E J Loder, Charles Seymour and music at Manchester’s Theatre Royal 1845-1855

EDWARD JAMES LODER was a Victorian musician and composer who died in 1865. The 150th anniversary of his death has been marked in Bath, the city of his birth (in 1809) and early career, but his time in Manchester as musical director of the city’s Theatre Royal – 1851 to 1855 – was a fruitful one and entitles him to a distinguished place in this community’s musical history, too.

That is so particularly because it saw the birth of his masterpiece, the opera Raymond And Agnes, in 1855. I wrote about this in Manchester Sounds vol. 6 (at pp. 71-77), noting the relative lack of attention to the sesquicentenary of the one serious opera of any quality that can be claimed to have been completed, rehearsed and premiered in this city.

He was also the collaborator with Charles Hallé in the Theatre Royal’s most ambitious home-produced classical opera season, in 1854 – a venture for which Hallé was later inclined to take the artistic credit (such as there was) but which seems to have been at least equally due to E J Loder. The accomplished international company of principals assembled for that series was in fact (as noted at the time) the genesis for the completion of Raymond And Agnes.

Perhaps now is the right time to draw brief attention to Loder’s other work in the city, also. He was nothing if not industrious, as the remainder of this article is designed to show. His career here also draws attention to an abrupt transition from orchestral leader as theatre musical director to that of baton-wielding conductor in opera performances, in this city.

He was the son of John David Loder, himself the violinist son of a violinist father, and a welcome executant outside Bath (where he led the theatre orchestra) as well as in it: J D Loder was the first Englishman to lead the orchestra of the Philharmonic Society of London, the successor to Franz Cramer as leader of the Ancient Concerts, a professor at the Royal Academy of Music, and a leading light in the Three Choirs Festival.

Edward James Loder was trained by his father and also studied under Ferdinand Ries in Frankfurt, and was the first of the family to settle in London (his twin brother John Fawcett Loder, also a violinist, moved in 1840 and their father joined them in 1841). His first notable success as an opera composer came in 1834, with Nourjahad, one of the new works commissioned by S J Arnold for his re-opening of the Lyceum Theatre as The English Opera House. This piece (with spoken dialogue, like Weber’s Oberon, but more organically constructed than Bishop’s musical plays) was later to be described by Sir George Macfarren as ‘the inaugural work of the institution of modern English operas’.

Loder earned his living by writing songs for the music publishers – at one stage under contract to D’Almaine & Co. to create a new one every week – but also produced a string quartet, some sacred songs and theatrical works. In 1846 he was appointed musical director of the Princess’s Theatre in London and wrote his next real opera, The Night Dancers (based on the Giselle story, already current in Adam’s ballet: the libretto was by George Soane). This was a great success, and a work called Agnes and Raymond was announced for the 1849-50 season – but did not appear. He also wrote The Island of Calypso, an ‘operatic masque’ which Berlioz eventually conducted for the New Philharmonic Society in 1852,[1] and a short opera called The Young Guard, premiered at the Princess’s in January 1848[2] and featured in William Howard Glover’s two-week opera season at Manchester Theatre Royal in the autumn.[3]

(The Night Dancers was also presented at Manchester Theatre Royal, in June, 1847, though the Manchester Guardian’s critic said he preferred the ballet version, which he had seen at Drury Lane in London.)[4]

Loder’s first recorded appearance in Manchester appears to have been in January, 1851, when he was a piano accompanist in a benefit concert for the French opera singer Anna Thillon at the Free Trade Hall.[5] But on 27 August his name appears again – this time as a conductor for a long forthcoming season of Italian opera at the Theatre Royal.[6] He presided over La Sonnambula, with Clara Novello in the title role and also boasting the famous tenor Sims Reeves and a ‘strengthened’ orchestra, and L’Elisir d’Amore, for both of which he was praised – and was auspiciously given the accolade, by the Guardian, of being ‘one of our first English composers’.[7]

He conducted Lucia di Lammermoor, Norma and Don Juan (this, as the style of the title indicates, being sung in English) to critical approbation.[8] Other English-language operas were performed, including Maritana, The Bride of Lammermoor, The Bohemian Girl, The Mountain Sylph (Barnett), Masaniello and The Daughter of the Regiment.[9] Then, practically without warning, The Night Dancers was given under Loder’s baton on 18 November, and – at the same time, and somewhat mysteriously – he began advertising himself in the Guardian as the ‘musical director of the Theatre Royal’ and stating that he would be giving lessons in singing, composition and pianoforte during his stay in Manchester.[10]

