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119-568: Fleeing internal politics at Sadler's Wells Opera at the end of 1945, Britten and singers Joan Cross , Anne Wood , and Peter Pears joined with designer Piper and producer Crozier to found the English Opera Group. The new company's goal was to première Britten's operas, and to present other, mostly British, small-scale operas. The company's first project was to première Britten's chamber opera Albert Herring and give further performances of his opera The Rape of Lucretia during

238-562: A Victorian philanthropist who ran the Old Vic theatre in a working-class area of London, began presenting regular fortnightly performances of opera excerpts. Although the theatre licensing laws of the day prevented full costumed performances, Cons presented condensed versions of well-known operas, always sung in English. Among the performers were noted singers such as Charles Santley . These operatic evenings quickly became more popular than

357-497: A "nice, pleasant evening ... had come to the wrong place." The differences between Smith and Payne became irreconcilable, and Payne was forced to resign in July 2002. The successor to Payne was Séan Doran , whose appointment was controversial because he had no experience of running an opera company. He attracted newspaper headlines with unusual operatic events, described by admirers as "unexpected coups" and by detractors as "stunts";

476-564: A 1982 set of Haydn 's twelve London symphonies with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra "distinguished by performances of tremendous style and authority, and a sense of rhythmic impetus that is most exhilarating"; and a 1995 Beethoven symphony cycle with the Dresden Staatskapelle, of which Gramophone wrote, "There has not been a Beethoven cycle like this since Klemperer's heyday." Davis made

595-450: A Britten and Stravinsky interpreter" with productions of Peter Grimes and The Rake's Progress . Davis conducted more than 30 operas during his fifteen-year tenure, but "since people like Maazel , Abbado and Muti would only come for new productions", Davis yielded the baton to these foreign conductors, giving up the chance to conduct several major operas, including Der Rosenkavalier , Rigoletto and Aida . In addition to

714-652: A difference, but that Sadler's Wells needed "a big heave to get out of mediocrity". In the same year, The Times Literary Supplement asked whether the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells companies would stick to their old bases, "or shall they boldly embrace the ideal of a National Theatre and a National Opera in English?" Carey left in 1947, replaced in January 1948 by a triumvirate of James Robertson as musical director, Michael Mudie as his assistant conductor and Norman Tucker in charge of administration. From October 1948, Tucker

833-427: A few were. But because, like Elder, he enabled so many other talents to thrive. Productions during the 1980s included the company's first presentations of Pelléas and Mélisande (1981), Parsifal (1986) and Billy Budd (1988). 1980s productions that remained in the repertory for many years included Xerxes directed by Hytner, and Rigoletto and The Mikado directed by Jonathan Miller . In 1984 ENO toured

952-477: A financial crisis, exacerbated by backstage industrial relations problems. After 1983, the company ceased touring to other British venues. Assessing the achievements of the 'Powerhouse' years, Tom Sutcliffe wrote in The Musical Times : ENO is not second best to Covent Garden. It is different, more theatrical, less vocal. ... The ENO now follows a policy like Covent Garden's in the early years after

1071-640: A freelance musician (the "freelance wilderness", in his own phrase) where he remained until 1957. His first conducting work was with the Kalmar Orchestra, which he co-founded with other former students of the Royal College. He was subsequently invited to conduct the recently founded Chelsea Opera Group in Don Giovanni . In the early years of his career, he also took some engagements as an orchestral clarinettist. What seemed at first to be

1190-721: A full-time conducting appointment, for the Original Ballet Russe in 1952, ended abruptly after three months, when the company collapsed. In between sparse conducting engagements, Davis worked as a coach and lecturer, including spells at the Cambridge University Musical Society and the Bryanston Summer School, where a performance of L'enfance du Christ awakened his love of Berlioz 's music. His first breakthrough came in 1957 when, at his third attempt, he secured

1309-476: A heart attack. Her three companies continued under the direction of her appointed successors: Tyrone Guthrie at the Old Vic, in overall charge of both theatres, with de Valois running the ballet, and Carey and two colleagues running the opera. In the Second World War, the government requisitioned Sadler's Wells as a refuge for those made homeless by air-raids. Guthrie decided to keep the opera going as

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1428-438: A joint enterprise with Covent Garden, where he was in command. At first, the apparent financial security of the offer appeared attractive, but friends and advisers such as Edward J. Dent and Clive Carey convinced Bayliss that it was not in the interests of her regular audience. This view received strong support from the press; The Times wrote: The Old Vic began by offering opera of some sort to people who hardly knew what

1547-689: A licence to allow the Old Vic to stage full performances of operas. In the 1914–1915 season, Baylis staged 16 operas and 16 plays (13 of which were by Shakespeare ). In the years after the First World War, Baylis's Shakespeare productions, which featured some of the leading actors from London's West End , attracted national attention, as her shoe-string opera productions did not. The opera, however, remained her first priority. The actor-manager Robert Atkins , who worked closely with Baylis on her Shakespearean productions, recalled, "Opera, on Thursday and Saturday nights, played to bulging houses." By

1666-503: A masterpiece," and other reviewers agreed with him. Payne insisted, "I think it's one of the best things we've done. ... It's exceeded my expectations." In the arts pages of The Financial Times , Martin Hoyle wrote of Payne's "exquisite tunnel vision" and expressed "the concern of those of us who value the true people's opera". Payne remained adamant that opera lovers who came to the ENO for

1785-656: A number of records with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for Philips, including the first of his three Sibelius cycles, which remains in the CD catalogues. They also recorded works by Debussy , Grieg , Schubert , Schumann , and Tchaikovsky . For RCA Victor Red Seal , Davis recorded complete symphony cycles of Sibelius (with the LSO), Brahms (Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, 1989–98), and Schubert (Dresden Staatskapelle, 1996). Davis's term as principal conductor of

