Henry Phillips (singer)
Henry Phillips (1801–1876) was an English singer who sang operatic roles in the 1820s and 1830s. He was born in Bristol on 13 August 1801, the son of actor Richard Phillips. At eight, he sang as a boy at Harrogate Theatre and soon after sang soprano parts at the Haymarket and then Drury Lane theatres. He studied with Mr. Broadhurst and began his career as a bass at Covent Garden in Henry Rowley Bishop's Law of Java, though he was mainly a baritone and sometimes a bass. His voice was weak, so he moved to Bath. He returned to London in 1823 to study under Sir George Smart and was hired by Charles Kemble to sing in Thomas Arne's Artaxerxes, but the performance was a failure.
In 1824 he found success as Caspar in Der Freischütz, and his reputation grew. He worked at provincial festivals and did much theatre and concert work. In 1825 he became principal bass at the Concerts of Antient Music and joined the choir of London's Bavarian Chapel. In 1834 he sang at the Lyceum Theatre in Edward Loder's Nourjahad and in John Barnett's The Mountain Sylph, notably with the ballad Farewell to the Mountain. In 1843 he began a series of “table entertainments” that he continued for the rest of his career. He visited America in 1844. On his return he sang in Maritana and Elijah. Mendelssohn wrote a scena for him from Ossian, On Lena's gloomy heath, and he performed it at the Philharmonic Concert on 15 March 1847. After this his voice declined, his engagements faded, and he gave his farewell concert on 25 February 1863. He then taught singing, first in Birmingham and later near London. He died in Dalston on 8 November 1876 and was buried at Brookwood Cemetery in Woking.
Phillips wrote songs including “The best of all good Company” and “Shall I, wastynge in despaire.” His autobiography, Musical and Personal Recollections of Half a Century (2 vols., 1864), was published along with Hints on Declamation (1848) and The True Enjoyment of Angling (1843).
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 22:58 (CET).