Michael William Balfe

Dublin's Most Famous Composer | Home | About Me |

[bohemianbalfe]

  What do you call a woman who knows where her husband is every night?

A widow.

Bronchial-asthma is a big B.  I've suffered with it most of my life.  Funny, I know, being an opera singer with severe asthma.  Just shows I wasn't about to let it keep me from doing what I loved.  But today it did me in (complications of pneumonia and asthma) for good, leaving my wife a widow.  We had 40 wonderful years together.  She survived well enough without me for another 18 years.  Women always did tend to get along just fine without men.  My Lina was a lovely and devoted woman.  She stuck by me through thick and thin.  I couldn't have been more blessed.

We had 4 children: Louisa (who died last year), Michael Jr. (who will die in 1915), Victoire (who survives me by a year), and Edward (who died in infancy).

These are my daughers, Louisa and Victoire.

  I was working on another opera, too, and almost got it completed before I bit the dust.  It is called The Knight of the Leopard.  I based it on the novel, The Talisman, by Sir Walter Scott.  I was a composer to the very end, just like many of the other great ones.  A friend of mine, Michael Costa, completed it for me.  Giuseppe Zaffira was charged with providing it's libretto (the text used in an opera), which he did in Italian, and it opened in London in 1874 under the name of Il Talismano.  I like my name for it much better.  ;)

(Source: Walsh, B. (2000). Michael William Balfe: Opera singer and composer. Retrieved March 2014, from http://www.britishandirishworld.com)

(Source: Walsh, B., & Bonynge, R. (2008). Michael W. Balfe: A unique Victorian composer. Dublin, Ireland: Irish Academic Press.)

[bohemianbalfe]

I just finished composing one of my English libretto pieces, The Rose of Castile.  It's similar to The Bohemian Girl in composition and flow but more is expected in the vocal range.

The Rose is about Princess Elvira, who's father has arranged for her to marry his brother, Don Sebastian.  She hears that he is about to enter the kingdom disguised as a muleteer.  She wants to check him out first, before having to marry him, so she also travels in disguise, as a peasant girl, to meet him.  Her uncle, Don Pedro, plans to intercept her and ship her off to a convent, so that she won't marry Don Sebastian, and he can take over the kingdom.  What ensues is a comedy of errors.  I can't tell you anymore.  I don't want to ruin the ending for you.

It's scheduled to premiere in a few weeks at the Lyceum Theatre, London, on Oct. 29th.  You must come see it.  It's destined to be another hit.

In this bravura aria (a fast-tempo piece which shows off the singer's agility and skill) piece, Princess Elvira is celebrating.  She thinks she's avoided her arranged marriage and can now be with the man she's fallen in love with.

(Source: McKee, J. (2010, October 31). Comic Opera Guild presenting Balfe's 'The Rose of Castile' and Sousa's 'Chris and the Wonderful Lamp'. The Ann Arbor News. Retrieved from http://www.annarbor.com/entertainment/comic-opera-guild-two-shows)

(Source: Upton, G. P. (1897). Balfe: The rose of castile. In the standard operas: Their plots, their music, and their composers (12th ed., pp. 32-35). Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Company.)

[bohemianbalfe]

Earlier this year I was appointed as the director of Her Majesty's Theatre, London.  I'm really looking forward to challenges of this position.  I think this is something I could do for a few years to come.  With Lina and I having a houseful of children now, I really should have a more steady position while I work on my compositions.

(Source: Walsh, B. (2000). Michael William Balfe: Opera singer and composer. Retrieved March 2014, from http://www.britishandirishworld.com)

[bohemianbalfe]

My beautiful new opera opened a few days ago and it's been an outstanding success!  It's the story of a princess who grew up among the gypsies.  The Bohemian Girl has been my most popular opera, to date.  People can't stop gushing about it.  I had a feeling it would be a hit.  When I wrote a letter to my good friend and librettist (one who creates the text to an opera), Alfred Bunn, awhile back, I said that if we succeeded in setting this story to music, "the World will acknowledge that Bunn and Balfe are two damned clever fellows."  Clever, that, we are!

The show closes, for the season, this Thursday evening, December 7th.  The crew has even built new and extensive scenery for the occasion. It's wildly popular, so you don't want to miss it. You don't want to be the oddball at the water cooler, now, do you? You all must come down to the Theatre Royal Drury-Lane to watch the show. Be sure to stop by afterwards to say hi and let me know how much you enjoyed it. :)

Here is a beautiful rendition of The Galop from my opera performed by the illustrious National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and conducted by the famous Richard Bonynge.

(Source: The Irish Times. (2008, June 23). An Irishwoman's diary. Irish Times.)