1904-489: A performance of the third act of The Valkyrie played to 20,000 rock music fans at the Glastonbury Festival . In December 2003, Daniel announced his departure from ENO at the end of his contract in 2005. Oleg Caetani was announced as the next music director, from January 2006. In 2004, ENO embarked on its second production of Wagner's Ring . After concert performances over the previous three seasons,

2023-407: A professional orchestra of only 18 players, for whom Corri rescored the instrumental parts of the operas. By the early years of the 20th century, the Old Vic was able to present semi-staged versions of Wagner operas. Emma Cons died in 1912, leaving her estate, including the Old Vic, to Baylis, who dreamed of transforming the theatre into a "people's opera house". In the same year, Baylis obtained

2142-593: A recording made in Kingsway Hall , London, for Decca with the New Symphony Orchestra of London and pianist Peter Katin performing Rachmaninov 's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor Op. 18. He made several records for the small independent label L'Oiseau Lyre , including a 1960 L'enfance du Christ and a 1962 Béatrice et Bénédict which, at April 2013, were both still available on CD. For EMI he made both operatic and orchestral recordings,

2261-512: A second company was established. It was based at Leeds in northern England, and was known as ENO North. Under Harewood's guidance, it flourished, and in 1981 it became an independent company, Opera North . In 1982, at Elder's instigation, Harewood appointed David Pountney director of productions. In 1985 Harewood retired, becoming chairman of ENO's board the following year. Peter Jonas succeeded Harewood as managing director. The 1980s leadership team of Elder, Pountney and Jonas became known as

2380-413: A small touring ensemble of 20 performers. Between 1942 and the war's end in 1945, the company toured continuously, visiting 87 venues. Joan Cross led and managed the company, and also sang leading soprano roles in its productions when needed. The size of the company was increased to 50, and then to 80. By 1945, its members included singers from a new generation such as Peter Pears and Owen Brannigan , and

2499-627: A third Sibelius symphony cycle (2002–2008); Smetana 's Má vlast (2005); Tippett 's A Child of Our Time (2007), Verdi 's Falstaff (2004), Requiem (2009), and Otello (2010); and Walton 's First Symphony (2005). Davis was appointed CBE in 1965, knighted in 1980 and appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 2001. He was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society 's gold medal in 1995,

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2618-571: A tour of British and continental European venues. It also commissioned and premièred a new piece by Lennox Berkeley , a setting of the Stabat Mater . Despite heavy subsidies, however, the costs of touring could not be recouped, so Britten and the group's other directors decided that it should be based at a home venue. This was the prime reason for the inauguration of the Aldeburgh Festival in 1948. The first opera commissioned by

2737-415: A year-round, permanent ensemble, singing in English, instead of the shorter international seasons of pre-war years. This was a potential path to merge the two companies, as the modus operandi of the new Covent Garden company was now similar to that of Sadler's Wells. However, David Webster , who was appointed to run Covent Garden, though keen to secure de Valois' ballet company for Covent Garden, did not want

2856-421: Is more authoritative than could have been predicted from his uneven accounts of the previous operas." The production attracted generally bad notices. The four operas were given individual runs, but were never played as a complete cycle. During the 2000s the company repeated the experiment, previously tried in 1932, of staging oratorios and other choral works as operatic performances. Bach 's St. John Passion

2975-562: The Enigma Variations (2007) and the Introduction and Allegro for Strings (2005), the three symphonies (2001), and The Dream of Gerontius (2005); Handel's Messiah (2006); Haydn's Die Schöpfung (2007); Holst 's The Planets (2002); James MacMillan 's St John Passion , (2008) The World's Ransoming and The Confession of Isobel Gowdie (2007); Mozart 's Requiem (2007); Nielsen 's Symphonies Nos. 4–5 (2011);

3094-486: The BBC , and the new music director was Sian Edwards . Pountney's post of director of productions was not filled. Marks, inheriting a large financial deficit from his predecessors, worked to restore the company's finances, concentrating on restoring ticket sales to sustainable levels. A new production by Miller of Der Rosenkavalier was a critical and financial success, as was a staging of Massenet's Don Quixote , described by

3213-777: The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra . He also held the musical directorships of Sadler's Wells Opera and the Royal Opera House , where he was principal conductor for over fifteen years. His guest conductorships included the Boston Symphony Orchestra , the New York Philharmonic and the Staatskapelle Dresden , among many others. As a teacher, Davis held posts at the Royal Academy of Music , London, and

3332-481: The Boston Symphony Orchestra invited him to become its musical director, but Davis felt that if Covent Garden needed him, it was his duty to take on the post. Webster's vision was that Davis and the stage director Sir Peter Hall , formerly of the Royal Shakespeare Company , would work in equal partnership as musical director and director of productions. After early successes together, including

3451-573: The English Opera Group . The departure of the ballet company to Covent Garden two months later deprived Sadler's Wells of an important source of income, as the ballet had been profitable and had since its inception subsidised the opera company. Clive Carey, who had been in Australia during the war, was brought back to replace Joan Cross and rebuild the company. The critic Philip Hope-Wallace wrote in 1946 that Carey had begun to make

3570-768: The Landesgymnasium für Musik "Carl Maria von Weber" (preparatory school for music) in Dresden. He made his first gramophone recordings in 1958, and his discography over the next five decades was extensive, with many studio recordings for Philips Records and a substantial catalogue of live recordings for the London Symphony Orchestra's own label. Davis was born in Weybridge , Surrey, the fifth of seven children, to Reginald George Davis (a bank clerk) and Lillian Constance (Colbran) Davis. The family

3689-613: The London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane . It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera . ENO's productions are sung in English. The company's origins were in the late 19th century, when the philanthropist Emma Cons , later assisted by her niece Lilian Baylis , presented theatrical and operatic performances at the Old Vic , for the benefit of local people. Baylis subsequently built up both

