Catherine Stephens, Countess of Essex

Catherine Stephens, Countess of Essex (18 September 1794 – 22 February 1882) was an English operatic singer and actress.

Stephens was the daughter of Edward Stephens, a carver and gilder in Park Street, Grosvenor Square, and was born on 18 September 1794. In 1807, having shown, like her elder sisters, some musical ability, she was placed under Gesualdo Lanza, with whom she remained five years. Under his care she sang in Bath, Bristol, Southampton, Ramsgate, Margate and other places, appearing early in 1812 in subordinate parts at the Pantheon as member of an Italian opera company, headed by Teresa Bertinotti. At the close, in 1812, of her engagement with Lanza, her father placed her under Thomas Welsh, as whose pupil she sang anonymously on 17 and 19 November in Manchester.

On 23 September 1813, she appeared at Covent Garden as Mandane in Artaxerxes, obtaining a conspicuous success, especially in the airs ‘Checked by duty, racked by love,’ and ‘The soldier tired of war's alarms,’ and being compared to Angelica Catalani and Elizabeth Billington. On 22 October, she sang as Polly in the Beggar's Opera, and on 12 November, as Clara in The Duenna; also Rosetta in Love in a Village. Lanza and Welsh both claimed the honour of instructing her. At the concert of ancient music in March 1814 she was assigned the principal soprano songs, and she sang later in the year in the festivals in Norwich and Birmingham.

At Covent Garden, where she remained with few interruptions from her first appearance in 1813 down to 1822, she at first received £12 a week; this was successively advanced to £20 and £25 a week.

On 1 February 1814, she was the original Mrs. Cornflower in the Farmer's Wife of Charles Dibdin, junior. She played Ophelia to the Hamlet of Young and that of Kemble, and on the first occasion (21 March) introduced into the character the song of "Mad Bess", for which she was hissed. She played Matilda in Richard Cœur de Lion, and on 31 May, as Desdemona to Young's Othello, sang the original air of "My mother had a maid called Barbara". On 1 February 1815 she was the original Donna Isidora in William Dimond's Brother and Sister; on 7 April Donna Orynthia in the Noble Outlaw, founded on the Pilgrim of Beaumont and Fletcher; and on 7 June Eucharis in Telemachus.

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