and wanted study. Graziani is too well known to the reader to require more than mention. So too are Cotogni, Faure, and Lassalle. Henschel has been a great addition to our concert singers. Several Americans have been and are on the operatic stage with excellent effect. They have many very fine voices amongst them, particularly of the large mezzo-soprano type, of which Miss Cary, who sang as Mlle. Cari at both opera-houses, was a good example. Miss Kellogg and Foli are both well known. Minnie Hauck, Mrs. Osgood, Madame Antoinette Sterling, and Madame Fassett are great public favourites. The Americans have a good deal of dramatic fire and power of execution, and it seems strange therefore that (according to their own statement) they have no efficient teachers.
The fitful and precarious condition of English opera has militated against the cultivation of dramatic singing by English vocalists. The language, though not as favourable as it might be, is capable of being made much more of than it generally is, by a proper choice of words, and a pure and articulate enunciation. Many of our singers have had very good, in many cases great, success on the Italian stage—Clara Novello, Catherine Hayes, Sims Reeves, Santley. But, for lack of a permanent Opera, we have studied chiefly for the concert-room and oratorio. Going back 80 or 90 years we find the names of Mrs. Crouch, an excellent singer and actress; Mrs. Bates, wife of the founder of the Antient Concerts; and Miss Jackson (Mrs. Bianchi Lacy), clever concert and oratorio singers; Miss Stephens; Miss Paton, a very fine opera and concert singer; Mrs. Knyvett; Miss Birch, for many years our most favourite concert singer, with a beautiful voice; Mrs. Alfred Shaw and Miss Fanny Wyndham, both fine contraltos. These three sang a little in opera. Miss Homer was a really fine dramatic singer, and a good actress, certainly one of our best. Her three greatest successes were Barnett's 'Mountain Sylph,' the 'Sonnambula,' and the 'Favorita,' which was sung in English at Drury Lane, in 1843, by her, Templeton, and Leffler. Parepa was a very clever singer and actress, dying in her prime; and Miss Louisa Pyne is fresh in the recollection of many. Miss Rose Hersee has done excellent service in opera. Adelaide Kemble (Mrs. Sartoris) studied chiefly for the stage. The tenors during the time here spoken of were Michael Kelly, Sinclair, Incledon, and one whose name will always shine in musical history, Braham, the possessor of a marvellous voice and great powers as a singer, whether of Italian and English opera or of oratorio. At 70 he still sang in private, giving out notes from his big chest with immense power. Wilson and Templeton were English opera singers. Both had good voices, but the latter was very throaty. Harrison was a clever singer and actor, and did much to advance the interests of English opera. Our basses and baritones have been Bartleman, a very fine singer, great in Purcell and Handel; Bellamy; Henry Phillips, very clever and versatile, and a good actor. Weiss, with a very fine voice, was awkward on the stage, but good in oratorio; Lewis Thomas, a true bass, has done excellent service. Many have appeared with considerable promise, but have not done all that was expected. We have been fortunate in the possession of an English quartet, which has upheld, or rather created, a modern English school of singing, in which many objectionable peculiarities have been done away with, to a great extent through the study of Italian music and pronunciation—Madame Lemmens-Sherrington, Madame Sainton-Dolby, Sims Reeves, and Santley. The varied talent of these true artists is not more remarkable than their earnestness in furthering the interests of their art. Madame Sainton, a true contralto, certainly founded a school of contralto singing. Her powers extended from the simplest ballad to works of the largest classical style—English, French, German, or Italian. Reeves received the traditions of Braham, and refined upon them; and Santley has done more than any other one baritone or bass. His range of style is unlimited.
We owe a large debt of gratitude to the singers of widely various nationalities, some few of whom have been enumerated, as well as to our own faithful English band, who have piloted the vocal art through the shoals of conventionality and the aberrations of popular taste. There have been two great waves of progress and retrogression; the first, from the creation of opera up to the culmination of the mechanical branch of the Farinelli school; and the second, from the conventionality of that school up to the union of dramatic force with perfect singing in that inaugurated by Pasta. From the reaction that set in afterwards there are signs that we are beginning to mount a third wave. There is recently a marked general improvement in the singing of many of those who have visited this country, while among our own singers several have already made high reputations, and others are giving great promise. Madame Patey has been long the acknowledged successor of Madame Sainton, to whom she bears much resemblance both in voice and in breadth of style. Mrs. Keppell (Madame Enriquez) is also an excellent contralto, while Miss Damian and Miss Orridge are making good way, and others promising well. Among our soprani Miss Robertson and Madame Edith Wynne have long held a high position. Miss Anna Williams, Miss Mary Davies, and Miss Elliot are very talented singers; Miss Marriott, and Miss Samuell, are steadily advancing. Mrs. Hutchinson, with a sweet voice and much taste, is beginning to make her mark. Edward Lloyd, an artist of the first order, won his artistic spurs at the Gloucester Festival in 1871. Vernon Rigby and W. H. Cummings (a musician and archæologist of distinction) also stand high in the public estimation. Shakespeare, besides being an excellent singer, is a valued instructor, and a thorough musician. Maas and McGuckin have already had much success; Herbert Reeves, with a small voice but good style,