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3808-544: The London Mozart Players , the chief music critic of The Observer , Peter Heyworth , wrote: Davis first found wide acclaim when he stood in for an ill Otto Klemperer in a performance of Don Giovanni , at the Royal Festival Hall in 1959. A year later, Beecham invited him to collaborate with him in preparing The Magic Flute at Glyndebourne . Beecham was taken ill, and Davis conducted

3927-651: The London Symphony Orchestra , Davis was named chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO), effective September 1967. At first, in the general view of the public, his tenure was overshadowed, at least during the Proms , by the memory of Sir Malcolm Sargent . Compared to the "suave father figure" image of Sargent to the promenaders, it took some time for the much younger Davis to be accepted. The BBC's official historian of

4046-412: The freehold of Sadler's Wells. Work started on the site in 1926. By Christmas 1930, a completely new 1,640-seat theatre was ready for occupation. The first production there, a fortnight's run from 6 January 1931, was Shakespeare's Twelfth Night . The first opera, given on 20 January, was Carmen . Eighteen operas were staged during the first season. The new theatre was more expensive to run than

4165-477: The "Powerhouse", initiated a new era of "director's opera". The three of them favoured productions described, contrastingly, by Elder as "groundbreaking, risky, probing and theatrically effective", and by the director Nicholas Hytner as "Euro-bollocks that never has to be comprehensible to anybody but the people sitting out there conceiving." Directors who did not, in Harewood's phrase, "want to splash paint in

4284-559: The 1920s, Baylis concluded that the Old Vic no longer sufficed to house both her theatre and her opera companies. She noticed the empty and derelict Sadler's Wells theatre in Rosebery Avenue, Islington , on the other side of London from the Old Vic. She sought to run it in tandem with her existing theatre. Baylis made a public appeal for funds in 1925. With the help of the Carnegie Trust and many others, she acquired

4403-529: The 1950s. New repertoire was explored, such as the first British staging of Janáček 's Káťa Kabanová , at Mackerras's urging. Standards and company morale were improving. The Manchester Guardian summed up the 1950–51 London opera season as "Excitement at Sadler's Wells: Lack of Distinction at Covent Garden" and judged Sadler's Wells to have moved "into the front rank of opera houses". The company continued to leave Rosebery Avenue for summer tours to British cities and towns. The Arts Council (successor to CEMA)

4522-574: The 2,351-seat London Coliseum for a summer season. Ten years later, the lease of the Coliseum became available. Stephen Arlen, who had succeeded Tucker as managing director, was the primary advocate for moving the company. After intense negotiations and fund-raising, a ten-year lease was signed in 1968. One of the company's last productions at the Islington theatre was Wagner's The Mastersingers , conducted by Goodall in 1968, which 40 years later

4641-468: The 2011 season continued the company's traditions of engaging directors with no operatic experience (a well-reviewed The Damnation of Faust staged by Terry Gilliam and set in Nazi Germany) and of drastic reinterpretations (a version of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream presented by Christopher Alden as a paedophile parable set in a 1950s boys' school, which divided critical opinion). In

4760-472: The 2012–13 season ENO introduced "Opera Undressed" evenings, aimed at attracting new audiences who had thought opera "Too pricey, too pompous, too posh". Operas advertised under this banner were Don Giovanni , La traviata , Michel van der Aa 's Sunken Garden (performed at the Barbican ) and Philip Glass's The Perfect American . In January 2014, the ENO announced Gardner's departure as music director at

4879-546: The British public and conducted the première of Bennett 's The Mines of Sulphur (1965)." Together with the stage director Glen Byam Shaw , he worked to present operas in a way that gave due weight to the drama as well as the music. In his early years, Davis was known as something of a firebrand with a short fuse in rehearsals, and his departure from Sadler's Wells in 1965 was not without acrimony. After he left Sadler's Wells, and being passed over as principal conductor of

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4998-475: The Carmelites (1999). Co-productions, enabling opera houses to share the costs of joint enterprises, became important in this decade. In 1993 ENO and Welsh National Opera collaborated on productions of Don Pasquale , Ariodante and The Two Widows . The aim must be to create a new audience that does not see opera as a middle class trophy art form: an audience that Payne was beginning to attract to

5117-459: The Coliseum. Director Tim Albery and colleagues, The Times , 18 July 2002 Operagoers want to hear great singing and orchestral playing presented in the context of a work's ethos rather than in some form only comprehended by the director. Critic Alan Blyth , The Times , 19 July 2002 Martin Smith, a millionaire with a finance background, was appointed chairman of

5236-471: The ENO announced that surtitles would be introduced at the Coliseum. Surveys had shown that only a quarter of audience members could hear the words clearly. With a few exceptions, including Lesley Garrett and Andrew Shore , ENO singers of the 21st century were considered to have poorer diction than earlier singers such as Masterson and Derek Hammond-Stroud . Harewood and Pountney had been immovably opposed to surtitles, as both believed that opera in English

5355-465: The ENO board in 2001. He proved to be an expert fund-raiser, and personally donated £1M to the cost of refurbishing the Coliseum. He and Payne came into conflict over the effect on revenue of the "director's opera" productions that Payne insisted on commissioning. The most extreme case was a production of Don Giovanni directed by Calixto Bieito in 2001, despised by critics and public alike; Michael Kennedy described it as "a new nadir in vulgar abuse of

5474-458: The ENO is Martyn Brabbins . Noted directors who have staged productions at the ENO have included David Pountney , Jonathan Miller , Nicholas Hytner , Phyllida Lloyd and Calixto Bieito . The ENO's current artistic director is Annilese Miskimmon. In addition to the core operatic repertoire, the company has presented a wide range of works, from early operas by Monteverdi to new commissions, operetta and Broadway shows. In 1889, Emma Cons ,

