Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 34.djvu/276

 younger [q. v.], largely contributed to his ruin, although he won an action brought by him against Gye. A committee was formed to relieve him of part of the responsibility of the enterprise, but from 1853 to 1855 the theatre was closed. Meanwhile Lumley had refused offers of the managements both of the Lisbon opera and of La Scala, Milan; but in 1850 he had undertaken to manage the Paris Italian Opera House, obtaining the concession, after great opposition, through the patronage of Prince Louis Napoleon. The season of 1850–1 was carried on at a considerable loss, in a clouded political atmosphere, and the enterprise ended disastrously with the coup d'état of 2 Dec. 1851.

Lumley chiefly remained on the continent until 1856, when the burning of Covent Garden Theatre led him to reopen Her Majesty's. The season began on 10 May of that year. Bonetti conducted, and during this and the two following seasons Lumley introduced to the public Piccolomini, Joanna Wagner, Albertini, Titiens, Giuglini, and Alboni. But the commercial panic of 1857 influenced the receipts; the formation of an opera-company, devised as a last resource, was delayed by tedious litigation, and the policy of Lord Ward (Earl Dudley) gave the fatal blow to Lumley's venture. In 1856 Lord Ward, who had advanced large sums of money, led Lumley to assign to him the lease of the theatre, purchased in 1845, and after May 1856 he held an underlease from Lord Ward. In 1858 Lord Ward demanded three quarters' rent or the immediate cession of the theatre. The money was not forthcoming, and Lumley gave up possession 10 Aug. 1858. Her Majesty's Theatre was closed, and Lumley's connection with it ceased (cf., The Earl of Dudley, Mr. Lumley, and Her Majesty's Theatre). With this catastrophe ended also the splendid fêtes given by Lumley at The Chancellors, Fulham, where aristocrat and artist met on equal grounds. In 1863, four benefit performances were given at Her Majesty's in Lumley's behalf.

Lumley's efforts to procure new operas for his stage met with persistent ill-success. Costa's ‘Don Carlos,’ on 20 June 1844, survived a very few nights. Verdi, who had promised a work on the story of ‘King Lear,’ disappointed the public by substituting ‘I Masnadieri,’ founded on Schiller's ‘Räuber.’ The composer superintended the rehearsals, and produced it on 2 July 1847. In spite of Lind's Amalia, and the fine playing by Piatti of the violoncello solo in the introduction, the opera did not please. Thalberg's ‘Florinda,’ 1851, was no less a failure. Scribe's version of the ‘Tempest,’ for which it had been hoped that Mendelssohn would write the music, was put into the hands of Halévy, and was brought out on 8 July 1850, with Sontag as Miranda and Carlotta Grisi as Ariel, Lablache making the night memorable by his fine conception and performance of Caliban. The libretto and the music, however, did not fit the Shakespearean theme.

The following are the Italian operas new to England introduced by Lumley between 1842 and 1858: Donizetti's ‘Gemma di Vergy,’ 1842; ‘Adelia,’ ‘Belisario,’ ‘Linda di Chamouni,’ ‘Don Pasquale,’ 1843; ‘Don Gregorio,’ 1846; ‘La Favorita,’ ‘La Figlia del Reggimento,’ 1847; Hérold's ‘Zampa,’ 1844; Verdi's ‘Ernani,’ 1845; ‘Nino’ (‘Nabucco’), ‘I Lombardi,’ 1846; ‘I due Foscari,’ 1847; ‘Attila,’ 1848; ‘Luisa Miller,’ 1858; ‘La Traviata,’ 1856; Meyerbeer's ‘Roberto il Diavolo,’ 1847; Fioravanti's ‘Le Cantatrice Villane,’ 1842; Mercadante's ‘Elena da Feltre,’ 1842; Ricci's ‘Corrado d'Altamura,’ 1844; Alary's ‘Le tre Nozze,’ 1851; Auber's ‘Masaniello,’ 1837; ‘Gustavus,’ 1851; ‘Il Prodigo,’ ‘Zerlina,’ 1851; Balfe's ‘I Quattro Fratelli,’ dedication ode, 1851; ‘La Zingara,’ 1857; Duke of Saxe-Coburg's ‘Casilda,’ 1852; and David's symphony, ‘Le Désert,’ 1845.

Lumley, after resigning Her Majesty's Theatre, returned to the practice of the law, and wrote several books. In 1838 he had published a standard book on ‘Parliamentary Practice on Passing Private Bills.’ In 1862 appeared, published anonymously, a work of fiction, ‘Sirenia,’ a fantastic account of the life of sirens in their retreats, their origin, mission, and pursuits. In ‘Another World, or Fragments from the Star City of Montallayah by Hermes’ (1873), Lumley's second experiment as a writer of romance, he described a utopia in the planet Mars, inhabited by human beings rid of the scourges of crime, disease, and even ugliness, through the care bestowed on the training of infants, and the electrical properties discovered in all matter organic and inorganic. The book reached a third edition in the year of its publication.

The ‘Reminiscences’ published by Lumley in 1864 give a clear account of his lesseeship, and dwell on the absence of government support to the opera in England or of public sympathy with an operatic manager. The frontispiece, a portrait of the author, was engraved by J. Brown from a sketch by Count D'Orsay. The volume is dedicated to Mrs. Grote.

Lumley also published ‘The Earl of Dudley, Mr. Lumley, and Her Majesty's Theatre, a Narrative of Facts,’ second edition, 1863.