Stephen Michael Harding Oliver (10 March 1950 – 29 April 1992) was an English composer, best known for his

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

Early life and education

Oliver was born on 10 March 1950 in Chester, the son of (Charlotte Hester) (née Girdlestone, born 1911), a religious education adviser, and Osborne George Oliver (born 1903), an electricity board official. His maternal great-grandfather was

William Boyd Carpenter William Boyd Carpenter (26 March 1841, Liverpool – 26 October 1918, Westminster) was a Church of England cleric who became Bishop of Ripon and Royal Chaplain to Queen Victoria. Background William Boyd Carpenter was the second son of the Revd ...

, a

Bishop of Ripon The Bishop of Ripon is an episcopal title which takes its name after the city of Ripon in North Yorkshire, England. The bishop is one of the area bishops of the Diocese of Leeds in the Province of York. The area bishop of Ripon has oversight o ...

and a court chaplain to

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

. Oliver was educated at

St Paul's Cathedral School (''By Faith and By Learning'') , established = , closed = , type = Independent preparatory schoolChoral foundation school , religious_affiliation = Church of England , president = , head_label = Headmaster , hea ...

, Ardingly College and at Worcester College, Oxford, where he read music under

Kenneth Leighton Kenneth Leighton (2 October 1929 – 24 August 1988) was a British composer and pianist. His compositions include church and choral music, pieces for piano, organ, cello, oboe and other instruments, chamber music, concertos, ...

and

Robert Sherlaw Johnson Robert Sherlaw Johnson (21 May 1932 – 3 November 2000), was a British composer, pianist and music scholar. Sherlaw Johnson was one of that group of post-war British musicians whose work reflected wider European interests in new ideas, techn ...

. His first opera, ''

The Duchess of Malfi ''The Duchess of Malfi'' (originally published as ''The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy'') is a Jacobean revenge tragedy written by English dramatist John Webster in 1612–1613. It was first performed privately at the Blackfriars Theatre, ...

'' (1971), was staged while he was still at Oxford.

Career

Later works include incidental music for the Royal Shakespeare Company (including ''

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby ''Nicholas Nickleby'' or ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby'' (or also ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Containing a Faithful Account of the Fortunes, Misfortunes, Uprisings, Downfallings, and Complete Career of the ...

''), a musical, '' Blondel'' (1983; with

Tim Rice Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice (born 10 November 1944) is an English lyricist and author. He is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote, among other shows, ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'', ...

), and over forty operas, including ''Tom Jones'' (1975), ''Beauty and the Beast'' (1984) and ''

Timon of Athens ''Timon of Athens'' (''The Life of Tymon of Athens'') is a play written by William Shakespeare and probably also Thomas Middleton in about 1606. It was published in the '' First Folio'' in 1623. Timon lavishes his wealth on parasitic companio ...

'' (1991). Oliver also wrote music for television, including several of the BBC's Shakespeare productions (''Timon'' among those), the soundtrack to the 1986 film '' Lady Jane'', and some chamber and instrumental music. He was a good friend of

Simon Callow Simon Phillip Hugh Callow (born 15 June 1949) is an English film, television and voice actor, director, narrator and writer. He was twice nominated for BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his roles in ''A Room with a View'' (19 ...

who commissioned the piece ''

Ricercare A ricercar ( , ) or ricercare ( , ) is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term ''ricercar'' derives from the Italian verb which means 'to search out; to seek'; many ricercars serve a preludial funct ...

No. 4'' for vocal quartet

Cantabile In music, ''cantabile'' , an Italian word, means literally "singable" or "songlike". In instrumental music, it is a particular style of playing designed to imitate the human voice. For 18th-century composers, ''cantabile'' is often synonymous wit ...

. He also composed the score for the thirteen-hour radio dramatisation of Tolkien's ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's b ...

'', first broadcast on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

in 1981. The work combined a main theme with many sub-themes, all composed within the English pastoral tradition. In

Tony Palmer Tony Palmer (born 29 August 1941)IMDb: Tony Palmer
Retrieved 24 September 2011 is a British film direc ...

's film ''

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

'' (1982–83), Oliver can be seen playing the part of conductor Hans Richter and conducting in the pit of Richard Wagner's theatre at Bayreuth.

Other activities

Oliver was a frequent guest on BBC Radio 4's light discussion programme '' Stop The Week''.

Death and legacy

He died in London on 29 April 1992, aged 42, of AIDS-related complications. In 2006, Oliver's archive of original scores and papers was presented to the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

by his family. His nephew is comedian and TV host

John Oliver John William Oliver (born 23 April 1977) is a British-American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. Oliver started his career as a stand-up comedian in the United Kingdom. He came to wider attention ...

Stephen Oliver Trust

Oliver left most of his estate in trust, to further the work he had already been doing during his life, helping to fund small-scale opera companies and young composers of opera. In March 1993 the Stephen Oliver Trust was established, which was enlarged by several large donations and covenants. Trustees include conductor

Jane Glover Dame Jane Alison Glover (born 13 May 1949) is a British-born conductor and musicologist. Early life Born at Helmsley, Glover attended Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls. Her father, Robert Finlay Glover, MA ( TCD), was headmaster of ...

and composer Jonathan Dove. The stated aims of the trust are: *to encourage the creation, promotion and performance of contemporary opera; and *to encourage young people working in contemporary opera. The trust established the Stephen Oliver Prize, a biennial award of £10,000 launched in 1994, awarded to given to a young composer for a new work of

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

. Launched in 1994, there were two prizes awarded, with the first awarded to David Horne for ''Travellers'', and the second in 1996 to Tim Benjamin, for ''The Bridge''. The trust worked with other organisations to bring the two composers' operas to the stage in June 1998, as part of the 1998 Covent Garden Festival. After the competitions, the trust turned its attention to supporting compositions and occasional performances by contemporary opera companies. In 2006, the trustees decided to lodge the capital funds within the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, which administers the Stephen Oliver Award, as well as other funding to young musicians.

References

External links

Official Stephen Oliver website
* * Composer page a
ChesterNovello.com
* BBC Shakespeare

* 1950 births 1992 deaths People educated at Ardingly College Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford 20th-century classical composers English classical composers English agnostics People from Chester AIDS-related deaths in England People educated at St. Paul's Cathedral School 20th-century English composers English male classical composers 20th-century British male musicians {{UK-composer-stub