5593-540: The International Chair of Orchestral Studies at the Royal Academy of Music , London. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood , principal of the academy, wrote of Davis: Davis's discography is extensive, numbering over 300 recordings. He made his first record in 1958 conducting the Sinfonia of London in performances of Mozart 's Symphonies 29 and 39 for World Record Club (TZ 130). This was followed on 8 May 1959 by

5712-679: The Iranian and British authorities, the couple were married three times, once in Iran and twice in the UK, in the Iranian Embassy in London as well as in a UK civil ceremony; they had five children. One of their children is the conductor Joseph Wolfe , who chose a different surname, because he wanted to "create some space to grow and develop my own identity as a musician". Shamsi died in June 2010 at

5831-694: The LSO coincided with the orchestra's decision to launch its own record label, LSO Live. Davis' recordings on the LSO Live label include Beethoven 's opera Fidelio (2006), a wide range of Berlioz works, including a second recording of Les Troyens (2000), La damnation de Faust (2000), Roméo et Juliette (2000), Béatrice et Bénédict (2000), Harold en Italie (2003), and the Symphonie fantastique (2000); Britten 's Peter Grimes (2004); Dvořák 's Symphonies Nos. 6–9 (1999–2004); five Elgar sets:

5950-406: The LSO, both as principal conductor and later as president, Davis conducted series and cycles of the music of Sibelius, Berlioz, Bruckner, Mozart, Elgar, Beethoven, and Brahms, and in 2009 began presenting a cycle of the symphonies of Carl Nielsen . Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians wrote: Davis was president of the Landesgymnasium für Musik "Carl Maria von Weber" in Dresden, and held

6069-490: The London opera scene, Tucker, his deputy Stephen Arlen , and his musical director Alexander Gibson resigned. The proposals were modified, and the three withdrew their resignations. In 1960, the Carl Rosa Company was dissolved. Sadler's Wells took over some of its members and many of its touring dates, setting up "two interchangeable companies of equal standing", one of which played at Sadler's Wells theatre while

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6188-605: The Old Vic, as a larger orchestra and more singers were needed, and box office receipts were at first inadequate. In 1932, the Birmingham Post commented that the Vic-Wells opera performances did not reach the standards of the Vic-Wells Shakespeare productions. Baylis strove to improve operatic standards, while at the same time fending off attempts by Sir Thomas Beecham to absorb the opera company into

6307-579: The Proms and throughout the rest of the orchestra's annual schedule. Following his tenure as BBC SO chief conductor, Davis served as chief guest conductor of the BBC SO from 1971 to 1976. In 1970, Sir David Webster , who ran the Royal Opera and the Royal Ballet companies at Covent Garden , invited Davis to succeed Sir Georg Solti as principal conductor of the opera. At about the same time,

6426-490: The Proms later wrote, "Davis never really identified himself with the Proms in the way that Sargent had done. Davis was uncomfortable with the traditional hullabaloo of the Last Night of the Proms and attempted, unsuccessfully, to modernise it. The BBC's Controller of Music, William Glock , was a long-standing admirer of Davis, and encouraged him to put on adventurous programmes, with a new emphasis on modern music, both at

6545-665: The Queen's Medal for Music , 2009, and has numerous international awards, including Commendatore of the Republic of Italy , 1976; Shakespeare Prize (Germany), 1984; Commander's Cross, Order of Merit (Germany), 1987; Commandeur, l' Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France), 1990; Commander, Order of the Lion (Finland), 1992; Order of Merit (Bavaria), 1993; Officier, Légion d'honneur (France), 1999 (Chevalier, 1982); Order of Maximilian (Bavaria), 2000. Other awards include Pipe Smoker of

6664-680: The Sadler's Wells opera company. He considered Sadler's Wells to be a worthy organisation, but also "dowdy" and "stodgy". Even with a policy of singing in English, he believed that he could assemble a better company. The management of Sadler's Wells was unwilling to lose its company's name and tradition. It was agreed that the two companies should remain separate. Divisions within the company threatened its continued existence. Cross announced her intention to re-open Sadler's Wells theatre with Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten , with herself and Pears in

6783-570: The South Bank of the Thames near the Royal Festival Hall , which fell through because the government was unwilling to fund the building. Once again, there was serious talk of merging Covent Garden and Sadler's Wells. The Sadler's Wells board countered by proposing a closer working arrangement with Carl Rosa. When it became clear that this would require the Sadler's Wells company to tour for 30 weeks every year, effectively removing its presence on

6902-643: The United States; the travelling company, led by Elder, consisted of 360 people; they performed Gloriana , War and Peace , The Turn of the Screw , Rigoletto and Patience . This was the first British company to be invited to appear at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where Patience received a standing ovation and Miller's production of Rigoletto , depicting the characters as mafiosi ,

7021-717: The Year in 1996, Male Artist of the Year in the Classic Brit Awards 2008, the Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Opera for his LSO Live recording of Verdi's Falstaff , and the Elgar Medal in 2012. He won a total of 10 Grammy Awards and 34 nominations during his career. In 1949, Davis married the soprano April Cantelo . They had two children. Their marriage ended in 1964, and in that same year, Davis married Ashraf Naini, known as Shamsi. To satisfy both

7140-412: The audience, and booing was heard at a "disastrous" Nabucco in 1972. His conducting of Wagner's Ring cycle was at first compared unfavourably with that of his predecessor. Among his successes were Berlioz's massive Les Troyens (with Jon Vickers and Anja Silja ) and Benvenuto Cellini , Verdi's Falstaff , the major Mozart operas, and, as one critic put it, he "confirmed his preeminence as

