Content deleted Content added
→Last years on stage: quote |
|||
Line 5:
==Life and career==
===Beginnings===
Jessie Charlotte Bond was born in [[Camden Town]], [[London]], the daughter of a pianomaker. Her family moved to [[Liverpool]], where she grew up. At the age of eight, she played a [[Beethoven]] [[piano sonata]] in concert, but soon turned to singing. She made her concert debut at age sixteen in Liverpool and soon became the leading contralto soloist at St. Peter's Catholic church in the same city. Subsequently, she moved to London to study
In May 1878, she made her first appearance on the dramatic stage, creating the role of Cousin Hebe in Gilbert and Sullivan's ''[[H.M.S. Pinafore]]''. The role had been written for another performer, Mrs. Howard Paul. But Gilbert and Sullivan were unhappy with Mrs. Paul's vocal abilities, and they decided to split the part in two, with the young Jessie Bond being brought in to sing most of the concerted passages. Mrs. Paul was not pleased to share her role with the then-unknown Bond, and eventually she departed the cast altogether, leaving Bond with the part to herself. At this stage of her career, Bond was not comfortable with spoken dialogue, and so her character was written out, or given nothing to say, in several scenes. After opening night, however, a portion of ''[[recitative]]'' was converted to spoken dialogue, and Bond would have dialogue in all of the remaining roles that she created.
| |||