Cellier, Alfred

1844-1891

He was best known as a composer of light opera or opera bouffe and was born in Hackney, England, of French extraction. He was a chorister at the Chapel Royal, St. James, from 1855 until 1860, and organist of All Saints, Blackheath, in 1862. He succeeded Dr. Chipp as organist of the Ulster Hall, Belfast, and became conductor of the Classical Harmonists. Two years later he was appointed organist of St. Albans, Hoiborn. He next turned his attention to composing and conducting and acted in the latter capacity at Prince's Theatre, Manchester, at the Opera Comique, London f and with Sir Arthur Sullivan as joint conductor of the Promenade concerts at Covent Garden in 1878, and the following year. Cellier lived after that much abroad, spending a good deal of time in Australia. He died in London while giving the finishing touches to an opera, The Mountebanks. He was a brilliant cellist, and a man of high literary tastes. Among his works are about fourteen operas, including Nell Gwynne; The Sultan of Mocha; incidental music to As You Like It; a suite symphonique for the orchestra; barcarolle; songs and piano pieces. He also set Gray's Elegy as a cantata and it was given at the Leeds Festival in 1883.