The Strand Magazine, Vol. 07, Issue 38, February, 1894: An Illustrated MonthlyVarious
General
The Strand Magazine, Vol. 07, Issue 38, February, 1894: An Illustrated Monthly
Various
English literature -- Periodicals; Short stories, English -- Periodicals
It is very well known that Mr. Lloyd has never disappointed the public
except through severe illness; he has been in three railway accidents,
but such severe upsets as these have never deterred him from proceeding
in the even tenor of his ways. He positively snaps his fingers at fogs,
and has sung in a hall when the place has been full of this speciality
of our particular climate which is so distressing to folk in general
and vocalists in particular.
The only occasion on which a fog was a real annoyance was one night
when, on leaving the Albert Hall after a Patti concert, the fog was so
thick that in thin shoes and a dress suit he had to take a lamp from
his carriage, and whilst his coachman led the horse, he had to light
the way. Mr. Lloyd fortunately possessed a good bump of locality; still
he did not reach Tulse Hill till half-past one in the morning.
He has smoked from an early age, and has never found it affect his
voice; still he would not advise young singers to take a pattern from
Mario, who he has been given to understand has smoked as many as thirty
cigars a day. He is inundated with songs, and it may be a consolation
to budding composers to know that the thoughtful tenor always returns
unaccepted scores when stamps are inclosed. He admits to one personal
mishap with his music when singing Blumenthal's beautiful melody, "The
Message." It was an old copy, and a page having become detached, was
economically sewn in. Unfortunately, it was not discovered until Mr.
Lloyd was in the midst of the song that the sheet had been sewn in
upside down.
Mr. Lloyd is famed for his punctuality at all his engagements. "And for
a very good reason, too," he said, when I reminded him of this. "It
was during my first tour with Mme. Liebhart, and Christian, the bass,
suffered with me. We had travelled from Dublin all day, and arrived
at our destination where we were to sing in the evening. Feeling very
tired, I lay down after dinner for a rest before the concert; Christian
did the same. We both fell fast asleep. We were to open the concert at
eight o'clock in the duet "Love and War." At five minutes past eight, a
man came rushing in to say the audience were waiting for our duet. We
flew to the hall, and had to go on a quarter of an hour late. I could
scarcely breathe and could barely get through my share in the duet. But
it was a quarter of an hour with a moral--ever since then I have always
been present a quarter of an hour before going on."
So the day passed happily at Hassendean, and the time came to say
good-night. As I was leaving, Mr. Lloyd put his hand on young Ramon's
head and said, good-naturedly, "Now, would you like to see something
of what I used to do when I was about his age, and was rewarded with
anything from buttered biscuits to a guinea?"
I need hardly say I assured him I should be delighted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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