Charles James Mott

Charles James Mott (1880 – 22 May 1918) was an English baritone singer.

Charles James Mott was born in Hornsey, North London, the son of Henry Isaac Mott, a surveyor's clerk, and Eliza Brockley, a singing teacher. He was one of a large family. His early music was as a choirboy at St. James' Church in Muswell Hill. When he left school he took a clerical job like his brothers, and he became a bank clerk, where he was well known for his habit of singing to himself as he worked. After work he studied singing with Josiah Booth and Henry Stanley, before being spotted by Baron Frederic d'Erlanger who sent him to study with Paul Knupfer in Berlin. A year later, such was his progress that Knupfer arranged an audition with the Hofoper at Dessau leading to his becoming principal baritone.

At the age of 25 Charles returned to England to continue studying with Madame Novello Davies. His chance to sing publicly in England came when he was invited to share the stage with a new tenor, John McCormack. In 1909 he was given supporting roles at the Royal Opera, before being given the part of Méru in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, singing with Luisa Tetrazzini. In 1912 he sang in the Wagner Festival in Budapest, and the next year at the Edinburgh Festival. Early in 1913 he participated in an unsuccessful production of Raymond Roze's Joan of Arc, but later that year he was fortunate in playing leading roles more to his liking in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Lohengrin and Bizet's Carmen. Early in 1912 Mott sang the part of the Second Knight of the Grail in The Royal Opera's Festival of German Opera production of Wagner's Parsifal - this was the first English production, though sung in German. Following Parsifal, Mott sang in Tristan, Meistersinger and Götterdämmerung.

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