This must have been something of a surprise – not least to Charles Seymour, who as recently as the announcement of the opera season on 27 August had been billed as, and had indeed been since the theatre opened in 1845, its musical director. Seymour was a violinist (for many years leader of Charles Hallé’s orchestra and in its early years also its deputy conductor),[11] and what appears to have been going on was an adjustment of the concept of ‘conductor’ from that of the orchestra violinist-leader who picked up a baton when necessary to that of a pianist musician who presided either at the keyboard or – preferably – the podium. Michael Costa had relatively recently transformed his own role from ‘maestro al cembalo’ to baton conductor at Her Majesty’s Theatre and the Philharmonic Society in London.[12] A parallel process had led the committee of the Gentlemen’s Concerts Society to appoint Hallé (a pianist) over Seymour’s head as conductor of their concerts in 1848, and Seymour probably thought it best, yet again, not to make an issue of the matter. He had remained firm friends with Hallé in 1848, and he invited one of the opera singers, with Loder as accompanist, to perform an aria from The Night Dancers at his own Quartet Concerts in Chorlton-on-Medlock in December, 1851.[13]

The Guardian had been much warmer in its approbation of The Night Dancers the second time round (‘one of the best of our modern operas’),[14] but, once its commentator realised what had happened, was also quick to Seymour’s defence, saying that he had been ‘most unworthily supplanted’ at the theatre.[15] It may have seemed so, but he was back in his old role as conductor/leader of the theatre orchestra as the Christmas pantomime began,[16] so some things had not changed.

It seems reasonable to see the hand of John Knowles, the proprietor and manager of the Theatre Royal, in this reallocation of duties in the theatre pit. Hallé portrays him as an ambitious and autocratic man, and evidently one who cared as much about the financial returns on his promotions as their artistic qualities. He would perhaps have wished to keep abreast of the times in engaging the pianist-composer Loder as ‘musical director’, rather than a violinist. What we cannot accuse Seymour of is any failure to fulfil his employer’s previous ambitions when it came to opera. If anything, his track record is more impressive than Loder’s.

Seymour at the Theatre Royal: 1845-1851

He was the music director from 1845 of a new theatre which had steadily built its operatic reputation. Its predecessor, the 1807 Theatre Royal in Fountain Street, had hosted occasional visits from touring troupes, in Italian and English-language opera, and employed its own ‘stock company’, with local choral society members as a chorus, to attempt productions of popular operas in English, from 1837 – but often in shortened versions and with limited success, either financially or artistically. Productions included The Barber of Seville (1837),[17] Fidelio (1839),[18] L’Elisir d’Amore,[19] La Sonnambula, Il Barbiere di Siviglia[20] (1840), Cinderella, Fra Diavolo, La Sonnambula, Der Freischütz, Semiramide, Norma and Adam’s Le Postillon de Lonhjumeau[21] (1841), La Sonnambula, Der Freischütz[22] (1843 and again 1844), usually mixed in with a varying diet of straight drama, The Beggars’ Opera,[23] and Bishop’s ballad operas such as Maid Marion[24] and Guy Mannering.[25] There was a production of Arne’s Artaxerxes[26] shortly before the theatre burnt down in May, 1844.

To this there had been one shining exception: a touring troupe from Germany, including bass baritone Joseph Staudigl (Mendelssohn’s first Elijah) and conducted by Wilhelm Ganz, which came in July 1841, after its visit to Drury Lane and before and after Liverpool. They performed Der Freischütz, Fidelio, The Marriage of Figaro, Robert le Diable, Die Zauberflöte and Don Juan. Their performances were rapturously received at the time and recalled with awe for years afterwards – though the exercise lost the theatre money.[27]

The new Theatre Royal was built in Peter Street in 1845 by John Knowles, who acquired the patent from the former theatre’s operators, and made a sound decision in appointing Seymour (leader of the orchestra of the Gentlemen’s Concert Society, the Hargreaves Musical Society, the Manchester Festival of 1843 and every other orchestral enterprise of any stature in the city) as ‘musical director’ from the start.

At first there was much the mixture as before: The Beggars’ Opera, Guy Mannering, Love in a Village (Bishop) – but Seymour and his colleagues mounted Barnett’s new English opera The Mountain Sylph in May 1846 (it was much praised), followed by Acis and Galatea, Maritana, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Sonnambula, The Bohemian Girl, Fra Diavolo and Auber’s The Crown Diamonds. Despite using local resources both as principals and chorus, these efforts were warmly received in the press[28] (although not always well patronised by the public).  

