Edward Lambert (born 1951) is an English composer who has written chamber music, vocal and choral works, and chamber operas. He is also a conductor and pianist.
Lambert spent two seasons (1974–1976) working as repetiteur and assistant kapellmeister at the Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landestheater in the North German town of Flensburg. There he came into contact with the new music of the 1960s and 1970s.[3] In 1976 he attended Darmstadt composers' course when György Ligeti was lecturing there: Epitaph was selected for performance. The Park Lane Players gave performances of the Fantasy Trio (1977)[4] and the Canzonetta (Sonatina) for Clarinet & Piano.[5]
As a result of attending the Gulbenkian course for composers and choreographers in 1977, led by Robert Cohan, he wrote Ephialtes (1978) for Scottish Ballet, Invention (1978) and Maxims, Hymn, Riddle (1982) for Jonathan Burrows and the Spiral Dance Company.[6]
While serving his apprenticeship in Germany, he also worked at the Wexford Festival Ireland (1974–1976);[7] in 1977 he joined the music staff of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, (full-time 1977–1982, continuing freelance until 1996).
His Piano Quartet Emplay was the winner of the Humphrey Searle Chamber Music Competition and played twice in the finals at the Purcell Room in 1983.[8][9] The Chamber Concerto (1983) was performed by Lontano at the 1984 Bath International Music Festival.[10][11] The Mass for Four Voices was performed at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and broadcast on BBC Radio 3.[12]
In the 1980s and 1990s Lambert was involved in the Royal Opera's developing outreach program around the country which explored innovative ways of composing operas alongside children and amateurs[13] (often in collaboration with the education arm of the Metropolitan Opera, New York):[14][15][16] this resulted in several opera projects including The Treasure and a Tale, (a fusion of Beowulf and the Sutton Hoo discovery in collaboration with the British Museum) performed at the Snape Maltings and The Button Moulder (1989–90), a specially commissioned work for teenagers adapted by Lambert from Ibsen's Peer Gynt.[17][18][19] This production travelled to the US.[20]
The chamber opera Caedmon based on a play by Christopher Fry was produced by the Royal Opera at the Donmar Warehouse in May 1989 with Christopher Gillett in the title role.[21][22][23]All in the Mind (2004) was commissioned by W11 Opera, also to Lambert's own libretto, and performed at the Britten Theatre in London.[24][25]
Several works have been performed in the Newbury area in Berkshire, England, where he now lives.[26][27][28][29] He was musical director of the Newbury Chamber Choir (2002-2020)[30][31] and in 2013 formed a group called The Music Troupe which has since performed regularly at the annual Tête à Tête Opera Festival in London.[32]
In 2014 The Music Troupe mounted productions of Six Characters in Search of a Stage, The Inarticulate Burr, Stillleben (Sonata for Strings as dance), and The Catfish Conundrum.[33][34] There followed Opera With a Title, The Cloak and Dagger Affair[35] and The Parting (after Lorca), The Oval Portrait (after Poe), The Art of Venus (2017) [36] and Apollo's Mission (2019).
The Burning Question (2022) was hailed by Planet Hugill as " ... a complex, layered story about love, loss, self sacrifice and sin... an absolute delight from start to finish."[37]Maunders, Florence (5 September 2022). "Planet Hugill".
The journal of the UK Oscar Wilde Society, ″The Wildean″(July 2024), wrote of Lambert's adaptation of Oscar Wilde's "The Duchess of Padua" that the work "injects vitality into this overlooked piece, presenting a captivating exploration of love and vengeance through vibrant music. His faithful adaptation skilfully navigates between the melodramatic and sentimental elements of the plot, revealing its unexpected contemporaneity..."[38]
Heft nr.15, 1974–1975, Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landestheater und Sinfonieorchester GmbH: One of Lambert's first assignments was to play in the same evening the solo piano in Bernd Alois Zimmerman's Piano Trio 'Présence' and the soloist in Frank Martin's Harpsichord Concerto.
'Dancing for Riverside', National Organisation for Dance and Mime, Sadler's Wells Theatre: 'Invention" was re-titled 'The energy between us' when presented by Jonathan Burrows at the Riverside Studios on 27 March 1983. Maxims, Hymn, Riddle was re-titled 'Cloister' for Spiral Dance Company when it performed at the Dance Umbrella festival at The Place in October 1982.
'Taking to the headiest waters', The Times, London, 28 May 1984: Nicholas Kenyon wrote that the piece 'with its mangled trumpet-and-drum fanfares and violent conflicts between striding unison lines for strings and wind, was strikingly imagined and very well played...'
The Independent, London, 20 May 1989, p.33: Robert Maycock wrote that the opera's music was 'spare and intensely lyrical... providing opportunities for long spans of concentrated and beautiful singing...'
This event was the product of a crowdfunding campaign by The Independent: 'The Garden Venture comes into bloom', The Independent, London, 15 May 1989, p.19.
'Beside the seaside', The Sunday Telegraph, 28 May 1989: Malcolm Hayes wrote that the opera took 'a cripplingly slow half-hour to get going, but which brought rewards when it did...'
