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John Owen Edwards

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John Owen Edwards is a British conductor who has been particularly associated with the lyric theatre, especially West End musicals and light opera. He conducted recordings of many of the works with which he was involved on stage. He also worked as a pianist and arranger.

Early life and career

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John Owen Edwards was born in Cartmel, England. He won a scholarship to study composition at Worcester College, Oxford, graduating in 1973,[1] and soon began his career in musical theatre.[2] He conducted for Ruth Welting at the 1975 Royal Variety Performance,[3] and around the same time worked on the musical Billy[1] at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.[4] He collaborated with the musician Stephen Oliver several times, accompanying the premiere of A Man of Feeling at the King's Head Islington in 1980,[5] and as pianist in Swansong for Seven Voices by Nigel Dennis on Radio 3 in 1985.[6]

At the Chichester Festival Theatre, he was musical director for The Mitford Girls by Brahms, Sherrin and Greenwell in 1981,[7] for Valmouth by Sandy Wilson in 1982[8] (later recorded),[9] for the premiere of Goodbye Mr Chips by Starke and Bricusse in 1982,[10] followed by a recording,[9] music supervisor for Ian Judge's production of Sondheim's A Little Night Music in 1989,[11] and musical director for Peter Hall's production of Born Again by Barry, Hall and Carr in 1990.[12]

In 1984 he conducted The Ratepayers' Iolanthe (an updated version of Gilbert and Sullivan' Iolanthe involving contemporary politics) in London,[13] followed by The Metropolitan Mikado, a similar pastiche of Gilbert and Sullivan, in 1985.[9] He conducted the professional British stage premiere of Street Scene in April 1987, a performance in aid of London Lighthouse, where "he guided the large cast ... through this complex score with calm authority".[14] He composed the music for Canary Blunt, a musical with words by David Firth, which premiered at the Latchmere Theatre in 1985 and for which a recording was made by That's Entertainment Records (TER).[1] He conducted the British stage premiere of Kurt Weill's 1936 musical Johnny Johnson for Not the RSC at the Almeida Theatre, London, in August 1986.[15] He conducted operas for the Singers Company including La Périchole, broadcast on BBC2, The Barber of Seville and La bohème.[1]

He conducted the 1989 CD set of Kismet,[16] which included the first recordings of five numbers from the score of Timbuktu!.[9] and the first complete recording of The Student Prince, with David Rendall, Norman Bailey, Diana Montague, Rosemary Ashe, Bonaventura Bottone, and Leon Greene.[17][9] For the recording of Cabaret with Judi Dench and Fred Ebb, much more of the music was used than often heard;[16] it was billed as covering numbers in the "Original Broadway Score, The Film Score and The Revival Score".[18] In August 1992 he conducted Australian Opera in Melbourne in Les Contes d'Hoffmann.[19]

D'Oyly Carte and later years

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He was appointed music director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1992,[20] for whom he conducted and recorded The Yeomen of the Guard after a 26-week tour starting from the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham. This recording featured rarely played horn parts in the Shadbolt aria "When Jealous Torments", Meryll's song "A Laughing Boy", a phrase for Kate in the finale, and the original version of "Is Life a Boon?".[16] One critic noted of the revived D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, "Their greatest single asset is the music director John Owen Edwards: both pieces (Iolanthe and The Count of Luxembourg) were extremely well conducted and their idioms clearly differentiated via an alert orchestra, the Sullivan beautifully clear, allowing one to relish anew the exquisite instrumentation, the Lehar authentically luscious".[21] For the years he was music director of D’Oyly Carte, he conducted Patience, The Yeomen of the Guard, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance, Iolanthe, Orpheus in the Underworld, Die Fledermaus, The Count of Luxembourg and La Vie Parisienne.[22] The Mikado was filmed at Buxton Opera House and broadcast on BBC2 on Boxing Day 1992. Owen Edwards was happy with the policy of D'Oyly Carte to branch out into parts of the light opera repertoire beyond its traditional Gilbert and Sullivan, "mentioning in passing such diverse possibilities as ... The Merry Wives of Windsor, German's Tom Jones [and] The Most Happy Fella",[16] the last of which he recorded complete in the late 1990s with Loesser's daughter Emily as Rosabella and included six extracts cut before the opera opened on Broadway.[23]

At the National Theatre in London he conducted Oklahoma![24] He also conducted Orpheus in the Underworld for British Youth Opera in 2002,[25] and at Opera Holland Park in 2009. His concert work includes a series of Gilbert and Sullivan concerts with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra,[22]

He has been the musical director of a number of musicals in London's West End, including Annie, Evita, Chess, Anything Goes, The Phantom of the Opera, The Sloane Ranger Revue, The King and I, and A Little Night Music,[2] and also worked on The Wizard of Oz for the Royal Shakespeare Company.[2] For the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts, he conducted the musicals Guys and Dolls and Damn Yankees, also Showboat at the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg, and Hello, Dolly! at the Vienna Volksoper[26]

For the Gärtnerplatztheater in Munich, John Owen Edwards created the new orchestration for the continental premiere of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.[2] At the Stadttheater Klagenfurt he conducted Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in 2009,[26] My Fair Lady, and Les Misérables.[2] At Opera Holland Park he conducted Die Fledermaus in 2004, Die lustige Witwe in 2006[26] and Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld) in 2009.[27]

