Background
Webber was born in Bowdon, Cheshire (now Greater Manchester) and educated at The Manchester Grammar School and the University of Kent at Canterbury.
Webber was born in Bowdon, Cheshire (now Greater Manchester) and educated at The Manchester Grammar School and the University of Kent at Canterbury.
University of Kent.
Starting his professional career with theatre directing work, for companies such as Orpheus Opera (of which he was Artistic Director 1980-1987), Kent Opera, the new Doctorate"Oyly Carte Opera Company in Britain and the United States of America, and various other English companies, he soon broadened his portfolio to include musical journalism, as Opera and Classical Music Editor for Richard Branson"s Event Magazine, as well as Music and Musicians Magazine. As a writer, his early work included Bluff Your Way at the Races (Ravette) as well as many opera translations into English. Play commissions soon followed, beginning with a new English version of Sophocles"s Philoctetes written for Offstage Downstairs.
He is an authority on the Spanish zarzuela, and his book The Zarzuela Companion (Scarecrow Press 2002, Foreword by Plácido Domingo) is a standard English work on the subject.
He has also written on Hispanic and Portuguese Music for The Oxford Companion to Music, Opera Magazine, Opera Now, Royal Opera Covent Garden and many other publications. Has provided programme notes and translations for many concert and festival organisations including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Edinburgh Festival.
And been Visiting Lecturer on the subject at various academic institutions, including the University of Tübingen and University of Valencia. He is also a contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of National, including the entries on his Manchester Grammar School contemporary Steven Pimlott, and Joyce Hatto.
Webber has since been featured on British television"s Channel 4 and British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4, in documentaries about Hatto, "the fraudster pianist".
As an actor he has worked in England"s West End and Repertory Theatre, creating the role of Owl in the first stage version of Winnie-the-Pooh (London Royalty Theatre and national tour) and taking part in world and/or international premières of plays by Alan Ayckbourn and Alan Bennett amongst others He has also been an exponent in the field of corporate and medical professional actor-based roleplaying, especially noted for his work on development of feedback techniques, including his formulation of Advocate Feedback.
