Anna, Lady Bishop was an English operatic soprano. She sang in many countries and was believed to be the most widely travelled singer of the 19th century. She was married to the composer Henry Bishop but abandoned him for the French harpist, composer and entrepreneur Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. She and Bochsa were said to have been the inspiration for Trilby and Svengali in George du Maurier's 1894 novel Trilby.
Anna Bishop, English operatic soprano, 1868
Anna Bishop – CD Fredericks – VB Lawrence 1995 p320
Sir Henry Rowley Bishop was an English composer from the early Romantic era. He is most famous for the songs "Home! Sweet Home!" and "Lo! Hear the Gentle Lark." He was the composer or arranger of some 120 dramatic works, including 80 operas, light operas, cantatas, and ballets. Bishop was Knighted in 1842. Bishop worked for all the major theatres of London in his era – including the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Vauxhall Gardens and the Haymarket Theatre, and was Professor of Music at the universities of Edinburgh and Oxford. His second wife was the noted soprano Anna Bishop, who scandalised British society by leaving him and conducting an open liaison with the harpist Nicolas-Charles Bochsa until the latter's death in Sydney.
Sir Henry Rowley Bishop, by Isaac Pocock
Bishop's grave at East Finchley Cemetery
Sir Henry Rowley Bishop by George Henry Harlow (died 1819)