 He and his family moved to London by 1851, where he was reportedly a choirboy as a youth and later clerked for a lawyer.An amateur tenor by 1868, Talbot sang with such groups as the Moray Minstrels.By 1872, Talbot travelled to Italy to study music, where he began to perform under the name Signor Ugo Talbo in 1872, appearing in Giuseppe Verdi's "Rigoletto", as the title character in "Faust" and as Alvaro in "La Forza del destino", among other roles, and in concerts until at about 1876.