ABSTRACT
Born in Stuttgart, Sir Julius Benedict received a thorough grounding in German music. At the age of fifteen he became a pupil of Hummel in Weimar, and met Beethoven while still in his teens. In 1821 he began his studies with Weber, an association that lasted until 1824, when he became conductor at the Kârntnertor theatre, Vienna. Benedict moved to Naples in 1825, and for nine years was one of the music staff at the San Carlo and Fondo theatres. Judging by Un anno ed un giorno, in Naples Benedict wholeheartedly adopted the idiom expected by Italian audiences. The work is replete with conventional turns of melodic and orchestral writing. His first English opera, The Gypsy’s Warning, however, is markedly different. In order to retrieve his family fortunes he is pressed by his mother Mrs Cregan to marry the wealthy Anne Chute. The other special musical element in The Lily of Killarney is folklike material.