7259-458: The campaign against yet another proposal to merge Covent Garden and ENO, which was rapidly abandoned. In 1998 Nicholas Payne, director of opera at Covent Garden, was appointed as ENO's general director. Productions in the 1990s included the company's first stagings of Beatrice and Benedict (1990), Wozzeck (1990), Jenůfa (1994), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1995), Die Soldaten (1996), Doctor Ox's Experiment (1998) and Dialogues of

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7378-556: The company was "capable of extraordinary artistic work", but "we have serious concerns about their governance and business model and we expect them to improve or they could face removal of funding." In March 2015 Cressida Pollock, a management consultant, was named the interim CEO of ENO. In July 2015, Berry resigned as artistic director of ENO. Critical and box-office successes in the company's 2014–2015 season included The Mastersingers , which won an Olivier Award for best new opera production, and Sweeney Todd , with Bryn Terfel in

7497-458: The company was Colin Graham. One of their 1976 productions was The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill , conducted by the young Simon Rattle . After a final production of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1980, the company was disbanded. Notes Sources Sadler%27s Wells Opera English National Opera ( ENO ) is a British opera company based in London, resident at

7616-463: The conducting class at the college, because he could not play the piano. Following compulsory military service and completing his studies at college, Davis served as a clarinettist in the band of the Life Guards . Stationed at Windsor , he had continual opportunities to attend concerts in London under conductors including Sir Thomas Beecham and Bruno Walter . In 1949, he began his career as

7735-663: The conductor Reginald Goodall . Both Sadler's Wells and the Royal Opera House had presented no opera or ballet since 1939. The Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts ( CEMA ), the official government body charged with dispensing the modest public subsidy recently introduced, considered its options on the future of opera in Britain. CEMA concluded that a new Covent Garden company should be established, as

7854-428: The critic Hugh Canning as "the kind of old-fashioned theatre magic which the hair-shirted Powerhouse regime despised". Marks was obliged to spend much time and effort in securing the funding for an essential restoration of the Coliseum, a condition on which the ENO had acquired the freehold of the theatre in 1992. At the same time the Arts Council was contemplating a cut in the number of opera performances in London, at

7973-421: The dramas that Cons had been staging separately. In 1898, she recruited her niece Lilian Baylis to help run the theatre. At the same time she appointed Charles Corri as the Old Vic's musical director. Baylis and Corri, despite many disagreements, shared a passionate belief in popularising opera, hitherto generally the preserve of the rich and fashionable. They worked on a tiny budget, with an amateur chorus and

8092-421: The duties between Loretta Tomasi as chief executive and John Berry as artistic director. These elevations from within the organisation were controversial, because they were neither advertised nor cleared at the top level of the Arts Council. Smith received severe press criticism for his action, and in December 2005 he announced his resignation. In the same week, Caetani's appointment as the next ENO music director

8211-444: The end of the 2014–15 season, to be succeeded by Mark Wigglesworth . At the time, the ENO had accumulated an £800,000 deficit, exacerbated by reductions in public subsidy; The Times commented that the incoming music director had a reputation for "steely, even abrasive determination" and that he would need it. From late 2014 the company went through a further organisational crisis. The chairman, Martyn Rose, resigned after two years in

8330-435: The expense of ENO, rather than Covent Garden. By increasing ticket sales in successive years, Marks demonstrated that the Arts Council's proposition was unrealistic. After what The Independent described as "a sustained period of criticism and sniping at the ENO by music critics", Edwards resigned as music director at the end of 1995. Paul Daniel became ENO's next music director. In 1997, Marks resigned. No official reason

8449-413: The face of the public" were sidelined. A 1980s audience survey showed that the two things that ENO audiences most disliked were poor diction and the extremes of "director's opera". In the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , Barry Millington has described the 'Powerhouse' style as "arresting images of dislocated reality, an inexhaustible repertory of stage contrivances, a determination to explore

8568-603: The first English conductor to appear at Bayreuth , where he conducted the opening opera of the festival, Tannhäuser . Despite the Bayreuth habitués' suspicion of newcomers, his Tannhäuser was "highly successful". He debuted at the Metropolitan Opera , New York City, in 1967 with Peter Grimes , the Vienna State Opera in 1986 and the Bavarian State Opera in 1994. From 1983 to 1993, Davis

8687-478: The first in the orchestra's 460-year-history, and whose musicians referred to Davis with the nickname "Der Sir". From 1998 to 2003, he was principal guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic. In 1995, Davis was appointed principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra , the culmination of a long association with the orchestra. He had first conducted the LSO in 1959, and in 1964 he headed

8806-509: The former with Sadler's Wells forces, including excerpts from Carmen and a complete Oedipus rex , and the latter including Harold in Italy with Yehudi Menuhin , and what remains one of his best-known recordings, a 1961 Beethoven Seventh Symphony . In the 1960s, Davis signed as an exclusive artist for Philips Records , with whom he made an extensive range of recordings in the symphonic repertoire and many operatic recordings, including

8925-451: The four operas of the cycle were staged at the Coliseum in 2004 and 2005 in productions by Phyllida Lloyd , with designs by Richard Hudson , in a new translation by Jeremy Sams . The first instalments of the cycle were criticised as poorly sung and conducted, but by the time Twilight of the Gods was staged in 2005, matters were thought to have improved: "Paul Daniel's command of the score

9044-486: The group in 1961. In 1971 Steuart Bedford was appointed musical director, and Colin Graham became director of productions. In 1975 the group was enlarged to be able to produce works such as operettas and musicals in addition to opera. As well as appearing at festivals such as Aldeburgh, the company undertook regional tours and yearly performance seasons at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in London. The founder and leader of