In May and June 1847 Seymour offered Weber’s Oberon (the orchestra and chorus were compared with those of the famed German opera visit),[29] Donizetti’s Anne Boleyn, La Sonnambula and (as mentioned) The Night Dancers – but again with comments on the ‘nightly loss to the proprietor’.[30]

Then there was a sensation: an August visit by a company from Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, including Jenny Lind, Luigi Lablache and other luminaries, conducted by Michael Balfe, in La Sonnambula and La Figlia del Reggimento. Lind fever broke out in earnest in Manchester, with doubled prices, fights at the box office, special trains, one-way traffic in Peter Street to accommodate the number of carriages, and so on.[31]

Afterwards, with one night each of The Bohemian Girl and Maritana at the end of 1847,[32] Seymour put on a benefit[33] of La Figlia del Reggimento, with London principals, an augmented orchestra and chorus of 20, in May 1848, and attracted a ‘large and highly genteel audience’ – but it was said that in view of the expense there was little actual benefit for him.[34]

The public wanted Jenny Lind again, and got her in September in another tour based on Her Majesty’s Theatre resources, conducted by Balfe and co-starring Luigi Lablache and Giovanni Belletti, in Lucia and La Sonnambula.[35] Shortly afterwards Knowles tried a new tack: English-language opera under the direction of Howard Glover, who could provide pupils from his operatic academy in London as well as the new star tenor, Sims Reeves, and combine them with local choral singers. They performed The Bride of Lammermoor, La Sonnambula and The Puritans.[36]

That experiment was not repeated, but Knowles and Seymour carried on, despite poor audiences (blamed on ‘the continued depression of trade’),[37] in spring 1849 with La Sonnambula, Don Giovanni, Lucia di Lammermoor and The Bohemian Girl, using Drury Lane principals and some of Glover’s pupils.[38] Knowles also engaged a visiting company conducted by a Signor Hennin for Italian opera in June and July (Norma, Lucia, Il Barbiere, I Puritani, L’Elisir d’Amore, La Sonnambula and Lucrezia Borgia),[39] a company from Her Majesty’s in August, including Lablache, Belletti and Henriette Sonntag (Il Barbiere, Don Pasquale, Rossini’s Otello),[40] and Marietta Alboni, Amalia Corbari and Joseph Tagliafico, conducted by Julius Benedict, in La Cenerentola, La Figlia del Reggimento and La Sonnambula in September.[41]

It was a seriously impressive record – although all the operatic series were said to have made losses except for the Jenny Lind ones.[42]

Nonetheless, in 1850 the theatre put on more opera than ever before. In May, the ‘Company of the French Theatre, London’ visited with three Auber works (Les Diamants de la Couronne, Le Domino Noir and Fra Diavolo),[43] in June and July ‘the English Opera Company’ presented The Bohemian Girl, The Bondman (by Balfe), Maritana and Lucia di Lammermoor[44] (though gaining only ‘indifferent support’),[45] followed by an Italian company on a ‘short engagement’ which included Il Barbiere di Siviglia but with Almaviva sung by a female ‘contralta’.[46]

The theatre was redecorated during August and September,[47] and then Knowles mounted a 20-week autumn season of both English and Italian opera, in which the band had been ‘strengthened’ under Seymour’s baton,[48] ‘a powerful and experienced London operatic chorus engaged’[49] and what was judged ‘the finest corps de ballet ever seen in Manchester’.[50] Soloists included Rebecca Isaacs[51] as prima donna, and Dolores Nau,[52] with others from the London stage.[53] The Somnambulist, Lucia, The Daughter of the Regiment, La Favorita, Fra Diavolo, Masaniello, Don Giovanni, Norma, Der Freischütz, The Favourite, The Huguenots, Flotow’s Leoline[54] and Macfarren’s King Charles II were all performed.[55] The paper’s own verdict by December was that the operas had been, over 67 nights, ‘put on stage in a style never before seen in Manchester’ … but also that the receipts had not been enough to warrant any repetition of the exercise, mainly because there were too few sold in the dress circle.[56]

There was, it is true, criticism in the letters page of the Guardian of the chorus, with a claim that it was ‘far inferior to the Manchester one’[57] – but one immediately suspects the special pleading in favour of local ‘professional’ chorus singers that was also to plague Hallé in the early years of his post-1857 enterprise. Indeed a rejoinder in the letters column commended the London chorus for their ‘knowledge of stage business and dramatic effect’ and praised Knowles for their engagement.[58]

So this season – exactly the same length as the Hallé-Loder one to come in 1854, and all due to Seymour’s efforts – was an almost equally high point in the theatre’s operatic history … and also unsuccessful financially.

Loder at the Theatre Royal: 1851-1855

What difference did the engagement of Loder make, the following year? At first, it would seem, very little as far as home-based productions were concerned. One suspects the tight financial hand of Knowles (as Hallé, it seems accurately, describes him). But Loder’s was a ‘name’ from outside Manchester – then, as now, an essential if any enterprise were to attract the Cheshire set to fill the dress circle. And he was a composer – Seymour, with all his other performing commitments, had never aspired to anything more than arranging others’ work.

