Christopher Webber

Webber was born in Bowdon, Cheshire (now Greater Manchester) and educated at The Manchester Grammar School and the University of Kent at Canterbury.The Oxford Companion to Music (OUP, 2002 ed. Alison Latham; major contributors, biographical section) Starting his professional career with theatre directing work, for companies such as Orpheus Opera (of which he was Artistic Director 1980–87), Kent Opera, the new D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in Britain and the USA, and various other English companies, he soon broadened his portfolio to include musical journalism, as Opera and Classical Music Editor for Richard Branson's Event Magazine, as well as Music and Musicians Magazine.Biographical profile, Opera Magazine (London, July 1992)

As a writer, his early work included Bluff Your Way at the Races (Ravette) as well as many opera translations into English. Play commissions soon followed, beginning with a new English version of Sophocles's Philoctetes written for Offstage Downstairs. Later successes include Tatyana commissioned by Nottingham Playhouse, with Josie Lawrence in the title role, and Beverly Klein as her sister Olga;{{cite web|url=http://www.chiuni.ac.uk/music/DerekBarnes.cfm |title=Derek Barnes |publisher=Chiuni.ac.uk |access-date=19 October 2011}} Dr Sullivan and Mr Gilbert (Mull Theatre,Mull Theatre, July–September 1993 revived at Glasgow Citizens' Theatre and on tour throughout ScotlandGlasgow Citizens Theatre May 1998, tour May–August 1998); and Green Tea, shortlisted for a Guinness Prize.

He is an authority on the Spanish zarzuela,{{cite news|url=http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/SOROZABAL_MARIEZCURRENA/_PABLO_/COMPOSITOR/CAMPBELL/_RORY_/ACTOR_Y_CANTANTE/MURPHY/_KATRINA_/ACTRIZ_Y_CANTANTE/WEBBER/_CHRISTOPHER_/MUSICA/elpepicul/19990829elpepicul_6/Tes |title=La zarzuela se hace inglesa · ELPAÍS.com |publisher=Elpais.com |date=29 August 1999 |access-date=19 October 2011|newspaper=El País }} and his book The Zarzuela Companion (Scarecrow Press 2002, Foreword by Plácido Domingo) is a standard English work on the subject.{{cite web|url=http://www.zarzuela.net/cd/book/newbooks.htm#q |title=New Zarzuela book, December 2002 |publisher=Zarzuela.net |access-date=19 October 2011}} He contributed the chapter on zarzuela to The Cambridge Companion to Operetta (Cambridge University Press 2019);{{ISBN|9781316856024}}, https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-operetta/3DF7A4F1A63E892DA5E54273A507F44F has written on Hispanic and Portuguese Music for The Oxford Companion to Music, Opera Magazine,most recent, Opera Magazine (London, September 2019; October 2019 et al.) Opera Now,'Say Hola to Zarzuela' (London, March 2013) Royal Opera Covent GardenPlácido Domingo, Royal Opera House Gala, London February 1999 and many other publications; has provided programme notes and translations for many concert and festival organisations including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra,{{cite web |url=http://nyphil.org/meet/archive/index.cfm?page=eventDetail&eventNum=2372&seasonNum=10 |title=New York Philharmonic: Plácido Domingo and the New York Philharmonic |publisher=Nyphil.org |access-date=19 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120406023943/http://nyphil.org/meet/archive/index.cfm?page=eventDetail&eventNum=2372&seasonNum=10 |archive-date=6 April 2012 |url-status=dead }} Wexford Festival{{Cite web|url=https://www.wexfordopera.com/programme/event/don-quichotte/|title = Don Quichotte}} and Edinburgh Festival;"La verbena de la Paloma", Kings Theatre Edinburgh, August 1997 and been Visiting Lecturer on the subject at various academic institutions, including the University of Tübingen{{cite web |url=https://uni-tuebingen.de/hispanistentag/Sektion06.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2011-07-30 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315153246/http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/hispanistentag/Sektion06.pdf |archivedate=15 March 2012}} and University of Valencia.{{cite web|url=http://www.ivm.gva.es/cms/es/documentos-ruperto-chapi.html |title=Congreso Internacional Ruperto Chapí |publisher=Ivm.gva.es |access-date=19 October 2011}} For Oxford University Press's Bibliographies project, he wrote and curates the [http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199757824/obo-9780199757824-0162.xml article on zarzuela (2016)]. In December 2022, he was appointed Editor (with Enrique Mejías García) of the Cambridge History of Spanish Opera and Music Theatre.

