Copyright, © John Ward, 1992
Reproduced with the permission of John Ward
and Larry Lustig (Editor, The Record
Collector)
| Back to Biography Index Page | Back to John McCormack Home Page | Back to Discography Index Page |
McCormack came to London in the late summer of 1906 after two frustrating
months in Milan with many operatic auditions and no permanent engagements. With
funds low and his wife, Lily, expecting a child he could not remain in Italy. He
decided instead to pursue a career in London and even sought recording-contracts
there whilst still in Milan. He could easily have returned to Ireland and the
modest but comfortable security of the popular Dublin singer. But this, in the
light of his impatient operatic ambition, would have been seen as merely marking
time. McCormack wanted to get on with his career and London was the place to do
it.
The McCormacks obtained rooms at a theatrical boarding-house at 12A
Torrington Square, Bloomsbury, and almost immediately he secured a
recording-contract with Arthur Brooks of the Odeon company. The overtures from
Milan had proved worthwhile. But engagements outside the recording-studio did
not come so easily. McCormack was after all a singer whose name meant little in
the metropolis, and it was probably in a bid to overcome this difficulty that he
was taken, perhaps by a Torrington Square theatrical, to the Philharmonic
Concert Direction, a West End concert agency situated at 82 Regent Street and
run by the brothers Henry and Louis Bernhardt.
The Bernhardts - Henry was the active partner - were perhaps not the ideal
representatives for an aspiring Covent Garden tenor. They seem to have
represented mainly popular artists, with Margaret Cooper, who sang songs at the
piano and subsequently recorded for the Gramophone Company, as their star. A
typical Bernhardt advertisement would read:
Bernhardt did not just arrange concerts for others; he was also a concert
promoter in his own right. This dual role of impresario and agent enabled him to
parade "New Talent" in supporting roles at his own concerts. McCormack was
accepted and used in this way; he appeared as an assisting artist in "H.
Bernhardt's Popular Concerts", held every Sunday on the Palace Pier at Brighton.
This was the Brighton connection.
Bernhardt had been successfully running these concerts for over two years,
usually with a West End musical comedy star as top of the bill. Lily Langtry,
Gertie Millar, Marie Dainton and Zena Dare had all appeared in the theatre at
the end of the pier. Peter Dawson had also appeared as a supporting vocalist
McCormack made his debut there on September 9th, 1906 supporting Louis
Bradfield. The Brighton Gazette of September 13th, in a brief review
which may really have been Bernhardt publicity material, noted that "Mr.
Giovanni Foli, a gifted tenor, obtained a flattering reception". The use of
McCormack's Italian pseudonym was probably suggested by Bernhardt. Happily this
was the only time that it was used outside of Italy. He had always sung under
his own name in Ireland, and another name for mainland Britain would simply have
confused matters. A dual musical identity was the last thing be wanted.
The next appearance was two weeks later on Sunday September 23rd, when the
famous musical comedy actress Edna May topped the bill. Some pre-concert
publicity in the Brighton Gazette of the previous day claimed that
Bernhardt was paying a record fee for Edna May and descrbed McCormack as "the
wonderful young Irish tenor, about whom everyone is ta1king in London, and who
is to appear at the Royal Opera next month". The record fee may have been true
but the McCormack details are exaggerations. A letter written by the tenor three
days after the concert and reproduced in Mrs Claude Beddington's All That I
Have Met gives a truer picture:
Dear Mrs. Beddington, I remain McCormack sang operatic selections at the Dublin Operatic and Choral Society
concert on November 7th, but he was back at Brighton on Sunday, November 11th to
assist the actress vocalist Marie Tempest. The Brighton and Hove
Society noted that "Mr J. F. McCormack and Mr Joska Szigeti added further
to the amenities of the concerts with vocalism and violin solos respectively". A
famous violinist also served part of his apprenticeship on the Palace Pier.
The contrast between McCormack's Irish and English engagements became even
more marked at the end of the month. On November 28th he sang at a concert in
the Theatre Royal, Dublin, with another Irish tenor, the famous Joseph O'Mara,
as the star. He immediately returned to London to appear with a very different
star, the statuesque Miss Camille Clifford.
Camille Clifford had, with the aid of a sensational hour-glass figure,
created a furore as the "Gibson Girl" of Edwardian musical comedy and was also
in the public eye because of an aristocratic romance with the heir of Lord
Aberdare. The opportunity was too good to miss and Bernhardt engaged her for a
series of concerts. McCormack was one of the assisting artists at
flying-matinees at the New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth, on November 30th and at
the Theatre Royal, Birmingham, on December lOth. The latter was almost certainly
his first appearance beyond the south of England.
