John Ebers

John Ebers (baptised 1778 - 8 December 1858) was an English operatic manager, notable for his promotion of Italian opera in London in the 1820s.

Ebers was born in Hertford, and was baptised there at St. Andrew's Church on 24 July 1778. Around 1810 he took over his father's bookselling business at 27 Old Bond Street, He seems to have been commercially successful, as he is described, at the beginning of his career as a manager, as ‘an opulent bookseller in Bond Street, who has been largely engaged in the interests of the holders of property-boxes for some years’. From this it would seem that he had acted as a kind of ticket agent.

In 1820 the London season of Italian opera at the King's Theatre had come to a premature end, after its director had fled the country leaving the orchestra unpaid. Ebers, who had lent money to the theatre and had the assignment of several of the opera' s boxes as part of his ticket-selling business, took on the task of theatre management, but relied on his musical director, William Ayrton, to bring matters into a more satisfactory state.

At first Ebers became the lessee of the theatre for one year only, and on 10 March 1821 the house opened with La gazza ladra, the first time that it had been heard in England. As compared with the former seasons, this year was eminently successful, although it seems to have been the general opinion that the manager's promises with regard to the excellence of the singers had not been fulfilled. Violante Camporese, who appeared as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with the greatest success, had been engaged at a salary of 1,550l. Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis, her husband, the bass Giuseppe de Begnis, and Alberico Curioni seem to have been the only other singers whose performances gave unmingled satisfaction. Rossini's Il turco in Italia was the only other novelty produced during the season; but in spite of this somewhat modest inauguration of his management, Ebers seems to have been commercially successful.

In 1822, Ebers ventured to take a four years' lease of the theatre from a banker named Chambers, who owned the theatre at the time. Ayrton seems to have been uniformly unfortunate in his relations with managers, for the connection between him and Ebers was dissolved that year. A Signor Petracchi, conductor at La Scala, Milan, was summoned to succeed him, and a board of directors, consisting of various noblemen, was associated with the management of the undertaking. The strength of the company was increased by the addition of Maria Caterina Rosalbina Caradori-Allan and Pierre Begrez. The productions of the year were Rossini's Pietro l'eremita (i.e. Mosè in Egitto) and Otello, Giuseppe Mosca's I pretendenti delusi, and Giovanni Pacini's Il barone di Dolsheim, both of which last failed. In spite of this, the season was on the whole successful. In 1823 the management was placed in the hands of a committee, under a certain guarantee to Ebers. Rossini's La donna del lago, Ricciardo e Zoraide, Matilde di Shabran and Saverio Mercadante's Elisa e Claudio were produced. Although the bad accounts of the season which are to be read in the ‘Harmonicon’ for 1823 must be taken with a grain of salt (Ayrton was the editor of the paper, which appeared first in that year), it is still to be perceived that the affairs of the theatre were in an unsatisfactory state. Lucia Elizabeth Vestris was the only addition to the company, and Violante Camporese retired at the end of the season.

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