9163-738: The group, Brian Easdale 's The Sleeping Children , was premièred in 1951. It gave the North American première of Britten's The Turn of the Screw at Canada's Stratford Festival in 1957. Aside from other new works by Britten, the group commissioned and produced eleven other new operas by British composers. It also gave the British première of Francis Poulenc 's opera Les mamelles de Tirésias in 1958. The group also performed older operas, such as Acis and Galatea , The Beggar's Opera , Idomeneo , Iolanta , La rondine and Trial by Jury , and works by Henry Purcell and Gustav Holst . The Royal Opera, London took over management of

9282-577: The high cost of opera productions, enabling a further increase in the size of the orchestra, to 48 players. Among the singers in the opera company were Joan Cross and Edith Coates . In the 1930s, the company presented standard repertoire operas by Mozart , Verdi , Wagner and Puccini , lighter works by Balfe , Donizetti , Offenbach and Johann Strauss , some novelties, among which were operas by Holst , Ethel Smyth and Charles Villiers Stanford , and an unusual attempt at staging an oratorio, Mendelssohn 's Elijah . In November 1937, Baylis died of

9401-794: The highlights of the first ten years at the Coliseum were the Ring , Prokofiev 's War and Peace , and Richard Strauss 's Salome and Der Rosenkavalier . The company's musical director from 1970 to 1977 was Charles Mackerras. Harewood praised his exceptional versatility, with a range "from The House of the Dead to Patience ." Among the operas he conducted for the company were Handel's Julius Caesar starring Janet Baker and Valerie Masterson ; five Janáček operas; The Marriage of Figaro with pioneering use of 18th century performing style; Massenet 's Werther ; Donizetti's Mary Stuart with Baker; and Sullivan's Patience . The company took

9520-528: The leading roles. Many complaints resulted about supposed favouritism and the "cacophony" of Britten's score. Peter Grimes opened in June 1945, to both public and critical acclaim; its box-office takings matched or exceeded those for La bohème and Madame Butterfly , which the company was concurrently staging. However, the rift within the company was irreparable. Cross, Britten and Pears severed their ties with Sadler's Wells in December 1945 and founded

9639-521: The major Mozart operas; operas by Tippett, Britten, Verdi and Puccini; and a comprehensive survey of the operas of Berlioz, culminating in an award-winning first recording of the complete Les Troyens issued in May 1970. Davis's 1966 Philips recording of Handel's Messiah was regarded as revelatory at the time of its issue for its departure from the large-scale Victorian-style performances that had previously been customary. Other Philips recordings included

9758-482: The opera and the theatre companies, and later added a ballet company; these evolved into the ENO, the Royal National Theatre and The Royal Ballet , respectively. Baylis acquired and rebuilt the Sadler's Wells theatre in north London, a larger house, better suited to opera than the Old Vic. The opera company grew there into a permanent ensemble in the 1930s. During the Second World War, the theatre

9877-707: The opera. After the Don Giovanni , The Times wrote, "A superb conductor of Mozart declared himself last night at the Festival Hall…. Mr Davis emerged as a conductor ripe for greatness." Neville Cardus in The Guardian was less enthusiastic but nevertheless considered that he "had his triumphs" in the performance. After The Magic Flute , The Times called Davis "master of Mozart's idiom, style and significance", although Heyworth in The Observer

9996-565: The orchestra appointed him its President, an honour previously held only by Arthur Bliss , William Walton , Karl Böhm and Leonard Bernstein . On 21 June 2009, 50 years to the day after his first LSO performance, a special concert was given at the Barbican, at which present-day players were joined by many past members of the orchestra. His programme for the concert was Mozart's Symphony No 40 in G minor, and Brahms's Piano Concerto No 2 , with Nelson Freire as soloist. During his time with

10115-550: The orchestra's first world tour. He became principal guest conductor in 1975 and was at the helm in the LSO's first major series at its new home, the Barbican Centre , in a Berlioz/Tippett festival in 1983. In 1997 he conducted the LSO's first residency at Lincoln Center in New York City. Davis was the longest-serving principal conductor in the history of the LSO, holding the post from 1995 until 2006, after which

10234-487: The other was on the road. By the late 1950s, Covent Garden was gradually abandoning its policy of productions in the vernacular; such singers as Maria Callas would not relearn their roles in English. This made it easier for Tucker to point up the difference between the two London opera companies. While Covent Garden engaged international stars, Sadler's Wells focused on young British and Commonwealth performers. Colin Davis

10353-568: The post of assistant conductor of the BBC Scottish Orchestra (now the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra ). The chief conductor of the orchestra generally chose to conduct the standard repertoire pieces himself, and left Davis with modern works and non-standard repertoire works, including those of Berlioz. By 1959, Davis had developed to the extent that, after a concert of Stravinsky and Mozart with

10472-574: The post, following irreconcilable differences with Berry. Henriette Götz, the company's executive director, who had a series of public disagreements with Berry, resigned soon after. In February 2015, the Arts Council of England announced the unprecedented step of removing ENO from the national portfolio of 670 arts organisations that receive regular funding, and instead offered "special funding arrangements" because of continuing concerns over ENO's business plan and management. The council recognised that

10591-525: The première of Michael Tippett 's The Knot Garden in December 1970, Hall left to succeed Laurence Olivier as director of the National Theatre . Webster had retired by that time, leaving Davis, together with Webster's successor as General Administrator, Sir John Tooley , to run the Royal Opera. Davis' early months in charge at Covent Garden were marked by dissatisfaction among some of

10710-477: The production of the last to the Vienna Festival in 1975, along with Britten's Gloriana . Sir Charles Groves succeeded Mackerras as musical director from 1978 to 1979, but Groves was unwell and unhappy during his brief tenure. Starting in 1979, Mark Elder succeeded Groves in the post, and described Groves "immensely encouraging and supportive". A long-standing concern of Arlen and then Harewood

