Sir Reginald Goodall (13 July 1901 – 5 May 1990) was an English conductor and singing coach noted for his performances of the operas of

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

and for conducting the premieres of several operas by

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, o ...

Early life

Goodall was born in Lincoln, and studied at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including pe ...

and elsewhere in Europe. In 1929, he became the organist and choirmaster at St Alban's Church, Holborn.

Career

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Goodall conducted the Wessex Philharmonic, a freelance orchestra which included some ex-members of the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra. In 1944, Goodall joined the Sadler's Wells company, forerunner of the

English National Opera English National Opera (ENO) is a British opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in E ...

. An early triumph was his conducting of the premiere of

's '' Peter Grimes'' in 1945. He conducted this again later at the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

, Covent Garden, where he had first conducted in 1947. He was an assistant conductor to the music director of the Royal Opera House, Karl Rankl, in the late 1940s. Goodall also conducted at Glyndebourne, including another Britten premiere, this time of '' The Rape of Lucretia'', which was also his first recording, with EMI. Goodall spent much of his career conducting orchestras at the Royal Opera House and Sadler's Wells Opera. At Covent Garden, he was overshadowed by

Georg Solti Sir Georg Solti ( , ; born György Stern; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt, and London, and as a long-servi ...

. When Solti was made music director of the Royal Opera in 1961, altercations soon followed, leading Goodall to cease conducting duties and withdraw to an upper-floor room, nicknamed "

Valhalla In Norse mythology, Valhalla ( , ; , )Orchard (1997:171–172) is described as a majestic hall located in Asgard and presided over by the god Odin. There were five possible realms the soul could travel to after death. The first was Fólkvang ...

", where he remained available to singers for coaching on request. For Goodall, conducting success finally came with an appointment at Sadler's Wells, where from 1967 he worked in close collaboration with the head of the music staff, Leonard Hancock. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Goodall conducted several celebrated Wagner productions at Sadler's Wells Opera that reversed the decline in his prestige and established him as one of the leading Wagner conductors of his time. He conducted ''

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (; "The Master-Singers of Nuremberg"), WWV 96, is a music drama, or opera, in three acts, by Richard Wagner. It is the longest opera commonly performed, taking nearly four and a half hours, not counting two breaks between acts, and is traditio ...

'' in 1968, and the full Ring Cycle from 1970 to 1973, both productions sung in English. His last public performance was in 1987 at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

, London, where he led the English National Opera Company in a performance of act 3 of Wagner's ''

Parsifal ''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is freely based on the 13th-century Middle High German chivalric romance ''Parzival'' of th ...

''. The cast included Gwynne Howell (Gurnemanz), Warren Ellsworth (Parsifal), Neil Howlett (Amfortas) and Shelagh Squires (Kundry).

Fascism and Holocaust denials

Passionate about all things German, in the 1930s Goodall openly sympathised with the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

regime, which he perceived as a defender of Germanic cultural traditions. Goodall also actively supported Oswald Mosley's

British Union of Fascists The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a British fascist political party formed in 1932 by Oswald Mosley. Mosley changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists in 1936 and, in 1937, to the British Union. In 1939, f ...

, and he eventually joined the party just five days after Britain's declaration of war on Germany. He maintained his outspoken pro-Nazi views during

, the uninhibited expression of which once led him to be briefly questioned by the police. Goodall was known to refer to

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

as a "BBC Jewish plot".

Reputation and legacy

Goodall achieved his own prominence in later life once he was able to come out from under the shadow of some of the great German and Austrian conductors of his era, for whom he understudied, conducted rehearsals and provided

vocal coach A vocal coach, also known as a voice coach (though this term often applies to those working with speech and communication rather than singing), is a music teacher, usually a piano accompanist, who helps singers prepare for a performance, often al ...

ing. Goodall was appreciated for his attention to detail and Wagner's annotations, as well as for his extensive rehearsals. John Lucas published an authorised biography of Goodall in 1993.

Family

Goodall married Eleanor Gibbs in 1932. They did not have children.

References

Sources

External links

"The First Digital Tristan – a talk with the Maestro, the Hero and the Boss"
by Bruce Duffie. ''Wagner News'', vol. IX, no. 1, February 1982
"Recording of the Month: Review of Goodall's ''Ring'', reissued on CD, 2001"
by Richard Lehnert, 3 December 2001, ''

Stereophile ''Stereophile'' is a monthly American audiophile magazine which reviews high-end audio equipment, such as loudspeakers and amplifiers, and audio-related news. History ''Stereophile'' was founded in 1962 by J. Gordon Holt. With the August 1 ...

''
"Reginald Goodall – the holy fool"
''On an Overgrown Path'' (blog), 8 May 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Goodall, Reginald 1901 births 1990 deaths English male conductors (music) Alumni of the Royal College of Music People detained under Defence Regulation 18B Knights Bachelor Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Conductors (music) awarded knighthoods Musicians from Lincoln, England Place of death missing English members of the British Union of Fascists English Nazis English neo-Nazis 20th-century English conductors (music) 20th-century English male musicians British Holocaust deniers