Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/470

458 Abbey. From 1835 to 1837 he was engaged at Drury Lane. In August 1838 he appeared at the English Opera House in Macfarren's 'Devil's Opera,' and soon afterwards quitted England for America, made his first appearance at the National Theatre, New York, as the Count in Rooke's 'Amilie' on Oct. 15, 1838, and was extremely well received. He afterwards formed an opera company named 'The Seguin Troupe,' who performed at various places in the United States and Canada. Amongst other distinctions he was elected a chief by one of the Indian tribes, and received an Indian name, signifying 'The man with the deep mellow voice'; an honour which had never before been conferred on any Englishman, except Edmund Kean, the tragedian. He died at New York, Dec. 9, 1852.

His wife,, was also a pupil of the Royal Academy of Music, and appeared in public as a soprano singer in 1828 in the same performances as her future husband, and with equal success. In 1832 she sang at the Concert of Ancient Music, and in 1834 at the Westminster Abbey Festival. After performing for two or three seasons at the King's Theatre as 'seconda donna,' she appeared on the English stage at Drury Lane, Nov. 3, 1837, as Donna Anna in the English version of Mozart's 'Don Giovanni.' She accompanied her husband to America and performed in opera until his death, when she retired from the stage and taught music in New York, where she was residing in 1880. [App. p.792 "Add that Mrs. Seguin died in New York, in August 1888."]

His younger brother,, born 1814, also a pupil of the Royal Academy of Music, possessed a light bass voice and was a concert singer and member of the choir of the Temple Church. He died Dec. 28, 1850. He married Miss, soprano singer, a fellow pupil at the Academy, who survived him a few years only. [ W. H. H. ]

SEHNSUCHT ('longing' or 'yearning' an untranslatable word).

is one of the Songs of Mignon in Goethe's Wilhelm Meister, which has been specially attractive to two great composers. Beethoven composed it four times for voice and PF.—three times in G minor, once in E♭ major—and the four were published Sept. 22, 1810, at Vienna. Schubert set the words four times—twice as a solo song for soprano (op. 62, no. 4, and 40 Lieder, no. 13); as a duet for Mignon and the Harper (op. 62, no. 1); and as a quintet for men's voices. Goethe wrote another 'Sehnsucht' ('Was zieht mir das Herz so?' Schubert, Lf. 37, 2); and songs with the same title are found in the works of Schiller ('Ach aus dieses Thales grunden,' Schubert, op. 39), Mayrhofer (' Der Lerche wolkennahe,' Schubert, op. 8, 2), and Seidl ('Die Schiebe freiert,' Schubert, op. 105, 4).

The so-called Sehnsucht-walzer, known also as 'Le Desir,' often attributed to Beethoven, was compiled from a 'Trauer-walzer' composed by Schubert in 1816, and published Nov. 29, 1821, as no. 2 of 'Original Tänze,' op. 9, and from Himmel's 'Favorit-walzer'; and was published under Beethoven's name by Schotts in 1826. [ G. ]

SEMBRICH,, born 1858 at Lemberg, Galicia, was taught music by her father, and played in public both piano and violin at the age of twelve; she afterwards received further instruction on these instruments from Stengel (to whom she is now married), and Bruckmann, both professors at Lemberg. She then went to Vienna, for completion of her studies under Liszt, but discovering herself to be the possessor of a fine voice, determined to attempt a vocal career, and for that purpose studied singing at Milan under Lamperti the younger (at present professor at the Conservatorium, Dresden). On June 3, 1877, she made her début at Athens as Elvira in 'I Puritani,' and was highly successful there for two months in that, and as Lucia and Dinorah. She returned to Vienna, studied the German repertoire under Professor Levy, and in Oct. 1878 made a highly successful début at Dresden as Lucia. She remained there until the spring of 1880, becoming well known for her performances of Zerlina, Susanna, and Constance, of Mozart, the heroines in Flotow's Martha and Stradella, of Gilda, Amina, etc. She sang at the Lower Rhine Musical Festival of 1880; and June 12 of the same year made her first appearance in England at the Royal Italian Opera as Lucia, and was greatly successful in that, Amina, and Margaret of Valois. She returned there for the seasons 1881–82, playing for the first time in England Dinorah, and Constance in the revival of Mozart's 'Entführung.' She has also sung at Milan, Vienna, Warsaw, St. Petersburg, Moscow, etc., and during her engagements abroad has occasionally played with great success in the twofold capacity of pianist and violinist. Madame Sembrich's voice is about 2½ octaves in compass, viz. from the lower C to F in alt, and is very brilliant in the upper register; she also possesses considerable powers of execution. [ A. C. ]

SEMELE, a secular oratorio by Handel, was composed in 1743, between June 3 and July 4. The libretto is slightly altered from an opera-book of Congreve's, written in 1707. 'Semele' is termed by Arnold 'A Dramatic Performance,' by Mainwaring 'An English opera but called an Oratorio,' while it was announced at different times in the 'General Advertiser' as 'Semele, after the manner of an Opera,' and 'Semele, after the manner of an Oratorio.' The first performance took place on Feb. 10, 1744, at Covent Garden Theatre, where it was repeated three times in the same year. In the following December it was performed twice, with additions and alterations, at the King's Theatre, Haymarket, and was revived by Smith and Stanley in 1762. The Cambridge University Musical Society revived it on November 27, 1878. The original MS. is in Buckingham Palace, but there are some interesting sketches (principally of Act iii.) in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. [ W. B. S. ]