A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Santley, Charles

SANTLEY, Charles, born at Liverpool, Feb. 28, 1834, is the possessor of a baritone voice of fine quality, extensive compass, and great power. He quitted England for Italy, Oct. 1855, and studied at Milan under Gaetano Nava; returned Oct. 1857, and took lessons from Manuel Garcia. He appeared at St. Martin's Hall as Adam in Haydn's 'Creation,' Nov. 16, 1857, and on Jan. 8, 1858, sang the two parts of Raphael and Adam in the same work at the Sacred Harmonic Society. He first appeared on the English stage at Covent Garden, in the Pyne and Harrison company, as Hoel in 'Dinorah,' in Sept. 1859; and sang in 'Zampa,' 'The Waterman,' and 'Peter the Shipwright,' at the Gaiety in 1870. His first essay in Italian opera was at Covent Garden in 1862, but later in the same season he transferred his services to Her Majesty's Theatre. He first sang at the Meetings of the Three Choirs at Worcester in 1863, at Birmingham Festival in 1864, and at the Handel Festival at the Crystal Palace in 1862, and has since maintained his position as the first English singer of his class, and during a tour in the United States in 1871 reaped substantial honours there also. Mr. Santley's accomplishments are not confined to music. He has adapted 'Joconde' to the English stage, and is an enthusiastic amateur painter. On April 9, 1859, he married Miss Gertrude Kemble, daughter of John Mitchell Kemble, the eminent Anglo-Saxon scholar, and granddaughter of Charles Kemble. She appeared as a soprano singer at St. Martin's Hall in the 'Messiah,' in Dec. 1857, but on her marriage retired from public life. [App. p.780 "he joined Mr. Carl Rosa's company for the season of 1876, when he sang the 'Flying Dutchman' with the greatest success. On April 5, 1889, he left London for an artistic tour in Australia. His daughter, Miss Edith Santley, before her marriage with the Hon. R. H. Lyttelton in 1884, had a short but exceedingly brilliant career as a concert singer."]

[ W. H. H. ]