on his return in 1852 he became musical conductor under james henry mapleson's management at her majesty's theatre (and afterwards at drury lane), and in the same year conductor of the harmonic union. amongst his minor works is an "andantino for concertina and fortepiano" written in 1858. benedict wrote recitatives for the production of an italian-language version of weber's "oberon" in 1860 (it was then the tradition in england to perform german operas in italian). in the same year his cantata "undine" was produced at the norwich festival, in which clara novello appeared in public for the last time.