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Sara Elizabeth Flower (c. 18201865)〔Essex County Record Office (Chelmsford), Baptismal Records, Grays. Baptized as Sarah Elizabeth Flower (the 'h' in Sarah dispensed with very early), 29 December 1820. However, she was of course born earlier, perhaps even in 1819, because the Parish Records of St Peter and Paul, Grays, at that period only give the baptismal record; but also because she was baptized with a younger sibling, Ellen. Her entry in the Register of the Royal Academy of Music, 21 October 1841, however, gives her age as 21, which, if correct, validates 1820 as the year of her birth. The ADB article gives c.1823 for the birth, but this is clearly incorrect and is probably derived from the mis-information on her tombstone giving her age at death as 43 when she was 45 or near enough; she died 20 August 1865〕 was a British-born contralto singer who became Australia's first opera star. She began a very promising musical career in London in the 1840s but decamped to Australia late in 1849 for reasons that were, and still remain, obscure, since at the time she was considered England's answer to the great Italian contralto Marietta Alboni, then in London, and her professional future seemed secure. Very soon after her arrival in Melbourne early in 1850 on board a migrant ship she began her career as ''the'' Australian vocal phenomenon of the era. In 1852, fifty years before the triumphal return of Nellie Melba to Melbourne in 1902, she displayed her remarkable capacities in Sydney in the first production in Australia of Bellini's iconic work, ''Norma'', still considered a serious challenge by any aspirant to 'diva' status. Flower was, by definition then, Australia's first diva.〔A.V. Beedell, 'Terminal Silence: Sara Flower and the Diva Enigma. Explorations of Voice and the Maternal in Operatic Experience in Colonial Australian History ca. 1850-1865 in 2 vols', Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia, 2000, 2 vols〕 ==Origins== Sara Flower was born in Grays, Essex, an English market town on the River Thames and situated on the edge of the Tilbury marshes. In 1821 it had a population of 742, supporting six public houses.〔''New British Traveller'' (1784), in Laurie Leeham, 'From Stocks to Docks' ''Essex Countryside'' August 1967 pp.53+; William White 1848, ''History, Gazeteer, & Directory of the County of; Essex; Essex Directory'' (), p.294.〕 Flower's maternal grandfather, Daniel Granger, had the Rising Sun public house. However, close by, overlooking the Thames, the 18th century Belmont Castle exerted considerable influence upon the social and cultural life of the wider region, more specifically, it was the focus of an influential musical circle of metropolitan status.〔Alice Diehl 1897, ''Musical Memories'', London; (); ''The True Story of My Life. An Autobiography'' (), London.〕 Sara's father, William Lewis Flower (c.1800-1847), was recorded in the ''Essex Directory'' in 1823 as a draper, grocer, and agent for Phoenix Fire & Life. In 1841, upon the entry of his daughter Sara to the Royal Academy of Music,〔Royal Academy of Music, Register. She had been admitted, 21 October 1841 upon the recommendation of the Academy's founder, John Fane Lord Burghersh, later 11th earl of Westmoreland, soldier, diplomat and amateur opera composer.〕 he could declare that he had 'no occupation', hence, the status of gentleman. His elder brother, Robert Flower (1779?-1832), was by 1824 foreman of the local brickworks but had been described in the parish records in 1817 as a yeoman, which suggests an earlier lineage of tenant farmers or small proprietors, and also a drop in social status. With the enclosure movement after the Napoleonic Wars, conditions for this socio-economic group were particularly difficult, which probably explains Robert's change of occupation.〔Essex County Record Office. Grays Parish, baptism records for his many children, almost all of whom pre-deceased him. For conditions for the remnants of the yeomanry - the English tenant farmers of the 1820s and 30s - see William Cobbett for a contemporary account in his ''Rural Rides'' of 1830.〕 Her mother, Ruth Flower, was the daughter of Grays publican, Daniel Granger. Nothing more is known of her, except for the possibility that she may have been the prototype in Alice Diehl's first published novel ''Garden of Eden'' for the mother of a fictional opera singer whose sad fate she prophetically foretells.〔The concert pianist Alice Diehl was the author of at least 41 novels. She also wrote two works of autobiography: ''Musical Memories'', London, (), and ''The True Story of My Life. An Autobiography'' (), London. She grew up in the same area, in nearby Averley, granddaughter of the local Doctor, Charles Lewis Vidal (1782-1862), and her autobiographical works show that she and her family were social associates of the Flowers of Grays, either through a local music making circle at Belmont Castle where Diehl's mother was a favourite, or perhaps kinship. The 'Alice Diehl' entry in 'Thurrock Heritage - Factfiles' particularly in relation to the identification of 1882 as the publication date of Diehl's first novel, considered by this source to have been ''Garden of Eden'' provides some support for the proposition. () The British Library's copy is dated 1907, possibly the Library's accession date.〕 Sara was not the only professional singer in the family. Her elder sister, the soprano Elizabeth Flower, also became a public singer, and both sisters had considerable London and regional concert careers in the 1840s, performing, often as a duo, to much acclaim, especially for Sara, with her startling voice. In 1847, Elizabeth married a prominent lawyer, Timms Augustine Sargood and withdrew from public life. However, in the 1860s at their home in London's Bloomsbury district (Gordon Square), she and her husband were the hosts of quite an elevated musical circle in which Alice Diehl took part and which she recalled in her two autobiographical works already cited. These two musical daughters of William Lewis Flower were frequently confused with the two very talented daughters of political writer Benjamin Flower, Sarah Fuller Flower Adams and Eliza Flower, acclaimed as poet and composer respectively. It was a confusion which followed Sara to the grave and beyond.〔''The Australian Monthly Magazine'' vol. I, no.1, September 1865 in a short obituary commented, 'We believe she was sister to Eliza Flower, composer of that beautiful English sacred glee — 'Now pray we for our country', and we trust that those who can afford it will see to it that posterity shall not look in vain for the resting place of one who certainly was among the pioneers of opera in Australia.'; in other words that she was the poet Sarah Fuller Flower Adams, who had written the words for the enduring hymn 'Nearer my God to Thee', set to music by her sister Eliza Flower.〕 It is not impossible, considering their similar economic, social, and regional backgrounds, that there may indeed have been a blood connection between the two families although none has ever been established. 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「Sara Flower」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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