BRUCE, SUSAN [WYATT, Susan Jane] (b Marylebone, London, 3 April 1804; d 52 Wigmore Street, London, 10 March 1890)

This chapter presents a biography of mid- to late-19th-century vocalist Susan Bruce. In respect to her well-connected relative, Sir Geoffrey Wyatville, Miss Susan Jane Wyatt was determined on taking to the career of public vocalist and assumed the name of 'Miss Bruce' in her late twenties. Rossini's aria "Vincesti", which she sang between the first and second acts, was a highly favourable specimen of her talent. She sang in others of the 'oratorios', as supporting soloist to Mary Ann Paton, in a performance of Messiah on 31 March 1830, and then at the Whitsun Oratorios at the King's Theatre, but her next sighting was at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, on 17 November 1830. In the early 1830s the London concert season filled its programmes regularly with the names of the stars of the fashionable Italian Opera – Pasta, Malibran, Joséphine De Méric, Cinti-Damoreau, Grisi – rare was the English lady vocalist who found herself a regular place alongside them.