Agnes Nicholls

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Agnes Helen Nicholls

CBE (14 July 1876 – 21 September 1959)[1]
was one of the greatest English sopranos of the 20th century, both in the concert hall and on the operatic stage.

Born in

Bedford High School where she started singing lessons with Dr H. Alfred Harding. In 1894, she won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music where her teacher was Albert Visetti. Lodging with Visetti and his wife, she began a passionate affair with Visetti's stepdaughter, (Marguerite) Radclyffe Hall, later famed for authoring the groundbreaking The Well of Loneliness. The relationship, Hall's first, was volatile, provoked family argument, and soon ran its course. Hall nonetheless drew on Nicholls and their relationship as the basis for the characters Harriet Nelson and Rosie Wilmot in her novel The Unlit Lamp.[2][3][4][5][6]

During her student years Nicholls took the part of

Hänsel und Gretel
.

Among her celebrated Wagnerian assumptions were Venus in

Ring Cycle, led by the eminent Hans Richter
.

Nicholls sang with the

Hallé Orchestra
. Harty was knighted in 1925 and Nicholls was styled subsequently as Lady Harty. He had frequently accompanied her on piano at song recitals, but his health deteriorated in the 1930s, and he and his wife became estranged. Harty died in 1941.

As well as being a conductor, Harty was a composer, and Nicholls was the debut soloist in one of his compositions,

Henry Wood
, the conductor and impresario, described her as "a great artist with a beautiful voice (which) seemed to have been made for Bach's arias".

Nicholls died in London, aged 82, but her pure, strong, well-trained and steady voice can still be heard on a handful of

CD
in recent years (most comprehensively by Truesound Transfers, catalogue number TT-3041). Unfortunately, none of her Bach, Mozart or Wagner interpretations figure in her short discography. The pre-1925 acoustic recording process found it difficult to capture powerful voices such as the one possessed by Nicholls and, according to discographers, she refused to approve most of her discs for public release because of their inadequate sound.

References

  1. ^ Announcement in Cheltenham Mercury Saturday 26 August 1876 'July 14, at 3 Claremont Square, Mrs A.C. Nicholls of a daughter - Agnes Helen.'
  2. ISBN 978-0-252-02740-6
    .
  3. ISBN 978-1-55862-237-1
    .
  4. ^ Hall, Radclyffe (24 August 2014). Delphi Complete Works of Radclyffe Hall (Illustrated). Delphi Classics.
  5. ISBN 978-1-78840-115-9
    .
  6. ISBN 978-1-317-17134-8
    .
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