CASTLE, William [James] (b St Mary le More parish, Wallingford, Berkshire, 22 December 1836; d 442 West Adams, Chicago, 31 March 1909)

This chapter presents a biography of mid- to late-19th-century vocalist William Castle. He was probably the most popular operatic tenor of the Victorian era on the English-language stages of America. William seems to have started his musical career in 1859. The young tenor caught the public ear, and soon he (like Campbell) was taking lessons from Pedro Abella, husband of the splendid Mme D'Angri. Through 1863, Castle was regularly on show in concert in New York, Brooklyn, Boston or Washington with the pick of the local artists: S B Mills, Gottschalk, Carlotta Patti, Marie Abbott, and Jennie van Zandt. William Castle, at the age of fifty, was still not finished. When the Casino Theatre, New York, produced The Gypsy Baron, it was he who was cast in the role of Sandor Barinkay, and, when George L Hinrichs launched his New American Opera Company in 1888, Castle was the leading tenor.