He is also an advisory editor and contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, having written over forty entries including those on his Manchester Grammar School contemporary Steven Pimlott,{{cite web|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101098609/Steven-Pimlott |title=Steven Pimlott |publisher=Oxforddnb.com |access-date=19 October 2011}} Sir Jimmy Young{{cite web|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-111539 |title=Sir Leslie Ronald (Jimmy) Young |publisher=Oxfordddnb.com |access-date=27 April 2023}} and Joyce Hatto.{{cite web|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101097307/Joyce-Hatto |title=Joyce Hatto |publisher=Oxforddnb.com |access-date=19 October 2011}} Webber has since been featured on British TV's Channel 4 and BBC Radio 4, in documentaries about Hatto, "the fraudster pianist".{{cite web|url=http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-great-piano-scam |title=The Great Piano Scam |publisher=Channel 4 |access-date=19 October 2011}}{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tt6f6 |title=Radio 4 Programmes – Who Was Joyce Hatto? |publisher=BBC |date=21 September 2010 |access-date=19 October 2011}}

As an actor, he has worked in England's West End and Repertory Theatre, creating the role of Owl in the first stage version of Winnie-the-Pooh (London Royalty Theatre and national tour) and taking part in world and/or international premières of plays by Alan Ayckbourn{{cite web|url=http://awordfromoursponsor.alanayckbourn.net/ |title=Alan Ayckbourn Plays: A Word From Our Sponsor |publisher=Awordfromoursponsor.alanayckbourn.net |date=20 April 1995 |access-date=19 October 2011}} and Alan Bennett"Talking Heads", Mull Theatre (UK Repertory Premiere, June–September 1993)"Talking Heads", English Theatre Berlin, January–March 2001 amongst others. He has also been an exponent in the field of corporate and medical professional actor-based roleplaying, especially noted for his work on development of feedback techniques, including his formulation of Advocate Feedback.Andrew Baguley, {{cite web |url=http://www.roleplaysfortraining.co.uk/ |title=RolePlays - for training |access-date=2011-07-30 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119014509/http://www.roleplaysfortraining.co.uk/ |archivedate=19 January 2012}}

• Philoctetes (1987, based on Sophocles)
• Green Isle (1989)
• Love and Politics (1990, based on Schiller's Kabale und Liebe)
• Tatyana (1990)
• Birth of an Opera, Death of a Composer (1990)
• Green Tea (1993, rev. 2000) (Couthurst Press 2000, {{ISBN|1-902819-01-2}})
• Dr Sullivan and Mr Gilbert (1993) (Couthurst Press 2001, {{ISBN|1-902819-00-4}})
• Mozart and Salieri (1993, after Pushkin)
• A Flower and a Kiss (commissioned Welsh National Opera, 1995)
• The Girl with the Roses (1999, after Pablo Sorozábal's La del manojo de rosas)
• The Stronger (2010, zarzuela after Strindberg, with Derek Barnes composer)

• Bluff Your Way in Opera (Ravette, 1989, with Peter Gammond)
• Bluff Your Way At the Races (Ravette, 1990)
• The Zarzuela Companion (Scarecrow Press Inc., 2002) Lib. Cong. 2002110168 / {{ISBN|0-8108-4447-8}}
• The Oxford Companion to Music (OUP, 2002 ed. Alison Latham; major contributor)
• Zarzuela! (UME, from 2001 [4 vols.] ed.)
• 'The alcalde, the negro and la bribona: género ínfimo zarzuela, 1900–1910' in De la zarzuela al cine. Los medios de comunicación populares y su traducción de la voz marginal (München, Martin Meidenbauer, 2010 ed. Max Doppelbauer and Kathrin Sartingen) {{ISBN|978-3-89975-208-3}}
• 'Chapí, "el gran camaleón"' in Ruperto Chapí: nuevas perspectivas Vol.1 (Valencia, Institut de la Música, 2012 ed. Víctor Sánchez Sánchez et al.) {{ISBN|978-84-482-5798-9}}
• 'Under the Influence: Pablo Luna and opereta española' in El teatro de arte (Madrid, Fundación Guerrero, 2016 ed. Alberto González Lapuente and Alberto Honrado Pinilla) {{ISBN|978-84-617-4100-7}}
• 'Zarzuela', Chapter 8 in So You Want to Sing Light Opera (Washington DC, Rowman & Littlefield, 2017 ed. Linda Lister) {{ISBN|9781442269385}}
• 'Spain and Zarzuela' in The Cambridge Companion to Operetta (Cambridge, University Press, 2019 ed. Anastasia Belina and Derek B. Scott) {{ISBN|9781107182165}}
• '¿Fruta podrida? Nuevas perspectivas sobre la zarzuela ínfima en Madrid (1900-1912)' in Música, escena y cine (1896-1978): diálogos y sinergias en la España del siglo XX (Hispanic Music Series 5, Universidad de Oviedo, 2021 ed. Miriam Perandones and María Encina Cortizo) {{ISBN|9788418482229}}

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• {{IMDb name|id=0916358|name=Christopher Webber}}
• [http://www.zarzuela.net/bio/cdw.htm] Zarzuela.Net website (founder/editor) – biographical page
• [http://www.musicweb-international.com/bax/index.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140708235223/http://www.musicweb-international.com/bax/index.html |date=8 July 2014 }} Sir Arnold Bax website (major contributor)

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Category:1953 births

Category:English dramatists and playwrights

Category:English male stage actors

Category:Living people

Category:Male actors from Cheshire

Category:Alumni of the University of Kent

Category:English male dramatists and playwrights

Category:People educated at Manchester Grammar School

Category:Actors from Altrincham