He has also conducted many concerts, including with Alfie Boe and ABBA,[9][2] and taught as a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1977 to 1985, where he conducted Company and Wonderful Town.[1] In 1990 he returned to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama to conduct "with complete authority" a production of On the Twentieth Century[28] and, in July 1991, Out of this world.[29]

In 2012 he supervised rehearsals for a production of The Grand Duke at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival and took a joint curtain call in a wheelchair.[30]

Radio

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Owen Edwards's work on BBC radio included programmes with the vocal group Cantabile, music for E. F. Benson's Secret Lives, dramatised and narrated by Aubrey Woods, and the same author's Queen Lucia in 1984,[1] Friday Night Is Music Night in 1999 and 2001, from 1978 three series of the comic show The Jason Explanation with David Jason,[9] a radio presentation of Julian Slade's Trelawny in 1983,[1] the RSC production of The Lorenzaccio Story,[9] A Bullet in the Ballet by Brahms and Simon in 1987, dramatised by Pat Hooker, and Salad Days in 1994, on Radio 2.[citation needed]

Discography

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Chess London Programme, August 1986, biographical note on John Owen Edwards, p. 29.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Biography of John Owen Edwards", Gärtnerplatz Theater, Munich, accessed 14 December 2024.
  3. ^ Royal Variety Show 1975: Michael Crawford, Kojak, Dad's Army (final credits of TV relay) accessed 21 January 2025
  4. ^ Finstock News 144 (February/March 2024, p. 2): Finstock Folk – John Owen Edwards talking to Julian Stewart.
  5. ^ Milnes, Rodney. British Opera Diary – A Man of Feeling (Stephen Oliver). Opera, February 1981, Vol. 32, No. 2, p.188.
  6. ^ "Swansong for Seven Voices BBC Radio 3", 13 January 1985, Genome, accessed 22 February 2025.
  7. ^ Chichester Festival Theatre archive page for The Mitford Girls 1981 accessed 22 January 2025.
  8. ^ Chichester Festival Theatre archive page for Valmouth 1982 accessed 22 January 2025.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Biographical note to John Owen Edwards in Booklet accompanying TER CDTER2 1170 (Kismet), 1990.
  10. ^ "Goodbye Mr Chips", Chichester Festival Theatre archive page, 1982, accessed 22 January 2025.
  11. ^ " A Little Night Music", Chichester Festival Theatre archive page, 1982, accessed 22 January 2025.
  12. ^ "Born Again", Chichester Festival Theatre archive page, 1982, accessed 22 January 2025.
  13. ^ Milnes, Rodney. Review – The Ratepayers' Iolanthe. Queen Elizabeth Hall, July 26. Opera, October 1984, Vol. 35, No. 10, pp. 1160–1161.
  14. ^ Milnes, Rodney. "At the Musical. Street Scene, Palace Theatre, April 26", Opera, July 1987, Vol. 38, No. 7, pp. 840–841.
  15. ^ Milnes, Rodney. "At the Musical – Johnny Johnson (Weill), Not the RSC at the Almeida Theatre, London, August 15", Opera, October 1986, Vol. 37, No. 10, pp. 1209–1210.
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h Giving G&S the treatment. D'Oyly Carte Music Director John Owen Edwards talk to Adrian Edwards. Gramophone, May 1993, p. 19
  17. ^ The Classical Catalogue, Master edition 1992 No. 2. General Gramophone Publications Ltd, Harrow, 1992, p. 856.
  18. ^ Cabaret Completely Remastered Release, Jay records accessed 25 February 2025.
  19. ^ Hince, Kenneth. Australia – Fitting productions (Melbourne). Opera, December 1992, Vol. 43, No. 12, pp. 1420–1421.
  20. ^ In the News - Appointments and Awards. Opera, April 1992, Vol.43 No.4, p415.
  21. ^ Milnes, Rodney. Iolanthe and The Count of Luxembourg – D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton. Opera, December 1997, Vol. 48, No. 12, pp. 1477–1478.
  22. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Finborough Theatre - The Grand Duke. About The Musical Director John Owen Edwards. accessed 14 December 2024.
  23. ^ a b Blewitt, David. The Most Happy Fella, Loesser - CD review. Opera, July 2001, Vol. 52, No. 7, p. 890.
  24. ^ National Theatre Archive – Owen Edwards, Music Director of Oklahoma!, 1998 accessed 22 January 2025.
  25. ^ Milnes, Rodney. Opera on the fringe. Le nozze di Figaro and Orpheus in the Underworld – British Youth Opera at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, September 2 and 5. Opera, Vol. 53, No. 11, November 2002, p. 1391.
  26. ^ a b c John Owen Edwards search at Operabase accessed 22 January 2025.
  27. ^ Reed, Peter. "Orpheus in the Underworld – Opera Holland Park". Opera, September 2009, Vol. 60, No. 9, p. 1128.
  28. ^ Milnes, Rodney. "At the Musical – On the Twentieth Century, Opera, September 1990, Vol. 41, No. 9, pp. 1135–1136.
  29. ^ Milnes, Rodney. "At the Musical – Out of this World, Opera, October 1991, Vol. 42, No. 10, pp. 1232–1233.
  30. ^ Canning, Hugh. "The Grand Duke; H.M.S. Pinafore; Ruddigore" – Opera House, Buxton, August 17, Buxton’s International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival. Opera, November 2012, Vol. 63, No. 11, p. 1406.
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