Michael William Balfe, 1808-1870

 

                        

                          Balfe's Life and Work

 

Michael William Balfe was born in Dublin to a musician and dancing teacher father in 1808. The family moved to Wexford for a while but, when Balfe was aged ten, they returned to Dublin. It is likely that he was taught to play the piano and violin by his father who, like his father before him, had strong musical leanings. Balfe's talent had been spotted when aged nine when he performed on the piano and violin at the Rotunda Concert Rooms and Crow Street Theatre. In these early years he even composed a ballad.

Although only fourteen, Balfe moved to London after his father's death. There he was accepted as a violinist in the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane orchestra and was given lessons by C. F. Horn, organist at St. George's Chapel, Windsor who had acted as his mentor. Balfe later became leader of the Drury Lane theatre orchestra which, one day, would  play most of his 28 operas.  Balfe then began a career on the continent, first as a singer but later also as a composer. As a gifted baritone, Balfe sang at La Scala before moving to Paris where he met Rossini and was engaged to sing in operas by Auber at the Paris Op�ra.  Thus both French and Italian influences are prominent in his work.

In 1835 he returned to London, although he continued to visit the Continent and fulfil commissions there for much of his career, an experience which not only gave him the friendship and acquaintance of many continental musicians but also kept him fully abreast of the latest musical trends. Nowadays, Balfe is mainly remembered for his opera The Bohemian Girl and this is principally because it contains the aria "I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls", a favourite of many sopranos. By 1950, the very existence of this composer had almost been forgotten, but when Sir Thomas Beecham was asked to present an opera to represent British sentiments for the Festival of Britain he looked no further than Balfe's Bohemian Girl. Before the appearance of The Bohemian Girl, Balfe had already written 11 operas, four of which were presented in Italian. His first opera to be put on the London stage was The Siege of Rochelle (1835), and was an overnight success that promoted a following.

The Maid of Artois, his fifth opera, we believe possesses one of his finest scores. This is understandable since the composer was youthfully inventive, still fresh with the European colour of his tours and fired by the outstanding success of his previous opera, The Siege of Rochelle. He was also eager to impress Maria Malibran, the diva of the day, who promised to appear in the new opera.

Operatic groups have access to all Balfe's operas thanks to his manuscripts being given to the British Library by his widow, Lina Balfe. A number of the original sets of opera band parts have survived and have found their way into the Carl Rosa Trust Archive, Liverpool and the Henry Watson Library, Manchester.

If you are interested in learning more about Balfe then please go to the British and Irish World web site run by Basil Walsh:- www.britishandirishworld.com .

 

Recordings of Balfe's Works

Commercial Opera Recordings

 

The Maid of Artois, Victorian Opera Orchestra and Chorus, Philip Mackenzie, Cameo 2042-3, 2005 (2 CD set including libretto). This was the second of Balfe's operas to hit the London stage following the success of Siege of Rochelle. It was written for diva Malibran in the title role of Isoline, at a time when the young Balfe was out to impress the critics. See here for a review and here for details of the recording and how to obtain it from Victorian Opera Northwest.

 

Falstaff, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Marco Zambelli, RTE CD119, 2008. This is a recording (in Italian) of a concert performance by Ireland's lyric fm on September 25, 2008. See here for more details and review1 and review2 can be found by clicking on their links. This CD is available from Victorian Opera Northwest, contact us for details.

 

The Bohemian Girl, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Richard Bonynge, re issued on Decca 473 077-2 in 2002.

 

Private Opera Recordings

The Siege of Rochelle. John Lewis Partnership Music Society, Derek Carden, 1987.

The Daughter of St. Mark, Gala Opera Group Orchestra, Ken Jones,

                                                                                 Rare Recorded Editions SRRE 141/2, 1973.

 

The Rose of Castile, The Radio Eireann Light Orchestra, Dermot O'Hara,

      Rare Recorded Editions RRE 191/2, 1951.

Satanella, Opera Integra, Brian Galloway, Rare Recorded Editions SRRE 173/4, 1977.

 

Ballads, songs, opera excerpts and other works

 

Guild (www.guildmusic.com)  have released a CD of Balfe songs on GMCD 7359 entitled Michael William Balfe 1808-1870 - Songs and Ballads Rediscovered. They are sung by Sally Silver with Richard Bonynge on the piano. An excerpt from "The green trees whispered", one of seven Longfellow poems that Balfe set, can be found here. Except for one song, they are a different selection from that recorded by Victorian Opera Northwest on WRW 204-2.  

 

Michael William Balfe: Songs and Arias. with Kay Jordan, Peter Dempsey and Guy Rowland (piano) on Victorian Opera Northwest, WRW 204-2, 2008. This CD complements a new Balfe songbook by Roy Mowatt. It includes many Kipling ballads never recorded before as well as arias from The Bohemian Girl, The Maid of Artois, Satanella, The Maid of Honour and Il Talismano. See here for details of the recording and how to obtain it from Victorian Opera Northwest.

Further recordings are listed at http://www.englishromanticopera.org/composers/balfe.htm   .

 

Books on Balfe

The most recent book on Balfe's life is Basil Walsh's, Michael W. Balfe, with a forward by Richard Bonynge, published by the Irish Academic Press. For more details see http://www.britishandirishworld.com/. This biography is also available from Victorian Opera Northwest, as is Michael William Balfe, his life and his English operas by William Tyldesley, Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2003.  Contact us for details. A slightly older book is George Biddlecombe's English opera from 1834 to 1864 with particular reference to the works of Michael Balfe. New York: Garland Publishing, 1994.

There are also two 19th century books: William A. Barrett, Balfe, His life and Work, London: Remington and Co., 1882 (also published by London: William Reeves Booksellers Ltd., no date) and Charles L. Tinsley, A Memoir of Michael William Balfe, London: Tinsley Brothers, 1875 (reprinted by De Capo Press, New York, 1978). Both books are available online at www.archive.org.

More generally, The Romantic Age 1800-1914, edited by Nicholas Temperley, London: Athlone Press, 1981, reissued as The Blackwell History of Music in Britain, Vol.5, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988 includes a chapter by Michael Hurd on "Opera: 1830-1865".