Fanny and Adelaide: The Lives of the Remarkable Kemble Sisters.(Review)

Fanny and Adelaide: The Lives of the Remarkable Kemble Sisters by Ann Blainey Ivan R. Dee, Publisher, 339pp. $27.50

Fanny and Adelaide Kemble were born into the great theatrical dynasty of England's Regency era. Their aunt, Sarah (Kemble) Siddons, was an actress of towering talent, one of the most famous figures of late-eighteenth-century London. Their uncle, John Philip Kemble, was a powerful actor-manager of the Theatre Royal at Drury Lane, while their father, Charles Kemble, was the foremost Shakespearean actor of his day. Ann Blainey's double biography, Fanny and Adelaide, tells the story of the sisters, who followed in the family tradition and went on to stardom in the theater (Fanny) and the opera (Adelaide).

Though Fanny (1809-93) has been the subject of seven previous biographies, this book is noteworthy for its focus on Adelaide (1814-79), who during her short (four-year) career became one of England's pre-eminent sopranos. Blainey is no more than a journeyman writer: the prose is dull, if correct. But the subjects are so colorful and the research so thorough that the book makes a real contribution to the literature of the stage.

Fanny made her debut as Juliet in 1829, on the stage of the Theatre Royal at Covent Garden, of which her father was part-owner. In fact, Fanny took to the stage to bail her father out, since he was having trouble making Covent Garden pay. On her immensely successful American tour of 1832 to '34, she met and married plantation-owner Pierce Butler. No proper American wife appeared onstage in those days, so Fanny's acting days came to a temporary end. Meanwhile Adelaide, five years younger, branched out into music. She was trained in Italy and made her debut as Norma at Venice's ...