In a hushed drawing room, where the Stewart tartan décor was tastefully complemented by the guests’ dazzling diamonds, the Taylor Swift of her day steeled herself for her toughest audience.
Jessie MacLachlan had the voice of a Gaelic angel matched by a shrewd business sense.
Not unlike today’s pop megastar, she rose to become a globe-trotting artist whose appearances at the world’s grandest venues sparked a ticket dash and drew crowds in their thousands.
Her fans were the ‘Swifties’ of the times too. The most devout thought nothing of travelling hundreds of miles by steam train and bone-jangling horse and carriage to catch a glimpse.
Sometimes the dash to snare a ticket for her show saw ticket office barriers smashed, and police drafted in control the crowds.
Behind the beauty of her voice and elegant demeanour, meanwhile, was a steely focus: Jessie was not to be dictated to by showbusiness overlords or bullied by Victorian society’s attitudes to what women should and should not do.
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Before all of that, though, in the spotlight of Balmoral Castle’s tartan-decorated drawing room, Jessie put her dreadful nerves aside to deliver a string of beautiful Gaelic and Scots ballads that left the notoriously hard to please monarch very much amused.
Indeed, Queen Victoria was so delighted that she gifted Jessie a glittering diamond bracelet - her approval immediately launched her the way to becoming one of the biggest artists of her day.
Jessie went on to thrill audiences around the world with her sounds of Scotland including many who had no understanding of her native Gaelic.
From New York to Sydney and across Europe, her success spanned almost 25 years before being brought to a premature end with her death in 1916, aged just 50.
In life, she was a soprano superstar but in death, Jessie, the ‘Scottish Prima Donna’, was quickly forgotten.
Now as Gaelic performers gather for the Royal National Mòd in Oban, Jessie's life is being celebrated in a new exhibition that honours her musical achievements and shines light on the steely character behind the angelic voice.
The venue and timing of the exhibition is particularly poignant. Held in her hometown of Oban, her 1892 gala performance there for the first ever Royal National Mòd caught the eye of the Queen’s daughter, Princess Louise, the Duchess of Argyll, and paved the way to her pivotal Balmoral Castle audience.
The ‘royal command performance’ had an instant impact, says Dr Priscilla Scott, who has worked on the new exhibition with her cousin, Gaelic singer and broadcaster Mary Ann Kennedy.
“Jessie sang in Gaelic and in English and the Queen was very taken with her,” she says. “Almost overnight the name Jessie MacLachlan went ‘viral’ in the Victorian newspapers.”
Jessie, born in 1866 and the eldest of eight children, was already well used to performing: her talent emerged when she was just eight years old, singing in her church choir.
Her training at London’s Guildhall School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music suggested she was destined to become a world-class opera singer.
But, says Dr Scott, Jessie’s strong will – perhaps at odds with how women are often viewed at the time – shone through. She dug her heels in and set her sights on specialising in Gaelic and Scottish song and presenting her homeland in a new light.
“She was very single-minded, and she knew what she wanted,” she says. “And she wanted to show Scotland and our culture to the world.
“There was a mission about her.
“It may have been her ‘backlash’ to the music halls and how Scotland was portrayed in them.
“She was not this stereotypical ‘Highland lassie’ on stage singing dressed in tartan.
“She was a modern woman embracing a new era.
“The dawn of the 20th century for women in particular was a time of change,” she continues. “She wasn’t out carrying a banner, but she was quietly making the point that she didn’t see any obstacles because she was a woman.”
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Her impressive talent saw her beautifully interpret songs in Scots and English but, crucially, in her mother tongue of Gaelic at a time when it was under threat.
It was also an era of rapid change in Scotland: tourism ignited by Queen Victoria’s love for the Highlands had taken hold, thriving music halls provided entertainment for the masses and improvements in transport and communication helped to quickly spread the word of her performances.
Further afield, her international appearances were fuelled by the Scots diaspora seeking tangible connections with their homeland.
Her popularity led to mammoth world tours, appearing night after night often in front of crowds of more than 5,000, from America and Canada to Australia and New Zealand.
Her tour itineraries were gruelling and little short of incredible, adds Dr Scott.
“In 1901 she headed to Canada so she could perform at Burns Night concerts which were a huge success.
“She would have been travelling in winter, when the weather was bad, going by train and carriage with all her luggage containing her stage dresses.
“These would not be easy journeys.
“While as a singer, she would have to look after her voice, she couldn’t afford to catch a cold.”
One visit to Ontario saw her stuck for six weeks when snow completely blocked the railway tracks.
And in British Columbia, a winter landslide left meant trains couldn't run. Undaunted, Jessie pleaded with railway workers using a hand trolley to let her jump on board and get to her concert on time.
Even at home conditions on tour, travelling on bumpy roads by horse and carriage, could be tortuous. One winter trek between venues in Aberdeenshire saw Jessie stuck in snow in a third-class carriage without food for 36 hours.
By her side throughout was her husband and pianist Robert Buchanan, whose constant presence enabled her to travel extensively at a time when married women were expected to stay at home, she adds.
“She filled a theatre in Sydney for six consecutive nights which would be hard going for a solo singer who was not performing with a band.
“I’ve read many reviews of her performances and have yet to read any that are lukewarm.”
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She says a review from Melbourne in 1907 is typical of her reception on tour: “We have never had a singer in this city who has stirred up such scenes as the one on Saturday night, when 3,000 men and women stood up to cheer, to applaud, to wave hats, and handkerchiefs, and to show in other ways their appreciation of that incomparable artist, Jessie MacLachlan”.
Three concerts in Ontario sparked such fervour that the gathering crowds smashed through brass barriers to get into the hall, while police had to be brought in to regulate the traffic outside.
Her nine appearances at Massey Hall in Toronto could have sold out several times over, and anothre nine at Town Hall in Sydney broke the venue's records.
Her natural talent to deliver songs and charming manner enchanted her audiences.
According to one American reviewer she sang with “with genuine feeling, purity and expression” so that “even those who do not understand the language of the Gael or have never heard a Gaelic song sung are unconsciously captured by the pathos and fire into the beautiful melody.”
“She was the equivalent of a big pop star today. She was a very smart woman who knew how to put forward a positive image and how to engage with the media of the time.
“People like Sir Harry Lauder were keen to hook up with her because they knew she was a huge draw and every bit the star of the day.”
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Her last public appearance was at the Amsterdam Opera House, New York, where she sang before an audience of 5000 in October 2013.
She was on holiday in Spain with her husband and son in 1914 when war broke out.
“The couple immediately had to try to get home but could not get passage for love nor money. They ended up having to travel on a horribly cramped steamer back to the UK,” she adds.
“Robert later said how it did not have adequate water or food on board.
“Jessie fell ill and never really recovered.”
She was buried at Glasgow's Cathcart Cemetery where her gravestone was in disrepair until Mary Ann and Dr Scott’s lockdown project to research her story led to a BBC Alba documentary and a drive to restore it.
Their work led to the development of an education pack, now downloaded more than 11,000 times.
It’s hoped the exhibition, Smeòrach nan Gàidheal, or Songbird (thrush) of the Gaels, might lead to a permanent venue for exhibits that include posters, programmes, photographs, letters and a tartan rug specially woven for Jessie by her Canadian supporters.
“There were hundreds of people at her funeral,” says Mary Ann.
“When you consider how women musicians and academics have had to graft to be recognised in a male dominated world, she was a real role model and trailblazer.”
Smeòrach nan Gàidheal - Songbird (thrush) of the Gaels - is at the Caledonian MacBrayne Ferry Terminal on South Pier, Oban, until October 20.
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