Complete Encyclopaedia of Music/B/Billington, Elizabeth
Billington, Elizabeth. This celebrated singer, musician, and piano-forte player, was a daughter of Weichsell, a native, we believe, of Freyberg, in Saxony. She was born in England about the year 1770. Her mother, who was a singer of some eminence, died while her offspring, Mr. C. Weichsell, the celebrated violinist, and Mrs. Billington, were young. These children were trained to music at the earliest possible age, and even performed on the piano-forte and violin for the benefit of Mrs. Weichsell, at the Haymarket Theatre, at six years old. Her first master was Schroeter, an excellent teacher of the piano-forte, and her father superintended her musical education with a degree of severity that could scarcely be justified even by the proficiency of the pupil. Few persons have attained the perfection that Miss Weichsell reached upon this instrument. At fourteen she came before the public as a singer, at Oxford, and at sixteen married Mr. Billington, then a performer on the double bass, who carried her immediately to Dublin, where she commenced her theatrical career in the opera of "Orpheus and Eurydice." Here, perhaps, for the only period of her life, she was doomed to suffer mortification, in the greater applause and respect obtained by Miss Wheeler, a singer much inferior to herself; and such was the effect on the ardent mind of Mrs. Billington, that it had nearly been the occasion of her leaving the stage in disgust. The reputation of Miss Wheeler procured her an engagement at Covent Garden Theatre for three years. Mrs. Billing-;on followed her to London, and no sooner had the arrived, than Mr. Harris, the proprietor, and Mr. Lewis, the manager, waited upon her with a proposal to play three nights. So short a trial she positively refused, expressing her desire to substitute twelve nights, under the apprehension that her too anxious solicitude to please her countrymen might defeat her first efforts. Such, indeed, was her distrust, that she considered this as a final experiment ; and she had determined, in the event of any failure, either in the ease of self-possession or of deficiency of powers and at-tainments, to quit the profession of an actress at nice. They proceeded to discuss the terms of her engagement, and she desired a salary of twelve pounds per week ; to which the managers objected, as being the highest sum then given, and as the remuneration assigned to Miss Wheeler, whose reputation was so high and established. The comparison was unfortunate ; it irritated Mrs. Billington, and she instantly declined to enter into any permanent contract. She consented, however, to appear for the twelve nights, and was advertised, for the part of Rosetta, in Arne's opera of "Love in a Village." She was announced for the Wednesday night ; but the name of Mrs. Billington, late Miss Weichsell, having caught the attention of the king, his majesty commanded her appearance to take place two days sooner - a circumstance highly flattering, as it was a solitary instance, and contrary to the custom generally observed by the sovereign.
It will readily be conceived, that Mrs. Billing. ton, whose habits of study and practice had been fixed by the severest exercise of parental authority, omitted no preparatory exertion to insure her success with the public under such auspices. Indeed, she labored night and day, and nothing could be more complete than her triumph over the esteem of her audience and the rivalry of her former favored competitor. Miss Wheeler was laid on the shelf, as the theatrical phrase goes, and at the expiration of the twelve nights, the managers again waited on Mrs. Billington, to renew her engagement on a permanent footing. They questioned her cautiously respecting her expectations, and she, rather in jest than in earnest, demanded one thousand pounds and a benefit for the remainder of the season, with which, to her utter astonishment, they immediately complied ; and they afterwards voluntarily gave her a second night, in return for the extraordinary emolument they had derived from the exercise of her talents. During this season, although her theatrical duties were unremitted, she never relaxed from the most sedulous general pursuit of the knowledge and practice of her art. She labored incessantly, and received lessons of Mortellari, an Italian master of celebrity, at that time in England. The theatre had no sooner closed than she availed herself of the interval to fly to Paris, where she enjoyed the instructions of the great Sacchini, the composer. Thus she continued from the first to fortify and enrich her natural gifts with the strength and ornaments of high science.
