Tenor (Voice)

(b London, England, March 20, 1774; d London, England, Feb 17, 1856). English tenor and composer. He made his debut as a boy soprano at Covent Garden in 1787. He sang in Europe after his voice broke, returning to England at the turn of the century, where he established a reputation as one of the country’s leading tenors. He traveled to the United States in the autumn of 1840 and, at the age of 68, “surpassed all expectations” with the “pathos, sublimity, power, and wonderful execution” of his voice. He appeared first in concert, with a selection of tenor and baritone airs from opera and oratorio mixed with popular ballads. His American operatic debut, at the Park Theatre in New York, was in Stephen Storace’s The Siege of Belgrade, and he went on to re-create many of his famous roles, in Charles Horn’s The Devil’s Bridge, Thomas Dibdin’s The Cabinet, and Weber’s Der Freischütz. At one point he astonished audiences and critics by appearing in seven demanding roles in less than two weeks....

Member of Carr family

(b London, Sept 12, 1768; d Philadelphia, May 24, 1831). American composer, tenor, organist and publisher of English birth, son of Joseph Carr. His uncle was Benjamin Carr (1731–80), who ran an instrument-making and repair shop in London for over 20 years. He studied the organ with Charles Wesley (ii) and composition with Samuel Arnold, and probably learnt engraving at his father's shop in London. After 1789 he assisted Arnold as harpsichordist and principal tenor for the Academy of Ancient Music, and his earliest known opera, Philander and Silvia, was performed at Sadler's Wells Theatre in October 1792. He emigrated to Philadelphia no later than July 1793 where he opened a music shop selling instruments and sheet music. From February to July 1794 he worked as a composer and arranger for Philadelphia's New Theatre, and he made his stage début in Philadelphia on 22 September with the Old American Company. He accompanied the Old Americans back to New York in ...

Member of Corfe family

(b Salisbury, bap. Feb 9, 1741; d Salisbury, July 29, 1820). English organist and tenor, son of Joseph Corfe (b 1705). He was a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral, 1752–3, lay vicar, 1759–60, and was apprenticed to the cathedral organist John Stephens. He was made a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1783 and in 1784 sang at the Handel Commemoration. He was also organist of Salisbury Cathedral from 1792 to 1804. Joseph was a respected singing teacher with Nancy Storace and Mrs Second among his pupils. He married Mary Bernard on 14 April 1766 and they probably had three sons. His published works include A Treatise on Singing (1799), Sacred Music (1800), The Beauties of Handel (1803), Beauties of Purcell (c1805), Thorough Bass Simplified (1805) and Church Music (c1810...

Member of Corri family

(b Edinburgh, ?1784; d Baltimore, Feb 19, 1832). Italian composer, tenor, pianist, and teacher, son of Domenico Corri, and possibly twin brother of Montague Philip Corri. As P. Antony Corri he was well established as a composer in London from about 1802 to 1816, when many of his piano pieces and songs were published. His L’anima di musica (1810) is the most extensive piano tutor of its period, and ran to several editions. He was a founder of the London Philharmonic Society and the Royal Academy of Music in 1813, and was director of the Professional Society in 1816. He was expelled from the Philharmonic in December 1816 (due to a scandal probably involving his wife) and emigrated to the USA, where he settled in Baltimore by autumn 1817. There he was christened Arthur Clifton on 31 December 1817 and remarried the following day. He served as organist of the First Presbyterian Church (...

Member of Guglielmi family

(b Massa, Aug 16, 1782; d ?Naples, after 1830). Italian tenor, son of Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi. According to Piovano he studied solfège with Ferdinando Mazzanti, voice with Piccinni’s nephew, and the violin with Capanna. After his début in 1805 at the Teatro Argentina, Rome, he sang, mostly in comic opera, at Parma, Naples, Florence, Bologna, and Venice. He then went to Amsterdam and in 1809 to Paris for two years. By 1812 he had returned to Naples, to sing leading roles; he sang there again in 1819–20 and 1825. In 1820–21 he sang in Malta. His last stage appearance was probably in Parma in 1827 in an opera by Mercadante. After retiring from the stage he was held in considerable esteem as a teacher; among his pupils were Giulia Grisi and Enrico Tamberlik. Reports about his teaching ability circulated into the early 1830s and his singing method was published in Toulouse in ...

Member of Hemmerlein family

(b Bamberg, 1766; d Bamberg, 1838). German violinist and tenor, grandson (through Georg Ludwig) of Johann Nikolaus Hemmerlein. He was ordained in 1793 but the same year embarked on unauthorized freelance travels as a violinist and tenor which were to last for 25 years. The assumed name under which he travelled is still unknown. From ...

