Benedict Sir Julius

Benedict, Sir Julius, musician, was born in 1804 at Stuttgart. At the age of twenty he became musical director of the Karnthnerthor theatre in Vienna, and in 1825 of the San Carlo and Fondo theatres in Naples. Here he produced Giacinta ed Ernesto and I Portoghesi in Goa. In 1835 he removed to London, where in 1836 at the Lyceum his operetta Un Anno ed un Giorno was brought out. In 1838 conductor of the English opera at Drury Lane, he there produced the The Gipsy's Warning, The Bride of Venice (1843), and The Crusaders (1846). In a performance of Elijah that he conducted in Exeter Hall Jenny Lind made her first appearance in oratorio, and he in 1850 went as pianist to America with her; his cantata Undine appeared in 1860, The Lily of Killarney in 1862, Richard Coeur de Lion in 1863, St. Cecilia in 1866, The Bride of Song in 1864, St. Peter in 1870, and Graziella in 1882. He was knighted in 1871, having been previously naturalised. He died in London in 1885.