Frank Osmond Carr
Frank Osmond Carr (23 April 1858 – 29 August 1916), known as F. Osmond Carr, was an English
Life and career
Carr was born in
Carr's first produced work (with lyricist Adrian Ross) was the burlesque Faddimir, or the Triumph of Orthodoxy at the Vaudeville Theatre in London in 1889, which gained the attention of producer George Edwardes. Edwardes began to commission songs from Carr and Ross, including a song for his next Gaiety Theatre burlesque Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué.[1] They next wrote the score for a burlesque of Joan of Arc, or, The merry maid of Orleans (1891), and then the songs for what many historians consider the first British musical comedy, In Town (1892).[2] Carr also composed another burlesque that year, Blue Eyed Susan, for the Prince of Wales Theatre. Carr next composed two successful musicals for producer Fred Harris: Morocco Bound (1893), a model for the music-hall-influenced "variety musicals" to come, and Go-Bang (1894), both with lyrics by Ross.[1]
1n 1894, Edwardes engaged Carr to write the music for
Carr's post-1900 pieces included The Southern Belle (1901), The Rose of the Riviera (1903), Miss Mischief (1904) and The Scottish Bluebells (1906), all of which had at least a provincial success, but he never regained his early popularity. Carr also wrote many separate songs and some instrumental pieces. He also produced the score for a ballet produced at the Empire Theatre in 1907 called Sir Roger de Coverley.
He retired to the country in 1916 but almost immediately died of a heart attack in Uxbridge, Middlesex, England, at the age of 58.
Notes
- ^ a b c d F. Osmond Carr profile, at the British Musical Theatre website of The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive (2004)
- ^
- ^ "Carr, Frank or Francis Osmond (CR880F)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ "Eccentric Lodge, No. 2488", The Freemason's Chronicle, 13 October 1894
References
- Gänzl, Kurt. The encyclopedia of the musical theatre, 2nd edn, 3 vols. (2001)
- Parker, J. (ed.) Who's who in the theatre, 3rd ed. (1916)
- The Stage obituary, 31 August 1916