Warwick Braithwaite

Henry Warwick Braithwaite (9 January 1896 – 19 January 1971) was a New Zealand-born orchestral conductor. He worked mostly in Great Britain and was especially known for his work in opera.

Early life and family Braithwaite was one of the youngest of a large number of children (at least 16 and as many as 22 children, but the records are inadequate) born to Joseph Braithwaite and Mary Ann Braithwaite (née Bellett) in Dunedin. His father was later mayor of Dunedin between 1905 and 1906.

The family were musical – the Braithwaite family would perform Gilbert and Sullivan to friends and relatives in their 20-room house in Dunedin, and his elder sister Mabel Manson emigrated to England before he was born, where she made a considerable career as a singer.

Braithwaite's brothers included John Braithwaite, who was convicted and executed for mutiny during World War I and pardoned by the New Zealand government in 2000,

Braithwaite served briefly in the New Zealand armed forces during World War I. He won various competitions as both a composer and pianist and then followed his sister to England in 1916 as the Goring Thomas Compositions Scholar at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he studied composition and piano. He was conductor of the National Orchestra of New Zealand in 1954 and then music director of the National Opera of Australia in 1954–55. In 1956 he returned to Britain as musical director of the Welsh National Opera from 1956 to 1960, where he conducted a range of interesting and little known repertoire such as Verdi's I Lombardi and La battaglia di Legnano, Boito's Mefistofele and Rimsky-Korsakov's May Night as well as the standard repertoire. In 1960 he rejoined Sadler's Wells Opera where he conducted until his retirement in 1968.

Personal life and death Braithwaite married first Phyllis Greatrex (née Bain) in 1925, with whom he had a daughter, Barbara, a nurse. Then, in 1931, he married Lorna Constance Davies with whom he had two sons, Sir Rodric Braithwaite, diplomat and author, and the conductor Nicholas Braithwaite. He died in London on 19 January 1971,