After the opera season, described above, was over, Loder’s duties were to include providing music for the variety of entertainments which kept the theatre active round the year. His compositions in 1852 included music for an ‘Easter spectacle’ called The Fairy Page,[59] an overture for a charity production of The Road To Ruin,[60] a Festival Overture for another charity evening – ‘light and quite ballet-like in style, with abundant use of the triangle’ and ending with the National Anthem, the Guardian noted[61] – and an overture to The Last Edition of Ivanhoe.[62]

But there was no autumn opera season that year. Eventually came the annual pantomime, Dick Whittington, and Loder wrote an overture for it (praised by the Guardian)[63] and included a chorus from Der Freischütz in the musical numbers.[64] In 1853 he contributed an overture to a production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin[65] and an overture and incidental music to Gil Blas,[66] and his music was heard in other city contexts, too: an arrangement of the Marseillaise for the closing ceremony of the old Free Trade Hall[67] and his four-part chorus glee, Discord, hence!, at the Manchester Gentlemen’s Glee Club.[68]

Opera returned to the Theatre Royal in October, 1853 – Loder conducted a company performing both German and Italian repertoire over 24 days, with principals from Drury Lane including the young Mlle. Caradori, Alexander Reichardt, Carl Formes, and chorus members both from outside the city and ‘from the Manchester choirs’[69] (they were ‘mainly’ Germans from London, Musical World said). Performances included Der Freischütz, Fidelio, Norma, Lucrezia Borgia and Les Huguenots. The troupe also visited Liverpool. Attendances in Manchester were good, apparently, but the band was small – it had no flute and only one cello.[70]

And at the end of the run came a novelty: a performance entitled Marco Tempesta, based on Auber’s Marco Spada but with extensive music by Loder himself. It was an example of Victorian ‘melodrama’ in its original sense – a drama with music as accompaniment to spoken dialogue and pieces for chorus or ballet. The Guardian noted its dance numbers, its ‘chorus of brigands’ and said that ‘little bits of appropriate music accompany all the dramatic action’.[71] It also incorporated some of Auber’s music[72] – in these days before copyright and performing rights we should not be surprised to find such infringements of others’ intellectual property (Seymour, for instance, had purloined Mozart’s Là ci darem la mano for a ‘burlesque extravaganza formed on Rossini’s Cenerentola’ in 1850, which included ‘many popular airs’ including a song in the mouth of Cinders herself beginning ‘Thou, chid by them, lamb, ah, no’!).[73]

The touring principals returned, with Carl Anschütz[74] their conductor, in November, performing Les Huguenots, Fidelio and Norma. This time the chorus was said to include singers from Covent Garden and the performances were better than before. Anschütz, incidentally, was clearly a ‘maestro al cembalo’ – he is described as operating with his baton resting on the piano so that he could both direct and accompany.[75]

There were then to be 12 days of English opera conducted by Loder, beginning with The Bohemian Girl and continuing with The Somnambulist, The Enchantress and Maritana,[76] with the chorus ‘selected principally from the Manchester choirs’. This featured the young singers Louisa Pyne, her sister Susan, and William Harrison, who were to form the London-based Pyne-Harrison English Opera Company in 1858. But the orchestra was ‘reduced from its recent operatic strength’ and again the point was made that the German and Italian opera, though ‘highly gratifying and successful’ had not worked financially.[77]

The pantomime for 1853-54 was Little Red Riding Hood, and so popular were the songs composed or arranged for it by Loder that the Manchester music sellers Hime & Addison published a collection of them.[78] But Loder’s attention was already on a new project – an Easter production of Macbeth, with the incidental music by Matthew Locke in Loder’s arrangements (which had been published previously)[79] and employing a chorus of over 40.[80] This became quite a talking point, as Loder maintained that the Macbeth music was by John Eccles and not Locke – he also composed his own entr’actes and other items to add to the standard score.[81] The ‘Locke’ music for Macbeth was comparatively well known in the 19^th century: Loder’s father had strong views on its attribution, which no doubt arose from his own use of it in the theatre at Bath, and the Guardian published a long excursus on the theme, as well as a detailed description of the new music that Loder wrote and his approach to the older material. This included ‘an original musical prelude or introduction to each of the five acts of the tragedy; the first of them, as it precedes the play, taking the name of overture ...’ [82]

Alfred Mellon later conducted Loder’s Macbeth overture at a Louis Jullien concert on 11 December 1855, as the Musical World reported:

