Concerts and Music Hall

 

The Ingram family were not into high culture and if Collingwood went to the theatre it was usually to Music Hall or light comedy. Going to  Covent Garden Opera was a rarer event.

 

June 1896, London
Last night I went to a Patti concert; it was the first time I ever heard her. The place was crammed like a third class railway carriage on a Race day – and hot too. When we first arrived a lady was playing on a violin, evidently trying to imitate a cat with a disordered mind, and after her Mr Ben Davies, and then the great Patti: people held their breath when she sang, and after each low, long note was over, a general sigh could be heard as they let the air out which was pretty nigh bursting them.

 

The violinist, not appreciated by Collingwood, was Ethel Barnes (1874-1948), who was also a composer and pianist.

 

 

 

 

 

Ben Davies (1858-1943), Welsh operatic tenor. The sketch was made at the “Madame Adelina Patti concert” at the Albert Hall on 20 June 1896.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lottie Collins (1856-1910), music hall singer famous for her energetic and risqué performances of Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, May 1897.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard George Knowles (1858-1919), comedian specialising in quick-fire jokes and known as the “The very Peculiar American”. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maud Sims Reeves (1874-unknown) the second wife of a great operatic and concert tenor John Sims Reeve. A singer herself, she performed her husband’s songs after he died, including the iconic Come into the garden Maud...