John Braham - Braham's Later Career

Braham's Later Career

Following his marriage, Braham seems to have brought to a close any overt identification with the Jewish community. We do not find after this date appearances at Jewish charities or functions. This withdrawal also follows the publication of Byron's and Nathan’s Hebrew Melodies, to which he had lent his name (although he had no part in creating them) in return for a share of the profits. Despite the intention that Braham would publicise the songs there seems to be no record of his ever having performed them. His marriage, and the vehement anti-Jewish reviews which Byron's poetry received, may have both provided significant disincentives to do so. Although Nathan's first edition of the Melodies seems to have been profitable, Braham declined lending his name on the same terms to the second edition in 1824. Thus the year 1816 marks the turning of the tide as regards Braham’s self-identification. Leigh Hunt, writing in 1850, gives an ironic indication of Braham’s eventual Anglicization, dropping many of his Jewish mannerisms:

Byron would pleasantly pretend that Braham called 'enthusiasm' entoozy-moozy; and in the extraordinary combination of lightness, haste, indifference and fervour with which he would pitch out that single word from his lips, accompanied with a gesture to correspond, he would really set before you the admirable singer in one of his (then) characteristic passages of stage dialogue. He did not live to see Braham become an exception in his dialogue as in his singing.

Despite the dip in public support when he broke with Storace, Braham’s reputation remained strong until at least the mid-1820s, when he created in London the role of Huon in Weber’s opera, Oberon and sang in Mozart’s Requiem at Weber’s funeral service not long afterwards (June 1826). In the 1830s critics began to dispute whether his voice still served, and he began to abandon tenor roles for baritone parts. Poor investments, including an unhappy venture into theatre management at the St. James's Theatre, which he built in 1835, meant that he was forced to continue to exploit his reputation long after his voice could justify it, at times retiring to the continent to avoid bankruptcy proceedings.

In 1840 he sang in Mendelssohn's Second Symphony (Lobgesang) at Birmingham under the composer's baton, and subsequently undertook a tour of America with his son Charles Braham. His last public performance was given in London in March 1852 (that is, when he was probably 78 years old) and he died there on 16 February 1856.

He also worked as a singing teacher. Two of his notable pupils included mezzo-soprano Adelaide Kemble and soprano Fanny Corri-Paltoni.

Braham continued to be dogged by the aftermath of the Storace affair, most notably through the antipathy, (fuelled by personal enemies), of his son by Storace, Spencer. Spencer ended up, having taken the surname Meadowes, as a canon of Canterbury Cathedral.