Lucy Chambers
Lucy Chambers (3 July 1834{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12849824 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=The Sydney Herald |volume=IV |issue=282 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=10 July 1834 |access-date=21 November 2024 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} – 14 June 1894) was an Australian contralto, one of the first to achieve any kind of success in Europe,{{cite book|title=Singers of Australia |author1=Barbara Mackenzie |author2=Findlay Mackenzie |page=267 |publisher=Lansdowne Press |year=1967}} where she was dubbed "the Australian nightingale".{{efn |Others given that epithet more than once include Nellie Melba, Helene Esserman, Rene Maxwell, Florence Austral, Alice Hollander, Greta Callow, Alice Rees, Amy Sherwin, Millie Hanse, Cora O'Farrell, Emma Howson, Olivia Gains, . . }} She became a successful teacher of singing, dubbed by one critic "the Marchesi of the Antipodes".
History
Chambers was born in Sydney, youngest daughter of Lucinda "Lucy" Chambers (c. 1796 – 7 March 1854) and Charles Henry Chambers,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article6061982 |title=Madame Lucy Chambers |newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne) |issue=11,990 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=25 November 1884 |access-date=21 November 2024 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}} (c. 1796 – 1 April 1854), a solicitor and onetime associate of William Charles Wentworth and first town clerk of Sydney.{{cite web|url=https://pyrmonthistory.net.au/chambers-lucky |author=Colin Fowler |title=Lucy Chambers |publisher=Pyrmont History Group |access-date=22 November 2024}} This article repeats the assertion that Nellie Melba was one of her pupils.
She had a good musical education, first studying pianoforte to an advanced level{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article153546241 |title=Madame Lucy Chambers |newspaper=Daily Telegraph (Launceston) |volume=XIII |issue=251 |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=21 October 1893 |access-date=22 November 2024 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} before taking singing lessons under Mrs Maria Logan, organist at St Andrew's, a past student of Logier and a cousin of William Vincent Wallace.{{efn|No evidence has been found that Chambers had Isaac Nathan as a teacher.}} She gained some local celebrity for the beauty of her voice, then came to the attention of Catherine Hayes,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article236146049 |title=The Late Madame Lucy Chambers |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) |issue=4668 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=11 June 1894 |access-date=21 November 2024 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}} who toured Australia in 1854, and recommended she undertook further studies in London.
In January 1862 she left for Europe, where she studied under the best masters — Manuel Garcia and Pietro Romani, Francesco Lamperti, Lauro Rossi, and Luigi Vannuccini. She made her debut in Italy at the Teatro Paglioni, later as principal contralto at La Scala, La Pergola, Il Regio and other European opera houses. She was engaged by the Australian entrepreneur William Saurin Lyster for his (second) Italian Opera Company. With her assistance, Lyster secured soprano Lucia Baratti and signors Neri, Dondi, and Contini (tenor, bass and baritone respectively).
Chambers made her Australian debut with Lyster's company as Mafeo Orsini in Lucrezia Borgia at Melbourne's Theatre Royal in February 1870.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article244907715 |title=The Italian Opera Company |newspaper=The Herald (Melbourne) |issue=7530 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=15 February 1870 |access-date=21 November 2024 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}
She remained with the company for three years, then took up teaching, with rooms at 6 Albert Street, Melbourne. Successful pupils include Amy Sherwin,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article174571660 |title=Miss Amy Sherwin |newspaper=Melbourne Punch |volume= |location=Victoria, Australia |date=9 June 1887 |access-date=21 November 2024 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}} Marie St Claire, Ada Gardiner (Ida Osborne), Alice Dunning Lingard, Fannie Liddiard, Bessie Pitta, Alice Rees (later Mme Vogrich),{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article170439339 |title=Sacred Concert |newspaper=The Advocate (Melbourne) |volume=VI |issue=477 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=27 April 1878 |access-date=21 November 2024 |page=9 |via=National Library of Australia}} Colbourne Baber, Violet Varley, Edith Moore, Florence Young, Florence Esdaile, Cicely Staunton, Lucinda Blackham{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article244523657 |title=News of the Day |newspaper=The Herald (Melbourne) |issue=1893 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=13 May 1878 |access-date=21 November 2024 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} (sister of cricketer Jack Blackham), also tenor William Walshe.
She was the recipient of a well-subscribed benefit at the Melbourne Town Hall on 29 November 1884{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article6062299 |title=Madame Chambers' Concert |newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne) |issue=11,995 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=1 December 1884 |access-date=21 November 2024 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}} and another, following losses due to the banking collapse, on 18 October 1893. This concert was well supported by an appreciative audience.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8703052 |title=Benefit Concert to Madame Lucy Chambers |newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne) |issue=14,762 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=19 October 1893 |access-date=22 November 2024 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}
Last days
Around Christmas 1893 she visited her sister, Mrs Gilmore,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12424576 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |volume=XVII |issue=2202 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=5 June 1844 |access-date=21 November 2024 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} in Launceston, Tasmania, and while there contracted influenza, from which she never fully recovered, and died from a heart attack.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article53684070 |title=Death of Madame Lucy Chambers |newspaper=South Australian Register |volume=LIX |issue=14,843 |location=South Australia |date=9 June 1894 |access-date=21 November 2024 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}
Recognition
A song, "The Old Refrain" by Alfred Moul and E. Norman Gunnison, and published in 1880, was dedicated to Chambers.
{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article244691372 |title=Various Notes |newspaper=The Herald (Melbourne) |issue=2456 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=8 March 1880 |access-date=21 November 2024 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}
Notes
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References
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Category:Musicians from Sydney
Category:19th-century Australian women opera singers
Category:Immigrants to the Colony of Victoria