Clifford's appeal was hardly musical. She sang "Why Do They Call Me a Gibson
Girl" from The Belle of Mayfair followed by the "famous Gibson Walk".
The Walk was encored; the song was not. McCormack did manage to get a mention in
the midst of all this. The advertisements for the Portsmouth concert again
falsely described him as "the new tenor who will appear at Covent Garden this
season". A review in the Birmingham Daily Mail noted that "Mr John F.
McCormack, a tenor of the robust order evidently schooled in the Italian
arte del canto, sang several excellent songs."
No more engagements have been traced for December, but it was probably the
month of two more auditions, both frequently mentioned in McCormack biographies.
An advertisement in The Daily Telegraph of December 11th read:
The second audition, for the Moody-Manners Opera Company, cannot be so
precisely dated, but we know from Lily McCormack's I Hear You Calling
Me that she, Charles Manners and the company's Italian conductor were all
present. This suggests a date just after Chistmas when the McCormacks, Manners,
conductor Ronaldo Sapio and the opera company were all in Dublin. The audition
was successful but they argued about money. Manners pointed out McCormack's
inexperience and that his acting was not on a par with his singing. McCormack
retorted that if it were he would be at Covent Garden. This reply suggests that
money was not the real issue for him. His ambitions were firmly focused upon the
Royal Opera House and an engagement with a provincial touring-company would have
been in his own eyes a failure.
On his return from Dublin McCormack began the new year back at the Palace
Pier; he appeared on Sunday, January 6th with the famous Polish pianist Nathalle
Janotha. At the end of the month, on January 28th he assisted Margaret Cooper at
a Bernhardt concert in the Guildhall, Cambridge. Once again the pre-concert
publicity linked him with Covent Garden by falsely claiming that he had been
engaged for the summer season. There may have been another audition about this
time but there was no engagement. It was all depressingly familiar.
On Friday, February 1st McCormack sang at a concert for the Choughs Musical
Society held in the Great Hall of Cannon St. Hotel in the City of London. As far
as is known this was his first non-Bernhardt concert apart from his Irish
engagements. He was encored for his rendering of the "Fower Song". His
colleagues included Ernest Pike and Charles Mott. A week later, on February 7th,
he appeared at a concert in the Dublin Rotunda and then returned once again to
London but this time to a dramatic change of fortune.
The Irish Club in Charing Cross Road held a Thomas Moore Memorial Concert on
Friday, February 15th in which McCormack, Dennis O'Sullivan, Kate Rooney and
other artists took part. The Irish composer Alicia Alice Needham organised the
event and played some of the accompaniments. The Weekly Freeman of
February 23rd commented that "No individual vocalist, however, scored a greater
success than Mr J. F. McCormack". The following day he appeared at an Alexandra
Palace concert with the band of the Scots Guards. Then on Sunday February 17th
he sang at a National Sunday League Concert at the Queen's Hall in support of
Marie Hall, the violinist, and then dashed around to the Queen's Hotel in
Leicester Square to take part in an after-dinner concert.
Suddenly he had four engagements in three days; everything was happening at
once, and he was meeting people. At the Queen's Hall his colleagues included
Harry Dearth and the pianist Irene Scharrer. At the Queen's Hotel be met Signor
Barbirolli, the father of the famous conductor, and the accompanist Charles
Marshall, who wrote the music for "I Hear You Calling Me".
The Irish Club appearance, which may have been without fee, produced handsome
dividends. He was heard there - perhaps a few days earlier at a rehearsal - by
Henry Mills, the secretary of the National Sunday League, an organisation which
promoted Sunday concerts. Mills, who also provided artists for the Alexandra
Palace, offered him the two weekend concerts. The Queen's Hotel appearance may
have been obtained through Bernhardt. But there was even more to come, for a few
days later, after an abortive introduction, he successfully auditioned for
Arthur Boosey. He appeared at the Boosey Ballad Concert at the Queen's Hall on
March 1st, and his early London struggles were over.
All this was not lost on Bernhardt. His publicity from early March onwards
increasingly plugs McCormack with extracts from favourable press criticisms. He
was now "The New Tenor" available for "0ratorios, Musical Festivals, At Homes,
etc." with Bernhardt as his sole agent. But these did not come immediately, for
on March 29th (Good Friday) he sang at Bernhardt concerts at the Kennington and
Camden Theatres. Two days later, on Sunday, March 31st, he was scheduled to
return to the Palace Pier with a more prominent place on the hill. The concert
did not live up to expectations as both Margaret Cooper and McCormack were
unable to appear. Bernhardt felt obliged to write to the local press apologising
for their absence; both artists were indisposed and would soon reappear.
