Horace Sedger (1853–1917) was an American-born British theatre manager and impresario. He was particularly associated with light opera, and presented works by composers including

Isaac Albéniz Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual (; 29 May 1860 – 18 May 1909) was a Spanish virtuoso pianist, composer, and conductor. He is one of the foremost composers of the Post-Romantic era who also had a significant influence on his conte ...

Edmond Audran Achille Edmond Audran (12 April 184017 August 1901) was a French composer best known for several internationally successful comic operas and operettas. After beginning his career in Marseille as an organist, Audran composed religious music and ...

Ivan Caryll Félix Marie Henri Tilkin (12 May 1861 – 29 November 1921), better known by his pen name Ivan Caryll, was a Belgian-born composer of operettas and Edwardian musical comedies in the English language, who made his career in London and later ...

Alfred Cellier Alfred Cellier (1 December 184428 December 1891) was an English composer, orchestrator and conductor. In addition to conducting and music directing the original productions of several of the most famous Gilbert and Sullivan works and writing t ...

Charles Lecocq Alexandre Charles Lecocq (3 June 183224 October 1918) was a French composer, known for his opérettes and opéras comiques. He became the most prominent successor to Jacques Offenbach in this sphere, and enjoyed considerable success in the 1870 ...

and

André Messager André Charles Prosper Messager (; 30 December 1853 – 24 February 1929) was a French composer, organist, pianist and conductor. His compositions include eight ballets and thirty opéra comique, opéras comiques, opérettes and other stage wo ...

and librettists including

W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most fam ...

, Arthur Law and B. C. Stephenson. His most successful productions were Cellier's ''

Dorothy Dorothy may refer to: *Dorothy (given name), a list of people with that name. Arts and entertainment Characters *Dorothy Gale, protagonist of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' by L. Frank Baum * Ace (''Doctor Who'') or Dorothy, a character playe ...

'' (1886), which ran for an unprecedented 931 performances, and an English adaptation of Audran's ''

La cigale et la fourmi ''La cigale et la fourmi'' (The Grasshopper and the Ant) is a three-act opéra comique, with music by Edmond Audran and words by Henri Chivot and Alfred Duru. Loosely based on Jean de La Fontaine's version of Aesop's Fables, Aesop's fable ''The An ...

'' (1891). Sedger was later active in the fledgling cinema industry.

Life and career

Sedger was born in

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

, New York, the son of Joseph Sedger, a distiller, and was intended for a commercial career."Mr Horace Sedger", '' The Era'', 27 February 1892, p. 11 He was sent to study in Paris at the Lycée Chaptal, where he was a schoolfellow of

Augustus Harris Sir Augustus Henry Glossop Harris (18 March 1852 – 22 June 1896) was a British actor, impresario, and dramatist, a dominant figure in the West End theatre, West End theatre of the 1880s and 1890s. Born into a theatrical family, Harris briefl ...

. At the age of seventeen he went to work at the London Stock Exchange, quickly becoming a senior clerk to a leading firm, a post he held for five years. In 1878 he married Harris's sister Nelly, an actress. Their only child, Daisy, born in 1879, followed her mother into the acting profession. Compelled by illness to leave his job, Sedger took a long sea-voyage, which inspired him to go into the newly developing Canadian meat-shipping business. He also tried his hand as an auctioneer and estate agent, but failed and was bankrupt for a short time in 1880. For the benefit of his wife Sedger secured a lease of the

Novelty Theatre The Novelty Theatre (later renamed the Great Queen Street Theatre from 1900 to 1907, and the Kingsway Theatre from 1907 to 1941) was a London theatre. It opened in 1882 in Great Queen Street and was accessed off Little Queen Street until 1905, ...

Great Queen Street Great Queen Street is a street in the West End of central London in England. It is a continuation of Long Acre from Drury Lane to Kingsway. It runs from 1 to 44 along the north side, east to west, and 45 to about 80 along the south side, wes ...

, London, in December 1883, and during his connection with it he made his debut as an actor. He then joined Edgar Bruce in producing

's '' La Bearnaise'' at the

Prince of Wales's Theatre The Scala Theatre was a theatre in Charlotte Street, London, off Tottenham Court Road. The first theatre on the site opened in 1772, and the theatre was demolished in 1969, after being destroyed by fire. From 1865 to 1882, the theatre was kn ...

