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JOHN BRAHAM (c. 1774-1856)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 377 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOHN BRAHAM (c. 1774-1856)  ,
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English vocalist, was born in
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London about 1774, of Jewish parentage, his real name being Abraham . His
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father and
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mother died when he was quite young . Having received lessons in singing from an
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Italian artist named Leoni, he made his first appearance in public at Covent Garden theatre on the 21st of
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April x787, when he sang " The soldier tired of war's alarms " and " Ma there arrive." On the breaking of his voice, he had to support himself by,, teaching the pianoforte . In a few years, however, he recovered his voice, which proved to be a tenor of exceptionally pure and rich quality . His second debut was made in 1794 at the Bath concerts, to the conductor of which, Rauzzini, he was indebted for careful training extending over a period of more than two years . In 1796 he reappeared in London at Drury Lane in Storace's opera of Mahmoud . Such was his success that he obtained an engagement the next
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year to appear in the Italian opera house in
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Gretry's Azor et Zemire . He also sang in oratorios and was engaged for the Three Choir festival at Gloucester . With the view of perfecting himself in his
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art he set out for Italy in the autumn of 1797 . On the way he gave some concerts at Paris, which proved so successful that he was induced to remain there for eight months . His career in Italy was one of continuous triumph; he appeared in all the
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principal opera-houses, singing in Milan, Genoa, Leghorn and Venice . His compass embraced about nineteen notes, his management of the falsetto being perfect .

In 18oi he returned to his native

country, and appeared once more at Covent Garden in the opera Chains of the Heart, by Mazzinghi and Reeve . So
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great was his popularity that an engagement he had made when abroad to return after a year to Vienna was renounced, and he remained henceforward in England . In 1824 he sang the
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part of Max in the English version of Weber's Der
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Freischutz, and he was the
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original
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Sir Huon in that composer's Oberon in 1826 . Braham made two unfortunate speculations on a large scale, one being the
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purchase of the Colosseum in the Regent's Park in 1831 for £40,000, and the other the erection of the St James's theatre at a cost of £26,000 in 1836 . In 1838 he sang the part of William Tell at Drury Lane, and in 1839 the part of Don Giovanni . His last public appearance was at a concert in March 1852 . He died on the 17th of
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February 1856 . There is, perhaps, no other case upon record in which a singer of the first rank enjoyed the use of his voice so long; between Braham's first and last public appearances considerably more than sixty years intervened, during
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forty of which he held the undisputed supremacy alike in opera,
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oratorio and the concert-
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room . Braham was the composer of a number of vocal pieces, which being sung by himself had great temporary popularity, though they had little intrinsic merit, and are now deservedly forgotton . A partial exception must be made in favour of " The
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Death of Nelson," originally written in 1811 as a portion of the opera The
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American; this still keeps its place as a standard popular English
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song .

End of Article: JOHN BRAHAM (c. 1774-1856)
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