‘A new overture to Shakspere’s Macbeth by Mr. Loder – one of our most accomplished musicians – was performed for the first time ... It is a work of higher aim than many of the composer’s previous efforts of the kind, and was greatly admired by connoisseurs.  Mr. Loder has combined with much felicity the sombre colour necessary to illustrate the hero of the tragedy with the graphic characterisation of Scottish melody.  He has interwoven some snatches from the music of Matthew Locke, which help to make the work more popular and will render it a fit prelude to the tragedy.  In the instrumentation the master hand was everywhere observable.’[83]

The overture had been published shortly before, as the Manchester Times pointed out:

‘Mr Loder, our talented musical conductor at the Theatre Royal, has recently published his overture to “Macbeth,” produced at the time when our manager so creditably got up the great tragedy.  Mr Loder has also published, through Mr Megson, of this town, a new anthem, which indicates the pen of the musician.’[84]

The Guardian’s review said that the overture, though in ‘regular classical form’ (second subject, etc.) was also built around themes from the vocal music for the play by ‘Eccles’ (Loder’s attribution), which ties in with the Musical World description. It also mentioned Loder’s entr’actes and other contributions, including a march to accompany the line ‘A drum, a drum: Macbeth doth come’ and another march for Duncan’s arrival at Inverness (‘in which he introduces to good effect the music of the ancient bardic harps’). The first entr’acte was ‘brimful of horror’ and included the bell and knocking at the door mentioned in the text by Lady Macbeth. The second gave a musical prefiguring of ‘the stealthy steps of the murderers’ of Banquo and of the banquet scene, with a joyous and triumphant march and ‘airs … imitative … of the character of Scottish airs’ alternating with agitated music to represent the ghost, and ‘a climax of confusion’ to symbolise Macbeth’s ravings and the end of the scene. The ‘jocund march’ was also used to accompany the banquet scene itself, to remind the audience of the murder. The third entr’acte returned to the witches’ music previously heard and then used ‘a very beautiful old Celtic melody, which was sung to Mr. Loder by an old shepherd, in the Highlands of Scotland’ as a clarinet solo, along with the tune of Lochaber no more, as a cello solo, before depicting the storming of Macduff’s castle. The fourth was ‘of a military character’ and included ‘the notes of the distant pipes’ as well as music of a more English character to represent the assembling forces.

The arrangements of the ‘Locke’ music were characterised as follows: ‘The vocal music and the harmonies of that old writer he has left intact: only adding what would impart colour, breadth and massiveness …’, in which task Loder was said to have taken the great example of Mozart’s arrangements of Handel’s Messiah as his example.[85]

The Crimean War began, and Loder composed a Grand War Chorus for choir and orchestra, sung at the Whitsuntide Musical Festival on a site adjoining the Trafford Hotel[86] (likely the same site to be used for the Art Treasures Exhibition three years later).

Julius Benedict appeared with a touring troupe in Italian opera in September.[87] And then began the ambitious opera season of autumn 1854 (2 October to 16 December – 67 nights in all), organized by Knowles and with Loder and Hallé sharing conducting duties. It was billed as ‘the Royal Opera’.[88] Smaller groups visited Liverpool and other places, and Musical World said the troupe came from both ‘the Royal Italian Opera, Covent Garden’ and ‘the Royal Opera, Drury Lane’,[89] and that there was a ballet, mainly from ‘the late Royal Opera corps at Drury Lane’.[90]

I have written in some detail about this intermittently glorious but financially disastrous undertaking elsewhere,[91] but it is worth emphasizing that Loder’s ‘new opera’ to be performed was announced as part of the plan[92] and was named as Raymond and Agnes before the season began.[93]

It was not offered, however, and Loder’s next extant work was an overture for Jack and the Beanstalk.[94] If there is any truth in Hallé’s assertion that the grand opera season was affected by the Crimean War, it is to be seen in the fact that entertainment at the Theatre Royal in the aftermath was distinctly on the light and spectacular side. Loder, meanwhile, was still working on Raymond and Agnes (one number from it was tried out at a Seymour quartet concert in May),[95] and a new light opera, too. He also shared the direction of a concert at the Theatre Royal in aid of the Patriotic Fund in April.[96] A benefit performance of his Macbeth music was mounted in May,[97] and on 27 June a forthcoming season of English opera was announced – Joseph Duggan’s Léonie (Duggan[98] had been chorus master at the Princess’s Theatre in London when Loder was its musical director, as the Guardian informed its readers), Raymond and Agnes, and the new light opera, ‘recently completed’ by Loder, called Stella, along with The Somnambulist, The Bohemian Girl and other works. [99]

The casting was clearly determined by the demands of the lighter works involved and included the American baritone Henri (né Henry) Drayton (who was also the librettist of Leonie), soprano Susan Lowe (Mrs Henri Drayton) and tenor George Perren.[100] In that context, the grand drama of Raymond and Agnes was hardly among apt bedfellows.

