Benedict, Julius

Julius Benedict – The Tempest Op. 77

(b. Stuttgart, 27 November 1804 – d. London, 5 June 1885)

Concert overture

Preface
Sir Julius Benedict was a composer and conductor who helped to popularize classical music in the 19th century. Born in Germany in 1804, his career began in his composition studies in Dresden, where Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837) and Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826) were his teachers. In 1823, Benedict met Ludwig von Beethoven, through Weber, and was appointed conductor at the Kärntnertor Theater in Vienna. His career in theatre conducting took him to Naples in 1825, where his first opera, Giacinta ed Ernesto, was written and premiered in 1827. This was the first of three operas ( the others were I portoghesi in Goa (1830) and Un anno ed un giorno (1836)), that he composed during his time in Naples, but which found little success there.

After a short stay in Paris in 1834, Benedict ultimately settled in London in 1835, at the suggestion of Maria Malibran (1808–1836), a Spanish soprano. He knew Malibran through his work in the opera theatres, where he often conducted or accompanied her. He spent the rest of his life in London, taking British citizenship and receiving a knighthood in 1871.

In 1836, when Benedict became conductor of the Lyceum Theatre, he tried to gain favor with his opera Un anno ed un giorno, which had previously been unsuccessful at its premiere Naples. This new staging was received by the public in a much better way than the Italian rendition. Two years later he was offered to conduct the English opera at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, for which he produced three further operas: The Gipsy’s Warning (1838), The Brides of Venice (1844), and The Crusaders (1846). After this long period in the operatic world, he took a sixteen years respite from composing stage works and dedicated himself to writing oratorios, cantatas, piano concertos and songs. …

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