George Herbert Buonaparte Rodwell (1800–1852) was an English composer, musical director, and author.
Life
The brother of James Thomas Gooderham Rodwell (died 1825), playwright and lessee of London's
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster, central London. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiv ...
, was born in London, 15 November 1800. A pupil of
Vincent Novello
Vincent Novello (6 September 17819 August 1861), was an English musician and music publisher born in London. He was a chorister and organist, but he is best known for bringing to England many works now considered standards, and with his son he cr ...
and
Henry Rowley Bishop
Sir Henry Rowley Bishop (18 November 178730 April 1855) was an English composer from the early Romantic era. He is most famous for the songs "Home! Sweet Home!" and "Lo! Hear the Gentle Lark." He was the composer or arranger of some 120 dramat ...
, he became in 1828 professor of harmony and composition at the
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...
.
On the death of his brother James in 1825, Rodwell succeeded to the proprietorship of the Adelphi Theatre; but
Frederick Henry Yates
Frederick Henry Yates (4 February 1797 – 21 June 1842) was an English actor and theatre manager.
Life
Yates was born in London, the youngest son of Thomas Yates, a tobacco manufacturer, of Thames Street and Russell Square. Frederick was educ ...
with
Daniel Terry
Daniel Terry (1780?–1829) was an English actor and playwright, known also as a close associate of Sir Walter Scott.
Life
He was born in Bath about 1780, and was educated at the Bath grammar school and subsequently at a private school at Wingf ...
bought him out very shortly, at a price of £30,000.
Rodwell then mainly occupied himself with directing the music at the theatre, and in composition for the stage. His opera ''The Flying Dutchman'' was produced at the Adelphi in 1826, and ''The Cornish Miners'' at the
English Opera House in 1827.
In 1836 Rodwell was appointed director of music at
Covent Garden Theatre
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...
, where his farce ''Teddy the Tiler'', from the French ''Pierre ou le Couvreur'' (
Nicolas Brazier
Nicolas Brazier (17 February 1783, Paris - 18 February 1838) was a French chansonnier and vaudevillist.
Life
Son of a boarding school master and author of school manuals, Brazier's education was however strongly neglected due to the French Revo ...
and Pierre-Frédéric-Adolphe Carmouche), had been performed in 1830. The Covent Garden management tried to anticipate the repertory of the
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Dr ...
; and Rodwell, though friendly with
Alfred Bunn
Alfred Bunn (April 8, 1796 in LondonDecember 20, 1860 in Boulogne-sur-Mer) was an English theatrical manager. He was married to Margaret Agnes (née Somerville) Bunn, a minor actress, in 1819.
Biography
Bunn was appointed stage manager of Drur ...
, the Drury Lane manager, sailed close to the wind in this regard. When
Daniel Auber
Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (; 29 January 178212 May 1871) was a French composer and director of the Paris Conservatoire.
Born into an artistic family, Auber was at first an amateur composer before he took up writing operas professionally when ...
's opera ''The Bronze Horse'', was announced at Drury Lane, he brought out at Covent Garden an opera on the same theme, with music by himself.
Rodwell's efforts to establish a British national opera, launched through the
Royal Society of Musicians The Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain is a charity in the United Kingdom that supports musicians. It is the oldest music-related charity in Great Britain, founded in 1738 as the ''Fund for Decay'd Musicians'' by a declaration of trust sign ...
, had no lasting result. For many years he lived at
Brompton. He died, aged 52, at Upper Ebury Street,
Pimlico
Pimlico () is an area of Central London in the City of Westminster, built as a southern extension to neighbouring Belgravia. It is known for its garden squares and distinctive Regency architecture. Pimlico is demarcated to the north by London V ...
, on 22 January 1852, and was buried in
Brompton cemetery
Brompton Cemetery (originally the West of London and Westminster Cemetery) is a London cemetery, managed by The Royal Parks, in West Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. Estab ...
.
Works
Rodwell wrote 40 to 50 musical pieces for the stage, besides songs, works on musical theory, romances, farces, and novels. Exponents of his ballads included
Mary Anne Keeley
Mary Anne Keeley, ''née'' Goward (22 November 1805 – 12 March 1899) was an English actress and actor-manager.
Life
Mary Ann Goward was born at Ipswich, her father was a brazier and tinman. Her sister Sarah Judith Goward was the mother of Lydi ...
,
Harriet Waylett
Harriet Waylett (7 February 1798 – 29 April 1851) was an English actress and theatre manager.
Early life
The daughter of a tradesman in Bath, Somerset, Harriet Waylett, née Cooke, was born there in 1798. Her uncle was a member of the Drury L ...
, and
Mary Ann Paton
Mary Ann Paton (1802–1864) married names including Mary Ann Wood, was a Scottish vocalist.
Early life
The eldest daughter of George Paton, a writing-master at Edinburgh and amateur violin, and his wife, ''née'' Crawford, was born in Edinburg ...
. In some cases Rodwell wrote the words as well as the music for his stage pieces. His principal librettist was
Edward Fitzball
Edward Fitzball (20 March 179327 October 1873) was a popular English playwright, who specialised in melodrama. His real surname was Ball, and he was born at Burwell, Cambridgeshire.
Fitzball was educated in Newmarket, was apprenticed to a Nor ...
; but
John Baldwin Buckstone
John Baldwin Buckstone (14 September 1802 – 31 October 1879) was an English actor, playwright and comedian who wrote 150 plays, the first of which was produced in 1826.
He starred as a comic actor during much of his career for various periods ...
,
James Kenney, and
Richard Brinsley Peake
Richard Brinsley Peake (19 February 1792 – 4 October 1847) was a dramatist of the early nineteenth century best remembered today for his 1823 play '' Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein'', a work based on the novel ''Frankenstein'' ...
also supplied him with romances, burlettas, operettas, and incidental songs, for musical setting. Among his publications were:
* ''Songs of the Birds'', 1827.
* ''First Rudiments of Harmony'', 1831.
* ''Letter to the Musicians of Great Britain'', 1833.
* ''Memoirs of an Umbrella'', a novel, 1846.
Family
Rodwell's marriage with Emma Liston, the daughter of
John Liston
John Liston (c. 1776 – 22 March 1846), English comedian, was born in London.
He made his public debut on the stage at Weymouth as Lord Duberley in ''The Heir at Law''. After several dismal failures in tragic parts, some of them in supp ...
the comedian, may have helped him professionally, but was thought unhappy.
Elizabeth Ann, their youngest daughter, married the illustrator
Robert Thomas Landells
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
, son of
Ebenezer Landells
Ebenezer Landells (Newcastle 1808 – 1 October 1860 London) was a British wood-engraver, illustrator, and magazine proprietor.
Life
Born in Newcastle, Landells was apprenticed to the wood-engraver Thomas Bewick.
In 1829 he moved to London, ...
.
Notes
Attribution
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodwell, George Herbert Buonaparte
1800 births
1852 deaths
English composers
English writers about music
19th-century British composers
English male novelists
19th-century English novelists
19th-century English musicians
19th-century English male writers
English male non-fiction writers