Braham

Braham (i.e. ABRAHAM), JOHN, tenor singer, born in London of German-Jewish parents, about 1774, and left an orphan at an early age, is said to have for a time sold pencils in the streets. Leoni, a chorister of Duke's Place synagogue, adopting him, gave him instruction in music and singing; he appeared at Covent Garden in 1787, but his first great success was at Drury Lane (1796). He had an unusually long professional career, and continued to make occasional appearances at concerts until within a few years of his death. To study singing he visited France, Italy, and Austria (1797-1801), in company with one Nancy Storace, singing at Paris, Florence, Milan, Venice, and Vienna; his triumph on his return was transcendent, and thenceforward, for half a century, he held the reputation of one of the greatest tenor singers in Europe. In 1809 he had an engagement at the Royal Theatre, Dublin, for fifteen nights, at 2000 guineas. He acquired a large fortune during his professional career, much of which was squandered by his purchase of the Colosseum, in Regent's Park, for £40,000; and the building of St James's Theatre, at a cost of £30,000. He died at Brompton, 17th February 1856. In Sir Walter Scott's words, Braham 'was a beast of an actor, but an angel of a singer;' and it was as a concert-singer that he most excelled, his great declamatory power and florid execution giving a wonderful effect to his rendering of the national songs, especially his 'Death of Nelson' (1811). Most of his operas were produced at Drury Lane; but his own compositions were of the feeblest description, rendered only tolerable by the embellishments introduced in singing them. One of his daughters, Frances, in 1840 married the Earl of Waldegrave. She was for many years a leader of society, and died 5th July 1879.