Geoffrey Toye

Edward Geoffrey Toye (17 February 1889 – 11 June 1942), known as Geoffrey Toye, was an English conductor, composer and opera producer. He is best remembered as a musical director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and for his association with Sadler's Wells Theatre. One of his ballets, The Haunted Ballroom (1934), became popular and was revived several times, and the new overture that he prepared for Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore in 1919 became the standard version.

He began his career as the piano accompaniest Luisa Tetrazzini. By 1906 he conducted performances of André Messager's opera Mirette. His early compositions included incidental music for a play and ballet music. By 1913 Toye was conducting in major London theatres. In 1914, he conducted premières of Ralph Vaughan Williams's London Symphony and George Butterworth's A Shropshire Lad. After Army service he was engaged as assistant conductor of the Beecham Opera Company and also conducted concerts for the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1918 and 1919. He served as musical director for three London seasons of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, earning warm notices. In 1925 and again in 1927 the BBC broadcast The Red Pen, an operatic piece with words by A. P. Herbert and music by Toye.

Toye was made a governor of the Old Vic and then Sadler's Wells Theatre, in 1931, where, as co-director with Lilian Baylis, he managed the opera and ballet until 1934. For the Sadler's Wells Ballet company, he composed two ballets, including The Haunted Ballroom, in which Margot Fonteyn had her first principal role; Ninette de Valois choreographed. It was revived several times and remained popular for many years as an orchestral piece. From 1934 to 1936, Toye became Managing Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In 1938, he adapted, produced and conducted The Mikado for film and composed and arranged the music for two other British films in 1936: Men Are Not Gods and Rembrandt. In 1940, Toye joined the staff of the BBC. His lungs were damaged during the Blitz, and he died at the age of 53.

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