Henry Bishop

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Sir Henry Rowley Bishop (November 18, 1786 — April 30, 1855) was an English musical composer. He is famous for composing "Home! Sweet Home!" (lyrics by John Howard Payne), originally from his 1823 comic opera Clari, or the Maid of Milan. He was the composer or arranger of some 120 dramatic works, including 80 operas, light operas, cantatas, and ballets. He worked for all the major theatres of London in his era — the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Vauxhall Gardens, the Haymarket Theatre.

His first opera, The Circassian's Bride (1809), had one performance at Drury Lane — then the theatre burned down and the score was lost. Bishop's "operas" have more in common with the earlier, native English ballad opera genre, or with modern musicals, that the classical opera of continental Europe with full recitatives. He wrote in a style and format that satisfied the audiences of his day. His Aladdin (1827) has sometimes been described as his most significant work. It was commissioned by Drury Lane, to compete with Carl Maria von Weber's Oberon at Covent Garden, and is more in the classical European mode – though it was not a success at the time.

Bishop was professor of music, first at the University of Edinburgh (1841) and then at the University of Oxford (1848); he was one of the original directors of the Philharmonic Society when it was founded in 1813. He conducted at Covent Garden and at the London Philharmonic concerts. He was married twice; he and both of his wives were singers. Some of Bishop's songs and glees and similar pieces still live in the vocal repertory, while his larger works are forgotten.

Bishop composed the music for a series of Shakespearean operas staged by Frederic Reynolds in the years between 1816 and 1828.

Bishop's later years were marked by a serious scandal. He had married his second wife, the singer Anna Rivière, in 1831. She was twenty-four years younger than he. In 1839, Rivière abandoned her husband and three children to run off with her lover-harpist-accompanyist. She left England for a permanent tour the world.^[1]

Bishop was knighted in 1842, the first musician to be so honored. Though he had a substantial income during his lifetime, he died in poverty. He was born and died in London, and is buried in East Finchley Cemetery in his native city.

[edit] Significant Works of Henry Bishop

Angelina, 1804; operetta
Tamerlan et Bajazet, 1806; ballet
The Maniac, or The Swiss Banditti, 1810; opera
The Brazen Bust, 1813; melodrama
The Miller and His Men, 1813; melodrama
Sadak and Kalasrade, or The Waters of Oblivion, 1814; opera
Brother and Sister, 1815; entertainment
December and May, 1818; operetta
The Heart of Mid-Lothian, 1819; musical drama
The Battle of Bothwell Brigg, 1820; musical romance
Englishmen in India, 1827; comic opera
Yelva, or The Orphan of Russia, 1829; musical drama
The Seventh Day, 1833; sacred cantata

[edit] Note

^ Norman Gilliland, Grace Notes for a Year: Stories of Hope, Humor and Hubris From the World of Classical Music, Madison, Wisconsin, NEMO Productions, 2002; p.9.