The chorus was locally raised,[101] and there seems to have been a rather hasty insertion of Meyer Lutz’s Mefistopheles[102] into the programmes in July (Stella never appeared).[103] When Raymond & Agnes finally reached the stage, on 13 August, the Guardian was kindly, but pointed out that the work had been designed to be sung by artists of the stature of Reichardt and Formes, who were clearly not present.[104] And the house was ‘not so good as it should have been’.[105] However, by 17 August the paper reported that ‘several of the airs and concerted pieces are already favourites and one quartet is encored nightly’[106] – it had made an impression on some listeners at least. The opera ran for a week, and later for two days more, after a visit from the touring ‘Royal Opera’, starring both Mario and Grisi. (Musical World’s critic was in its favour,[107] but it seems clear that its impact was eclipsed by a touring Covent Garden company, with Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Tagliafico, in Liverpool at the same time,[108] and the Mario/Grisi company as well).[109]

In the end the effort seems to have exhausted Loder, and he resigned his Manchester position shortly afterwards. He next appears in local annals when he is recorded as having been ‘seen’ at a W T Best organ recital in Liverpool the following year.[110] In 1859, Raymond and Agnes was produced in London in a new, three-act version (instead of four), with Susan Pyne and Hermine Rudersdorf in the cast, and ran for a week, but by then Edward Loder was seriously ill. He suffered from intermittent paralysis and never recovered. Hallé appealed to readers of the Guardian in 1862 to come to his assistance financially,[111] and he died three years later.

One fruit of his last years was a product of his alliance with Henri Drayton: Never Judge by Appearances, the first of the highly successful ‘drawing room operas’, designed for Drayton and his wife, Susan, which the pair presented in Liverpool and other provincial venues in November and December 1856[112] and in the capital from 1857 to 1859 (along with a visit to the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, in 1858).[113] Drayton, born in Philadelphia, USA, sang in opera in France in 1848 and moved to England the following year. His story has been told by Brian C. Thompson[114] and intersects that of Loder precisely in 1855 in Manchester (in 1859 the Draytons moved to the USA, where their ‘parlor operas’ were enthusiastically received, and Drayton later appeared on both sides of the Atlantic, both in a chequered involvement in the politics of the Civil War and finally back on the operatic stage).

Never Judge by Appearances was presented in January, 1857, at the Myddleton Hall, Islington, and favourably reviewed by the Morning Chronicle, mainly on account of its costumes and staging. It was a one-act show, with nine musical numbers, and remained in the Draytons’ repertoire both in Britain and in the USA. The music was described as ‘often charming’ in an Observer review and ‘agreeable and characteristic’ and reminiscent of the music of the Bouffes Parisiennes by The Times in 1859[115]  – a pointer to Loder’s ability to absorb a style and make it his own which we might also perceive in his ‘near-Verdian’ music for Raymond and Agnes.

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[1] It was not very successful: Musical World of 1 May 1852 (vol. 30, 274-5) said Berlioz apologized to Loder about it afterwards. Sims Reeves and his wife, the soloists, had apparently attended only a piano rehearsal.

[2] Most of the information above is summarised from Nicholas Temperley’s masterly article in The New Grove.

[3] Temperley, ibid, and Manchester Courier, various dates September-October 1848. See also below.

[4] Manchester Guardian, 19 June 1847.

[5] Manchester Guardian, 25 January 1851.

[6] Manchester Guardian, 27 August 1851.

[7] Manchester Guardian, 8 October 1851.

[8] Manchester Guardian, 5 November 1851.

[9] Manchester Guardian, 5, 8 November and 3 December 1851.

[10] Manchester Guardian, 29 October, 15 and 12 November 1851. Musical World (29 November 1851, vol. 26, 755) mentions the opera series but does not call him musical director of the theatre.

[11] This applies both to the orchestra of the Gentlemen’s Concerts and the post-1857 ‘Manchester Orchestra’: Seymour would always conduct when Hallé was piano concerto soloist.

[12] See Michael Musgrave: Changing Values in Nineteenth-Century Performance: The Work of Michael Costa and August Manns, in Christine Bashford and Leanne Langley (eds.), Music and British Culture, 1785-1914: Essays in honour of Cyril Ehrlich (London, 2000), 169-191. Also John Goulden: Michael Costa, England’s First Conductor: The Revolution in Musical Performance in England 1830-1880, Durham Theses, Durham University, 2012.

[13] Manchester Guardian, 13 December 1851.

[14] Manchester Guardian, 17 December 1851.

[15] Manchester Guardian, 27 December 1851. Musical World, 3 January 1852; vol. 30, 5 also noted the change.

