SIMS REEVES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18771, 26 July 1924, Page 4 (Supplement)

SIMS REEVES.

HIS LIFE AND TIMES. , x "Fifty Years of' Moski" (Stanley Paul j. -and Co;,) by Charles Pearce, fells the Hpj story of the famous >terior, Sims Beeves, j thej darling; of fch¥j ballad concert-goers of ; ; Victorian days. Born in 1818, the son of a bandsman in . the Rbyal Artillery, he received his early " musical training from his father who seems . to have united to? an artistic tempera- ,; :ment the severity of a military martinet, j| so that young Reeves (then called John) '■;'■ found his life no bed of rosea. •.-.■.: V ■: ■ vAt tiiis time taste in music, as in most \ of, the other arts, was at a sadly low ,; ebb in England:.'- Some curious practices •' deserve mention, i; nbtably that of iftterpo- '■' lating in a musical play any song which ' happened to hit I>he popular taste of the f y moment, quite irrespective 1 of its relevance i, to the plot or scene. On one occasion, in the cave-iscene at ' the end of "Guy Mannering" a grand I piano (not a common object, one would imagine in such a place) being "discov- ' ered," the actor (Braham) cried out "A '> piano! That Wminds me of a delfghth.il ' aria I hoard at La Scala. Let me see if I I remember it," Strange to say,'he did; and the audience do not appear to have 1 resented these strange aberrations of taste. > Reeves gradually made his way into '- public favour, but it Was an _ uphill 1 struggb for an English singer in days 1 when there was a perfect rage for foreign, especially Italian, artists and composers. This inability on the part of the public to believe that any good (musical)'jthing could come out of lips whose owners : bore plain British names persisted for t many a long year (it is not quite dead t yet) and accounts for the Italianising of .names like AlbanJ and Melba to fall in ([with the popular taste. The year 1845 proved the turning-point of the career of Sims Reeves. Having • now made enough money to continuji. his 1 iitudies,'he went to Paris where ha took > lessons from Bordogni, and from there I to Milan to study under Mazzucato; the director of the Milan Conservatorio. ■ . ■. ' In 1846, he was engaged to sing the principal part in Lucia de; Lammermoor at the huge La Scala theatre in Milaift, a very; trying ordeal for an Englishman, | owing to the difficulty of singing \a .ltalian before an Italian audience, and to.tpe jealousy with whifch such an engagement , was likely to be received by the native singers. His success, however, was pronounced, ■ and in 1847 he returned to London and ' opened in Drury Lane with the: same operas ; Hig singing created a perfect furore and his career was now assured. It is as a. ballad-singer, however, that he was known and idolised by the mass \ of the peopl«3 (opera being then too dear : an entertainment for the poorer classes) '' and his singing of the "Bay of Biscay" and "My Pretty Jane" is.still recalled with pleasure ;by 'the 'older generation. Unfortunately likiß many other singers, he was a victim of herves and they, combined with a delicate throat, caused him very often to disappoint his audiences, so that he became known as what sporting language would term "a doubtful starter.'' Mh Pearce, his biographer, is discreetly sympathetic over'these frequent "indispositions," but, reading between a the lines, one might often be inclined to 'substitute "temper" for ."temperament." The usual squabbles which disfigure the theatrical and musical world were not absent in the case of Sims Reeves, and it does,not appear tljat he ran any risk of und«r valuing his own genius. From the "eighties'" onwards/ "the extreme iielicacy and susceptibility of this incomparable artist's organ," to' quote a florid tribute cif the contemporary press, made his ; public appearances few and far between, thojigh pecuniary difficulties rendered it im/possible for him to retire altogether. : The decline of great powers always makes sad. reading, but his final illness was. mercifully short, and lie died on October '25. 1900, in his eighty-second year, a.very, typical, example of the virtues and failings of the Victorian age.