(Source: Walsh, B. (2000). Michael William Balfe: Opera singer and composer. Retrieved March 2014, from http://www.britishandirishworld.com)

[bohemianbalfe]

Who is that dapper young man?  That would be me right around the time that I started my position, earlier this year, as the manager of The London Theatre.  I was trying to create a National English Opera organization and it was a big fat FAIL.  Queen Victoria had my back but my peeps didn't show up like they said they would.  Handling money just isn't my thing, either.  I really should have hired an accountant.  The whole thing went bust in just six months.  UGH!

Super FAIL.

(Source: Walsh, B. (2000). Michael William Balfe: Opera singer and composer. Retrieved March 2014, from http://www.britishandirishworld.com)

[bohemianbalfe]

This is the Overture from my opera buffa (Italian comic opera), Falstaff.  Isn't it beautiful?  I took inspiration from the great William Shakespeare and based this opera on his comedic play, The Merry Wives of Windsor.  I wrote this for Her Majesty's Theatre, London, and premiered it there on July 19th.  It was performed in Italian libretto and had a spectacular cast, the famous Puritani Quartet (Giulia Grisi, Giovanni Battista Rubini, Antonio Tamburini, and Luigi Lablache), that performed the bel canto (a style of singing characterized by beauty of tone rather than dramatic power) style perfectly.  Their solos were a return to the standard aria-and-cabaletta (a songlike section is followed by a more animated section) form with repetitions. The audience and critics loved it but it only had a six show run.  That's a bit of a bummer.

Here it is sponsored by the RTÉ (what PBS is to the USA, the RTÉ is to Ireland) and performed by Opera Ireland for my bicentennial celebration, 170 years after it was last heard performed in full, conducted by Marco Zambelli.  Ah, to be honored by my homeland, when I spent so little time there after my youth (I was traveling and working throughout Europe), humbles me.

(Source: Parsons. (2009, May). Falstaff. American Record Guide, 72(3), 74.)

(Source: Tuttle, R., Scott, P., Weber, J. F., Chien, G., Ritter, S. E., Clarke, C., & ... Frank, M. H. (2009, September). Classical recordings. Fanfare: The Magazine for Serious Record Collectors, 33(1), 93-94.)

(Source: Vasta, S. (2009, June). Opera and oratorio. Opera News, 73(12), 56.)

[bohemianbalfe]

Lina and I returned to London this year with our darling little girl, Louisa.  We've nicknamed her Gigia.  I also debuted my first English opera for London, The Siege of Rochelle.  It opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (shown above), on October 27th.

The protagonist in this opera is Clara.  She is the secret child of Count Rosenberg and Princess Euphemia.  Clara is unaware of this.  Being brought up by Montalban, she believes she is his daughter.

Clara is in love with the Marquis de Valmour, who is a widower, with a child.  The child dies under suspicious circumstances and Clara ends up finding out that it is her father (well, the man she thinks is her father), Montalban, who is responsible for the death.

She tries to cover for Montalban and ends up making herself look guilty.  She is in the process of being punished for the crime when the truth comes out about her lineage and Montalban's crime is exposed.

My first English libretto opera was a wonderful success here.  It's a bummer you had to miss it.  I linked up a lovely copy of it for you below.  If you can read music, you'll get a feel for how lovely it is.  The libretto is also included, for your reading pleasure.  :)

(Source: Siege of Rochelle - Opera Scotland. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.operascotland.org/opera/296/Siege-of-Rochelle)

(Source: Walsh, B. (2000). Michael William Balfe: Opera singer and composer. Retrieved March 2014, from http://www.britishandirishworld.com)

[bohemianbalfe]

  Earlier this year, in Milan, I met and married the love of my life, my beautiful Lina.

Lina, whose maiden name is Roser, was born in Hungary to Austrian parents.  Her mother died during childbirth and Lina was raised by the Vogels, Austrian foster parents.  Her father, Franz de Paula Roser, was a working musician, theatre manager, and composer.  He wasn't able to care for Lina on his own.  He was once a pupil of W. A. Mozart.  Six degrees of separation, you know.  He was also a well-known composer in Vienna.

Lina, coming from a musical family, is a wonderful singer.  She studied with one of Mozart's sons, Karl T. Mozart, a few years ago, during 1828 & 1829, and has been performing all around Italy since then.

She was performing in Milan, singing operatic soprano for Bellini, Donizetti, and Rossini when I met her.

(Source: Walsh, B. (2000). Michael William Balfe: Opera singer and composer. Retrieved March 2014, from http://www.britishandirishworld.com)

(Source: Walsh, B., & Bonynge, R. (2008). Michael W. Balfe: A unique Victorian composer. Dublin, Ireland: Irish Academic Press.)