Musicatlas
News for Balfe
- New Balfe biography published
(17 October 2007)A new definitive 320 page biography of the important nineteenth century London based operatic composer, Michael W. Balfe (of "Bohemian Girl" fame) will be published by Irish Academic Press (Dublin) (www.iap.ie) in association with the Arts Council of Ireland in October 2007 in Ireland/UK and the USA.
Dublin born Balfe composed 28 operas, which were performed in London, Dublin, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Milan, Trieste, New York, Boston, Sydney etc.
See www.balfebiography.com for more details
Balfe's bicentennial will be celebrated in 2008, at selected places in the UK and in Ireland.
[Source: Basil Walsh / Author]
Music
Life
Michael W. Balfe was an Irish singer and composer. After his father, who was a dancing master, died in 1823, he was sent to London. He played as a violinist at Drury Lane Theatre. He studied composition with C.F. Horn. Balfe appeared as a singer in Webern’s Freischütz and in Rossini’s Barbiere as Figaro.
In 1830 he produced the first of his 29 operas (“Un avvertimento ai gelosi”) in Palermo. Later he had much success as a composer in Paris, London, Berlin, St. Petersburg and Trieste.
In 1854 he returned to England and took up farming on his own property in Hertfordshire.