Frederic King

Frederic King (1853 – 20 May 1933) was a baritone best known for his performances in the works composed by Arthur Sullivan for the Leeds Festivals of 1880 and 1886. Later, he taught singing for 42 years at the Royal College of Music.

Sorry, but this illustration from the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, actually shows John Francis Barnett, not Arthur Sullivan, conducting 'The Building of the Ship', not 'The Martyr of Antioch'. The bass soloist - the man with the beard is not Frederick King, but George Henschel. It was, however, Leeds 1880. The illustration is by John Disndale.

Born in Lichfield, the son of Thomas and Mary King, Frederic King was baptised on 13 January 1853 at St Michael's church in Lichfield. He worked in an auction house before joining the concert agents Messrs Harrison. He made his professional debut in a ballad concert at St James's Hall in 1878 and launched a successful career as a platform singer in baritone roles. He married Eva Hume (born 1863) in London in 1882, and they had two children, Mary Eva Oakley King (1883–1955) and Ernest Archibald Frederic King (1888–1973).

King created the role of Callias, the Priest of Apollo, in the first performance of Arthur Sullivan's oratorio The Martyr of Antioch at the triennial Leeds Festivals in 1880. He sang the role of Mephistopheles in the English premiere of Berlioz's La damnation de Faust at the Royal Albert Hall in 1882. In 1886, at Leeds, he sang the role of Lucifer in the first performance of Sullivan's cantata The Golden Legend (1886).

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