Mary Anne à Beckett

[2] Glossop, a man of doubtful financial means, was at various times lessee of the Royal Coburg Theatre (now called the Old Vic), and manager of La Scala, Milan, and the Teatro San Carlo in Naples.

[5] Mary Anne à Beckett composed songs, piano pieces, incidental music, and three operas: Agnes Sorel (1835), Little Red Riding Hood (1842) and The Young Pretender (1846).

The anonymous reviewer in The Times dismissed the libretto as "cold, dull and comfortless", but praised some of the music as "evinc[ing] no inconsiderable share of taste and skill".

The Times praised "some pretty pieces of vocal music in light Italian style"; the reviewer in The Observer considered the score, "not original in its melodies nor scientific in its construction", but reserved his severest censure for Lemon's libretto: "as dreary a production as it is possible to imagine in any work professing to be a drama".

[11] Gilbert à Beckett died in 1856, and in July 1857 his widow was given a civil list pension of £100 in recognition of her husband's contributions to society as a magistrate and writer.