Charles Manners (27 December 18573 May 1935) was a British bass singer and opera company manager. His earliest performances were with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, first as a chorus member and then as a principal, creating the role of Private Willis in Iolanthe in 1882. After leaving D'Oyly Carte the following year, he sang with several opera companies, most notably the Carl Rosa Opera Company and Covent Garden. In 1898, he and his wife, the singer Fanny Moody, set up their own company, dedicated to presenting opera in English.
The Moody-Manners company performed in London, the British provinces, North America and South Africa from 1898 to 1916. After his retirement, Manners continued to campaign for a national opera company, which was eventually founded forty years after his death.
Life and career
Early years
Manners was born Southcote Randal Bernard Campbell Mansergh in Hoddesdon, England, son of Colonel J. C. Mansergh, an Irishman. He was educated at Hoddesdon Grammar School and considered a career in the army. He tried engineering and stockbrokerage before deciding on music as a profession. He studied at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin, the Royal Academy of Music in London, and in Florence.
In either 1881 or 1882 he joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company as a chorus member. In early 1882, he appeared on tour in the chorus of Claude Duval and, later in the same year, in the chorus of H.M.S. Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance. He was promoted to the roles of Dick Deadeye in Pinafore and Samuel in Pirates in August 1882. He also appeared as Mr. Wallaby in the companion piece Quite an Adventure. In November 1882, he created the role of Private Willis in Iolanthe at the Savoy Theatre.
Manners left the D'Oyly Carte company in late 1883. In 1884, he sang Boleslas in Falka on tour. In 1885 he sang in light opera at the new Empire Theatre, and played Wickermark in a romantic opera, The Fay o' Fire at the Opera Comique with the young Marie Tempest. In 1886, he joined a touring opera troupe called "The Royal English Opera Company", later renamed "Sydney Leslie's Opera Company", playing Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro, and the Commendatore in Don Giovanni. For another touring company he played in the comic opera, Falka: "as Boleslas there is opportunity for display of a powerful physique and a good voice that Mr. Charles Manners is not slow to make use of." With the same company he played General Bombardos in the English première of Charles Lecocq's Pepita.
Carl Rosa and Covent Garden
In June 1887, Manners signed a two-year contract with the Carl Rosa Opera Company as a principal bass, making his début as King Henry in Lohengrin. His early roles for the company included Peter the Great in Meyerbeer's L'étoile du nord, the King of Spain in Maritana, Pietro in Auber's Masaniello, and Bertram in Robert the Devil. His later roles included Mephistopheles in Faust, and Cardina Brogni in La Juive. A fellow member of the company was the Cornish soprano Fanny Moody, whom Manners married three years later. When not touring in opera, Manners took part in concerts in London and the provinces, gaining favourable reviews. He was one of three singers invited to tour with Sims Reeves in Reeves's farewell series of concerts.
In October 1890 Manners joined the Covent Garden company, making his debut in Roberto il Diavolo. "The English basso-profondo, Mr. Charles Manners, sang with grand effect the music allotted to Bertram, and his acting was powerfully impressive." For the same management, this time at the Olympic Theatre, he appeared as King Henry in Wagner's Lohengrin (given in Italian: his role was billed as "Enrico l'Ucellatore") with Emma Albani as Elsa; and as Gremin in the British première of Eugene Onegin conducted by Henry Wood, with Fanny Moody as Tatiana.
In 1893 he made his New York début, and on his return he and Moody signed to appear with Augustus Harris's opera company. Among other roles, Manners played Devilshoof in The Bohemian Girl at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane with Moody as Arline. In 1896–97 he made a successful and remunerative tour of South Africa with Moody. When they returned to England in 1898, they formed the Moody-Manners Company.