Michael William Balfe

Michael William Balfe ( born May 15, 1808 in Dublin, † October 20, 1870 in Ware, Hertfordshire ) was an Irish composer, violinist, opera singer and conductor.

Life

Balfe was born in Pitt Street # 10 in Dublin, the son of the Dancing Master William Balfe ( 1783-1823 ) and Catherine (Ryan ) Balfe, a niece of the composer, librettist and spy Leonard McNally ( 1752-1820 ). Early on, he showed musical talent, he took violin lessons with James Barton and the composer William Rooke ( 1794-1847 ). In 1817 he joined at the age of nine years, the first time in public as a violinist on.

After the early death of his father, he moved in 1823 to London, where he Karl Friedrich Horn ( 1762-1830 ) was taught by Charles Horn ( 1786-1849 ) and his father. In 1825 he moved to Paris. There he met Rossini know, on whose recommendation he went for a few years to Italy, where he completed his musical education in 1831, the Hungarian singer Magdalena Roser ( 1806-1888 ) married. His first appearance at La Scala took place in Rossini's Otello in May 1834.

On his return to Paris he made his debut as a singer soon in Rossini's The Barber of Seville. After a brief stay in England in 1835, he returned to Italy. At La Scala, he took a part in Rossini's opera Otello. First successful original compositions created a great stir. In the aftermath Balfe worked mainly in France and England. With its successful opera The Bohemian Girl ( libretto Alfred Bunn ) he celebrated beyond in the U.S. and throughout Europe great triumphs. In German-speaking opera was staged under the title The Gypsy. As a conductor he has performed very successfully including in Austria, Italy and Russia.

Balfe died at his country house Rowney Abbey, Ware ( Hertfordshire), where he settled in 1864, on bronchial asthma (in which he had suffered for most of his life) in conjunction with pneumonia.

Works

His compositions include operas, ballads, songs and chamber music. However, he too great influence of the works of Rossini was accused on his early compositions, but later lost. Balfe soon developed his own compositional style that met the tastes of its international audience. He is regarded as the outstanding Irish opera composer of his time.

He composed numerous works, including 28 operas.

  • Published The Lover 's Mistake / Young Fanny, 1822 by Isaac Willis, Westmoreland Street, Dublin.
  • The Siege of Rochelle, premiere on October 27, 1835 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
  • The Maid of Artois, premiere May 27, 1836 at the Drury Lane Theatre, London.
  • Cantata Sempre pensoso e torbido
  • The Prayer of the Nation in 1838, perhaps for the coronation of Queen Victoria.
  • Falstaff, London 1838
  • La Zingara, Trieste 1854. German as The Bohemian Girl. Libretto by Alfred Bunn, German by Joseph Kupelwieser, premiere in Vienna in 1846, after performances in Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Darmstadt, Munich and Stuttgart.
  • La Sonnambula, premiere at the Teatro Malibran, Venice, April 8, 1835
  • The Daughter of St. Mark, opera, words by Alfred Bunn to the libretto of La Reine de Chypre by Jules Henri Vernoy Marquis de Saint- Georges, premiere Nov. 27, 1844 in London, Drury Lane. The opera deals with the life of Catherine Cornaro.

Other works:

  • I rivalry di se stessi ( February 1830, Teatro Carolino, Palermo)
  • Un Avertimento ai Gelosi (1830, Teatro Fraschini, Pavia )
  • Catherine Grey (May 27, 1837 Drury Lane, London)
  • Joan of Arc (November 30, 1837 Drury Lane, London)
  • ( - Filmed in 1936 with Laurel and Hardy in 1839, Grand Opéra, Paris) The Bohemian Girl
  • Les Quatre Fils Aymon (15 July 1844 Opéra -Comique, Paris, libretto by Adolphe de Leuven and Léon Lévy Brunswick). German as the four Haimons Children ( trans. by Joseph Kupelwieser )
  • Pittore e Duca (21 November 1844 Teatro Comunale, Trieste )
  • L' Etoile of Seville ( December 17, 1845, Paris)
  • The Maid of Honour (December 20, 1847 Drury Lane, London)
  • The Puritan 's daughter ( November 30, 1861, Covent Garden, London )
  • Blanche de Nevers (November 21, 1862, Covent Garden, London )
  • The armourers of Nantes (February 12, 1863, Covent Garden, London )
  • Il Talismano (June 11, 1874 Royal Court, Liverpool)
August Prinzhofer Ware (Hertfordshire) Otello (Rossini) La Rochelle Lyceum Theatre (London) Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart Integrated Authority File
567477
de