[16] Manchester Guardian, 24 December 1851.

[17] Manchester Guardian, 11 October 1837.

[18] Manchester Guardian, 30 January 1839 (‘full of beauties and full of defects’).

[19] ‘Almost total failure’ - Manchester Guardian, 15 February 1840.

[20] Manchester Guardian, 15 February and 8 September 1840.

[21] Manchester Guardian, 3 & 10 February, 28 April, 20 & 27 October 1841.

[22] The choruses were ‘lamentably murdered’ and both ‘timeless and tuneless’ - Manchester Guardian, 25 February 1843; also 18 March, 1, 8 & 12 April, 3, 6 & 17 May, 7 & 10 June 1843, 20 & 27 January, 3 February 1844.

[23] Manchester Guardian, 12 January 1842, 4 January, 18 March, 23 December 1843.

[24] Manchester Guardian, 27 May 1843.

[25] Manchester Guardian, 18 November 1843 inter alia.

[26] Manchester Guardian, 9 March 1844.

[27] Manchester Guardian, 10, 14, 17, 21 and 28 July 1841.

[28] Lucia di Lammermoor, for instance, was presented ‘in a style infinitely superior to that in which opera has of late years been placed before the public of Manchester’ – Manchester Guardian, 4 July 1846.

[29] Manchester Guardian, 15 May 1847.

[30] Manchester Guardian, 19 June 1847.

[31] Manchester Guardian, 23 June, 21 July, 25 & 28 August 1847.

[32] Manchester Guardian, 20 November, 4 December 1847.

[33] A ‘benefit’ performance in this context means one in which the risk, as well as the potential profit, is down to the named beneficiary.

[34] Manchester Guardian, 20 May 1848.

[35] Manchester Guardian, 5, 12 & 30 August, 13 September 1848.

[36] Manchester Guardian, 16, 20, 27 & 30 September, 7 & 11 October 1848.

[37] Manchester Guardian, 23 May 1849.

[38] Manchester Guardian, 9 May 1849. It seems there was a falling out between Knowles and Glover, as the latter took the Queen’s Theatre for final benefit performances for his principals (Manchester Guardian, 12 & 23 May 1849).

[39] Manchester Guardian, 23 May, 6, 9, 13, 16 & 27 June, 4 July 1849. See also Musical World, 14 July 1849 (vol. 24, 442).

[40] Manchester Guardian, 4, 8, 11 & 25 August 1849. A German company with Formes and conducted by Carl Anschütz was also engaged but did not appear because its manager had run out of money (Manchester Guardian, 11 July 1849).

[41] Manchester Guardian, 29 August, 1 & 5 September 1849.

[42] Manchester Guardian, 29 August 1849.

[43] Manchester Guardian, 20 & 24 April 1850.

[44] Manchester Guardian, 22 June, 3 July 1850.

[45] Manchester Guardian, 6 July 1850.

[46] Manchester Guardian, 20 July 1850.

[47] Manchester Guardian, 25 September 1850.

[48] The review of the first night mentions that Seymour ‘took his seat and baton as conductor’: Manchester Guardian, 2 October 1850.

[49] Manchester Guardian, 21 & 28 September 1850.

[50] Manchester Guardian, 14 December 1850.

[51] 1828-1887: she sang at Drury Lane, often with Sims Reeves, and created the role of Leila in Balfe’s Satanella in 1858.

[52] American-born (1818) soprano who appeared also in London, described as a ‘pretty singer on a small scale’ by Henry Chorley: Music and Manners in France and Germany (1841). She sang in the 1841 production of Der Freischütz, with recitatives by Berlioz.

[53] Manchester Guardian, 28 September 1850. Names included Travers, E L Hime, Borrani and Summers.

[54] ‘With considerable spirit’ and ‘fewer marks of want of due preparation than some recent operas on their first performance’: Manchester Guardian, 27 November 1850.

[55] Manchester Guardian, 2, 9, 19 & 30 October, 2, 13 November, 7 December 1850; Musical World, 26 October 1850 (vol. 25, 691-2).

[56] Manchester Guardian, 14 December 1850.

[57] Manchester Guardian, 30 October 1850.

[58] Manchester Guardian, 6 November 1850. This comment makes it perfectly clear that the term ‘professional’ in relation to Manchester chorus singers at this time referred to those who ‘pursue the profession merely as an addition to some other occupation in trade’ – we would now call them either amateurs or semi-professional, whereas the term ‘amateur’ in those days meant ‘lover of the art’ and carried overtones of class superiority. See Beale: Charles Hallé: A Musical Life (Aldershot, 2007), 103-105.

[59] Manchester Guardian, 10 May 1852.

[60] Manchester Guardian, 29 May 1852.

