Editing Thomas Beecham (section)

===1910–1920===
From 1910, subsidised by his father, Beecham realised his ambition to mount opera seasons at [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden]] and other houses. In the [[Edwardian era|Edwardian]] opera house, the star singers were regarded as all-important, and conductors were seen as ancillary.<ref name=reid98>Reid, p. 98</ref> Between 1910 and 1939 Beecham did much to change the balance of power.<ref name=reid98/>

[[File:Beecham-Strauss-Pitt-Walter.jpg|thumb|left|alt=face shots of four middle aged men, one bearded, one moustached, two clean shaven|Clockwise from top left: Beecham, [[Richard Strauss]], [[Bruno Walter]] and [[Percy Pitt]], all in 1910]]
In 1910, Beecham either conducted or was responsible as [[impresario]] for 190&nbsp;performances at Covent Garden and [[Her Majesty's Theatre|His Majesty's Theatre]]. His assistant conductors were [[Bruno Walter]] and [[Percy Pitt]].<ref>Beecham (1959), p. 88</ref> During the year, he mounted 34 different operas, most of them either new to London or almost unknown there.<ref>Reid, p. 97</ref> Beecham later acknowledged that in his early years the operas he chose to present were too obscure to attract the public.<ref>Reid, p. 108</ref> During his 1910 season at His Majesty's, the rival Grand Opera Syndicate put on a concurrent season of its own at Covent Garden; London's total opera performances for the year amounted to 273 performances, far more than the box-office demand could support.<ref>Reid, p. 96</ref> Of the 34 operas that Beecham staged in 1910, only four made money: [[Richard Strauss]]'s new operas ''[[Elektra (opera)|Elektra]]'' and ''[[Salome (opera)|Salome]],'' receiving their first, and highly publicised, performances in Britain, and ''[[The Tales of Hoffmann]]'' and ''[[Die Fledermaus]]''.<ref>Reid, p. 107</ref>{{refn|Of the other operas of Beecham's 1910 seasons, lesser-known pieces, such as ''[[A Village Romeo and Juliet]]'' (Delius), ''[[Hänsel und Gretel (opera)|Hansel and Gretel]], [[The Wreckers (opera)|The Wreckers]]'' ([[Ethel Smyth]]), ''[[L'enfant prodigue (Debussy)|L'enfant prodigue]]'' and ''[[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|Pelléas and Mélisande]]'' ([[Claude Debussy|Debussy]]), ''[[Ivanhoe (opera)|Ivanhoe]]'' ([[Arthur Sullivan|Sullivan]]), ''Shamus O'Brien'' ([[Charles Villiers Stanford|Stanford]]), ''Muguette'' (Edmond de Misa),'' [[Werther]]'' ([[Jules Massenet|Massenet]]), ''[[Feuersnot]]'' (Richard Strauss) and ''A Summer Night'' ([[George Clutsam]]) outnumbered the more popular pieces, such as Wagner's ''[[Der fliegende Holländer|The Flying Dutchman]]'' and ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'', Bizet's ''Carmen,'' Verdi's ''[[Rigoletto]]'' and five [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] works: ''[[Così fan tutte]]'', ''[[The Marriage of Figaro]]'', ''[[Der Schauspieldirektor]]'', ''[[Die Entführung aus dem Serail]]'' and ''[[Don Giovanni]]''.<ref>Jefferson, pp. 111–119</ref>|group= n}}

In 1911 and 1912, the Beecham Symphony Orchestra played for [[Sergei Diaghilev]]'s [[Ballets Russes]], both at Covent Garden and at the [[Kroll Opera House|Krolloper]] in Berlin, under the batons of Beecham and [[Pierre Monteux]], Diaghilev's chief conductor. Beecham was much admired for conducting the complicated new score of [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]]'s ''[[Petrushka]]'', at two days' notice and without rehearsal, when Monteux became unavailable.<ref>Canarina, p. 39</ref> While in Berlin, Beecham and his orchestra, in Beecham's words, caused a "mild stir", scoring a triumph: the orchestra was agreed by the Berlin press to be an elite body, one of the best in the world.<ref name=reid123>Reid, p. 123</ref>  The principal Berlin musical weekly, ''Die Signale'', asked, "Where does London find such magnificent young instrumentalists?"  The violins were credited with rich, noble tone, the woodwinds with lustre, the brass, "which has not quite the dignity and amplitude of our best German brass", with uncommon delicacy of execution.<ref name=reid123/>

[[File:Karsavina-Salome.jpg|thumb|right|alt=full length portrait of ballerina in exotic costume|[[Tamara Karsavina]] as Salome in the Beecham Russian ballet season, 1913]]
Beecham's 1913 seasons included the British premiere of Strauss's ''[[Der Rosenkavalier]]'' at Covent Garden, and a "Grand Season of Russian Opera and Ballet" at [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane|Drury Lane]].<ref>Reid, p. 141</ref> At the latter there were three operas, all starring [[Feodor Chaliapin]], and all new to Britain: [[Modest Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky]]'s ''[[Boris Godunov (opera)|Boris Godunov]]'' and ''[[Khovanshchina]]'', and [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov]]'s [[The Maid of Pskov|''Ivan the Terrible'']]. There were also 15 ballets, with leading dancers including [[Vaslav Nijinsky]] and [[Tamara Karsavina]].<ref name=reid142>Reid, p. 142</ref> The ballets included [[Claude Debussy|Debussy]]'s ''[[Jeux]]'' and his controversially erotic ''[[Afternoon of a Faun (Nijinsky)|L'après-midi d'un faune]],'' and the British premiere of Stravinsky's ''[[The Rite of Spring]],'' six weeks after its first performance in Paris.<ref name=reid142/> Beecham shared Monteux's private dislike of the piece, much preferring ''Petrushka''.<ref>Reid, p. 145</ref> Beecham did not conduct during this season; Monteux and others conducted the Beecham Symphony Orchestra. The following year, Beecham and his father presented Rimsky-Korsakov's ''[[The Maid of Pskov]]'' and [[Alexander Borodin|Borodin]]'s ''[[Prince Igor]]'', with Chaliapin, and Stravinsky's ''[[The Nightingale (opera)|The Nightingale]].''<ref name=grove/>

During the First World War, Beecham strove, often without a fee, to keep music alive in London, Liverpool, Manchester and other British cities.<ref>Reid, pp. 161–162</ref> He conducted for, and gave financial support to, three institutions with which he was connected at various times: the Hallé Orchestra, the LSO and the Royal Philharmonic Society. In 1915 he formed the [[Beecham Opera Company]], with mainly British singers, performing in London and throughout the country. In 1916, he received a [[Knight Bachelor|knighthood]] in the [[1916 New Year Honours|New Year Honours]]<ref>"The Honours List", ''[[The Times]]'', 1 January 1916, p. 9</ref> and succeeded to the [[baronet]]cy on his father's death later that year.<ref>Lucas, p. 136</ref>

After the war, there were joint Covent Garden seasons with the Grand Opera Syndicate in 1919 and 1920, but these were, according to a biographer, pale confused echoes of the years before 1914.<ref name=reid181>Reid, p. 181</ref> These seasons included forty productions, of which Beecham conducted only nine.<ref name=reid181/> After the 1920 season, Beecham temporarily withdrew from conducting to deal with a financial problem that he described as "the most trying and unpleasant experience of my life".<ref>Beecham (1959), p. 181</ref>