Background
Julius Benedict was born on 27th November 1804 in Stuttgart, Germany. He was a son of a Jewish banker.
Julius Benedict was born on 27th November 1804 in Stuttgart, Germany. He was a son of a Jewish banker.
Benedict was a pupil of Abeille, Hummel (1819, Weimar), and Weber (1820, Dresden).
In 1823, Benedict was a Kapellmeister at the Karnthnerthor Theatre in Vienna, and in 1825 - at the San Carlo Theatre, Naples, where his first opera, "Giacinta ed Ernesto" (1829), was performed, which, like "I Portorrhesi in Goa" (Stuttgart, 1830), was not a marked success. After 2 visits to Paris (1830 and 1835), he settled in London, where he became a fashionable pianoforte teacher and concertgiver, and also thoroughly anglicized. In 1836, he became a conductor of opera buffa at the Lyceum, and in 1837 at Drury Lane, where his first English opera, "The Gypsy's Warning", was produced (1838). In 1850 and 1851 he accompanied Jenny Lind on her American tours; then became Mapleson's conductor at Her Majesty's Theatre and Drury Lane, and in 1859 at Covent Garden, also of the "Monday Popular Concerts." Benedict also conducted several Norwich Festivals, and (1876-1880) the Liverpool Philharmonic.
