera singer, earning huge fees at the height of her career in the music capitals of Europe and America. She first sang in public as a child in 1851 and gave her last performance before an audience in 1914...
(her first appearance in oratorio), Miss Palmer, and Santley. The quartet "Honour and Glory" was repeated by immediate and spontaneous demand. Both oratorios probably owed their original success, and later comparative obscurity, to the fact that Reeves was their ideal interpreter, and with changing vocal fashions no successor could replace him adequately. In 1869 Reeves, Santley and Tietjens sang in the premiere of Arthur Sullivan's cantata The Prodigal Son, at the Worcester
Worcester
The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...
Festival. Santley considered Reeves's performance of the passage "I will arise and go to my father" a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Reeves also sang in the premiere of Sullivan's oratorio, The Light of the World
The Light of the World (Sullivan)
The Light of the World is an oratorio composed in 1873 by Arthur Sullivan. Sullivan wrote the libretto with the assistance of George Grove, based on the New Testament. The story of the oratorio narrates the whole life of Christ, focusing on his deeds on Earth as preacher, healer and prophet...
, together with Tietjens, Trebelli, and Santley.
Reeves claimed close and primary association with several of the great tenor leads in the oratorios of Handel and Mendelssohn
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...
. The songs "Men, Brothers and Fathers, Hearken to me" (from St Paul), and "The Enemy has Said" and "Sound an Alarm" (Judas Maccabaeus) were particular favourites, and his friend Rev Archer Gurney also extolled his "Waft her, angels" (Jephtha), his Samson and his Acis ("Love in her eyes sits playing").
The concert pitch debate
Reeves's declamation in The Crystal Palace was a main attraction and was repeated at each succeeding triennial festival until 1874. During the later 1860s Reeves felt it necessary to make public representations against the constantly increasing rise in English Concert PitchConcert pitch
Concert pitch refers to the pitch reference to which a group of musical instruments are tuned for a performance. Concert pitch may vary from ensemble to ensemble, and has varied widely over musical history...
, which was by then half a tone higher than elsewhere in Europe and a full tone higher than in the age of Gluck. The pitch of the organ at the Birmingham Festival was (of necessity) lowered, after a similar reduction had been forced by senior artistes at Drury Lane
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....
. Singers such as Adelina Patti and Christine Nilsson made similar demands. However Sir Michael Costa resisted the change, and Reeves finally withdrew his services from the Crystal Palace Handel Festivals, performed by the Sacred Harmonic Society, before the 1877 festival. For this reason he did not appear with the Sacred Harmonic Society thereafter.
Later years
The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today...
and in The Waterman, at Covent Garden. Edward Lloyd
Edward Lloyd (tenor)
Edward Lloyd was a British tenor singer who excelled in concert and oratorio performance, and was recognised as a legitimate successor of John Sims Reeves as the foremost tenor exponent of that genre during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.- Early training in choral tradition :Edward...
, who took Reeves's place as principal tenor at the Handel Festivals, sang with him, and with the tenor Ben Davies
Ben Davies (tenor)
Ben Davies was a Welsh tenor singer, who appeared in opera with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, in operetta and light opera, and on the concert and oratorio platform...
, in a performance of the trio for tenor voices 'Evviva Bacco' by Curschmann, at a concert in St James's Hall in 1889.
Reeves's retirement from public life, at first announced as to take place in 1882, did not actually occur until 1891. Then a farewell concert for his benefit was given at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
in which Reeves himself performed, supported by Christine Nilsson, and at which he received a eulogy from Sir Henry Irving
Henry Irving
Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as...
. George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
remarked that even then, in such Handelian airs as Total Eclipse (Samson), 'he can still leave the next best tenor in England an immeasurable distance behind.' The song "Come into the garden, Maud", which Balfe had written for him in 1857, appeared often in his late concerts.
