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.
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 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]
Song of Norway - 1990 London Studio Cast,[9] with Valerie Masterson, Donald Maxwell, Diana Montague, David Rendall, Elizabeth Bainbridge, Yit Kin Seow (TER)
The Yeomen of the Guard - 1993 New D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, with Leslie Echo Ross, Janine Roebuck, Jill Pert, David Fieldsend, Fenton Gray, Donald Maxwell (TER)
Patience[22] - 1994 New D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, Mary Hegarty, Frances McCafferty, Jill Pert, David Fieldsend, Simon Butteriss, Gareth Jones (plus the original Act 2 finale, The Duke's song and four Sullivan overtures) (TER)
On the Town - 1995 Studio Cast, with Kim Cresswell, Judy Kaye, Gregg Edelman, Tim Flavin, Ethan Freeman, Valerie Masterson, Tinuke Olafimihan (Jay Records)
The Dancing Years[22] - 1996 London Studio Cast, with Valerie Masterson, Mary Hegarty, Louise Winter, Lynton Black, David Fieldsend (Jay Records)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Biographical note to John Owen Edwards in Booklet accompanying TER CDTER2 1170 (Kismet), 1990.
↑ "Goodbye Mr Chips", Chichester Festival Theatre archive page, 1982, accessed 22 January 2025.
↑ " A Little Night Music", Chichester Festival Theatre archive page, 1982, accessed 22 January 2025.
↑ "Born Again", Chichester Festival Theatre archive page, 1982, accessed 22 January 2025.
↑ Milnes, Rodney. Review – The Ratepayers' Iolanthe. Queen Elizabeth Hall, July 26. Opera, October 1984, Vol. 35, No. 10, pp. 1160–1161.
↑ Milnes, Rodney. "At the Musical. Street Scene, Palace Theatre, April 26", Opera, July 1987, Vol. 38, No. 7, pp. 840–841.
↑ 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.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Giving G&S the treatment. D'Oyly Carte Music Director John Owen Edwards talk to Adrian Edwards. Gramophone, May 1993, p. 19
↑ The Classical Catalogue, Master edition 1992 No. 2. General Gramophone Publications Ltd, Harrow, 1992, p. 856.
↑ Hince, Kenneth. Australia – Fitting productions (Melbourne). Opera, December 1992, Vol. 43, No. 12, pp. 1420–1421.
↑ In the News - Appointments and Awards. Opera, April 1992, Vol.43 No.4, p415.
↑ 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.
↑ 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.
↑ Reed, Peter. "Orpheus in the Underworld – Opera Holland Park". Opera, September 2009, Vol. 60, No. 9, p. 1128.
↑ Milnes, Rodney. "At the Musical – On the Twentieth Century, Opera, September 1990, Vol. 41, No. 9, pp. 1135–1136.
↑ Milnes, Rodney. "At the Musical – Out of this World, Opera, October 1991, Vol. 42, No. 10, pp. 1232–1233.
↑ 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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