Helen Lemmens-Sherrington

Helen Lemmens-Sherrington (4 October 1834 – 9 May 1906) was the leading English concert and operatic soprano of the 1860s. [H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack, "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera" (OUP, London 1974), 219.]

Early life

Born in Preston, England, in 1834, Helen Sherrington studied singing at Rotterdam and Brussels. She began her London career on the concert platform, and in 1857 she married the Belgian organist and composer Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens (1823-1881), who founded the School of Church Music at Mechelen in 1878. [A. Eaglefield-Hull, "A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians" (Dent, London 1924), 293.]

Stage career

Her stage debut occurred in 1860, with the first production of a new opera, "Robin Hood", by George Macfarren (libretto by John Oxenford). This was chosen by Edward Tyrrel Smith as the vehicle for an attempt to launch an English Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre, the English season to run concurrently with an Italian season on alternate nights. The singers engaged were Lemmens-Sherrington (Maid Marian), Mme Lemaire, Charles Santley, Mr Parkinson and John Sims Reeves (Locksley). The orchestra was conducted on English nights by Sir Charles Hallé. The duet with Reeves, 'When lovers are parted' and Marian's song 'True love, true love in my heart' (the theme of which ran through the whole score) were 'exquisitely warbled' and received enthusiastic applause. Indeed it was so successful that Reeves and Sherrington got a better box office even than Therese Tietjens and Antonio Giuglini on the alternate nights in "Il trovatore" and "Don Giovanni". [J. Sims Reeves, "The Life of Sims Reeves, Written by Himself" (Simpkin, Marshall, London 1888), 220-28.] Immediately after this, with Santley, Janet Monach Patey and others, she appeared briefly in Wallace's "The amber witch", but the bailiffs moved in, and on transfer to Drury Lane Theatre her role was taken by Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa. [J.H. Mapleson, "The Mapleson Memoirs 1848-1888" (Belford, Clarke & Co, Chicago & New York 1888), 28.]

In January to March 1864, at Her Majesty's, she sang Marguerite in Gounod's "Faust", in the second year of the English production, in the cast with Santley (introducing "Dio possente"), Reeves (distinguished in Act 1) and Marchesi (Mephisto). [C. Santley, "Student and Singer - The Reminiscences of Charles Santley" (Edward Arnold, London 1892), 206-207.] In the Royal English Opera at Covent Garden she appeared in Macfarren's "Helvellyn" (also shared with Parepa-Rosa) and in "Rose, or Love's Ransom". For the next two seasons she appeared in the Italian Opera at Covent Garden, appearing as Donna Elvira ("Don Giovanni"), Adalgisa ("Norma"), Élisabeth de Valois ("Don Carlos"), Isabella ("Robert le diable") and Prascovia ("L'étoile du nord"). [Rosenthal and Warrack 1974.] After this, Sherrington's career took place more on the concert platform especially among the prestigious company of Santley, Patey, Antoinette Stirling, Sims Reeves and Signor Foli, at the "ballad concerts" then in full force under the management of John Boosey. [C. Santley, "Reminiscences of My Life" (Isaac Pitman, London 1909), 34.]

In 1871, she was one of the original group of musicians to be awarded the Gold Medal of the "Royal Philharmonic Society". [R. Elkin, "Royal Philharmonic" (Ryder, London 1946), 70.]

Teaching career

At the time of her husband's death, in 1881, Lemmens-Sherrington was appointed professor of singing at the Brussels Conservatory, and in 1891 at the Royal Academy of Music. From that time onwards she frequently resided in England. [Eaglefield-Hull 1924, 293.] She also taught at the Royal Manchester College of Music, where one of her pupils was the contralto Edna Thornton. [M. Scott, "The Record of Singing Volume II" (Duckworth, London 1979), 157.]

She died in Brussels. [Rosenthal & Warrack 1974.]

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