SIR CHARLES SANTLEY

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 2, 27 September 1922, Page 3

SIR CHARLES SANTLEY

GREATEST OF ENGLISH BARITONES \ NOTABLE SUCCESSES IN ORATORIO (By H.P.) Where actors and singers are concerned the public memory is notoriously short—even when great ones are concerned. The. late Sir Charles Santley has been out of the public eye for some fifteen years past, in which time a new generation has Kurung up, so that only those -well on in years remember his greatness. England has produced no Santleys during the last Quarter of a century, and there are none in the bud at present. His voice had extraordinary power, an extensive range, and a beautifully resonant quality that commanded and held the attention. Added to these qualities he had an acute dramatic sense, which made vital the character he was representing. The late Sir Charles Santley was born in Jingland on February 2S, 1834, and when 21 years of age sought to complete his vocal training in Milan, where he studied under Gaetano Nava., and later under Manuel Garcia , in London. He appeared in ‘Die Creation” in November, 1857, and two years later made his first appearance in opera hi “Dinorah,” at the Cove nt Garden Opera House, under tho management of Pyne and Harrison. He also sang in “The Waterman “Zampa,” and “Peter the Shipwright at the Gacity Theatre in 1870. But Santley was at his best in oratorio, and for half a century he maintained his position as tho finest exponent of the baritone roles in all the standard oratorios, achieving notable successes in “Elijah” and “The Messiah.” In 1859 ho married Gertrude Kemble, daughter of John Mitchell Kemble, tho eminent Anglo-Saxon scholar, and granddaughter of Charles Kemble. Miss Kemble was a soprano singer of ability, but retired from tho stage at her marriage. _ It is interesting to not© that inc Reminiscences of Charles _ Santley commence when the singer is at sea between Auckland and Wellington, after which ho goes back to the beginning. Santley relates that his father was a bookbinder by trade with a great love for music, who became a pupil of Michael Maybrick, one of his fellow-pupils being Hatton, wjio wrote the song “To Anthea,” one or Santley’s favourites. It was his father who first taught him his notes, but music became irksome to the lad, whose inclinations were for the dramatic stage. His father was organise at St. Mary’s, Edmund Street Liverpool but it was in tho new Baptist Church in Myrtle Street, Liverpool, that Santley first figured as a soloist, Hearing an orchestra with the organ playin" at St. Mary’s in the performance o 7 Haydn’s second Mass awoke in him his first deep love of -music. His first appearance in public was in the chorus when Jenny Lind sang at the Collegiate Institution, Liverpool, in 1849 His first public appearance in London was at St. Martin’s Hall on November 16. 1857 As a youth Santley learnt the violin,' and 'half his time he played in the orchestra and the other half was in •the chorus. At that time he was influenced most by Madame _ Viardot Garcia, Standigl, and Mario (with whom ho later had the pleasure of sinein"). Of his first public appearance 'as Adam in “The Creation, Santley’s book tells us little, but as that work has just been performed in Wellington, and “Elijah” is m rehearsal bv the Royal Wellington Choral Union, it might be interesting to quote what he says of tho oratorio, the leading role in which subsequently became peculiarly Iris own as far as England was concerned. “I essayed the part of Elijah (he wrote) for the first time for the Sacred Harmonic Society at Exeter Hall early in March (1858)- I had only twice heard the oratorio, and I had not contemplated the difficulties of the part. Musically I had little to fear, but as 1 proceeded with the study of if, its histrionic exigencies (if that expression may be allowed in speaking of a drama represented without action) overwhelmed me. The three episodes in the first part—the resuscitation of tho widow’s dead son, the confounding of the priests of Baal, and the calling down of the rain which ends the part —demand the greatest possible amount, of force, not physical, so much as mental bv far the most trying. Die mind must bo absorbed in the scenes represented, or the performance, however good as a vocal display, cannot be a portrayal of the character of Ehiah; consequent!}' to those who are able to discriminate it 'will be totally uninteresting. I- ffrant. there are but few who care to "discriminate, or are capab’o of doing so. but it is to those few a True artist will address himself. Tho second pa-rt contains an episode not jess exacting than the, three already quoted, and of a totally different nature, in the picture of Elijah’s despair

of fulfilling his mission, his declaration of his unworthiness, and his longing to die. Here tho vocalist is prone to forget the intense dramatic interest in the execution of one of the finest examples of vocal writing. And it must never be forgotten that the recitative which opens the oratorio, like the first line lia.inlct speaks,: ‘A little more than kin, and less than kind,’ is tho keystone to the whole character. My first essay was a failure, but tho performance was repeated a week after, when I recovered my lost laurels. As I came off the platform. Charles Lucas patted me on the back, and said: ‘You were Elijah to-night; last week you were nothing Lke him!’” It is interesting to know that Mr. John Prouse, who is to sing the role wjth the Choral Union, was a personal friend of the late Sir Charles Santley, and studied tho role of Elijah under him.