Christopher Webber

Christopher Webber (born 27 May 1953) is an English actor, dramatist, theatre director, writer and music critic.

Webber was born in Bowdon, Cheshire (now Greater Manchester) and educated at The Manchester Grammar School and the University of Kent at Canterbury. Starting his professional career with theatre directing work, for companies such as Orpheus Opera (of which he was Artistic Director 1980–87), Kent Opera, the new D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in Britain and the USA, and various other English companies, he soon broadened his portfolio to include musical journalism, as Opera and Classical Music Editor for Richard Branson's Event Magazine, as well as Music and Musicians Magazine.

As a writer, his early work included Bluff Your Way at the Races (Ravette) as well as many opera translations into English. Play commissions soon followed, beginning with a new English version of Sophocles's Philoctetes written for Offstage Downstairs. Later successes include Tatyana commissioned by Nottingham Playhouse, with Josie Lawrence in the title role, and Beverly Klein as her sister Olga;Dr Sullivan and Mr Gilbert (Mull Theatre, revived at Glasgow Citizens' Theatre and on tour throughout Scotland); and Green Tea, shortlisted for a Guinness Prize.

He is an authority on the Spanish zarzuela, and his book The Zarzuela Companion (Scarecrow Press 2002, Foreword by Plácido Domingo) is a standard English work on the subject. He has also written on Hispanic and Portuguese Music for The Oxford Companion to Music, Opera Magazine,Opera Now,Royal Opera Covent Garden and many other publications; has provided programme notes and translations for many concert and festival organisations including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Edinburgh Festival; and been Visiting Lecturer on the subject at various academic institutions, including the University of Tübingen and University of Valencia. He is also a contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, including the entries on his Manchester Grammar School contemporary Steven Pimlott, and Joyce Hatto. Webber has since been featured on British TV's Channel 4 and BBC Radio 4, in documentaries about Hatto, "the fraudster pianist".

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