It is certain that Reeves stayed before the public long after his greatest powers had waned. He invested his savings in an unfortunate speculation, and he was compelled to reappear in public for a number of years. In his later career, he frequently withdrew from promised appearances owing to the effects of colds on his fragile vocal equipment, and through an unhappy susceptibility to the effects of nervousness. This also caused him financial difficulties: Besides the loss of income from the engagements, legal judgments for failure to perform were rendered against him, including in 1869 and 1871. The accusation (which gained some currency) that he was given to drink was disavowed by his friend Sir Charles Santley.
In 1890 Shaw stated that Reeves's many cancelled appearances were made entirely for the sake of pure artistic integrity 'which few appreciate fully', but left him at the head of his profession, and had required enormous efforts of artistic conviction, courage, and self-respect. He wrote of a performance of Blumenthal's The Message, 'In spite of all his husbandry, he has but few notes left now; yet the wonderfully telling effect and unique quality of those few still justify him as the one English singer who has worked in his own way, and at all costs, to attain and preserve ideal perfection of tone.'
Klein said much the same as Shaw: 'To hear him, long after he had passed the age of seventy, sing "Adelaide" or "Deeper and Deeper Still" or "The Message" was an exposition of breath control, of tone-colouring, of phrasing and expression, that may truly be described as unique.' Reeves sang in two concerts in the first season of The Proms
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...
, at Queen's Hall
Queen's Hall
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect T.E. Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it was the home of the promenade concerts founded by Robert...
in 1895 (at which, of course the lower continental pitch was employed). They were the only two concerts of that season that were sold out: all the others made at least £50 loss.
In 1888, Reeves published Sims Reeves, his Life and Recollections, followed by My Jubilee, or, Fifty Years of Artistic Life in 1889. At the same time, he became a teacher at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His 1900 book, On the Art of Singing, describes his pedagogic methods. After the death of his wife in 1895, he quickly remarried one of his students, Lucy Maud Madeleine Richard (b. 1873), and the couple toured South Africa the next year. Reeves died in 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...
, England, on 25 October 1900 and was cremated at Woking
Woking
Woking is a large town and civil parish that shares its name with the surrounding local government district, located in the west of Surrey, UK. It is part of the Greater London Urban Area and the London commuter belt, with frequent trains and a journey time of 24 minutes to Waterloo station....
.
Vocal example and legacy
Braham's The Death of Nelson was prominent in Reeves' concert repertoire. Reeves was naturally aware that his career mirrored that of Braham, and remarked that, like Braham, his success had been many-sided, in opera, oratorio and ballad concerts. The coincidence that his career had begun in the year of Braham's retirement, 1839, and the early reviews saying that he would inherit Braham's mantle, both shaped a prophesy and helped to fulfil it. Braham was a virtuoso of the old Italian school, able to deliver florid passages with intensity, accuracy and declamatory power. In 'assuming his mantle', Reeves consciously imitated his breadth of repertoire, and at his best had a very powerful and flexible declamation combined with great sweetness of tone and melodic power. ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
classed his 'beautiful firmness and purity of tone' with Patti's and Santley's.
In the Handel tenor roles, his immediate successor in the Crystal Palace performances, until 1900, was the English tenor Edward Lloyd
Edward Lloyd (tenor)
Edward Lloyd was a British tenor singer who excelled in concert and oratorio performance, and was recognised as a legitimate successor of John Sims Reeves as the foremost tenor exponent of that genre during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.- Early training in choral tradition :Edward...
, who recorded "Sound an Alarm", "Lend me your Aid" (Gounod - "Reine de Saba"), the tenor solos from Elijah, Braham's Death of Nelson, Dibdin's Tom Bowling and ballads of the declamatory style (such as Frederic Clay
Frederic Clay
Frederic Emes Clay was an English composer known principally for his music written for the stage. Clay, a great friend of Arthur Sullivan's, wrote four comic operas with W. S...
's "I'll sing thee songs of Araby"; "Alice, Where art thou?" and "Come into the Garden, Maud") - all closely identified with Reeves - in the first years of the twentieth century. Lloyd, and his contemporary Ben Davies, both declaim with a marked lack of vibrato, a true attack (without coup de glotte
Coup de glotte
Coup de glotte or 'shock of the glottis' is a term used in the theory of singing technique to describe a particular method of emitting or opening a note by an abrupt physical mechanism of the glottis...
