Catherine Hayes

This article is about the Irish singer. For the English murderer (1690-1726), see Catherine Hayes (murderer). For the fictional character based on the murderer, see Catherine (novel).

Catherine Hayes, September 1854, wood engraving by George W. Mason

Catherine Hayes [married name Bushnell] (29 October 1825 – 11 August 1861) was the first Irish-born opera diva to achieve international acclaim.

Catherine Hayes on cover of "Why do I weep for thee?" (words by George Linley, composed by William Vincent Wallace c.1855)

She was born at 4 Patrick Street, Limerick, Ireland, but her father deserted the family, causing great financial distress. The young Catherine Hayes worked as a charwoman at Lord Limerick's house in Henry Street, where she sang as she worked and was heard by a Dr Knox, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Limerick. He arranged sponsorship for her to study under Antonio Sapio in Dublin where she gave her first public performance in 1839 at the age of 19. Seven years later Catherine Hayes was prima donna at La Scala, Milan, and in 1849 she gave a Command Performance for Queen Victoria with the Royal Italian Opera Company. She returned to Limerick in March 1850 where she gave a performance of Bellini's La sonnambula at the Theatre Royal.

Catherine Hayes toured extensively in Europe, America and Australia. She was the first Irish international star and the first ever opera star to tour Australia. She sang for the Hawaiian royal family in Honolulu, Hawaii and a street was named in her honour in San Francisco where she married her manager, William Avery Bushnell in 1857. She was the highest paid singer of her time attracting huge fees for her performances.

Catherine Hayes died in August 1861 at the age of 35 and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in London. During her lifetime she was a generous supporter of many charitable works in Ireland, including the restoration of St Mary's Cathedral in Limerick as well as many causes abroad.

A shopping centre is now being built next to the location of her birth place and is to be called The Opera Centre in her honour. Her birthplace is also being converted into a Museum.

She was the great-great-aunt of the American actress Helen Hayes.

Catherine Hayes, Kathleen Mavourneen and a world tour

The Irish soprano Catherine Hayes (1818–1861), the Hibernian prima donna, was the first Irish woman to sing at La Scala in Milan. She learned Kathleen Mavourneen while training in Dublin. It became her signature tune during concerts and she sang it for Queen Victoria and over 500 royal guests during a concert performed at Buckingham Palace in June 1849.

During several very successful years in Italy, Catherine Hayes became in the 1840s the foremost Lucia di Lammermoor. She toured the world between 1851 and 1856, literally circumnagivating the globe, performing in operas and singing concerts. The trip began in New York in 1851 and she appeared in over forty other cities on the east coast of the USA and Canada. From there she toured extensively across the US - Charleston SC, Savannah GA, New Orleans and Baton Rouge LA, Memphis and Nashville TN, San Francisco and Sacramento CA, (1851–53) Lima (Peru), Valparaiso and Santiago (Chili)(1853–54), Honolulu Hawaii (July 1854), Sydney, Melbourne, Geelong and Adelaide (Australia)(in 1854 and again in 1855), Bendigo, Hobart (Tasmania 1856), and Calcutta, Singapore, and Java (1855).

Further reading

• Catherine Hayes: The Hibernian Prima Donna, by Basil Walsh

External links

• Australian Dictionary of Biography
• Women of Ireland — Catherine Hayes
• Catherine Hayes file at Limerick City Library, Ireland