Reginald Goodall
Encyclopedia
Sir Reginald Goodall was an English
conductor
, noted for his performances of the operas of Richard Wagner
and conducting the premieres of several operas by Benjamin Britten
.
and elsewhere in Europe. In 1929, he became the organist and choirmaster at St. Alban's, Holborn
. In the 1930s, he was a member of Oswald Mosley
's short-lived British Union of Fascists
, and gave out leaflets and sat in on meetings. He maintained his outspoken pro-Nazi views during World War II and was briefly arrested.
Goodall joined the Sadler's Wells
company, forerunner of the English National Opera
, in 1944. An early triumph was his conducting of the premiere of Benjamin Britten
's Peter Grimes
in 1945. He conducted this again later at the Royal Opera House
, Covent Garden
, where he had first conducted in 1947. He was an assistant conductor to the music director of the Royal Opera House, Karl Rankl
, in the late 1940s. Goodall also conducted at Glyndebourne
, including another Britten premiere, this time of The Rape of Lucrece
, which was also his first recording, with EMI
.
Goodall spent much of his career conducting orchestras at the Royal Opera House and Sadler's Wells Opera. He left Covent Garden for Sadler's Wells when Georg Solti
was made Music Director of the Royal Opera, partly because Solti was 11 years younger, partly out of racial animus. At Sadler's Wells, Goodall collaborated with Leonard Hancock, the head of Sadler's Wells music staff.
A modest man, Goodall achieved his own prominence in later life once he was able to come out from under the shadow of some of the great German and Austrian conductors of his era, for whom he understudied, conducted rehearsals and provided vocal coaching. But it was not Otto Klemperer
, Herbert von Karajan
or Wilhelm Furtwängler
with whom he was then compared. It was with Georg Solti, when both were conducting and recording Ring Cycle
s by Richard Wagner
. The differences in tempi
and temperament were most notable, but Goodall was most appreciated for his attention to detail (and Wagner's annotations) and for his extensive rehearsals. Solti's recordings made in Vienna had the advantage of attracting the more remarkable soloists (singing in the original language) and are probably now better appreciated, not least for their more spirited tempi, though recent recordings by Daniel Barenboim
and James Levine
have returned to a more measured approach.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Goodall conducted several celebrated Wagner productions at Sadler's Wells Opera that reversed the decline in his prestige and established him as one of the leading Wagner conductors of his time. He conducted The Mastersingers
in 1968, and the full Ring Cycle from 1970 to 1973, both productions sung in English. Goodall was much loved by musicians and singers with whom he worked over long periods, building up a mutual understanding and rapport which showed in the quality of his recordings, especially with British singers, notably Rita Hunter
and Alberto Remedios
, whose careers he fostered. Many British reviewers consider his Ring to be vocally one of the most beautiful, even if the entire tetralogy lasted three hours longer than under the batons of Karl Böhm
or Pierre Boulez
.
His last public performance was in 1987 at the Royal Albert Hall
, London where he led the English National Opera Company in a performance of Act 3 of Wagner's Parsifal
. The cast included Gwynne Howell
(Gurnemanz), Warren Ellsworth (Parsifal), Neil Howlett
(Amfortas) and Shelagh Squires (Kundry).
John Lucas published an authorized biography of Goodall, Reggie, in 1993.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
, noted for his performances of the operas of Richard 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...
and conducting the premieres of several operas by Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
.
Biography
Known as "Reggie", Goodall studied at the Royal College of MusicRoyal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
and elsewhere in Europe. In 1929, he became the organist and choirmaster at St. Alban's, Holborn
Holborn
Holborn is an area of Central London. Holborn is also the name of the area's principal east-west street, running as High Holborn from St Giles's High Street to Gray's Inn Road and then on to Holborn Viaduct...
. In the 1930s, he was a member of Oswald Mosley
Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...
's short-lived British Union of Fascists
British Union of Fascists
The British Union was a political party in the United Kingdom formed in 1932 by Sir Oswald Mosley as the British Union of Fascists, in 1936 it changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists and then in 1937 to simply the British Union...
, and gave out leaflets and sat in on meetings. He maintained his outspoken pro-Nazi views during World War II and was briefly arrested.
Goodall joined the Sadler's Wells
Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue located in Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington. The present day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500 seat main auditorium and the Lilian Baylis Studio, with extensive...
company, forerunner of the English National Opera
English National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...
, in 1944. An early triumph was his conducting of the premiere of Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes is an opera by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto adapted by Montagu Slater from the Peter Grimes section of George Crabbe's poem The Borough...
in 1945. He conducted this again later at the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
, where he had first conducted in 1947. He was an assistant conductor to the music director of the Royal Opera House, Karl Rankl
Karl Rankl
Karl Rankl was a British conductor and composer of Austrian birth. A pupil of the composers Schoenberg and Webern, he conducted at opera houses in Austria, Germany and Czechoslovakia until fleeing from the Nazis and taking refuge in England in 1939.Rankl was appointed musical director of the...
, in the late 1940s. Goodall also conducted at Glyndebourne
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an English opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England.-History:...
