The Australian bass, Henry Lempiere Pringle, was born at Hobart Tasmania on 8 June 1869. His father Charles L. Pringle is reported to have been a banker; his mother, Margaret Gifford Birkmyre Barclay was a musician. Young Henry began as a boy soprano in the local cathedral choir and in 1887 he came to London to study at the Royal College of Music with further tuition in Germany. He was back in London in 1891 to sing at a few concerts before joining the Rosa company.
Lempriere made his debut as Bruno in Daughter of the Regiment at the Theatre Royal Belfast on 12 August and eventually sang everything from Balfe to Wagner. He appeared in two world premieres. He was Lord Silvertop in The Golden Web (Goring Thomas) and John Dumbie in Jeannie Deans (McCunn). British English-language premieres included Montano in Otello (Verdi), Totonne in At Santa Lucia (Tasca) and La Balaire in La Vivandiere (Godard). Lempriere took a year off in 1896 to tour America and Canada with Emma Albani and returned to the Rosa in the following year. He finally departed in September 1898 after almost nine hundred company appearances in some fifty operas over seven years. Seasons at Covent Garden and the New York Met followed before returning to Australia to sing with the Musgrove opera company in 1901. He returned to London in the following year.
He described himself as ‘Operatic artist’ in the 1911 census but his later career consisted of operatic extracts – usually from Gounod’s Faust – in variety theatres, vocal contributions to stage plays, and concerts. He created Maskaroff in the British premiere of Oscar Straus’s operetta The Chocolate Soldier in 1910 and repeated the role in the revival of four years later. The recording studio and films also beckoned. He made at least one film in 1913 and about the same time recorded for the Grammavox company. He died in London on 23 October 1914 whilst appearing in the revival of The Chocolate Soldier.
Lempriere would have regarded his Covent Garden and Met seasons with Jean and Edouard de Reske and Lilian Nordica as colleagues as the peak of his career. It was but he had learned his trade with the Carl Rosa.
© 2025 John Ward
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