), and portamento, which may echo Reeves's, and perhaps even Braham's style.
Reeves was a member of the Garrick Club
Garrick Club
The Garrick Club is a gentlemen's club in London.-History:The Garrick Club was founded at a meeting in the Committee Room at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on Wednesday 17 August 1831...
, where in his younger days he associated with Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society.-Biography:...
, Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, 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 ....
, Charles Kemble
Charles Kemble
Charles Kemble was a British actor.-Life:The youngest son of Roger Kemble, and younger brother of John Philip Kemble, Stephen Kemble and Sarah Siddons, he was born at Brecon, South Wales. Like John Philip, he was educated at Douai...
, Charles Kean
Charles Kean
Charles John Kean , was born at Waterford, Ireland, the son of the actor Edmund Kean.After preparatory education at Worplesdon and at Greenford, near Harrow, he was sent to Eton College, where he remained three years...
, Albert Smith
Albert Richard Smith
Albert Richard Smith , was an English author, entertainer, and mountaineer.-Biography:Smith was born at Chertsey, Surrey. The son of a surgeon, he studied medicine in London and in Paris, and his first literary effort was an account of his life there, which appeared in the Mirror. He gradually...
and Shirley Brooks
Shirley Brooks
Charles William Shirley Brooks , journalist and novelist, born in London, began life in a solicitor's office. He early, however, took to literature, and contributed to various periodicals. In 1851 he joined the staff of Punch, to which he contributed "Essence of Parliament," and on the death of...
.
Sources
- H. F. Chorley, Thirty Years' Musical Recollections (Hurst and Blackett, London 1862).
- H. S. Edwards, The life and artistic career of Sims Reeves (1881)
- R. Elkin, Queen's Hall 1893-1941 (Rider, London 1944)
- Arthur Jacobs, Arthur Sullivan: a Victorian musician, 2nd edn (Constable & Co, London 1992)
- R. H. Legge and W. E. Hansell, Annals of the Norfolk and Norwich triennial musical festivals (1896), pp. 116 and 144
- J. H. Mapleson, The Mapleson Memoirs, 2 vols (Belford, Clarke & Co, Chicago and New York 1888).
- Charles E. Pearce, Sims Reeves - Fifty Years of Music in England (Stanley Paul, 1924)
- S. Reeves, 1888, Sims Reeves, His Life and Recollections, Written by Himself (8th Edn, London 1888).
- S. Reeves, My Jubilee: Or, Fifty Years of Artistic Life (Music Publishing Co. Ltd, London 1889).
- S. Reeves, On the art of singing (1900)
- C. Santley, 1892, Student and Singer, The Reminiscences of Charles Santley (Edward Arnold, London 1892).
- C. Santley, 1909, Reminiscences of my Life (London, Pitman).
- M. Scott, 1977, The Record of SingingThe Record of SingingThe Record of Singing is a compilation of classical-music singing from the first half of the 20th century, the era of the 78-rpm record.It was issued on LP by EMI, successor to the British company His Master's Voice — perhaps the leading organization in the early history of audio recording.The...
to 1914 (London, Duckworth), 48-49. - G.B. Shaw, 1932, Music in London 1890-94 by Bernard Shaw, Standard Edition 3 Vols
- The Athenaeum, 7 November 1868, p. 610; and 3 November 1900, p. 586
External links
- Sims Reeves, His Life and Recollections, text on Google Books
- Sims Reeves, My Jubilee: 50 Years of Musical Life, fascsimile text from Open Library
- "Sigh no more, Ladies", The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive (2004) (a song dedicated by Sullivan to Reeves in 1866, with photograph of, and information about, Reeves)
- "Once Again", The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive (2004) (a song written "expressly for" Reeves by Sullivan in 1872)
- Portraits of Sims Reeves (NPG)