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Isabella Hill (1 April 1833 – 6 June 1879), better known as Mrs Howard Paul, was an English actress, operatic singer and actress-manager of the Victorian era, best remembered for creating the role of Lady Sangazure in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera ''The Sorcerer'' (1877). Her stage career began in 1853 in London in ballad operas, such as ''The Beggar's Opera''. In 1854 she married the American writer Henry Howard Paul, in whose comic entertainments the two performed for much of the next two decades, often on tour, both in Britain and America. She was popular for her musical impersonations of singers of the day. She also played in Victorian burlesque and other theatrical roles, among the best known of which was her Lady Macbeth at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1869. Various composers wrote songs for her to premiere. After ''The Sorcerer'', Gilbert and Sullivan cast Mrs Paul in their next opera, ''H.M.S. Pinafore'', but her vocal abilities had declined so much by that point that they cut parts of her role, and she resigned from the production. ==Early life and career== Mrs Howard Paul was born as Isabella Hill at Dartford in Kent, the daughter of George Thomas Hill, a leather merchant. She was educated in France and Italy,〔Boase, p. 1393〕 and studied singing under the composer and teacher George French Flowers, whose biographer Louisa Middleton rates her as "perhaps his most distinguished" pupil.〔Middleton, Louisa (rev). ("Flowers, George French (1811–1872), composer and musical theorist" ), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, accessed 17 April 2015 〕 Under the name Isabella Featherstone she began her stage career as a member of the Strand Theatre company in London. There, in January 1853, she played Tom Tug in Charles Dibdin's ballad opera ''The Waterman''.〔"Strand Theatre", ''Reynolds's Newspaper'', 16 January 1853, p. 8〕 According to the theatrical newspaper ''The Era'', she made a great hit.〔"Provincial Theatricals", ''The Era'', 13 February 1853, p. 10〕 She appeared briefly at the Theatre Royal, Cork the following month,〔 returning to the Strand in March to play Captain Macheath ''en travesti'' in ''The Beggar's Opera''.〔Knight, John Joseph. "Paul, Isabella Howard", ''Dictionary of National Biography'', 1885–1900, Volume 44, accessed 1 May 2014〕 In April she was cast as Margery in Thomas Arne's ''Love in a Village'' at the Strand. ''The Era'' commented, "We take the opportunity of predicting for her much future success. She has an excellent voice and is by no means devoid of acting capabilities."〔"Easter Amusements", ''The Era'', 3 April 1853, p. 10〕 After this, she played Lucy Lockit in ''The Beggar's Opera''.〔 ''The Era'' later reported, "Her dashing style and rich, powerful voice at once attracted attention and more important engagements rapidly followed at Drury Lane and the Haymarket."〔"Death of Mrs Howard Paul", ''The Era'', 15 June 1879, p. 12〕 They included Drury Lane's Christmas pantomime in December 1853,〔"Drury Lane Theatre", ''The Lady's Newspaper'', 31 December 1853, p. 397〕 and, the following month, Mark Lemon's ''Paula Lazarro'', in which she played Juana.〔 At the Haymarket, she again played Macheath from April 1854.〔〔 In July of that year she married the American writer and actor Henry Howard Paul at St Paul's, Covent Garden in London.〔 Shortly after the wedding the couple went to Switzerland, in August 1854, and performed with success in Geneva. 〔"The Drama, Music, &c", ''Reynolds's Newspaper'', 3 September 1854, p. 9〕 They went on to Paris, where she played for a month at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in a specially-written sketch, ''La fille adroit'', which was highly praised by Jules Janin in the ''Journal des débats''.〔"Waterloo Rooms", ''Caledonian Mercury'', 26 September 1857, p. 1〕〔("Mrs. Howard Paul" ), ''The London Journal'', c. 1855 〕 Later the same year she acted in her husband's play ''My Neighbor Opposite'' and a comic duologue, ''Locked Out'', which proved to be very popular and toured extensively in the provinces.〔〔Stone, David. ("Mrs. Howard Paul (1877–78)" ), ''Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company'', the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 1 May 2014〕 In September 1855 she was engaged at Wallack's Theatre in New York City.〔 Over the ensuing years, at the Haymarket and elsewhere, she became known not only for her Macheath, but also as Apollo in the burlesque of ''Midas'' by Kane O'Hara, among other roles.〔Baker, ("Little Theatre in the Haymarket" ), p. 233〕 In 1858 she took part with her husband in an entertainment called ''Patchwork'', described as "a clatter of fun, frolic, song, and impersonation carried on by performers of unfailing dash"; they performed this popular piece in London and elsewhere for some years.〔Pascoe, Charles Eyre. ("Paul, Mrs. Howard" ), p. 414〕 In July of the same year she was Sir Launcelot de Lake (sic) in the ''Lancashire Witches, or the Knight and the Giants'', a burlesque included as part of an entertainment that opened the Lyceum Theatre.〔 In musical entertainments given by herself and her husband in 1860 and over the next 17 years in London and the provinces, Mrs Paul became a favourite for her impersonations of Henry Russell, Sims Reeves, and other popular singers of the day, particularly tenors.〔〔 Another piece that they toured was called ''Thrice Married''.〔 Mrs Howard Paul's voice was admired by various composers, who wrote songs for her to premiere.〔 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「Mrs Howard Paul」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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