Julius Benedict
| Julius Benedict | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
November 27, 1804 Stuttgart, Germany |
| Died | Manchester Square, England |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupation | composer |
Sir Julius Benedict (27 November 1804 – 5 June 1885) was a German-born composer and conductor, resident in England for most of his career.
Benedict was born in Stuttgart, the son of a Jewish banker, and learnt composition from Johann Nepomuk Hummel at Weimar and Carl Maria von Weber at Dresden; it was Weber who introduced him in Vienna to Beethoven on 5 October 1823. In the same year he was appointed Kapellmeister of the Kärnthnerthor theatre at Vienna, and two years later in 1825, he became Kapellmeister of the San Carlo theatre at Naples. It was here he gave piano lessons to the young prodigy Theodor Döhler.
In Naples his first opera, Giacinta ed Ernesto, premiered in 1827, and another, written for his native city, I Portoghesi in Goa, was given there in 1830; neither of these was a great success, and in 1834 he went to Paris, leaving it in 1835 at the suggestion of Maria Malibran for London, where he spent the remainder of his life. In 1836 he was given the conductorship of an operatic enterprise at the Lyceum Theatre, and brought out a short opera, Un anno ed un giorno, previously given in Naples.
In 1838 he became conductor of the English opera at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane during the period of Michael William Balfe's great popularity; his own operas produced there were The Gipsy's Warning (1838), The Brides of Venice (1844), and The Crusaders (1846). In 1848 he conducted Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah at Exeter Hall, for the first appearance of Jenny Lind in oratorio, and in 1850 he went to America as the accompanist and conductor on that singer's tour.
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