Member of Mandini family

(b Arezzo, 1757; d Bologna, Jan 25, 1842). Italian tenor and baritone, brother of Stefano Mandini. He is sometimes confused with Stefano because, like him, Paolo had a wide range and sang both tenor and baritone roles. A pupil of Saverio Valente, he made a successful début at Brescia in 1777 and sang widely in Italy before joining Haydn’s company at Eszterháza in 1783–4. He appeared as Don Fabio in Cimarosa’s Il falegname, Gianetto in Anfossi’s I viaggiatori felici, Armidoro in Cimarosa’s L’amor costante, the Marquis in Sarti’s Le gelosie villane and the Count in Bianchi’s La villanella rapita. Haydn wrote Idreno for him in Armida. For the 1785–6 season he joined his brother in Vienna, where he made his début in Anfossi’s I viaggiatori felici as Gianetto and sang Paulino in Bianchi’s La villanella rapita. He went on to sing throughout Italy, returning briefly to Eszterháza (...

[Josef](August)

Member of Röckel family

(b Neunburg, Upper Palatinate, Aug 28, 1783; d Cöthen, Sept 19, 1870). German tenor. He was originally intended for the church, but in 1803 entered the diplomatic service. In 1804 he was engaged to sing in Vienna at the Theater an der Wien, where on 29 March 1806 he appeared as Florestan in the première of the second version of Beethoven’s Fidelio. Beethoven esteemed him as artist and person, and asked his advice about cuts in the opera. Röckel subsequently taught singing at the Hofoper, where Henriette Sontag was among his pupils. After travelling to Mannheim, Trier, Bremen, Prague, Zagreb and Aachen, he went in 1830 to Paris, where he produced German operas with a German company. Encouraged by the success of this venture he remained in Paris until 1832, when he took his company to London and produced Fidelio, Der Freischütz and other German operas at the King’s Theatre with such distinguished singers as Schröder-Devrient and Haizinger. The company was conducted by Hummel, Röckel’s brother-in-law. In ...

Member of Scarlatti family

(b ?Palermo, 1669–72; d Naples, Aug 1, 1760). Tenor, brother of (1) Alessandro Scarlatti. He went to Naples at such an early age that he later knew nothing of his infancy in Sicily. He was apparently trained at the Conservatorio S Onofrio. On his marriage certificate (30 May 1701) he declared that he had never left Naples, but this detail conflicts with his presence in Crema at the beginning of the same year, when he was described as ‘virtuoso del duca di S Pietro’ and sang the principal role in Il Furio Camillo (the dedication on the libretto is dated 22 January 1701) and in L’innocenza giustificata. In 1703 he sang in his nephew Domenico’s Giustino in Naples. At the beginning of his career he played serious roles, but later specialized as a buffo tenor, contributing to the establishment of a Neapolitan version of an old ingredient of Venetian opera. Sartori (...

Member of Spangler family

(b Vienna, Oct 31, 1757; d Vienna, Dec 7, 1811). Austrian tenor and composer, son of Johann Michael Spangler. He was a tenor with the Hofkapelle from 21 December 1781 until his death, and in 1783 also sang in the music ensembles of the Universitätskirche, the Maria Schnee chapel of the Minoritenkirche, the chapels at the Trattnerhof and Kölner Hof, and St Ivo Church (he was released from the last four in this year when their music programmes were discontinued). In ...

(Joseph)

Member of Spangler family

(b Vienna, March 22, 1752; d Vienna, Nov 2, 1802). Austrian tenor and composer, son of Johann Michael Spangler. He began his career as a tenor and Choralist at the Michaelerkirche. By 1783 he had become tenor at three Viennese churches – the chapels at the Kölner Hof (where Carl Friberth was regens chori), the Savoy Ritterakademie and the Minoritenkirche (in that year, by command of Joseph II, the music programmes of the first two were discontinued and their personnel released). The next year he became an Assessor in the Tonkünstler-Sozietät, to which he had belonged since 1777, and in 1784–5 he was accepted into the masonic lodge ‘Zur wahren Eintracht’, of which Haydn was also a member. From 1793 he was a tenor in the Hofkapelle, and the following year he succeeded his father as regens chori at the Michaelerkirche. He was made archivist of the Hofkapelle in ...

Member of Spangler family

(b c1721; d Vienna, June 4, 1794). Austrian tenor and regens chori. About 1749 he was a tenor and Choralist at the Michaelerkirche, Vienna. Ignace Pleyel reported that Spangler offered lodging to the young Haydn after his expulsion from the cathedral choir school. In ...

Member of Trial family

(b Avignon, 1737; d Paris, Feb 5, 1795). French tenor and actor, brother of Jean-Claude Trial. He was educated at the maîtrise of Avignon Cathedral and first appeared in provincial theatres. He followed his brother to Paris and joined the troupe of the Prince of Conti. On 4 July 1764 he made his Paris début at the Comédie-Italienne as Bastien in Philidor’s Le sorcier. Despite his thin, nasal voice, he achieved success, mostly through his acting, and interested himself from then on in the interpretation of peasants’ and simpletons’ roles; his name remained associated with this genre, qualified sometimes as ‘singer without voice’ or more usually ‘singer Trial’. His most famous roles were Bertrand in Le déserteur (Monsigny), Ali in Zémire et Azor (Grétry), André in L’épreuve villageoise (Grétry) and Crispin in La mélomanie (Champein). During the Revolution he sided with Robespierre and was an active agent of the Terror; after Robespierre’s fall (...