Michael William Balfe

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michael William Balfe, lithograph by Lowes Cato Dickinson , 1840

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

Life

Balfe was born at 10 Pitt Street in Dublin to dance teacher William Balfe (1783-1823) and Catherine (Ryan) Balfe, a niece of the composer, librettist and spy Leonard McNally (1752-1820). He showed musical talent at an early age, taking violin lessons from James Barton and the composer William Rooke (1794–1847). In 1817, at the age of nine, he made his first public appearance as a violinist.

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

Returning to Paris, he soon made his debut as a singer in Rossini's The Barber of Seville . After a short stay in England in 1835, he returned to Italy. At La Scala in Milan, he took on a part in Rossini's opera Otello . The first successful own compositions caused a sensation. In the following years Balfe mainly worked in France and England. With his most successful opera The Bohemian Girl (libretto Alfred Bunn), he also celebrated great triumphs in the USA and throughout Europe. In German-speaking countries the opera was performed under the title Die Zigeunerin . As a conductor he has performed very successfully in Austria , Italy and Russia, among others .

Grave, Kensal Green Cemetery

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

Works

His compositional work includes operas , ballads , songs and chamber music . However, he was accused of too great an influence of Rossini's works on his early compositions, which later disappeared. Balfe soon developed his own compositional style that met the taste of his international audience at the time. He is considered to be the preeminent Irish opera composer of his time.

He composed numerous works, including 28 operas.

Other works:

  • I Rivali di se stessi (February 1830, Teatro Carolino, Palermo)
  • Un Avertimento ai Gelosi (1830, Teatro Fraschini, Pavia)
  • Catherine Gray (May 27, 1837, Drury Lane, London)
  • Joan of Arc (November 30, 1837, Drury Lane, London)
  • The Bohemian Girl (1839, Grand Opéra, Paris - filmed in 1936 with Laurel and Hardy )
  • Les Quatre Fils Aymon (July 15, 1844, Opéra-Comique , Paris, libretto by Adolphe de Leuven and Léon-Lévy Brunswick ). German as The Four Haimons Children (translated by Joseph Kupelwieser )
  • Pittore e Duca (November 21, 1844, Teatro Communale, Trieste)
  • L´Etoile de Séville (December 17, 1845, Paris)
  • The Maid of Honor (December 20, 1847, Drury Lane, London)
  • The Rose of Castille (October 29, 1857, Lyceum Theater , 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)

Web links

Commons : Michael William Balfe  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Balfe, Michael William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish composer, violinist, opera singer (baritone) and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin
DATE OF DEATH October 20, 1870
Place of death Ware , Hertfordshire