Rutland Boughton was the son of grocer William Boughton (1841–1905) whose shop was situated in Buckingham Street in the town of
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, and his wife Grace Martha Bishop. From an early age he showed signs of exceptional talent for music although formal training opportunities did not immediately become available to him. In 1892, after leaving school at the age of 14, he was apprenticed to a London concert agency and six years later he attracted the attention of several influential musicians including MP
Ferdinand de Rothschild of the
Rothschild family which enabled him to raise sufficient monies to study at the
Royal College of Music in London. He later took up ad hoc work first in the pit of the
Haymarket Theatre then as official accompanist to the baritone
David Ffrangcon-Davies (whose daughter,
Gwen, later became associated with the
Glastonbury Festivals in her famous role Etain in
The Immortal Hour). In 1903, he married former Aylesbury neighbour's daughter, Florence Hobley; he lived to regret the marriage. It was in 1905 (the year he completed his first symphony
Oliver Cromwell) that he was approached by Sir
Granville Bantock to become a member of staff at the Birmingham and Midland Institute of Music (now the
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire). that were to remain the centre of activities until the end of the Festivals in 1926, by which time Boughton had mounted over 350 staged works, 100 chamber concerts, a number of exhibitions and a series of lectures and recitals – something never previously witnessed in England. In 1922, Boughton's Festival Players went on tour and became established at
Bristol in the Folk Festival House (now demolished) and at
Bournemouth. From 1911, Boughton also worked as a music critic, initially for the
Daily Citizen and
Daily Herald, and in later years, for the
Sunday Worker. The most notable and most successful of Boughton's works is the opera
The Immortal Hour, an adaptation of the play by
Fiona Macleod (the pseudonym of William Sharp) based on Celtic mythology. Having been successful in Glastonbury and well received in Birmingham, the director of the then new
Birmingham Repertory Theatre,
Barry Jackson, decided to take the Glastonbury Festival Players' production to London where it achieved the record breaking run of over 600 performances. On its arrival at the Regent Theatre in 1922, it secured an initial run of over 200 consecutive performances and a further 160 in 1923, with a highly successful revival in 1932. People came to see the opera on more than one occasion (including members of the royal family) and especially to see and hear the young
Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies whose portrayal as Etain began her professional acting career. In addition to
The Immortal Hour and
Bethlehem, his other operas
The Queen of Cornwall (1924) based on
Thomas Hardy's play, and
Alkestis (1922) based on
Gilbert Murray's translation of the Greek play
Alcestis, by
Euripides (which was performed at
Covent Garden by the
British National Opera Company and was broadcast by the nascent
British Broadcasting Company, both in 1924 This play was heavily attacked by the
Daily Mail, provoking a "hue and cry". Boughton also joined the
Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and let the details of his membership be widely known. == Quotations about Boughton ==