Edward Fitzball (20 March 179327 October 1873) was a popular English playwright, who specialised in

melodrama A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or exce ...

. His real surname was Ball, and he was born at

Burwell, Cambridgeshire Burwell is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England, some 10 miles (16 km) north-east of Cambridge. It lies on the south-east edge of the Fens. Westward drainage is improved by Cambridgeshire lodes (waterways), including Burwell ...

. Fitzball was educated in Newmarket, was apprenticed to a

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of ...

printer in 1809. He produced some dramatic pieces at the local theatre, and eventually the marked success of his ''Innkeeper of Abbeville, or The Ostler and the Robber'' (1820), together with the friendly acceptance of one of his pieces at the Surrey Theatre by

Thomas John Dibdin Thomas John Dibdin (21 March 1771 – 16 September 1841) was an English dramatist and songwriter. Life Dibdin was the son of Charles Dibdin, a songwriter and theatre manager, and of "Mrs Davenet", an actress whose real name was Harriett Pi ...

, induced him to settle in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. During the next twenty-five years, he produced a great number of plays, most of which were successful. He had a special talent for nautical drama. His ''Floating Beacon'' (Surrey Theatre, 19 April 1824) ran for 140 nights, and his ''Pilot'' (Adelphi, 1825) for 200 nights. He also produced a seminal play on ''

The Flying Dutchman The ''Flying Dutchman'' ( nl, De Vliegende Hollander) is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the seven seas forever. The myth is likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Dut ...

'' and wrote the

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major li ...

for

Edward Loder Edward James Loder (10 July 1809 – 5 April 1865) was an English composer and conductor. His best remembered work is perhaps the 1855 opera ''Raymond and Agnes'', though his most successful opera during his lifetime was ''The Night Dancers''. ...

's ''

Raymond and Agnes ''Raymond and Agnes'' is an opera in 3 (originally 4) acts by the composer Edward Loder to an English libretto by Edward Fitzball. It is very loosely based on elements from Matthew Lewis's classic Gothic novel, ''The Monk'' (1796) and also inclu ...

''. His greatest triumph in melodrama was perhaps ''Jonathan Bradford, or Murder at the Roadside Inn'' (Surrey Theatre, 12 June 1833). He was at one time stock dramatist and reader of plays at

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

, and afterwards at

Drury Lane Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster. Notable landmarks T ...

. He had a considerable reputation as a songwriter and as a librettist in opera. He wrote the librettos for

William Vincent Wallace William Vincent Wallace (11 March 1812 – 12 October 1865) was an Irish composer and pianist. In his day, he was famous on three continents as a double virtuoso on violin and piano. Nowadays, he is mainly remembered as an opera composer of n ...

's operas ''Maritana'' and ''Lurline''. The last years of his life were spent in retirement at Chatham, where he died at the age of 80.

References

External links

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The innkeeper of AbbevilleThe floating beaconThirty-five years of a dramatic author's lifeWorks with text by Edward Fitzball on IMSLP
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzball, Edward 1792 births 1873 deaths English opera librettists People from Burwell, Cambridgeshire 19th-century English dramatists and playwrights English male dramatists and playwrights 19th-century English male writers