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Sir Charles Santley (28 February 1834 – 22 September 1922) was an English-born opera and oratorio star with a ''bravura''〔From the Italian verb ''bravare'', to show off. A florid, ostentatious style or a passage of music requiring technical skill〕 technique who became the most eminent English baritone and male concert singer of the Victorian era. His has been called 'the longest, most distinguished and most versatile vocal career which history records.'〔Arthur Eaglefield-Hull, ''A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians'' (Dent, London 1924), 435.〕 Santley appeared in many major opera and oratorio productions in Great Britain and North America, giving numerous recitals as well. Having made his debut in Italy in 1857 after undertaking vocal studies in that country, he elected to base himself in England for the remainder of his life, apart from occasional trips overseas. One of the highlights of his stage career occurred in 1870 when he led the cast in the first Wagner opera to be performed in London, ''Der fliegende Holländer'', at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Santley retired from opera during the 1870s in order to concentrate on the lucrative concert circuit. Santley also wrote books on vocal technique and two sets of memoirs. == Early training == Santley was the elder son of William Santley, a journeyman bookbinder,〔C. Santley, ''Student and Singer: The Reminiscences of Charles Santley'' 3rd Edition (Edward Arnold, London 1892), p.6. The subsequent citations of this work in this article are to pages passim throughout the book, and can be identified from (this version of the article ).〕 organist and music teacher of Liverpool in northern England.〔Eaglefield-Hull 1924: Rosenthal & Warrack, ''Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera''.〕 He had a brother and two sisters, one of whom named Catherine should not be confused with the actor-manager Kate Santley.〔1851 and subsequent Census returns for 20 Hardwick Street, West Derby, Liverpool (National Archives HO 107.2192).〕 He was educated at the Liverpool Institute High School, and as a boy sang alto in the choir of a local Unitarian church.〔John Warrack, ("Santley, Sir Charles (1834–1922)", ) ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 28 April 2011 〕 His voice began to break before he was fourteen. Following musical lessons from his father (who insisted upon his singing tenor〔C. Santley, 'The Art if Singing' (1908), p. 16.〕), he passed the examination for admission to the second tenors of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society on his fifteenth birthday, and in the same year took part in the concerts at the opening of the Philharmonic Hall.〔 It was not until he reached the age of seventeen to eighteen that he rebelled against his father's decree and dropped into the bass clef, and was pronounced to be a bass.〔C. Santley, 'The Art of Singing' (1908), p. 16.〕 Santley was apprenticed to the provision trade. He enlisted, however, as a violinist in the Festival Choral Society and the Società Armonica, and as a chorus member, with his father and sister, he sang in a performance of Haydn's ''The Creation'' at the Collegiate Institution, Liverpool, in which Jenny Lind was a soloist. Soon afterwards he was in a hand-picked choir for Handel's ''Messiah'', where the tenor Sims Reeves headed the soloists, at the Eisteddfod at Rhuddlan Castle, and was in the chorus for ''Elijah'' and Rossini's ''Stabat Mater'' under Julius Benedict at the Liverpool Festival. He heard Pauline Viardot, Luigi Lablache and Mario there. While acting as accompanist to his sister at St. Anne's Catholic Church, Edge Hill, Liverpool, he sang 'Et incarnatus est' from Haydn's ''Second Mass'', reading from the same score as Julius Stockhausen, as a trial, and obtained a place as bass soloist, modelling himself upon the style of the Austrian bass Josef Staudigl (1807–1861), and of the German bass Karl Formes (1815–1889) (whom he heard as Sarastro in London).〔〔Rosenthal & Warrack 1974.〕 In 1855, Santley went to Italy to study as a singer, with advice from Sims Reeves to visit Lamperti in Milan. However he chose to study under Gaetano Nava, who became his lifelong friend. Nava taught him buffo roles in Rossini's ''La Cenerentola'', ''L'italiana in Algeri'' and ''Il Turco in Italia'', and in Mercadante's operas, laying the basis of sound vocal technique as a baritone. He also taught him Italian speech. Santley studied duets from Bellini's ''Zaira'' and Rossini's ''Semiramide'' and ''The Siege of Corinth''. He was a frequent guest at concerts and conversaziones of the Marani family. At the theatres he heard Antonio Giuglini, Scheggi, Marini and Enrico Delle Sedie, and saw Ristori in ''Maria Stuarda'', attending La Scala, Milan, and the Carcano Theatre. He made his stage debut on 1 January 1857 in Pavia as Dr Grenvill in ''La traviata'' (later in the same run singing Germont ''père''), and Don Silva in ''Ernani''. Other minor engagements followed, After a thin summer, however, Henry Fothergill Chorley visited and urged his return to England.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Charles Santley」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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