A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Vestris, Lucia
VESTRIS, Lucia Elizabeth,[1] or Eliza Lucy,[2] born either Jan. 3 or March 2, 1797, in London, daughter of Gaetano Bartolozzi, artist, and grand-daughter of Francesco Bartolozzi, the celebrated engraver. On Jan. 28, 1813, she married Armand Vestris, dancer and ballet-master at the King's Theatre, and grandson of the celebrated Vestris. [See Ballet, i. p. 132.] It was on the occasion of his benefit at that theatre (July 20, 1815) that his wife, having received instruction in singing from Corri, made her first appearance in public as Proserpine in Winter's 'Il Ratto di Proserpina.' Her success that season was great, in spite of her then limited ideas of acting and want of vocal cultivation. She re-appeared in 1816 in Winter's 'Proserpina' and 'Zaira,' Martini's 'Cosa Rara,' and Mozart's 'Così fan Tutte' and 'Nozze' (Susanna), but with less success, her faults becoming more manifest with familiarity. In the winter she appeared at the Italian Opera, Paris, and at various theatres there, including the Français, where she played Camille in 'Les Horaces,' with Talma as Horace. About this time Vestris deserted her. (He died in 1825.) On Feb. 19, 1820, she made her début at Drury Lane as Lilla in 'The Siege of Belgrade'; made an immediate success in that and in Adela ('The Haunted Tower'), Artaxerxes, Macheath, and 'Giovanni in London,' and remained for many years a favourite at the patent theatres, not only in opera, but in musical farces and comedies. In certain of these she introduced well-known songs 'Cherry ripe,' 'I've been [3]roaming,' 'Meet me by moonlight alone,' and others, which gained their popularity at the outset through her very popular ballad singing. On April 12, 1826, she played Fatima on the production of 'Oberon.' With her subsequent career as manager of the Olympic, Covent Garden, and Lyceum, we cannot deal, save to mention that during her tenancy of Covent Garden, in conjunction with Charles Mathews the younger (whom she married July 18, 1838), opera was occasionally performed, viz. 'Artaxerxes,' 'Comus,' etc., English versions of 'Norma,' 'Elena di Feltre' (Mercadante), and 'Figaro,' with Miss Kemble, Miss Rainforth, etc., and with Benedict as conductor. In Figaro she played Cherubino, but resigned 'Voi che sapete' to Miss Kemble. She died at Fulham Aug. 8, 1856.
'As a girl she was extremely bewitching, if not faultlessly beautiful—endowed with one of the most musical, easy, rich contralto voices ever bestowed on singers, and retaining its charm to the last—full of taste and fancy for all that was luxurious, but either not willing, or not able to learn, beyond a certain depth.' (Athenæum, Aug. 17, 1856.) At the Italian Opera, says Chorley (Musical Recollections), 'if she had possessed musical patience and energy, she might have queened it, because she possessed (half Italian by birth) one of the most luscious of low voices, great personal beauty, an almost faultless figure, which she adorned with consummate art, and no common stage address. But a less arduous career pleased her better; so she could not—or perhaps would not—remain on the Italian stage.'Appendix: