Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. My object is rather to furnish sketches of ia mous musical personages, and to set before the reader hitherto unrecorded scenes and events in their lives, together with slight studies of tem perament and character, which may be of value in so far as they tend to throw a side - light upon the personality of the notable individuals with whom they deal. At the same time, by placing these as nearly as possible in chronological order, and supplementing them with brief accounts of all the prominent debuts and first performances that I have personally witnessed, the outcome is a tolerably complete picture of operatic and musical life in England during the last three decades of the nineteenth century.

My object is rather to furnish sketches of ia mous musical personages, and to set before the reader hitherto unrecorded scenes and events in their lives, together with slight studies of tem perament and character, which may be of value in so far as they tend to throw a side — light upon the personality of the notable individuals with whom they deal. At the same time, by placing these as nearly as possible in chronological order, and supplementing them with brief accounts of all the prominent debuts and first performances that I have personally witnessed, the outcome is a tolerably complete picture of operatic and musical life in England during the last three decades of the nineteenth century.