A Musical Italy: Michael W. Balfe’s Italian Experiences

Abstract

The Dublin-born musician, Michael W. Balfe, was a singer, composer and conductor whose brilliant musical career was heavily influenced by formative experiences in Italy. In 1825, Balfe, interested in broadening his musical studies first went to Paris where he was introduced to the great composers, Luigi Cherubini and Gioachino Rossini, who took a personal interest in him and his musical talents. On the advice of Rossini he spent the next few years in Italy studying singing with the famous Rossini singer, Filippo Galli, and taking music composition lessons from Ferdinando Paer, in Rome. Later in Milan he studied harmony and counterpoint with Vincenzo Federici. By 1831, when he was only 23 years old, his first three operas had been produced in Palermo, Pavia, and Milan. He returned to London in August 1835, participating with the great Lablache, Tamburini, Rubini and Grisi in a concert in Vauxhall Gardens. In 1834 he made his debut at La Scala, Milan, singing opposite the renowned mezzo-soprano, Maria Malibran in Rossini’s Otello. He appeared again with Malibran in Venice early in 1835, singing once more in Rossini and Bellini operas. Balfe worked as a singer and composer throughout the Italian peninsula/states during the years, 1825-1835 and this article will chart these experiences and demonstrate how the time he spent in Italy and the people he met, influenced his life and later career as an important and popular European composer.