ABSTRACT
The career of Sir George Macfarren was unique. Of all the prominent composers of English opera in the period, only he was a student at the Royal Academy of Music. Eventually he rose to exalted posts in the establishment, succeeding Sterndale Bennett as Principal of the Royal Academy of Music in 1875 and becoming Professor at Cambridge in the same year. Macfarren’s father, George Macfarren senior, exercised an important influence. He was an experienced man of the theatre and author of a number of stage works, including The Devil’s Opera and An Adventure of Don Quixote. The influence of Mozart and Beethoven emerges strongly. This is particularly so of the overture. Its clear sonata form is Mozartian, while the ideas themselves reveal Beethoven’s impact. Seven years later, spurred by identical admiration, Schumann used a similar idea for the finale of his Second Symphony.