. In November 1886 Bruce sold the twenty-one-year lease of the theatre to Sedger, who had a record-breaking hit with the light opera ''

'' by

and B. C. Stephenson, which ran at the Prince of Wales's and two other West End theatres for an unprecedented 931 performances. Like Harris, Sedger established a relationship with the

Carl Rosa Opera Company The Carl Rosa Opera Company was founded in 1873 by Carl Rosa, a German-born musical impresario, and his wife, British operatic soprano Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa to present opera in English in London and the British provinces. The company premiered ...

; he presented their successful production of the light opera ''Marjorie'' by

Walter Slaughter Walter Alfred Slaughter (17 February 1860 – 2 March 1908) was an English conductor and composer of musical comedy, comic opera and children's shows. He was engaged in the West End as a composer and musical director from 1883 to 1904. Life ...

at the Prince of Wales's in 1890. In the same year he also took on the lease of the Lyric Theatre in

Shaftesbury Avenue Shaftesbury Avenue is a major road in the West End of London, named after The 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. It runs north-easterly from Piccadilly Circus to New Oxford Street, crossing Charing Cross Road at Cambridge Circus. From Piccadilly C ...

, where in 1891 he presented an English adaptation of

's opéra comique ''

'', which ran for 423 performances. Over the next few years he followed this with other light operas: ''

The Mountebanks ''The Mountebanks'' is a comic opera in two acts with music by Alfred Cellier and Ivan Caryll and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The story concerns a magic potion that causes the person to whom it is administered to become what he or she has pre ...

'' (1892) by

, Cellier and

; ''Incognita'' (1892), an adaptation of

's '' Le coeur et la main''; ''The Magic Opal'' (1893) by Arthur Law and

; ''The Golden Web'' (1893) by Stephenson, Frederick Corder and Arthur Goring Thomas; and Caryll's ''

Little Christopher Columbus ''Little Christopher Columbus'' is a burlesque opera in two acts, with music by Ivan Caryll and Gustave Kerker and a libretto by George R. Sims and Cecil Raleigh. It opened on 10 October 1893 at the Lyric Theatre in London and then transferred ...

'' (1893). Some of these were critical and artistic successes, but overall they lost money, and in 1896 Sedger was once again in the bankruptcy court."Horace Sedger's Affairs", ''The Era'', 14 June 1896, p. 6 Sedger continued in theatre management. In 1898, together with Arthur Eliot, he presented a revival of Slaughter's '' Alice in Wonderland'' at the

Opera Comique The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, between Wych Street, Holywell Street and the Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway. ...

and the following year he became embroiled in a dispute with Oscar Wilde. Wilde had agreed that Sedger should present his next play, but was angered when Sedger prematurely announced that the play (which was never written) would shortly be staged. In the 20th century Sedger moved into film, in partnership with

Edward Laurillard Edward Laurillard (20 April 1870 – 7 May 1936) was a cinema and theatre producer in London and New York City during the first third of the 20th century. He is best remembered for promoting the cinema early in the 20th century and for Edwardian ...

, opening a cinema at

Marble Arch The Marble Arch is a 19th-century white marble-faced triumphal arch in London, England. The structure was designed by John Nash in 1827 to be the state entrance to the cour d'honneur of Buckingham Palace; it stood near the site of what is toda ...

in 1909. They later opened the 2,000-seat Brixton Palladium Picture Playhouse (1913). Sedger's wife died in 1897. The following year he married Ada Elizabeth Waltham; the groom was 45, the bride 25. She divorced him for desertion in 1904. In the 1911 census he is recorded as married to a third wife, Millicent, an opera singer. Sedger died at his home in

Kenley Kenley is an area within the London Borough of Croydon. Prior to its incorporation into Greater London in 1965 it was in the historic county of Surrey. It is situated south of Purley, east of Coulsdon, north of Caterham and Whyteleafe and w ...

, Surrey, on 2 July 1917, aged 64, after a long illness."Deaths", ''The Times'', 3 July 1917, p. 1

References and sources

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sedger, Horace 1853 births 1917 deaths English theatre managers and producers Impresarios Opera managers People from Rochester, New York 19th-century English businesspeople