2-982-531 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Coloured Opera Troupe at the Oxford Street Gallery, 1858. Black entertainers in London. 'Eight minstrels, with "features of jet"...combine musically, vocally and instrumentally, for the delectation of those who delight in n*gger melodies-in number not a few, if we may judge by the audiences they command...The names of the troupe...are Willis, Kelly, Albain, Gance, Morrel, Wells, Montgomery, and Barratt. These gentlemen work well together, and appear to equal each other in spirit, activity, resources, talent, and love of fun. Nothing can be more silly and absurd than these n*gro-rhymes, the imperfections of which reckon among their attractions, a false rhyme taking the rank of a positive beauty...It is the ebony that gives the due and needful colour to the monstrosities, the breaches of decorum, the exaggerations of feeling, and the "silly, sooth" character of the whole implied drama. Some of the instrumental music is marvellous. Mr. Wile's military solo on the concertina commanded tremendous applause; Mr. Kelly's experiment on the Lignum Vitae Wood Harmonium excited wonder; and the quartette extraordinary, with the peculiar cross-bowing, provoked astonishment and merriment in equal proportions'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.