Edward Loder

Edward James Loder (10 July 1809 – 5 April 1865) was an English composer and conductor. His best remembered work is perhaps the 1855 opera Raymond and Agnes, though his most successful opera during his lifetime was The Night Dancers.

Loder was born in Bath, Somerset. He was the son of John David Loder (1788–1846), a violinist and musical director of the Theatre Royal, Bath, and his wife Rosamund, née Mills (1787–1856), a step-daughter of the comedian John Fawcett. Edward Loder's twin brother John Fawcett Loder (1809–1853) was a violinist, and a younger brother William Sowerby Loder (1812–1851) was a cellist who married the soprano Emily Woodyatt. His cousins included the composer and conductor George Loder (1816–1868) and George's sister, composer and pianist Kate Loder.

Loder's family sent him to Frankfurt in 1826 to study under Ferdinand Ries, who was an old friend of the family. He returned to England in 1828 and embarked on a successful career as an opera conductor in London as the music director of Princess's Theatre, and, from 1851 in Manchester, leading the Theatre Royal. His first composing success was Nourjahad in 1834. His compositions include operas, cantatas, ballad operas, string quartets, and many songs. Today he is most remembered for his opera Raymond and Agnes (1855), which was revived in Cambridge in 1966. His most successful opera during his lifetime was The Night Dancers, sometimes referred to as The Wilis, or The Night Dancers, or Giselle, or The Night Dancers, first produced in 1846 and revived at Covent Garden in 1860.

On 10 November 1831, Loder married Elizabeth Mary Watson (c.1813–1880) at Bristol. It appears they were separated within a few years, as in 1861 he stated that his wife was Louisa Alice Foster, born c. 1838. He appears to have fathered a son (Edward Loder Garside 1850-1940) with the actress Clara Garside Neville (1827–1869) during his marriage to Louisa. Tributes at the time of his death state that he was a bachelor.

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