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Alfred Concanen
Alfred Concanen (1835 – 10 December 1886) was, for over twenty-five years, one of the leading lithographers of the Victorian era, best remembered for his illustrated sheet music covers for songs made popular by famous music hall performers of the time. These covers usually featured portraits of the performers or humorous scenes from their songs. Sacheverell Sitwell said of him, "The most painstaking of the Pre-Raphaelites must fail beside Concanen!" Biography His family originated from the borders of County Roscommon and County Galway, while one of his ancestors was a well-known artist in that area in the 1760s. His parents were Edward John Concanen (c. 1814–1868), a portrait painter in Ireland in the early decades of the 19th century, and Mary Ann Concanen (née Burgess) (1815–1884).Irons, Neville - 'Alfred Concanen, Master Lithographer' ''Irish Arts Review'' Vol. 4, No. 3 (Autumn 1987) pp. 37–41 Alfred Concanen was born in the High Street in Nottingham. Described ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comic Opera
Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, '' opera buffa'', emerged as an alternative to ''opera seria''. It quickly made its way to France, where it became ''opéra comique'', and eventually, in the following century, French operetta, with Jacques Offenbach as its most accomplished practitioner. The influence of the Italian and French forms spread to other parts of Europe. Many countries developed their own genres of comic opera, incorporating the Italian and French models along with their own musical traditions. Examples include German ''singspiel'', Viennese operetta, Spanish ''zarzuela'', Russian comic opera, English ballad and Savoy opera, North American operetta and musical comedy. Italian ''opera buffa'' In late 17th-century Italy, light-hearte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Irish Rifles
The London Irish Rifles (LIR) was a reserve infantry regiment and then company of the British Army. The unit's final incarnation was as D (London Irish Rifles) Company, the London Regiment. On 1 April 2022 soldiers in the company transferred to foot guards regiments and the company became No 15 (Loos) Company, Irish Guards. History 1859–1914 The London Irish Rifles was originally formed in 1859 during the Victorian Volunteer Movement and named 28th Middlesex (London Irish) Rifle Volunteer Corps. In 1880 it was renumbered the 16th Middlesex Rifle Volunteers. During the Second Boer War, the battalion sent eight officers and 208 private soldiers for active service. Captain EG Concannon won the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). In recognition of their service, the London Irish was granted their first battle honour, "South Africa, 1900-1902". In 1908, the London Irish was transferred to the Territorial Force and renamed the 18th (County of London) Battalion, the London Regi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Greenwood (journalist)
James Greenwood (1832–1927) was an English social explorer, journalist and writer, who published a series of articles which drew attention to the plight of London's working poor. He was one of the first journalists to cover stories incognito, and is regarded as one of the pioneers of investigative journalism. Career James Greenwood was born in 1832 in London. He was one of eleven children of a Lambeth coach trimmer. He began his career as a printer, but soon took up an interest in writing, becoming a notable Victorian journalist and social commentator. From 1861 he began writing adventure stories, which were published in ''Boy's Own.'' He joined the ''Pall Mall Gazette'' reporters in 1865. He first became interested in the plight of the poor after spending a night in a Lambeth workhouse. His brother Frederick, the then editor of the ''Gazette,'' prompted Greenwood to dress as a tramp and check into a workhouse incognito, a ruse unknown to English journalists before then. Green ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guinea (coin)
The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from the Guinea region in West Africa, from where much of the gold used to make the coins was sourced. It was the first English machine-struck gold coin, originally representing a value of 20 shillings in sterling specie, equal to one pound, but rises in the price of gold relative to silver caused the value of the guinea to increase, at times to as high as thirty shillings. From 1717 to 1816, its value was officially fixed at twenty-one shillings. In the Great Recoinage of 1816, the guinea was demonetised and the word "guinea" became a colloquial or specialised term. Although the coin itself no longer circulated, the term ''guinea'' survived as a unit of account in some fields. Notable usages included professional fees (medical, legal, etc.), which were often invoiced in guineas, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred Vance
Alfred Peek Stevens (1839 – 26 December 1888), best known by his stage name of Alfred Vance, was a 19th-century English music hall singer. He was also known as ''The Great Vance'', and ''Alfred Grenville''. Early life Vance was born in London in 1839. He worked initially as a solicitor's clerk before appearing in music halls. Career His first solo appearance was at the South London Palace in 1864. He had earlier performed in a blackface act with his brother in 1860. His act, initially as a Cockney singer, evolved into comedy. Throughout the 1860s, Vance, along with contemporaries Arthur Lloyd and George Leybourne, was instrumental in developing a new style of music hall performer known as the '' lion comique'' or ''swells''. In this style, performers relied less on copying burlesque, and instead sought inspiration in their everyday experiences and the colourful characters of daily street life. Audiences loved to join in the chorus and " give the bird". Vance was a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Champagne Charlie (song)
