Born in London in approximately 1768, Elizabeth Weichsel was the daughter of Carl Weichsel, German native and clarinet principal at the King’s Theatre. Her mother would be a favored singer for years at Vauxhall, and the musical influence would launch the eventual famed opera singer into an early career.
While Billington would be later recalled as the greatest sopranos of all time (Great Singers: Faustina Bordoni to Henrietta Sontag) she was also a composer and actress who was singing professional from the age of six and composing at the age of eleven. It can be of little surprise, then, that she made an early match:
Great Singers: Faustina Bordoni to Henrietta Sontag, George Titus Ferris (1898)
Elizabeth was a superstar who studied harpsichord with Johann Bach, toured the UK and Europe, and even had an expose written about her (Memoirs of Mrs. Billington, 1792). A recent analysis (2009) of the memoir calls it a “pornographic, misogynistic, political tract that tests a range of autobiographical possibilities as it reveals the power structure of romantic theater and cultural production” (Levin, Vice, Ugly Vice: Memoirs of Mrs. Billington from her Birth, p.49). It was popular because Elizabeth was a celebrity–doubtless she would have been daily on TMZ if alive today.
James Billington died in Italy after the couple’s arrival, but Elizabeth stayed on. She remarried in 1799 to a M. Felissent, but fled after two years to England in the face of her new husband’s abuse. After her return, she was in high demand from theatres, and was said to rake in record fees for her performance (Perfect Likeness, 2006). During this era, between 1801 and 1809, she would perform at Drury Lane, Covent Garden, the Italian Opera, the Concert of Ancient Music, and many provincial festivals (A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1879).
She retired in 1811, and in 1817 returned to a begging husband. She died in 1818, rumored to be as a result of her husband’s beating (Perfect Likeness, 2006).
With the legacy of not only one of the greatest voices in the history of opera, but also as one of the most successful and commanding celebrities of her time, Elizabeth Billington lived a rockstar life that definitely qualifies her as a Regency Woman of Character.
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