, including another Britten premiere, this time of The Rape of Lucrece
The Rape of Lucrece
The Rape of Lucrece is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare about the legendary Lucretia. In his previous narrative poem, Venus and Adonis , Shakespeare had included a dedicatory letter to his patron, the Earl of Southampton, in which he promised to write a "graver work"...
, which was also his first recording, with EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
.
Goodall spent much of his career conducting orchestras at the Royal Opera House and Sadler's Wells Opera. He left Covent Garden for Sadler's Wells when Georg Solti
Georg Solti
Sir Georg Solti, KBE, was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor. He was a major classical recording artist, holding the record for having received the most Grammy Awards, having personally won 31 as a conductor, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to his...
was made Music Director of the Royal Opera, partly because Solti was 11 years younger, partly out of racial animus. At Sadler's Wells, Goodall collaborated with Leonard Hancock, the head of Sadler's Wells music staff.
A modest man, Goodall achieved his own prominence in later life once he was able to come out from under the shadow of some of the great German and Austrian conductors of his era, for whom he understudied, conducted rehearsals and provided vocal coaching. But it was not Otto Klemperer
Otto Klemperer
Otto Klemperer was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the leading conductors of the 20th century.-Biography:Otto Klemperer was born in Breslau, Silesia Province, then in Germany...
, Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
or Wilhelm Furtwängler
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Wilhelm Furtwängler was a German conductor and composer. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. By the 1930s he had built a reputation as one of the leading conductors in Europe, and he was the leading conductor who remained...
with whom he was then compared. It was with Georg Solti, when both were conducting and recording Ring Cycle
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
s by Richard 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...
. The differences in tempi
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
and temperament were most notable, but Goodall was most appreciated for his attention to detail (and Wagner's annotations) and for his extensive rehearsals. Solti's recordings made in Vienna had the advantage of attracting the more remarkable soloists (singing in the original language) and are probably now better appreciated, not least for their more spirited tempi, though recent recordings by Daniel Barenboim
Daniel Barenboim
Daniel Barenboim, KBE is an Argentinian-Israeli pianist and conductor. He has served as music director of several major symphonic and operatic orchestras and made numerous recordings....
and James Levine
James Levine
James Lawrence Levine is an American conductor and pianist. He is currently the music director of the Metropolitan Opera and former music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Levine's first performance conducting the Metropolitan Opera was on June 5, 1971, and as of May 2011 he has...
have returned to a more measured approach.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Goodall conducted several celebrated Wagner productions at Sadler's Wells Opera that reversed the decline in his prestige and established him as one of the leading Wagner conductors of his time. He conducted The Mastersingers
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is an opera in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. It is among the longest operas still commonly performed today, usually taking around four and a half hours. It was first performed at the Königliches Hof- und National-Theater in Munich, on June 21,...
in 1968, and the full Ring Cycle from 1970 to 1973, both productions sung in English. Goodall was much loved by musicians and singers with whom he worked over long periods, building up a mutual understanding and rapport which showed in the quality of his recordings, especially with British singers, notably Rita Hunter
Rita Hunter
Rita Hunter CBE was a British operatic dramatic soprano.Rita Hunter was born in Wallasey, Merseyside. She studied singing in Liverpool with Edwin Francis and later in London with Redvers Llewellyn and Clive Carey...
and Alberto Remedios
Alberto Remedios
Alberto Remedios is a British former operatic tenor, especially noted for his interpretations of Wagner's heldentenor roles....
, whose careers he fostered. Many British reviewers consider his Ring to be vocally one of the most beautiful, even if the entire tetralogy lasted three hours longer than under the batons of Karl Böhm
Karl Böhm
Karl August Leopold Böhm was an Austrian conductor. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century.- Education :...
or Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
.
His last public performance was in 1987 at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
, London where he led the English National Opera Company in a performance of Act 3 of Wagner's Parsifal
Parsifal
Parsifal is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail, and on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail.Wagner first conceived the work...
. The cast included Gwynne Howell
Gwynne Howell
Gwynne Howell is a Welsh bass, particularly associated with Verdi and Wagner roles.-Life and career:Born in Gorseinon, Wales, he studied at the RMCM, where he sang Leporello in concert, and Hunding, Fasolt, and Pogner in staged performances.He joined the Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1968, and the...
(Gurnemanz), Warren Ellsworth (Parsifal), Neil Howlett
Neil Howlett
Neil Howlett is a retired English operatic baritone who has sung leading roles in major opera houses and festivals in the UK and abroad, including the Royal Opera House, Teatro Colón, and the English National Opera, where he was the Principal Baritone for seventeen years...
(Amfortas) and Shelagh Squires (Kundry).
John Lucas published an authorized biography of Goodall, Reggie, in 1993.
External links
- "The First Digital Tristan - a talk with the Maestro, the Hero and the Boss" by Bruce Duffie. Wagner News, February, 1982.
- Stereophile review of Goodall's Ring, reissued on CD 2001
- "Reginald Goodall – the holy fool", On an Overgrown Path (blog), 8 May 2007 blog entry.
- Interview by Bruce Duffie, November 18, 1981