McCormack was not absent through illness; he had actually hastened to Dublin to
see his newly born son.
A fortnight later, on Sunday, April 14th, McCormack, supported by the
Imperial Austrian Band conducted by Herr Franz Meisel, was the star attraction.
The Brighton Gazette prophesied a few days later that "This gentleman
is undoubtedly destined to rank in the very forefront of singers". He was again
the star attraction on Sunday, July 14th. Shortly afterwards he successfully
auditioned for Covent Garden and was engaged for the autumn season. His next
Brighton appearance, also a Bernhardt concert, was in December at the Dome with
the Duke of Devonshire's Private Orchestra. He had graduated from an unknown at
the end of the Pier to star singer at Brighton's major concert hall in just over
a year.
There is a sequel to all this. The first McCormack biography, John
McCormack, His Own Life Story, published in America in 1918, quotes
recollections of his early days in London. The following revealing extract
(Pages 146-147) is from a conversation with Michael Keane, the American
representative of Boosey and Company who had previously been associated with the
management of the Queen's Hall:
This can refer only to Bernhardt, as he was McCormack's agent until at least
the end of 1909 and probably for some time after that. But the criticism that he
"did not succeed in getting him any really serious engagements" requires
clarification as the tenor had operatic, concert and oratorio engagements at
good fees during these years.
Keane's recollections together with a study of the early appearances (See
Appendix) and publicity suggest that Bernhardt originally used and advertised
Mccormack as a supporting artist at his own concerts and nothing more. Six
months later, when the tenor had broken through on his own initiative, he
recognised his potential, promptly signed him for life and then presented him as
his star artist. The exact details of the contract are unknown. McCormack
certainly prospered, but their association was probably on balance advantageous
to Bernhardt, who benefited from a career which he had initially done very
little to promote. McCormack had to take his own road from Brighton Pier.
This appendix lists the available information about the concerts mentioned in
the text. There was usually an afternoon and evening concert on the Palace Pier;
it was customary for the artists to appear at both of them.
BRIGHTON, PALACE PIER, SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 9th 1906: BRIGHTON, PALACE PIER, SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 23rd 1906: DUBLIN, ROTUNDA ROUND ROOM, WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 7th 1906: BRIGHTON, PALACE PIER, SUNDAY NOVEMBER 11th 1906: DUBLIN, THEATRE ROYAL, WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 28th 1906: PORTSMOUTH, THEATRE ROYAL, FRIDAY NOVEMBER 30th 1906: BIRMINGHAM, THEATRE ROYAL, MONDAY DECEMBER 10th 1906: BRIGHTON, PALACE PIER, SUNDAY JANUARY 6th 1907: CAMBRIDGE, GUILDHALL, MONDAY JANUARY 28th 1907: LONDON, CANNON ST. HOTEL, FRIDAY FEBRUARY 1st 1907: DUBLIN, ROTUNDA, THURSDAY FEBRUARY 7th 1907: LONDON, IRISH CLUB, FRIDAY FEBRUARY 15th 1907: LONDON, ALEXANDRA PALACE, SATURDAY FERUARY 16th 1907: LONDON, QUEEN'S HALL, SUNDAY FEBRUARY 17th 1907: LONDON, QUEEN'S HOTEL SUNDAY FEBRUARY 17th 1907: LONDON, QUEEN'S HALL FRIDAY MARCH 1st 1907: LONDON, KENNINGTON AND CAMDEN THEATRES, GOOD FRIDAY MARCH 29th 1907:
BRIGHTON, PALACE PIER, SUNDAY APRIL 14th 1907: BRIGHTON, PALACE PIER, SUNDAY JULY 14th 1907: BRIGHTON, THE DOME, MONDAY DECEMBER 16th 1907: Beddington, Mrs Claude. All That I Have Met, London, Cassell, 1929.
Key, Pierre V. R. John McCormack - His Own Life Story, Boston, Small
Maynard & Co., 1918.
McCormack, Lily. I Hear You Calling Me, London, W. H. Allen, 1950.
Strong, L.A.G. John McCormack, London, Methuen, 1941.
Biographies of John McCormack pass quickly over his early London
struggles. There are fragmented references to the Bernhardt brothers, Brighton
Pier, Camille Clifford, Edna May, Margaret Cooper, and others. But how did the
young tenor come to appear with these artists and what was the Brighton
connection?