At this time, Madame Mara arrived in England, unequalled in the eminence she had attained. In 1785, the subject of our memoir made her abut at the Concert of Ancient Music. Mara herself is said not to have beheld her reception quite unmoved, and some disputes even arose respecting place and preeminence in the seats of the orchestra - a species of contention very unworthy the transcendent abilities of these gifted individuals. Mrs. Billington's fame continued to spread, while her never-ceasing ardor and assiduity were day by day enlarging her stock of knowledge, acquirement, and facility. She was a constant performer at the concerts of the metropolis, and she sang at the memorable Westminster Abbey performances. She remained at Covent Garden until 1793, when she adopted a resolution to retire from public life, which she vainly imagined she had firmness enough to adhere to. At the instigation of her husband and her brother, she was induced to make a continental tour, with a view solely to amusement; and to this intent she declined all letters of introduction, intending to travel incognita. For some time they succeeded, and passed along without notice ; but at Naples, the English ambassador, Sir W. Hamilton, penetrated their secret, and persuaded Mrs. Billing-ton and Mr. Weichsell to perform in private be-fore the king and queen, at Caserto, a country residence. The gratification they received induced their majesties to request Mrs. Billington to perform at the great theatre of St. Carlo, then thought to be the finest opera established in the world. She accordingly, in May, 1794, made her début in "Inez di Castro," which was composed expressly for her by the maestro, Francesco Bianchi, who wrote an opera worthy the supereminent ability of this prima donna. Her success was complete, for indeed her celebrity made her name known in Italy; and previous to her quitting England, the Venetian ambassador had been in treaty with her to accept an engagement, which, however, she broke.
Her performance at Naples was interrupted by a sudden and affecting event. On the second night, as Mr. Billington was seeking his hat to accompany his wife to the theatre, he fell down in a fit of apoplexy, and died in the arms of Bianchi, at the residence of the Bishop of Winchester. Nor was this the only circumstance that impeded her progress. About this time, an eruption of Mount Vesuvius took place, and the superstitious bigotry of the Neapolitans attributed the visitation to the permission granted to a heretic to perform at St. Carlo. Serious apprehensions were entertained by Mrs. Billington's friends for the consequences of such an impression. Her talents, however, triumphed ; she renewed her performance, and no prima donna was ever more raptuously received in that country, where the opera is best cultivated and understood. Paesiello, Paer, and Himmel successively wrote for her after Bianchi.
In 1796 she went to Venice, where, after the first performance, she was taken so ill that she could sing no more during the season ; and it is among the records honorable to human nature, that the manager generously brought her the whole of her salary, which she compensated by playing the succeeding season without any other reward than the pleasure of reciprocating the liberality of her employer. Conceiving that the air of Venice did not agree with her, she quitted the place. On her journey from Venice to Rome, she was earnestly requested to give a concert at Rome, which she at first declined ; but a society of Cavalieri undertook the whole of the arrangement, and she and Mr. Weichsell performed to a very crowded audience. Between this period and the year 1798, she visited all the principal theatres in Italy, and in this year married Mr. Felissent, and appeared only twice subsequently at Milan. An 1801, still retaining the name of Billington, she returned to her native country. No sooner was her arrival known, than all the conductors of the public amusements were alike eager to engage her. The managers of Covent Garden and Drury Lane Theatres evinced equal anxiety to secure her talents, and the disposal of her services was at length referred to arbitrators, who awarded that she should appear at the two theatres alternately. Mandane, in Arne's "Artaxerxes," was the character selected for her debut, and the audience were struck with rapture and astonishment at her amazing powers, which were then in their full meridian. On this occasion she introduced a song from Bianchi's "Inez di Castro," to the English words "Lost in anxious doubts;" which, being composed expressly for her, exhibited at one view her prodigious qualities, heightened by the delightful execution of her brother's obliqato violin accompaniment. Perhaps no other singer could have sung this song ; very certain it is, no one has ever attempted it. Engagements now multiplied upon her. She sang at the Italian Opera in 1803, at the king's concert, at the Hanover Square Vocal Concerts, and at a round of provincial meetings, from this time till 1809, when she finally retired. Two remarkable circumstances attended her during this period of her public life. On her reappearance at the opera, Banti, then in the zenith of her excellence, played the character of Polifonte to Mrs. Billington's Merope, in Nasonini's opera of that name. Never was the house so crowded as on this occasion; the stage was so covered with ladies and gentlemen, that the performers had scarcely room to move. The second occurrence was her performance with Mara on the 3d of June, 1802, the last night of that most distinguished singer's appearing in England. They sang a duet together, composed to display their mutual accomplishments, and the contest excited both to the utmost pitch of scientific expression. At length Mrs. Billington, having gained a competency, and feeling her health very sensibly affected by her efforts in the service of the public, retired in 1809 from all public performances, and was never afterwards induced to appear except on one occasion, when she sang for the benefit of a charity at Whitehall, in the presence of the royal family. Mrs. Billington finally quitted England with her husband in 1817, and died, after an illness of a very few days, at her estate of St. Artien, near Venice.