Clara Novello

Clara was taken in childhood to York, and was placed under Miss Hill, the leading singer, and John Robinson, organist of the Roman Catholic chapel there.

Her talents were at once displayed; and on Easter Sunday, when Miss Hill was suddenly indisposed, Clara offered to sing all her solos from memory, and succeeded.

On 22 October 1832, aged 14, she made her first public appearance, in a concert at Windsor, with full success; and in December she took the soprano part in Beethoven's Missa Solennis.

She sang in a sestet, Grisi leading, at the Handel commemoration in June 1834; Lord Mount-Edgcumbe describes her as a very young girl with a clear good voice.

Owing to the mismanagement of agents, she was announced to sing at two places – at Rome and Genoa – during the carnival of 1843; the Roman authorities refused a permit to leave the territory and detained her under arrest at Fermo.

In March she returned to England, and appeared in English opera at Drury Lane; also in Handel's Acis and Galatea, and at the Sacred Harmonic Society and other concerts.

In England her singing was regarded as the embodiment of the best traditions of the Handelian style; like Mara and Catalani before, and Lemmens-Sherrington after, she was specially distinguished in her rendering of 'I know that my Redeemer liveth,' and she sang the opening phrase in one breath.

She was engaged as the soprano soloist for the premiere of the pastorale May Queen by William Sterndale Bennett, a work commissioned for the opening of the Leeds Music Festival in 1858 and conducted by the composer.

After singing in Handel's 'Messiah' at the Crystal Palace, she made her last appearance at a benefit concert at St. James's Hall on 21 November 1860, the final strain being the National Anthem.