Walter Slaughter

Walter Alfred Slaughter (17 February 1860 – 2 March 1908) was an English conductor and composer of musical comedy, comic opera and children's shows.

Life and career

Slaughter was born and raised in London. He studied music under Georges Jacobi, the musical director of the Alhambra Theatre. Slaughter married Luna Lauri ("Mlle. Luna"), one of the two famous dancing daughters of John Lauri, ballet-master at the Alhambra Theatre. Slaughter's daughter Marjorie Slaughter, also became a composer.

Early career

Slaughter served as the organist at St. Andrews Church and as a cellist and pianist in music halls prior to becoming a musical director in West End theatre productions. He was engaged in the West End from 1883 to 1904 and served as the first musical director for Oswald Stoll at the London Coliseum from 1904 to 1906.

Meanwhile, after composing some ballet music for the South London Theatre and some individual songs, including the popular "The Dear Homeland", Slaughter composed the lyrics for the successful all-women operetta "An Adamless Eden" (1882 at the Opera Comique), which was produced in Britain and in America (1884) by Lila Clay's ladies' company. After several one-act works, including with "Sly and Shy" (1883) and "The Casting Vote" (1885), he wrote the score for what became the most successful musical version of "Alice in Wonderland", in 1886. He also wrote a work called "Sappho" that year for the Opera Comique.

Slaughter later wrote the score to the medieval comic opera "Marjorie" produced by the Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1890 (Prince of Wales's Theatre, 193 performances), and contributed to the Gaiety Theatre's "Cinderella" story, " Cinder-Ellen Up-too-Late" in 1891 and "King Kodak" in 1894. At the same time, Slaughter also composed incidental music for plays, including those produced at the St. James's Theatre while he was employed as the music director there, including, in 1890, Walter Frith's "Molierè" and Quinton and Hamilton's "Lord Anerley"; in 1891, Haddon Chambers's "The Idler"; and in 1892, Oscar Wilde's "Lady Windermere's Fan" and "Donna Luiza" (with Basil Hood as librettist).

Peak years

Slaughter's breakthrough success came in 1895 in collaboration with Hood with the musical comedy "Gentleman Joe, The Hansom Cabbie" as a vehicle for the low comic Arthur Roberts, which ran for 391 performances and enjoyed a New York production the following year. This was followed in 1896 by another collaboration with Hood that produced "The French Maid", which was a long-lived international success (480 performances in London and a long-running New York production), and the less successful "Belinda". He also wrote incidental music to Henry James's "Guy Domville" (1895) and "The Prisoner of Zenda" (1896) around this time.

With Basil Hood, Slaughter wrote "Dandy Dan the Lifeguardsman" (1897, Lyric Theatre), another successful vehicle for Roberts, and "Orlando Dando" (1898), a similar success for Dan Leno at the Fulham Grand Theatre and then on tour. Next, Slaughter wrote three shows for the Vaudeville Theatre managed by Seymour Hicks. The most successful of these was "Bluebell in Fairyland" (1901), produced by Charles Frohman and starring Hicks and his wife, Ellaline Terriss. This turned out to be the most popular Christmas entertainment of its time and was continually revived for the next four decades. Other 1901 works were "Little Miss Modesty" and "The English Rose". "An English Daisy", written with Hicks, was produced on Broadway with a Kingston run in 1902.

Slaughter wrote several more shows, including "Little Hans Anderson" with Hood (1903) and "The Hooligan Band" with Charles H. Taylor (1906). He died in London at the age of 48.

References

* [http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/british/composers/slaughter.html Biography of Slaughter]
* [http://www.flyrope.com/sections/people/index.php?var=48306 Listing of Slaughter shows from Flyrope.com]

External links

* [http://www.halhkmusic.com/victorian.html Midi files and cast lists for some of Slaughter's shows]
* [http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/robertbuchanan/html/music.html Discussion of collaborations between Slaughter and Robert Williams Buchanan]
* [http://www.bllearning.co.uk/catalogues/evanion/Record.asp?EvanID=487&source=gallery.asp Poster for and description of "The Sioux" 1892, with music by Slaughter]
* [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/search?q=au%3AWalter+au%3ASlaughter&qt=hot_author List of library materials on Slaughter's works]
* [http://www.marxists.org/archive/eleanor-marx/1890/theatre.htm Review of "Marjorie"]