Jane Bianchi

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Jane Bianchi Lacy (1776 – 19 March 1858) was a British soprano, pianist, painter and linguist. She was born Jane Jackson in London.

In 1800 she married the Italian composer Francesco Bianchi and became known as Jane Bianchi. She was a leading performer of Handel’s music in London and often entertained King George III and Queen Charlotte at Windsor Castle. She wrote a song for voice and piano called Helen, based on a poem by Peter Pindar, published around 1805 and again possibly in 1812. In 1806 the Austrian composer Joseph Woelfl published Six English Songs dedicated to her.

Jane and Francesco had a daughter who died at age five. Francesco Bianchi killed himself and was buried at St Mary Abbots in Kensington. Jane later married again, to a singer named William Lacy (a bass).

She continued singing and, in 1813, performed at the Concerts of Antient Music, earning £126 for that concert (she had sung there before, in 1800 when she was Miss Jackson). Around this time she published a song she had composed called Winter’s beautiful Rose, with words by Amelia Opie.

In 1818 Jane and William left England for Calcutta and stayed seven years, performing at the court of Saadat Ali Khan II in Oudh, India.

She published an unseen work by her first husband in 1820/1821. Jane Bianchi died in Ealing in 1858; her second husband, William Lacy, survived her.