Benjamin Lumley

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Beginnings at His Majesty's Theatre

Lumley trained as a solicitor. In this capacity he gave legal advice to the financially troubled manager of His Majesty’s Theatre, Laporte, who came to rely on him extensively. Soon Lumley was taking all the managerial decisions for the theatre, and when Laporte died in 1841, the committee of noblemen responsible for the opera company asked his protégé to take his place.

It says much about Lumley’s nature that he accepted this offer. He had already written a standard handbook on Parliamentary Private Bills and was studying for the Bar. But as Lumley’s unreliable memoirs clearly indicate, he had an irrepressible urge to mix in high society and make a name for himself, but that was the Business he was in. A great admirer of the stars of opera and ballet, a profligate giver of fêtes and parties, management of the Royal Italian Opera was the vehicle of his dreams, which he duly repaid by bringing the best of Italian Opera to Victorian London.

The conductor at His Majesty’s was Michael Costa. By their different natures – one a devotee of high musical standards, the other a connoisseur of the star system, Lumley and Costa should have made a perfect team. And indeed they were so for the first five years, one of the longer surviving partnerships of the age. Artistic progress – induced by Lumley, much to Costas' alarm and trepidation included the introduction of operas by Giuseppe Verdi to London, and new singing and dancing stars to replace the fading ‘old guard’, negotiations with Felix Mendelssohn for an opera on William Shakespeare’s Tempest – and of course Jenny Lind. This was linked to financial success, inducing Lumley, with a typical excess of sanguinity, to purchase the underlying lease of the theatre, From that point, inevitably, things began to go wrong.

One of the sensations of Lumley's management was the balletic 'Pas de Quatre', choreographed by Perrot, and with music by Pugni, in 1845. This divertissement, which featured as dancers Marie Taglioni,Carlotta Grisi, Cerrito and Grahn, may have been inspired by Lumley seeing four girls dancing outside the theatre. The 'Pas de Quatre' became an institution and is frequently revived.

Conflict with Costa

First, Costa felt neglected by Lumley, who, wisely from an artistic point of view, was not keen to produce Costa’s own ballets and operas. Furthermore, Lumley refused to permit Costa to take up the appointment of chief conductor to the Royal Philharmonic Society, then the leading London symphonic orchestra. In 1846 Costa decamped to Covent Garden, with most of the orchestra and singers, and the support of some leading London critics, to establish there the second Royal Italian Opera Company in competition with Lumley.

Lumley swiftly fought back, showing all his skills as an opportunist. He engaged the composer Michael Balfe to replace Costa. In 1847, despite legal threats from the Covent Garden management, he brought Jenny Lind over for her sensational London debut, for which he had prepared with unprecedented levels of spin and publicity. Fortunately for him, things turned out well, and profitable. Lind appeared as Alice in Robert le diable by Giacomo Meyerbeer, and Mendelssohn, on his last London visit, who had encouraged her to take up Lumley’s offer, was in the audience despite his known distaste for Meyerbeer’s work.

Lumley had also extensively broadcast Mendelssohn’s Tempest opera as forthcoming. This was a bare-faced lie. Mendelssohn found the libretto by Eugene Scribe completely unacceptable and did not even begin to write the music for it. The death of Mendelssohn in 1847 however gave Lumley an escape from his fabrications, and he commissioned the French composer Fromental Halévy to take it on. But the premiere of "La Tempesta" in 1850 was, at most, a succès d’éstime.

Financial Problems

Meanwhile Lumley had extended his interests by taking on in addition the management of the Théâtre des Italiens in Paris, and was soon negotiating with the actress Rachel and Victor Hugo. In short, his frenzied activities resemble all too closely the hubris of speculative tycoons overreaching themselves. Not surprisingly he began to have problems paying his stars and seems to have been astonished when they began to walk out on him. The soprano Johanna Wagner, niece of the composer Wagner, was lured to Covent Garden, sparking off a complex but fruitless litigation. The resulting case, Lumley v. Gye, is still regarded as a major source for employment contract law. It is referred to in teaching at major institutions, and is cited in contemporary litigation. Lumley won, but it was for him a pyrrhic victory, resulting in financial loss.

By 1853 the financial problems were overwhelming, and Lumley ran for cover to France. He was tempted back when in 1856, the Covent Garden Theatre once again caught fire, and for three years he was once again the arbiter of Italian opera in London. But when Covent Garden was rebuilt, (the same theatre that stands today), he was offered the tenure for £100,000 funds which he simply didn't have.

Abandonment of the Opera

Lumley returned to the law, and in his later years wrote two works of fantasy and a legal reference book. His previous successes were never to be repeated. He died in 1875, leaving less than £1000 in his will. His 'written will'

ources

* Benjamin Lumley, 'Reminiscences of the Opera', London, 1864. (autobiography)
* Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

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