H. BERNHARDT'S PHILHARMONIC CONCERT DIRECTION
Leading Artists for At Homes, Receptions etc. London and provincial
concerts and recitals arranged. Managed and personally superintended on
moderate terms. New talent introduced to the public under the most favourable
auspices. 12A Torrington Square
The naive optimism of the letter was soon
dashed. The Tosti audition, if it ever took place, led to nothing. He was
dismissed from The Vicar of Wakefield in October and replaced by Walter
Hyde; he had probably been engaged on the strength of his singing and then
rejected when rehearsals revealed his lack of stagecraft. The Covent Garden
audition was unsuccessful and served only as publicity material.
26/9/06
I thank you so much for your kind letters and for
being so good as to write to Tosti again on my behalf. I have just written to
him asking him to make an appointment to hear me. You will be glad to hear
that I am getting on very well here in London. Madame Liza Lehmann heard me
and immediately engaged me for her opera, The Vicar of Wakefield,
with David Bispham as baritone, and this week I am to be heard by Mr. Harry
Higgins of Covent Garden, in view of a prospective engagement. Thanking you
for all your kindly interest and that you will put in a kind word for me when
you can.
Yours truly
J.F.McCormack
An opportunity occurs for young gentleman with good
tenor voice to under-study leading part on tour, under the management of Mr.
George Edwardes. For particulars apply with music next Thursday Dec.13 between
eleven and one o'clock to Gordon Cleather, 256 Gloucester Terrace, Hyde Park.
The mention of Edwardes and Cleather indicates
that this was almost certainly the occasion of the unsuccessful Waltz
Dream audition when McCormack, accompanied by Cleather, was eventually
rejected by J.A.E. Malone deputising for the absent Edwardes.
Shortly after McCormack came to London upon finishing
his studies in Italy, he made a contract with a London agent. The boy was
inexperienced in the ways of business, and being generous himself he did not
question the equity of any contract which might be drawn for him to sign. But
this agent did not succeed in getting him any really serious engagements. Some
idea of the character of this contract may be gathered from the fact that it
was for the duration of McCormack's life. Fancy such an arrangement. Of course
it couldn't last. Yet the cancellation of that document cost the tenor, years
afterwards, ten thousand dollars.
Bernhardt concert
with Louis Bradfield, Carrie Moore (Comedienne),
Ivy Angove violin), Celia
Gordon, Mr Pennington-Gush, Arthur Appleby,
Dora Barrington, Charles Pond
(Elocutionist).
McCormack sang as Giovanni Foli.
Bernhardt
concert with Edna May, Percy Frostick (violin), Herr Jacques Presburg
(Piano),
Margaret Wiley (Recitations), J. F. McCormack, Dorothy Wiley, Archie
Anderson.
Choral and
orchestral concert by the Dublin Oratorio and Choral Society.
McCormack sang
in the "Miserere" from Trovatore and the "Brindisi" from
Traviata.
The conductor was Vincent O'Brien; the other artists are
unknown.
Bernhardt
concert with Marie Tempest, Ethel Leginska (Piano), Ellen Borwick
(Elocutionist),
Constance Milestone, J. F. McCormack, Joska Szigeti (Violin).
Grand Charity
Concert with Joseph O'Mara, Mr W. F. Cope, Patrick Delaney (Violin),
J. F.
McCormack, Jay Ryan, Fanny Bauer, Annie McBride, Stella Bowman, Mrs O'Connell
Miley,
Master Joseph Gerard. McCormack sang '0 Amore' from L'Amico
Fritz,
Leoni's "In Sympathy" and "Parigi 0 cara" with Bauer.
The
accompanists were Vincent O'Brien and J. F. Larchet.
Bernhardt
concert with Camille Clifford, Margaret Cooper, Clara Alexander,
Violet
Elliott, J. F. McCormack, Nellie Ganthony (Society Entertainer), and other
artists.
Bernhardt
concert with Camille Clifford, Margaret Cooper, Clara Alexander
Violet
Elliott, Nathalle Janotha (Piano), George Grossmith junior,
J.F. McCormack,
Ivy Angove, Alan Turner, Clara Evelyn Smith, Abbas (Cello).
The accompanist
was Miss Louie Risby.
Bernhardt Concert
with Nathalle Janotha, J. Dorosami (Violin),
J.F. McCormack, Katherine
Wylie, Ellen (Allan?) Turner,
Madame Augusta Von S. Heinbockel
(Elocutionist).
