Edward Renton Suggest updates
Scottish conductor.
1912-1975
In the 1950s Renton conducted an Italian opera company that toured Britain.
'Edward Renton was born in Edinburgh, where he studied under Sir Donald Tovey. On the completion of his studies there he won the Bucher and Fraser Scholarships. Before the war he acted as an assistant to Fritz Busch at Glyndebourne and in Italy, also conducting at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 1948, he joined the staff of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and in 1949 he was invited for six months as guest conductor of the City Orchestra of Johannesburg. On his return to England, he conducted for the Sadler's Wells Ballet and in 1950 he joined the English Opera Group, conducting "Let's Make an Opera”; then “Madam Butterfly” and “La Traviata” for the Welsh National Opera Company. Later in 1952, he conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in the "avant-garde" film "Opus 65" and in October was appointed joint conductor for the winter run of the Negro Opera "Porgy and Bess” at the Stoll Theatre.'
Source
OperaScotland programme for Italian Opera Tour. (1953). London: Eugene Iskoldoff Productions
Renton later joined the Carl Rosa and then the Touring Opera '58 company that operated briefly before Sadler's Wells Opera took over.
