Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/208

 Braham English singers were to appear, and that Braham revenged himself by appropriating all Mrs. Billington's embellishments and florid passages, which it was well known she only acquired by dint of hard work, being quite incapable of any sort of improvisation. Fortunately, the dispute ended in their becoming good friends, and Braham continued to sing at Milan for two years. At Genoa he sang with the famous sopranist Marchesi in 'Lodoiska' for thirty nights successively, which in those days was considered a remarkable run. At the same place he studied composition under Isola. Here Braham and Nancy Storace were offered an engagement at Naples, but declining it, they went to Leghorn, and then to Venice, where they arrived in 1799. During their stay here Cimarosa wrote an opera for Braham 'Artemisia' which the composer did not live to complete. From Venice the two singers went to Trieste, where Braham sang in Martin's 'Una Cosa Rara,' and thence to Vienna, where the offers of London managers caused the popular tenor and soprano to make for Hamburg without stopping to sing in Germany. They arrived in London early in the winter of 1801, and appeared on 9 Dec. in 'Chains of the Heart,' a feeble composition by Prince Hoare, with music by Mazzinghi and Reeve, which failed in spite of Braham's singing. After a few performances this work was replaced by the 'Cabinet,' the book of which was written by T. Dibdin, the music being supplied by different composers, but principally by Braham himself. The 'Cabinet' was produced on 9 Feb. 1802, Braham, Incledon, and Signora Storace playing the principal characters. It was followed on 15 March by the 'Siege of Belgrade,' a plagiarism from Martin's 'Cosa Rara,' 'Family Quarrels' (18 Dec. 1802), written by Dibdin, with music by Braham, Moorhead, and Reeve, and the 'English Fleet in 1342' (13 Dec. 1803). The music of this opera was entirely by Braham, who received for it what was then considered the enormous sum of 1,000 guineas. It contains one of his best remembered compositions, viz. the duet, 'All's Well.' About the same time Braham wrote music to the 'Paragraph,' and (10 Dec. 1804) sang in 'Thirty Thousand,' in which he collaborated with Reeve and Davy, and 'Out of Place' (28 Feb. 1805), part of the music in which was written by Reynolds. In the summer of 1805 Braham and Nancy Storace sang for six nights at Brighton, where the soprano distinguished herself by replacing a defaulting drummer in an accompaniment played behind the scenes to a great scena of Braham's in the 'Haunted Tower.' In the autumn season of the same year both singers seceded to Drury Lane, where Storace remained until her retirement in May 1808, and Braham continued to sing for many years. Here were produced most of his operas : 'False Alarms,' part of the music by King (3 Jan. 1807), 'Kais,' in which Reeve collaborated (11 Feb. 1808), the 'Devil's Bridge' (10 Oct. 1812), 'Narensky' (11 Jan. 1814), written conjointly with Reeve [see ], and 'Zuma' (1 Feb. 1818), a collaboration with Bishop. Braham's other operas were the 'Americans' (Lyceum, 27 April 1811), part of the music in which was by King, containing the famous song the 'Death of Nelson,' 'Isidore de Merida ' (1827), and the 'Taming of the Shrew' (1828), both of which were collaborations with T. S. Cooke. In 1806 he sang at the King's Theatre in Italian opera, appearing on 4 March in Nasolini's 'Morte di Cleopatra,' and on 27 March as Sesto in Mozart's 'Clemenza di Tito' for Mrs. Billington's benefit, the first performance in England of an opera by Mozart. In 1809 he was engaged at the Royal Theatre, Dublin, for fifteen nights, at the high salary of two thousand guineas ; this engagement was so successful that it was extended to thirty-six nights on the same terms. In 1810 he did not appear on the stage, but went on an extended provincial tour with Mrs. Billington. In 1816 he reappeared in Italian opera at the King's Theatre, singing his old part of Sesto in Mozart's 'Clemenza di Tito,' and Guglielmo in the same master's 'Cosi fan tutte.' In this year he was married to Miss Bolton of Ardwick, near Manchester. It was said that this marriage was the indirect cause of Nancy Storace's death, which took place in the following year.

Braham continued attached to Drury Lane, but for the next fifteen years there is scarcely a provincial festival or important concert or oratorio in the programme of which his name does not occur. He was the original Max in Weber's 'Freiscühtz' on its production in England at the Lyceum (20 July 1824), and created the part of Sir Huon in the same composer's 'Oberon' (Covent Garden, 12 April 1826), the scena in which, 'O 'tis a glorious sight to see,' was especially written to display his declamatory powers. On 14 Aug. 1825 he sang at the Lyceum in Salieri's 'Tarare,' in which he must have presented an extraordinary appearance, as Phillips (Recollections, i. 88) says that he was dressed in a home-made costume of many colours, with a huge turban, 'which would better have become some old lady at a card party than the sultan chief,' from beneath