10829-630: The social and psychological issues latent in the works, and above all an abundant sense of theatricality." As examples, Millington mentioned Rusalka (1983), with its Edwardian nursery setting and Freudian undertones, and Hansel and Gretel (1987), its dream pantomime peopled by fantasy figures from the children's imagination ... Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (1987) and Wozzeck (1990) exemplified an approach to production in which grotesque caricature jostles with forceful emotional engagement. Poor average box-office sales led to

10948-427: The spoken drama, while Sadler's Wells housed both the opera and a ballet company, the latter co-founded by Baylis and Ninette de Valois in 1930. Lawrance Collingwood joined the company as resident conductor alongside Corri. With the increased number of productions, guest conductors were recruited, including Geoffrey Toye and Anthony Collins . The increasing success of the new ballet company helped to subsidise

11067-537: The standard operatic repertoire, Davis conducted a number of modern and unfamiliar operas, including Tippett's The Knot Garden and The Ice Break (of which he is the dedicatee), and Alexander Zemlinsky 's The Dwarf and Eine florentinische Tragödie . With later stage directors at Covent Garden, Davis preferred to work with those who respected the libretto : "I have a hankering for producers who don't feel jealous of composers for being better than they are, and want to impose their, often admittedly clever, ideas on

11186-587: The suggestion that the Sadler's Wells company should be called "The British National Opera" or "The National Opera", although neither Scottish Opera nor the Welsh National Opera opposed such a change. Eventually the British government decided the matter, and the title "English National Opera" was approved. The company's board adopted the new name in November 1974. In 1977, in response to demand for more opera productions in English provincial cities,

11305-542: The time Davis was conducting Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at the Royal Opera House. Davis continued the run of performances just days later and when asked, the following year, how he had the strength to perform, he replied: After his wife's death, Davis's health declined rapidly. He fell from the podium at Covent Garden in February 2011, and cancelled many engagements in the subsequent months. His last concert in France

11424-548: The title role. New productions announced for 2015–2016 were Tristan and Isolde , with sets by Anish Kapoor ; the company's first staging of Norma ; and the first London performance for 30 years of Akhnaten . Colin Davis Sir Colin Rex Davis CH CBE (25 September 1927 – 14 April 2013) was an English conductor, known for his association with the London Symphony Orchestra , having first conducted it in 1959. His repertoire

11543-456: The war, when Peter Brook was scandalising the bourgeoisie with his opera stagings. The last two seasons at the ENO have been difficult, or at any rate sentiment has turned against the outgoing regime over the last nine months. Audience figures are well down. ... The presiding genius of the Elder years has, of course, been David Pountney. Not because his productions were all marvellous. Perhaps only

11662-403: The word meant ... under a wise, fostering guidance it has gradually worked upwards ...Any kind of amalgamation which made it the poor relation of the 'Grand' season would be disastrous. At first, Baylis presented both drama and opera at each of her theatres. The companies were known as the "Vic-Wells". However, for both aesthetic and financial reasons, by 1934, the Old Vic had become the home of

11781-599: The work in hand." Davis hoped that Götz Friedrich , with whom he worked on Wagner's Ring cycle, would take on the role of principal producer vacated by Hall, "but it seemed that nobody wanted to commit themselves." During his Covent Garden tenure, Davis returned to the BBC Symphony Orchestra as principal guest conductor from 1971 to 1975, and held the same post with the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1972 to 1984. In 1977, he became

11900-427: Was announced, but one report stated that he and the ENO board had disagreed about his plans to move the company from the Coliseum to a purpose-built new home. Daniel took over the management of the company until a new general director was appointed. Daniel inherited from Marks a company thriving artistically and financially. The 1997–1998 season played to 75 per cent capacity and made a surplus of £150,000. Daniel led

12019-491: Was appointed musical director in succession to Gibson in 1961. The repertoire continued to mix familiar and unfamiliar operas. Novelties in Davis's time included Pizzetti 's Murder in the Cathedral , Stravinsky 's Oedipus rex , Richard Rodney Bennett 's The Mines of Sulphur and more Janáček. Sadler's Wells's traditional policy of giving all operas in English continued, with only two exceptions: Oedipus rex , which

12138-485: Was broad, but among the composers with whom he was particularly associated were Mozart , Berlioz , Elgar , Sibelius , Stravinsky and Tippett . Davis studied as a clarinetist , but was intent on becoming a conductor. After struggling as a freelance conductor from 1949 to 1957, he gained a series of appointments with orchestras including the BBC Scottish Orchestra , the BBC Symphony Orchestra and

12257-561: Was cancelled. Berry was at first criticised in the press for his choice of singers for ENO productions, but the appointment of Edward Gardner as music director from 2007 received considerable praise. The Observer commented that Gardner was "widely credited with breathing fresh life into English National Opera". Attendance figures recovered, with younger audiences attracted by ENO's marketing schemes. The company's finances improved, with £5M in reserve funds in April 2009. Productions in

12376-678: Was chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra , with whom he developed his concert hall repertoire, including symphonies by Bruckner and Mahler . He was offered but declined the music directorships of the Cleveland Orchestra in succession to Maazel and the New York Philharmonic in succession to Zubin Mehta . As a principal guest conductor he was associated with the Dresden Staatskapelle , which appointed him honorary conductor ( Ehrendirigent ) in 1990,

12495-527: Was closed and the company toured British towns and cities. After the war, the company returned to its home, but it continued to expand and improve. By the 1960s, a larger theatre was needed. In 1968, the company moved to the London Coliseum and adopted its present name in 1974. Among the conductors associated with the company have been Colin Davis , Reginald Goodall , Charles Mackerras , Mark Elder and Edward Gardner . The current music director of

12614-464: Was described by Gramophone magazine as "legendary". The company left Sadler's Wells with a revival of the work with which it had re-opened the theatre in 1945, Peter Grimes . Its last performance at the Rosebery Avenue theatre was on 15 June 1968. The company, retaining the title "Sadler's Wells Opera", opened at the Coliseum on 21 August 1968, with a new production of Mozart's Don Giovanni , directed by Sir John Gielgud . Though this production

