John Sims Reeves (21 October 1821 – 25 October 1900) was an English operatic, oratorio and ballad tenor vocalist during the mid-Victorian era.
Reeves began his singing career in 1838 but continued his vocal studies until 1847. He soon established himself on the opera and concert stage and became known for his interpretation of ballads. He continued singing through the 1880s and later taught and wrote about singing.
Sims Reeves was born in Shooter's Hill, in Kent, England. His parents were John Reeves, a musician of Yorkshire origin, and his wife, Rosina. He received his earliest musical education from his father, a bass soloist in the Royal Artillery Band, and probably through the bandmaster, George McKenzie. By the age of fourteen he was appointed choirmaster of North Cray church and performed organist's duties. He seems to have studied medicine for a year but changed his mind when he gained his adult voice: it was at first a baritone, training under Thomas Simpson Cooke. He also learnt oboe, bassoon, violin, cello and other instruments. He later studied piano under Johann Baptist Cramer.
He made his earliest appearance at Newcastle in 1838 or 1839 as the Gipsy boy in Henry Bishop's Guy Mannering, and as Count Rodolfo in La sonnambula (baritone parts). Later he performed at the Grecian Saloon, London, under the name of Johnson. He continued to study voice with Messrs. Hobbs and T. Cooke and appeared under William Macready's management at Drury Lane (1841–1843) in subordinate parts in spoken theatre and in Henry Purcell's King Arthur ("Come if you dare"), Der Freischütz (as Ottokar), and Acis and Galatea in 1842 when Handel's pastoral was mounted on the stage with Clarkson Frederick Stanfield's scenery.
In summer 1843 Reeves studied in Paris under the tenor and pedagogue Marco Bordogni of the Paris Conservatoire. Bordogni was responsible for opening and developing the upper (tenor) octave of his voice into the famous rich and brilliant head notes. From October 1843 to January 1844 Reeves appeared in a very varied programme of musical drama, including the roles of Elvino in La sonnambula and Tom Tug in Charles Dibdin's The Waterman, at the Manchester theatre, and over the next two years also performed in Dublin, Liverpool and elsewhere in the provinces. In the same period, especially from 1845, he continued his studies abroad, notably under Alberto Mazzucato (1813–1877), the dramatic composer and teacher then newly appointed singing instructor at the Milan Conservatory.
His debut in Italian opera was made on 29 October 1846 at La Scala in Milan as Edgardo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, partnered by Catherine Hayes: he received a fine reception, and Giovanni Battista Rubini paid his respects in person. (This role became Reeves's greatest, and his wife therefore nicknamed him 'Gardie'.) For six months he sang at the principal Italian opera houses, and finally in Vienna, where he was rescued from his contract and returned to England.
1844–1848: English debuts in opera and concert
He returned to London in 1847, appearing in May at a benefit concert for William Vincent Wallace, and in June at one of the 'Antient Concerts'. In September 1847 he sang in Edinburgh with Jenny Lind. His first principal role on the English operatic stage was with Louis-Antoine Jullien's English Opera company at Drury Lane Theatre in December 1847 in Lucia, in English text, with Mme Doras Gras (Lucia) and Willoughby Weiss, winning immediate and near-universal acclaim, not least from Hector Berlioz, who conducted the performance. (Berlioz mistook him for an Irishman.) In the same season, in Balfe's The Maid of Honour (based on the subject of Flotow's Martha), he created the part of Lyonnel. In May 1848 he joined Benjamin Lumley's company at Her Majesty's Theatre and sang Linda di Chamounix with Eugenia Tadolini, but he severed the connection when Italo Gardoni was brought in to sing Edgardo in Lucia opposite Jenny Lind. But that autumn in Manchester he sang in Lucia and La sonnambula, days after Lind appeared in the same works there, and Reeves obtained the better houses. Reeves sang La sonnambula and Lucia at Covent Garden in October.
In oratorio, Reeves first sang Messiah in Glasgow, Scotland, during 1844. In February 1848 he sang Handel's Judas Maccabaeus, at Exeter Hall for John Pyke Hullah, Acis and Galatea in March and Jephtha in April and May. He was, meanwhile establishing himself as the leading ballad-singer in England. In September 1848 at the Worcester festival he took a solo in Elijah, and sang in Beethoven's Christ on the Mount of Olives, and packed the hall in a recital of Oberon. At the Norwich Festival he was sensational in Elijah and Israel in Egypt. After his November appearance at the Sacred Harmonic Society in Judas Maccabaeus, a critic wrote, 'the mantle of Braham is destined to fall' (on Reeves). Critic Henry Chorley wrote that Reeves had created 'a positive revolution in the interpretation of Handel's oratorios.'
Reeves toured in Dublin at Theatre Royal in 1849, for Mr Calcraft. After his successful engagement he attended the debut there of the Irish soprano Catherine Hayes, in Lucia: her Edgardo, Sig. Paglieri, was hissed from the stage, and Reeves was obliged to stand in for the performance. His London Covent Garden Italian debut was in 1849, as Elvino in Bellini's La sonnambula, opposite Fanny Tacchinardi Persiani (the creator of the title role in Lucia): he made a great effect of full lyrical declamation in Tutto e sciolto... Ah! perche non-posso odiarti?. After his Edgardo in Lucia, Reeves's Elvino was generally considered his finest role in Italian opera. In the winter of 1849 he returned to English opera, and in 1850 at Her Majesty's he made a further great success in Verdi's Ernani, opposite the Elvira of Mdlle Parodi and Carlo of Giovanni Belletti, who was about to embark on an American tour at the invitation of Jenny Lind. In encores, the cry of 'Reeves!' became widespread.
On 2 November 1850, he married Charlotte Emma Lucombe (1823–1895), a soprano who had a brief but brilliant season at the Sacred Harmonic Society and had joined the same company as Reeves at Covent Garden. There she appeared with success as Haydee in Auber's opera, and remained on the stage for four or five years after their marriage. Emma Reeves idolised her husband and in later years became almost obsessively attentive to his comfort and reputation. In February 1851 they returned to Dublin, where Reeves was to have performed with the soprano Giulia Grisi: she, however, was indisposed, and Mr. and Mrs. Reeves appeared together there instead in the lead roles in Lucia di Lammermoor, La Sonnambula, Ernani and Bellini's I Puritani. Reeves also played there Macheath in the Beggar's Opera. Emma and Sims Reeves had five children, of whom Herbert Sims Reeves and Constance Sims Reeves became professional singers.
Dublin was followed immediately by Lumley engagements at the Théâtre des Italiens, Paris, where he sang Ernani, Carlo in Linda di Chamounix (opposite Henriette Sontag) and Gennaro in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia. In 1851 Reeves sang Florestan in Fidelio to Sophie Cruvelli's Leonore, and some thought he outshone her.
During the next three decades, Reeves was the leading tenor in Britain. He had the honour of singing privately for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Michael Costa, Arthur Sullivan and the other leading British composers of the period wrote tenor parts specifically for him. He could command fees as high as £200 per week for his appearances.
Reeves was generous to younger singers, and this generosity later redounded to his own benefit. In around 1850, Reeves gave encouragement to James Henry Mapleson, who applied to him for advice as a singer, sending him off to study with Mazzucato at the Milan conservatory. In 1855 he gave the young Charles Santley friendly encouragement, recommending that he should contact Lamperti in his forthcoming studies in Italy, and they were afterwards introduced during the interval of a Royal Philharmonic concert. Reeves's concert association with Santley continued until the last year of his life. Mapleson, who became an important theatre manager, promoted Reeves's operatic appearances of the 1860s.