"Champagne Charlie" is a music hall song from the 19th century composed by Alfred Lee with lyrics by George Leybourne. Leybourne popularised the song which premièred in August 1866 at the Princess' Concert Hall in Leeds. For the act, he caused some controversy when he appeared in a cut down top hat, similar to a style worn by the murderer Franz Muller. It was one of Leybourne's most famous songs and he would later be nicknamed Champagne Charlie. Leybourne's rival Alfred Vance introduced a number called " Cliquot", starting a fierce competition between the two men. Enthusiasm for the song was increased with its use in November 1866 in the new "Operatic Burlesque" called "The Latest Edition of Black-Eyed Susan", or "The Little Bill that was Taken Up". The song was sung by the crowd at the public execution of Michael Barrett in 1868, the last public execution in Great Britain. It later featured in the play '' Champagne Charlie'' and, with changed lyrics, the 1944 film '' C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Leybourne
George Leybourne (17 March 1842 – 15 September 1884) was a '' Lion comique'' of the British Victorian music hall who, for much of his career, was known by the title of one of his songs, " Champagne Charlie". Another of his songs, and one that can still be heard today, is " The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze". His 1867 hit "Champagne Charlie" led to the first major success of the music hall concept in Britain, and he remains among the best known music hall performers. Early life George Leybourne was born Joseph Saunders in Gateshead; however, at an early age he and his family moved to live in London. Before he went on the music halls he worked as an engineer in, amongst other places, the South West England. For his early music hall appearances in the Northern England, including Liverpool and Newcastle he used his real name - Joe Saunders - a fact which, in the past, caused much confusion as to his real name. His first documented appearance in London using the stage-n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patter
Patter is a prepared and practiced speech that is designed to produce a desired response from its audience. Examples of occupations with a patter might include the auctioneer, salesperson, dance caller, magician, or comedian. The term may have been a colloquial shortening of " Pater Noster", or the Lord's Prayer, and may have referred to the practice of mouthing or mumbling prayers quickly and mechanically. From this, it became a slang word for the secret and equally incomprehensible mutterings of a cant language used by beggars, thieves, fences, etc., and then the fluent plausible talk that a cheap-jack employs to pass off his goods. Many illusionists, e.g., card magicians, use patter both to enhance the show and to distract the attention of the spectators. It is thus also used of any rapid manner of talking, and of a patter-song, in which a very large number of words have to be sung at high speed to fit the music. A western square dance caller may interpolate patter� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lion Comique
The ''lion comique'' was a type of popular entertainer in the Victorian music halls, a parody of upper-class toffs or "swells" made popular by Alfred Vance and G. H. MacDermott, among others. They were artistes whose stage appearance, resplendent in evening dress (generally white tie), contrasted with the cloth-cap image of most of their music-hall contemporaries. According to Michael Kilgarriff, it was J. J. Poole, manager of the South London Music Hall, who first described the performer George Leybourne as "a Lion of a Comic". Victorian fashion then led to the use of the French words, ''lion comique'', which in turn became a generic term for all performers with an imposing appearance and personality.Michael Kilgarriff, ''Grace, Beauty and Banjos: Peculiar Lives and Strange Times of Music Hall and Variety Artistes'', Oberon Books, 1998, , p.158 The songs the ''lions comiques'' sang were "hymns of praise to the virtues of idleness, womanising and drinking", perhaps the most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many List of islands of the United Kingdom, smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border, a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is , with an estimated 2020 population of more than 67 million people. The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Brandard
John Brandard (1812 in Birmingham – 15 December 1863 in London) was an English lithographic artist. He designed many hundred illustrated title-pages for sheet music in what Michael Bryan judged "a pretty, though weak, style".Graves, Robert Edmund (ed.). Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers (A–K). I (3rd ed.). London: George Bell & Sons, p. 176 John Brandard was the second of three sons born to Thomas Brandard (d. 1830), engraver and copperplate printer, of Barford Street, Deritend, Birmingham, and his wife, Ann. His older brother was Robert Brandard. John Brandard was baptized on 13 March 1812 at St Martin's church in Birmingham. He began his career as an engraver, mainly of commercial designs. On 17 January 1833 he married Maria Chater at Edgbaston in Birmingham. They had five children, one of whom, Walter Robert Brandard (1842–1869), was also briefly a designer of sheet music covers.Joanna Selborne, ‘Brandard family (per. c.1825–1898)’, Oxford Dictionary of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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