Benjamin Lumley, opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 manager and solicitor, was born Benjamin Levy, in 1811, the son of a Jewish merchant Louis Levy, and died 17 March 1875 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

Beginnings at His Majesty's Theatre

Lumley trained as a solicitor

Solicitor

Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...

. In this capacity he gave legal advice to the financially troubled manager of His Majesty’s Theatre

Her Majesty's Theatre

Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...

, Laporte, who came to rely on him extensively. Soon Lumley was taking all the managerial decisions for the theatre, and when Laporte died in 1841, the committee of noblemen responsible for the opera company asked his protégé to take his place.

It says much about Lumley’s nature that he accepted this offer. He had already written a standard handbook on Parliamentary Private Bills and was studying for the Bar

Bar association

A bar association is a professional body of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction; others are professional organizations dedicated to serving their members; in many cases, they are both...

. But as Lumley’s unreliable memoirs clearly indicate, he had an irrepressible urge to mix in high society and make a name for himself, but that was the Business he was in. A great admirer of the stars of opera and ballet, a profligate giver of fêtes and parties, management of the Royal Italian Opera was the vehicle of his dreams, which he duly repaid by bringing the best of Italian Opera to Victorian London.

The conductor at His Majesty’s was Michael Costa

Michael Costa (conductor)

Sir Michael Andrew Angus Costa was an Italian-born conductor and composer who achieved success in England.-Biography:He was born in Naples as Michaele Andrea Agniello Costa, to a family, according to some, of Sephardic stock...

. By their different natures – one a devotee of high musical standards, the other a connoisseur of the star system, Lumley and Costa should have made a perfect team. And indeed they were so for the first five years, one of the longer surviving partnerships of the age. Artistic progress – induced by Lumley, much to Costas' alarm and trepidation included the introduction of operas by Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...

 to London, and new singing and dancing stars to replace the fading ‘old guard’, negotiations with Felix Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...

 for an opera on William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

’s Tempest – and of course Jenny Lind. This was linked to financial success, inducing Lumley, with a typical excess of sanguinity, to purchase the underlying lease of the theatre, From that point, inevitably, things began to go wrong.

One of the sensations of Lumley's management was the balletic 'Pas de Quatre

Pas de Quatre

Pas de Quatre is a ballet divertissement choreographed by Jules Perrot in 1845, on the suggestion of Benjamin Lumley, Director at His Majestys Theatre to music composed by Cesare Pugni....

', choreographed by Perrot, and with music by Pugni, in 1845. This divertissement, which featured as dancers Marie Taglioni

Marie Taglioni

Marie Taglioni was a famous Italian/Swedish ballerina of the Romantic ballet era, a central figure in the history of European dance.-Biography:...

, Carlotta Grisi

Carlotta Grisi

Carlotta Grisi, real name Caronne Adele Josephine Marie Grisi was an Italian ballet dancer born in Visinada, Istria . She was trained at the ballet school of Teatro alla Scala in Milan and later with dancer/balletmaster Jules Perrot...

, Cerrito and Grahn, may have been inspired by Lumley seeing four girls dancing outside the theatre. The 'Pas de Quatre' became an institution and is frequently revived.

Conflict with Costa

First, Costa felt neglected by Lumley, who, wisely from an artistic point of view, was not keen to produce Costa’s own ballets and operas. Furthermore, Lumley refused to permit Costa to take up the appointment of chief conductor to the Royal Philharmonic Society

Royal Philharmonic Society

The Royal Philharmonic Society is a British music society, formed in 1813. It was originally formed in London to promote performances of instrumental music there. Many distinguished composers and performers have taken part in its concerts...

, then the leading London symphonic orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

. In 1846 Costa decamped to Covent Garden, with most of the orchestra and singers, and the support of some leading London critics, to establish there the second Royal Italian Opera Company in competition with Lumley.

Lumley swiftly fought back, showing all his skills as an opportunist. He engaged the composer Michael Balfe to replace Costa. In 1847, despite legal threats from the Covent Garden management, he brought Jenny Lind

Jenny Lind

Johanna Maria Lind , better known as Jenny Lind, was a Swedish opera singer, often known as the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she is known for her performances in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and across Europe, and for an extraordinarily...

 over for her sensational London debut, for which he had prepared with unprecedented levels of spin and publicity. Fortunately for him, things turned out well, and profitable. Lind appeared as Alice in Robert le diable

Robert le diable

Robert le diable may refer to:* Robert le diable by Giacomo Meyerbeer* Robert the Devil, a medieval legend...

 by Giacomo Meyerbeer

Giacomo Meyerbeer

Giacomo Meyerbeer was a noted German opera composer, and the first great exponent of "grand opera." At his peak in the 1830s and 1840s, he was the most famous and successful composer of opera in Europe, yet he is rarely performed today.-Early years:He was born to a Jewish family in Tasdorf , near...

, and Mendelssohn, on his last London visit, who had encouraged her to take up Lumley’s offer, was in the audience despite his known distaste for Meyerbeer’s work.

Lumley had also extensively broadcast Mendelssohn’s Tempest opera as forthcoming. This was a bare-faced lie. Mendelssohn found the libretto by Eugene Scribe

Eugène Scribe

Augustin Eugène Scribe , was a French dramatist and librettist. He is best known for the perfection of the so-called "well-made play" . This dramatic formula was a mainstay of popular theater for over 100 years.-Biography:...

 completely unacceptable and did not even begin to write the music for it. The death of Mendelssohn in 1847 however gave Lumley an escape from his fabrications, and he commissioned the French composer Fromental Halévy

Fromental Halévy

Jacques-François-Fromental-Élie Halévy, usually known as Fromental Halévy , was a French composer. He is known today largely for his opera La Juive.-Early career:...

 to take it on. But the premiere of La Tempesta in 1850 was, at most, a succès d’éstime.

Financial Problems

Meanwhile Lumley had extended his interests by taking on in addition the management of the Théâtre des Italiens in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, and was soon negotiating with the actress Rachel

Rachel (actress)

Elisabeth "Eliza, or Élisa" Rachel Félix , better known only as Mademoiselle Rachel , was a French actress....

 and Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo

Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....

. In short, his frenzied activities resemble all too closely the hubris of speculative tycoons overreaching themselves. Not surprisingly he began to have problems paying his stars and seems to have been astonished when they began to walk out on him. The soprano Johanna Wagner, niece of the composer Wagner

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

, was lured to Covent Garden, sparking off a complex but fruitless litigation. The resulting case, 'Lumley v. Gye

Lumley v. Gye

Lumley v Gye [1853] is a foundational English tort law case, heard in 1853, in the field of economic tort. It held that one may claim damages from a third person who interferes in the performance of a contract by another....

', is still regarded as a major source for employment contract law. It is referred to in teaching at major institutions, and is cited in contemporary litigation. Lumley won, but it was for him a pyrrhic victory, resulting in financial loss.

By 1853 the financial problems were overwhelming, and Lumley ran for cover to France. He was tempted back when in 1856, the Covent Garden Theatre once again caught fire, and for three years he was once again the arbiter of Italian opera in London. But when Covent Garden was rebuilt, (the same theatre that stands today), he was offered the tenure for £100,000 funds which he simply didn't have.

Abandonment of the Opera

Lumley returned to the law, and in his later years wrote two works of fantasy and a legal reference book. His previous successes were never to be repeated. He died in 1875, leaving less than £1000 in his will.

Sources

• Benjamin Lumley, 'Reminiscences of the Opera', London, 1864. (autobiography)
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

External links