[61] Manchester Guardian, 9 June 1852.

[62] Manchester Guardian, 15 September 1852.

[63] Manchester Guardian, 5 January 1853.

[64] Manchester Guardian, 4 December 1852.

[65] Manchester Guardian, January 29, 1853.

[66] Manchester Guardian, February 19, 1853.

[67] Manchester Guardian, 26 February, 1853.

[68] Manchester Guardian, 9 April, 1853.

[69] Manchester Guardian, 8 October, 1853.

[70] Musical World 22, 29 October and 5 November 1853 (vol.31, 671, 688, 706).

[71] Manchester Guardian, 26 October 1853.

[72] Manchester Guardian, 12 October, 1853.

[73] Manchester Guardian, 6 February 1850.

[74] German-born, he conducted at Drury Lane in 1853 and by 1860 was at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

[75] Manchester Guardian, 23 November 1853. Musical World of 3 December (vol. 31, 766) refers to a ‘personal and uncalled-for attack’ on him in the pages of the Manchester Guardian, which may be a reference to this description. If so, it reveals how sensitive was the issue of whether a conductor operated solely from a podium.

[76] And Fra Diavolo, The Bride of Lammermoor and The Crown Diamonds, if the announcements are to be believed. Louisa Pyne was unable to sing on the scheduled first night of The Enchantress, and it is not clear how many productions were mounted. The repertoire was also to have included Son and Stranger, The Beggars’ Opera and The Barber of Seville, said Musical World on 3 December 1853 (vol. 31, 766) – but that was written before the event.

[77] Manchester Guardian, 30 November 1853.

[78] Manchester Guardian, 11 February 1854.

[79] In piano score ‘in 1846 or 1847’ – Manchester Guardian, 12 April 1854. Nicholas Temperley has ascertained that a full score and piano score were published in (probably) 1843, and two new editions by D’Almaine later still.

[80] Manchester Guardian, 11 February, 15 April 1854.

[81] Manchester Guardian, 12 April, 5 May 1854.

[82] Manchester Guardian, 12 April 1854.

[83] Musical World, 15 December 1855: p806). I am grateful to Andrew Lamb for drawing attention to this report.

[84] Manchester Times, 18 August 1855. Again thanks to Andrew Lamb for this. The anthem was probably ‘Enter not into Judgment’, as I’m told by Professor Temperley.

[85] Manchester Guardian, 12 April 1854.

[86] Manchester Guardian, 7 June 1854.

[87] Musical World, 2 September 1854 (vol. 32, 582).

[88] Musical World, 9 September 1854 (vol. 32, 604).

[89] Musical World, 23 September 1854 (vol. 32, 635).

[90] Musical World, 7 October 1854 (vol. 32, 666).

[91] Robert Beale, Charles Hallé: A Musical Life (Aldershot, 2007), 77-85.

[92] Manchester Guardian, 2 September 1854

[93] Manchester Guardian advertisement, 13 September 1854.

[94] Manchester Guardian, 23 December 1854.

[95] Manchester Guardian, 12 May 1855.

[96] Musical World, 14 April 1855 (vol. 33, 237).

[97] Manchester Guardian, 19 & 23 May 1855.

[98] He was music director of the Royal Marylebone Theatre in London in 1851, and an associate of Henri Drayton, who had appeared in the first production of Léonie at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in March, 1854 (see Brian C Thompson, 2011, below).

[99] Manchester Guardian, 27 June, also 9 & 12 July 1855.

[100] Manchester Guardian, 10 and 20 July 1855.

[101] Manchester Guardian, 9 July 1855.

[102] Also co-authored by Henri Drayton and premiered in May 1855 at the Surrey Theatre in London: Drayton, his wife and George Perren were the principals (see Brian C Thompson, 2011, below).

[103] Manchester Guardian, 28 July and 1 August 1855.

[104] Manchester Guardian, 15 August 1855.

[105] Manchester Guardian, 16 August 1855.

[106] Manchester Guardian, 17 August 1855.

[107] 18 August 1855 (vol. 33, 539).

[108] Ibid, 538-9.

[109] Musical World, 1 September 1855 (vol. 33, 569).

[110] Manchester Guardian, 26 April 1856.

[111] Manchester Guardian, 12 April 1862.

[112] The Era, 23 November, 7 & 14 December 1856.

[113] They seem to have been a slightly down-market equivalent of the entertainments provided by Mr and Mrs German Reed in their ‘Royal Gallery of Illustration’ in Regent Street, from 1855 – see Thompson, 2011, below.

[114] Henri Drayton, English Opera and Anglo-American Relations, 1850-72 (Journal of the Royal Musical Association 136:2, 247-303 (2011).

[115] Thompson, 2011, ibid.