A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Sainton-Dolby, Charlotte

by William Barclay Squire

SAINTON-DOLBY, Charlotte Helen, was born in London in 1821, and gave signs of possessing decided musical talent when still young. Her earliest instructress was a Mrs. Montague, from whom she received pianoforte lessons. On the death of her father Miss Dolby determined to adopt the musical profession, and in 1832 entered the Royal Academy of Music, where she first studied under Mr. J. Bennett and Mr. Elliott, and then under Signor Crivelli. In 1837 so great was her promise that she was elected a King's Scholar, although her voice was still weak and not fully developed. She remained at the Academy for five years, and after leaving was elected an honorary member of the institution. Almost from the date of her first appearance in public, until her retirement in 1870, Miss Dolby remained unrivalled as a singer of oratorio and English ballads. The admirable skill with which she controlled a powerful contralto voice, the exquisite intonation, perfect enunciation, and noble declamation which distinguished her singing, caused her to take a very high place, not only among English, but among European artists of the present century. She made her first appearance at the Philharmonic in a quartet, June 14, 1841, and in a solo, April 14, 1842. In the winter of 1846–7, Mendelssohn, who had been delighted by her singing in 'St. Paul,' obtained for her an engagement at the Gewandhaus Concerts at Leipzig, where she appeared with as great success as she had done in England. About this time Mendelssohn dedicated to her his Six^[1] Songs (op. 57), besides writing the contralto music in 'Elijah' with the special view to her singing it. Her success in Leipzig was followed by several concert tours in France and Holland, in both of which countries Miss Dolby established her reputation as a singer of the first rank. In 1860 she married M. Prosper Sainton, the eminent violinist, and ten years later she retired from public life. In 1872 Mme. Sainton opened her Vocal Academy, at which she has successfully trained many excellent artists in the admirable school of pure vocalisation, of which she is herself so distinguished an example. Besides her labours in connection with this Academy, Mme. Sainton has of late years appeared before the world as a composer. Her cantatas 'The Legend of St. Dorothea,' and 'The Story of the Faithful Soul,' produced respectively at St. James's Hall on June 14, 1876, and Steinway Hall on June 19, 1879, have been performed in the provinces and the colonies with unvaried success. Mme. Sainton has also written many ballads and songs, and is (1881) engaged upon a work of more importance than she has yet attempted. [App. p.779 "Add that she died at the age of 64 at her residence, 71 Gloucester Place, Hyde Park, Feb. 18, 1885, and was buried at Highgate Cemetery, the great concourse of persons assembled testifying to the estimation in which this singer was held. M. Sainton's farewell concert, June 1883, at the Albert Hall, was the occasion of his wife's last appearance in public. 'Florimel,' a fairy cantata for female voices, written during the last few months of Madame Sainton-Dolby's life, has since been published by Novello. The Royal Academy of Music founded, shortly after her death, a scholarship in memory of the eminent singer, once a student within its walls."]

[ W. B. S. ]

1. Also dedicated to Mme. Livia Frege.