This article is about the English actor and stage manager (1852–1896). For his father (1825–1873), see Augustus Glossop Harris. For the Mayor of Scarborough, Ontario, see Gus Harris.
Sir
Augustus Harris
Born
Augustus Henry Glossop Harris
(1852-03-18)18 March 1852
Paris, France
Died
22 June 1896(1896-06-22) (aged 44)
Folkestone, England
Occupation(s)
Actor, impresario, dramatist
Years active
1873–1896[1]
Sir Augustus Henry Glossop Harris (18 March 1852 – 22 June 1896) was a British actor, impresario, and dramatist, a dominant figure in the West End theatre of the 1880s and 1890s.
Born into a theatrical family, Harris briefly pursued a commercial career before becoming an actor and subsequently a stage-manager. At the age of 27 he became the lessee of the large Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where he mounted popular melodramas and annual pantomimes on a grand and spectacular scale. The pantomimes featured leading music hall stars such as Dan Leno, Marie Lloyd, Little Tich and Vesta Tilley. The profits from these productions subsidised his opera seasons, equally lavish, starrily cast and with an innovative repertoire. He presented the first British production of Die Meistersinger and the first production anywhere outside Germany of Tristan und Isolde, and revitalised the staging of established classics.
Harris remained in charge at Drury Lane for the rest of his life, and in 1888 took on the additional responsibility of running the Royal Italian Opera House, Covent Garden, modernising its productions and repertory and abandoning the old convention that all operas, whatever their nationality, were sung in Italian. He changed the name of the theatre to The Royal Opera House in 1892. Both at Drury Lane and Covent Garden he engaged the most admired artists, including Hans Richter and Gustav Mahler as conductors, and Emma Albani, Nellie Melba, Adelina Patti, Jean and Édouard de Reszke and Victor Maurel among the singers.
In 1892 Harris took over the failed Royal English Opera House and turned it into a successful music hall with the new name The Palace Theatre of Varieties. He was active in civic affairs, a member of the new London County Council, a sheriff of the City of London and a prominent Freemason. His health gave way under the pressure of his multifarious activities, and after a short illness he died at the age of 44.
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Sir Augustus Henry Glossop Harris (18 March 1852 – 22 June 1896) was a British actor, impresario, and dramatist, a dominant figure in the West End theatre...
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in London's West End. In 1891, she was recruited by the impresario AugustusHarris to appear in that year's spectacular Theatre Royal, Drury Lane Christmas...
continues in pantomime today. As manager of Drury Lane in the 1870s, AugustusHarris produced and co-wrote a series of extraordinarily popular pantomimes...
sought work unsuccessfully from Sir Arthur Sullivan, Carl Rosa and AugustusHarris. She then went to Paris to study with the leading teacher Mathilde...
contralto voice" and had a wide vocal range. Charles Gounod said of her to AugustusHarris, "Do you want to hear one of the most beautiful voices that exist?...
during the 1889–90 season. In 1891, he was recruited by the impresario AugustusHarris to appear in that year's spectacular Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Christmas...
Ocean, p. 3. Warner, p. 478. Cullum, p. 596 Burley 1892, p. 7. Burley, AugustusHarris (1892). The Cairo Expedition: Illinois' First Response in the late...
relatives, Carl Rosa, George Grossmith, François Cellier, George Edwardes, AugustusHarris and Fanny Ronalds. His friend, the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, was...
theatre actor, and her mother was Florence Glossop-Harris. Her grandparents included AugustusHarris, the actor-manager, and François Cellier, musical...
1888 by AugustusHarris, manager at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, to appear in that year's Christmas pantomime, Babes in the Wood. Harris's pantomime...
drollery and grotesque business." Sinbad brought Leno to the attention of AugustusHarris, the manager of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, one of the largest London...
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CAVES Horace Edward CRANE John Robert FLEET John Graham GILLAM Ronald AugustusHARRIS William Henry LINEHAM Arthur Lewis LLOYD Charles E MITCHELL Edward...
Macdonald and Jane's. ISBN 0-354-04205-X. Parker, E.D. (1900). Opera under AugustusHarris. London: Saxon & Co. Rosenthal, Harold (1967). Opera at Covent Garden...
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Duffield Harding – landscape painter, lithographer and author Sir AugustusHarris – actor John Harrison – Royal Navy VC recipient Thomas Helmore – choirmaster...
pieces, many of which were collaborations, working with George Augustus Conquest, AugustusHarris, Tom Taylor, Henry Spry or Henry Pettitt. About a quarter...
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young Henry Wood, who recalled in his memoirs that the producer, Sir AugustusHarris, managed to quell the dictatorial composer and prevent him from interfering...
introduced her to AugustusHarris, who arranged for her to perform in one of his productions. After that, she acted in other Harris productions at the...
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