Christopher Hassall

Christopher Hassall ( born March 24, 1912 in London, † April 25, 1963 ) was a British poet, actor and songwriter, who not only wrote numerous texts for musicals and librettos for operettas, but also poems and biographies, among others, the Hawthornden prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize was awarded.

Life

Musical lyricist and librettist

Hassall, son of the famous illustrator John Hassall and younger brother of illustrator and wood engraving artist Joan Hassall, was first worked as an actor in the theater and was then signed by the Welsh entertainer and composer Ivor Novello the lyrics for a new musical. The success of Glamorous Night ( 1935) meant that Hassall and Novello more than fifteen years to Novello's death in 1951 worked together and thereby created, among other seven successful pieces for the theater in London's West End. These pieces such as Glamorous Night (1935 with the song " Fold Your Wings " ), Careless Rapture (1936 - "Music in May" ), Crest of the Wave (1937 - " Rose of England " ), The Dancing Years (1939 - " Waltz of My Heart " ), Arc de Triomphe ( 1943) and King's Rhapsody ( 1949 - " Some Day My Heart " though) delighted the British public, but were of U.S. producers as" felt too British " for the U.S. and kamer therefore there is not the performance. Shortly before Novello's death in 1950, he wrote the libretto for Dear Miss Phoebe.

Some of the collaborations with Novello were also filmed: Glamorous Night ( 1937) by Brian Desmond Hurst, The Dancing Years (1948 ) by Harold French and King's Rhapsody ( 1955) directed by Herbert Wilcox, where he also wrote the screenplay for King's Rhapsody.

In 1954, first performed at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden 's first opera Troilus and Cressida by William Walton was also written for a libretto written by him.

Other literary works

Besides this activity Hassall also wrote poems and in 1939 was honored for his 1938 published book of poetry Penthesperon the prestigious Hawthornden Prize.

For his 1959 published biography of state officials, translator, editor, writer and art patron Edward Marsh, entitled Edward Marsh. Patron of the Arts, he was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography of the Year. Published posthumously in 1964 beyond the correspondence between him and Marsh under the title Ambrosia and Small Beer: The Record of Correspondence in between Edward Marsh and Christopher Hassall and a biography of the poet Rupert Brooke.

His other literary works include:

  • Poems of two years, 1935
  • Devil's Dyke, 1936
  • Christ's comet1937
  • Crisis, 1939
  • Notes on the verse drama, 1948
  • The timeless quest1948
  • The slow night, and other poems, 1949
  • Words by request, 1952
  • Out of the whirlwind, 1953
  • The player king, 1953
  • The red leaf, 1957
  • Harry Bell, and other poems, 1963
  • Poems for Children, 1963
Lyric poetry West End of London Anthology Edward Marsh (polymath) Integrated Authority File
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