MENGIS, Joseph (b Leukerbad [Loèche-les-Bains], Switzerland, 11 September 1816; d Lausanne, 23 April 1881)

This chapter presents a biography of mid- to late-19th-century vocalist Joseph Mengis. The Swiss vocalist 'Herr Mengis' was well known and much loved in the 1850s. Mengis sang at a number of concerts during the London season of 1851, but he returned to Ireland, where he had become a popular favourite, both in opera with Mr and Mrs Sims Reeves and in concert. The Catherine Hayes concerts did fine business in New York and Brooklyn, and Mengis duly revolved his repertoire. In November 1852, Miss Hayes and Mengis set sail for California. Frequently now one spoke not of the 'Catherine Hayes concerts' but of 'Hayes and Mengis'. All who remember the happy and jolly face, the rich and sonorous voice and the portly figure of Herr Mengis during his advent here with the charming Catherine Hayes, will be glad to know that he has returned from California.