12733-752: Was disappointed by his tempi, judging them to be too slow. In 1960, Davis made his début at the Proms in a programme of Britten , Schumann , Mozart and Berlioz. In the same year, he was appointed chief conductor of Sadler's Wells Opera , and in 1961 he was made musical director of the company, with whom he built up a large repertoire of operas, conducting in London and on tour. Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians wrote of this period, "He excelled in Idomeneo , The Rake's Progress and Oedipus rex , and Fidelio ; his Wagner , Verdi and Puccini were less successful. He introduced Weill 's Mahagonny , and Pizzetti 's Assassinio nella cattedrale to

12852-490: Was followed by a production of The Mikado in May of the same year. The Islington theatre was by now clearly too small to allow the company to achieve any further growth. A study conducted for the Arts Council reported that in the late 1960s the two Sadler's Wells companies comprised 278 salaried performers and 62 guest singers. The company had experience of playing in a large West End theatre, such as its 1958 sell-out production of The Merry Widow that had transferred to

12971-566: Was frightfully enclosed by my likes and dislikes. Today I'm game for anything." With financial assistance from his great-uncle, Davis was educated at Christ's Hospital in Sussex and then won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London, where he studied the clarinet with Frederick Thurston . His fellow-students included Gervase de Peyer , but Davis developed a greater interest in conducting. He was, however, not eligible for

13090-585: Was given in 2000, followed by Verdi's Requiem (2000), Tippett 's A Child of Our Time (2005) and Handel's Jephtha (2005) and Messiah (2009). ENO responded to the increased interest in Handel's operas, staging Alcina (2002), Agrippina (2006) and Partenope (2008). In 2003 the company staged its first production of Berlioz 's massive opera The Trojans , with Sarah Connolly as "a supremely eloquent, genuinely tragic Dido". In 2005, after an internal debate that had been going on since 1991,

13209-548: Was given sole control. Mudie became ill, and the young Charles Mackerras was appointed to deputise for him. By 1950 Sadler's Wells was receiving a public subsidy of £40,000 a year, whilst Covent Garden received £145,000. Tucker had to give up the option of staging the premiere of Britten's Billy Budd , for lack of resources. Keen to improve the dramatic aspects of opera production, Tucker engaged eminent theatrical directors including Michel Saint-Denis , George Devine and Glen Byam Shaw worked on Sadler's Wells productions in

13328-563: Was greeted with a mixture of enthusiasm and booing. In 1990 ENO was the first major foreign opera company to tour the Soviet Union , performing the Miller production of The Turn of the Screw , Pountney's production of Macbeth , and Hytner's much-revived Xerxes . The 'Powerhouse' era ended in 1992, when all three of the triumvirate left at the same time. The new general director was Dennis Marks , formerly head of music programmes at

13447-492: Was musical, and he was exposed to music from an early age. He recalled: "I can still see Sargent conducting the first concert I ever attended. I can still hear Melchior in the final scene of Siegfried – an old 78 playing on my father's gramophone. … I can also remember the moment I decided to make music my life. I was 13 or 14 at the time and the performance was of Beethoven's Eighth . Doors were suddenly opened. I became totally involved, even obsessed by music, although I

13566-515: Was not well received, the company rapidly established itself with a succession of highly praised productions of other works. Arlen died in January 1972, and was succeeded as managing director by Lord Harewood . The success of the 1968 Mastersingers was followed in the 1970s by the company's first Ring cycle, conducted by Goodall, with a new translation by Andrew Porter and designs by Ralph Koltai. The cast included Norman Bailey , Rita Hunter and Alberto Remedios . In Harewood's view, among

13685-709: Was on 7 June 2012 at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris with the Orchestre National de France and Emanuel Ax . His last concert with the LSO was a performance of Berlioz 's Grande Messe des morts on 26 June 2012 at Saint Paul's Cathedral in London. His last known performance was with the Haydn Chamber Orchestra, an amateur London orchestra, and soloist Thomas Gould, a month before his death. On 14 April 2013, Davis died in London at

13804-528: Was pointless if it could not be understood. Harewood thought, moreover, that surtitles could undermine the case for a publicly funded opera-in-English company. The editor of Opera magazine, Rodney Milnes , campaigned against surtitles on the grounds that "singers would give up trying to articulate clearly and audiences would cease focusing on the stage". Despite these objections, surtitles were introduced from October 2005. On 29 November 2005, Doran resigned as artistic director. To replace him, Smith divided

13923-478: Was sensitive to the charge that since 1945, far fewer opera performances had been given in the provinces. The small Carl Rosa Opera Company toured constantly, but the Covent Garden company visited only those few cities with theatres big enough to accommodate it. In the mid-1950s, renewed calls appeared for a reorganisation of Britain's opera companies. There were proposals for a new home for Sadler's Wells on

14042-587: Was sung in Latin, and Monteverdi 's L'Orfeo , sung in Italian, for reasons not clear to the press. In January 1962, the company gave its first Gilbert and Sullivan opera, Iolanthe , with Margaret Gale in the title role, on the day on which the Savoy operas came out of copyright and the D'Oyly Carte monopoly ended. The production was well received (it was successfully revived for many seasons until 1978) and

14161-490: Was the need to change the company's name to reflect the fact that it was no longer based at Sadler's Wells theatre. Byam Shaw commented "The one major setback the Sadler's Wells Opera Company suffered from its transplant was that unheeding taxi drivers kept on taking their patrons up to Rosebery Avenue". Harewood considered it an elementary rule that "you must not carry the name of one theatre if you are playing in another one." Covent Garden, protective of its status, objected to

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