Elizabeth Billington

Elizabeth Billington
by James Hopwood, 1801
Born	Elizabeth Weichsel 1765 London
Died	25 August 1818(1818-08-25) Venice
Occupation	opera singer

Elizabeth Billington (1765 or 1768, London – 25 August 1818, Venice) was a British opera singer.

She was probably born about 1768 in Litchfield Street, Soho, London. She was the daughter of Carl Weichsel, a native of Freiberg, in Saxony, principal oboist at the King's Theatre. Her mother, Frederika, née Weirman, an English vocalist of some distinction, was a pupil of Johann Christian Bach, and sang at Vauxhall with success between 1765 and 1775.

Elizabeth Weichsel received her earliest musical instruction, in company with her brother Charles (who afterwards was known as a violinist) from her father, under whom she studied the pianoforte with such assiduity that on 10 March 1774 she played at a concert at the Haymarket for her mother's benefit. In addition to her father's instruction she studied under Johann Samuel Schroeter, and before she was twelve years old published two sets of pianoforte sonatas. She now began to turn ner attention to the cultivation of her voice, and at the early age of fourteen appeared at a public concert in Oxford.

On 13 October 1783 she was married under her mother's maiden name, Wierman, at Lambeth Church to James Billington, a double-bass player in the Drury Lane orchestra, from whom she had had lessons in singing. Immediately after their marriage the Billingtons went to Dublin, where she made her first appearance on the stage in the part of Eurydice. After singing at Waterford and other towns in Ireland she returned to London in 1786, and was offered an engagement at Covent Garden for three nights only, but she insisted on being engaged for twelve nights, at a salary of £12 a week. On these terms she was announced to appear on 14 Feb. 1786, but the renown she had already won in Dublin had preceded her, and 'by command of their majesties' she appeared on the 13th as Rosetta in Thomas Arne's 'Love in a Village.' At the end of the twelve nights she was engaged for the rest of the season at a salary' of £1,000.

A contemporary account of her at this period says that her voice was of great sweetness, compass, and power, and that she possessed 'a great deal of genuine beauty and very unaffected and charming manners;' but the secret of her great success was the unremitting zeal with which she studied her art. Her brother-in-law, Thomas Billington, says that she had originally 'a very indifferent voice and manner,' which she completely changed by the industry with which, throughout her public career, she pursued her studies. At the end of her first season she went to Paris, and had lessons from the Antonio Sacchini, whose last pupil she was, and at different periods of her career she also studied with Morelli, Ferdinando Paer, and Friedrich Heinrich Himmel. She returned to London for the season of 1786-7, and continued to sing there, at Covent Garden, the Concerts of Ancient Music, the so-called Oratorios, and the Handel Commemorations, until the end of 1793. William Shield wrote his operas of 'Marian' and 'The Prophet' for her, and in 1789 she appeared as Yarico in Dr. Arnold's long-popular compilation, 'Inkle and Yarico.' Others of her favourite parts were Mandane (in 'Artaxerxes'), and the heroines in 'Polly,' the 'Duenna,' the 'Castle of Andalusia,' 'Corali,' 'Clara,' the 'Flitch of Bacon'.