Bernhardt Concert
with Margaret Cooper, Winifred Siddons, Ada Wood, Fay Temple,
John F.
McCormack, Cherniavsky Brothers.
McCormack sang "In Sympathy" (Leoni) and
"Mattinata" (Leoncavallo).
Choughs
Musical Society concert with Conway Dixon, Ernest Pike,
J. F. McCormack,
Percy Frostick, Charles Mott, Alfred Heather, Sydney Walter.
McCormack sang
"Flower Song" from Carmen.
The accompanist was Mr. G. D.
Cunningham.
Smoking Concert for
the Irish Branch Railway Benevolent Fund with
J.F. McCormack, J. C. Doyle,
George Shellard, J. F. Jones, W. Lee (Humorist),
E. H. Kearney (Humorist),
W. H. Huish (Humorist), Dublin Glee and Madrigal
Quartette (Messrs J.
Morgan, Melfort Dalton, T. E. Marchant and Harris Watson),
and mandoline
trio of Messrs Richards, Brady and Ramsey.
The accompaniat was Mr. George
Hewson.
Thomas Moore
Memorial Concert with Annie MacBride, Hon. Mrs Clifford,
Kate Rooney, Edith
Kirkwood, Kathleen Purcell (Harp), Isabel Bowers,
Dora Grenville, Dennis
O'Sullivan, Ivor McKay, J. F. McCormack,
Dennis Bendon Ayres, Charles
O'Sullivan and P. J. Kirwan.
Dr. John Todhunter also read a paper on Moore.
The accompanists were Mrs. Alicia A. Needham and Miss Agnes MacHale.
McCormack sang 'Peace Be Around Thee' and 'How Dear to me the Hour' with
Clifford, MacBride and Dennis O'Sullivan. His solo was
'Believe me if
all those Endearing Young Charms'.
Carrie Tubb,
Violet Elliott, John F. McCormack, Master Gordon Travis (Boy Soprano)
and
Band of the Scots Guards conducted by Mr. F. W. Wood.
The accompanist was
Mr. G. D. Cunningham.
National Sunday
League Concert with Caroline Hatchard, Mildred Jones,
Irene Scharrer
(Piano), J. F. McCormack, Harry Derth and Master Gordon Travis.
McCormack
sang '0 Flower of All the World' (Woodforde-Finden), 'Mattinata' (Leoncavallo),
and took part in Leoni's song-cycle Fairy Dreams.
After-dinner
concert with Dora Barrington, Carrie Herwin, J. F. McCormack
and Charles
Marshall (Piano).
London Ballad Concert
(Boosey and Co.) with Lonise Dale, Edith Evans, Verena Fancourt,
Ada
Crossley, Mildred Jones, Maud Wright, Pauline and Ethel Hook,
John
McCormack, Plunket Greene, H. Lane Wilson, Mischa Elman (Violin).
The
accompanists were Samuel Liddle and F. A. Sewell.
McCormack sang the 'Flower
Song' and 'A Farewell' (Liddle).
Bernhardt concerts with Phyllis Dare, Adrienne Augarde, Nellie Ganthony,
Carmen Sylva, Mabel Green, Margaret Cooper, Harrison Brockbank,
John
McCormack, Bransby Williams, Richard Green, Cherniavsky Brothers, and Courtice
Pounds.
The accompanists were Lucy Gerrard and Victor Marmont.
Bernhardt concert
with John McCormack, Florence Vann (Elocutionist), Abbas (Cello)
and the
Imperial Austrian Band conducted by Herr Franz Meisel.
McCormack sang 'Che
gelida manina' and 'A Farewell'.
Bernhardt concert
with John McCormack, Ethel Pender-Cudlipp, Alice Clifton,
Robert Michaelis,
Maggie Neil (Elocutionist), Maud Meldrum (Violin),
Deszo Santo
(Piano).
McCormack sang 'Thora' (Adams), 'White Rose' (Fraser-Simson),
'A
Child's Song' (Marshall) and 'Beloved All I Have' (?).
Bernhardt concert
with John McCormack, Harry Dearth, Margaret Adela,
Violet Elliott and the
Duke Of Devonshire's Private Orchestra.
The accompanist was Miss Louise
Risby. McCormack sang 'Che gelida manina'
and 'Myrrah' (Clutsam).
Periodicals and Newspapers:
Copyright, © John Ward, 1992
Reproduced with the permission of John Ward
and Larry Lustig (Editor, The Record
Collector)
| Back to Biography Index Page | Back to John McCormack Home Page | Back to Discography Index Page |