Sims Reeves
[5] He made his earliest appearance at Newcastle in 1838 or 1839[6] as the Gipsy boy in Henry Bishop's Guy Mannering, and as Count Rodolfo in La sonnambula (baritone parts).
[7] He continued to study voice with Messrs. Hobbs and T. Cooke and appeared under William Macready's management at Drury Lane (1841–1843) in subordinate parts in spoken theatre and in Henry Purcell's King Arthur ("Come if you dare"), Der Freischütz (as Ottokar), and Acis and Galatea in 1842 when Handel's pastoral was mounted on the stage with Clarkson Frederick Stanfield's scenery.
[9] From October 1843 to January 1844 Reeves appeared in a very varied programme of musical drama, including the roles of Elvino in La sonnambula and Tom Tug in Charles Dibdin's The Waterman, at the Manchester theatre, and over the next two years also performed in Dublin, Liverpool and elsewhere in the provinces.
[10] In the same period, especially from 1845, he continued his studies abroad, notably under Alberto Mazzucato (1813–1877), the dramatic composer and teacher then newly appointed singing instructor at the Milan Conservatory.
[11] His debut in Italian opera was made on 29 October 1846 at La Scala in Milan as Edgardo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, partnered by Catherine Hayes: he received a fine reception, and Giovanni Battista Rubini paid his respects in person.
[16] In May 1848 he joined Benjamin Lumley's company at Her Majesty's Theatre and sang Linda di Chamounix with Eugenia Tadolini, but he severed the connection when Italo Gardoni was brought in to sing Edgardo in Lucia opposite Jenny Lind.
[19] In February 1848 he sang Handel's Judas Maccabaeus, at Exeter Hall for John Pyke Hullah, Acis and Galatea in March and Jephtha in April and May.
After his November appearance at the Sacred Harmonic Society in Judas Maccabaeus, a critic wrote, 'the mantle of Braham is destined to fall' (on Reeves).
[24] His London Covent Garden Italian debut was in 1849, as Elvino in Bellini's La sonnambula, opposite Fanny Tacchinardi Persiani (the creator of the title role in Lucia): he made a great effect of full lyrical declamation in Tutto e sciolto... Ah!
[25] In the winter of 1849 he returned to English opera, and in 1850 at Her Majesty's he made a further great success in Verdi's Ernani, opposite the Elvira of Mdlle Parodi and Carlo of Giovanni Belletti,[26] who was about to embark on an American tour at the invitation of Jenny Lind.
On 2 November 1850, he married Charlotte Emma Lucombe (1823–1895), a soprano who had a brief but brilliant season at the Sacred Harmonic Society and had joined the same company as Reeves at Covent Garden.
[7] Dublin was followed immediately by Lumley engagements at the Théâtre des Italiens, Paris, where he sang Ernani, Carlo in Linda di Chamounix (opposite Henriette Sontag) and Gennaro in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia.
In around 1850, Reeves gave encouragement to James Henry Mapleson, who applied to him for advice as a singer, sending him off to study with Mazzucato at the Milan conservatory.
[32] In 1855 he gave the young Charles Santley friendly encouragement, recommending that he should contact Lamperti in his forthcoming studies in Italy,[33] and they were afterwards introduced during the interval of a Royal Philharmonic concert.
The effect of the solo and chorus Philistines, Hark the Trumpet Sounding was electric, and was witnessed in the audience by the three great Italian tenors Mario, Gardoni and Enrico Tamberlik with astonishment.
[37] Mapleson had obtained Reeves, Santley and Helen Lemmens-Sherrington for a summer and winter season from Benjamin Lumley, and in 1860 they had a major success in George Macfarren's Robin Hood (text by John Oxenford) at Her Majesty's, again under Hallé's direction.
This new composition had several very effective passages written for Reeves in his role as Locksley, including "Englishmen by birth are free", "The grasping, rasping Norman race", "Thy gentle voice would lead me on", and a grand prison scena.
[38] This proved more successful in ticket sales than the alternate Italian nights of Il trovatore and Don Giovanni despite the rival attractions of the soprano Thérèse Tietjens and the tenor Antonio Giuglini.
[39] In July 1863 Reeves appeared for Mapleson as Huon in Oberon – the role written for Braham – with Tietjens, Marietta Alboni, Zelia Trebelli, Alessandro Bettini, Edouard Gassier and Santley.
[41] Although the critic Eduard Hanslick was told that the voice had already 'gone' in 1862,[42] Herman Klein thought that it was still in its prime in 1866: 'a more exquisite illustration of what is termed the true Italian tenor quality it would be impossible to imagine: and this delicious sweetness, this rare combination of 'velvety' richness with ringing timbre, he retained in diminishing volume almost to the last.
Of this performance Reeves (who usually respected a composer's scoring absolutely) wrote: 'The tenor part... is in many places so unvocal, and the intervals are so awkward to take, that I was obliged to re-note it: without, of course, disturbing the accents or making it in any way unsuitable to the existing harmony.
[45] Both oratorios probably owed their original success, and later comparative obscurity, to the fact that Reeves was their ideal interpreter, and with changing vocal fashions no successor could replace him adequately.
[citation needed] In 1869 Reeves, Santley and Tietjens sang in the premiere of Arthur Sullivan's cantata The Prodigal Son, at the Worcester Festival.
The songs "Men, Brothers and Fathers, Hearken to me" (from St Paul), and "The Enemy has Said" and "Sound an Alarm" (Judas Maccabaeus) were particular favourites,[48] and his friend Rev Archer Thompson Gurney also extolled his "Waft her, angels" (Jephtha), his Samson and his Acis ("Love in her eyes sits playing").
Then a farewell concert for his benefit was given at the Royal Albert Hall in which Reeves himself performed,[4] supported by Christine Nilsson, and at which he received a eulogy from Sir Henry Irving.
He wrote of a performance of Blumenthal's The Message, 'In spite of all his husbandry, he has but few notes left now; yet the wonderfully telling effect and unique quality of those few still justify him as the one English singer who has worked in his own way, and at all costs, to attain and preserve ideal perfection of tone.
A paragraph in the Adelaide Critic,The arrest of Mrs Sims Reeves in Kalgoorlie, and the fact that she has been placed under restraint on a suspicion of her being insane, will not surprise those who saw her perform in Melbourne.
[64] In 1903 Herman Klein wrote that 'The mantle of Braham and Sims Reeves, worthily borne by Edward Lloyd, was resting more or less easily upon the shoulders of Ben Davies, a singer whose rare musical instinct and intelligence have always partially atoned for his uneven scale and his lack of ringing head-notes.
