MICHAEL WILLIAM BALFE, composer of "The Bohemian Girl," was an Irishman of a native intelligence and genius for melody quick to make their mark. The son of a dancing-master, Balfe had his first musical instruction from his father. He played the violin as a young boy for the dancing classes, but studied very little. A polacca which he wrote in his eighth year was so good that a friendly bandmaster, Meadows, could not persuade his men that young Balfe was author of the piece. When he was ten, Balfe composed the first of his ballads, "The Lover's Mistake," ballads which became so popular that they alone would have made him a name.
Several of these songs follow, so melodious, simple, and direct in their appeal that they speak for themselves. "Killarney" is one of the most famous of Balfe's compositions and is considered one of the most beautiful of Irish melodies. It was because of these ballads, in advance of the success of "The Bohemian Girl," that Balfe found a place in the hearts of all English-speaking peoples.
" The Arrow and the Song" Sung by David Bispham Columbia Record A 5437
"Come Into the Garden, Maud"
Sung by Reed Miller
Columbia Record A 98
" Killarney "
Sung by Andrea Sarto Columbia Record A 1299
Sung by Alice Nielsen Columbia Record A 5711
Michael William Balfe, who was born May 15, 1808, went to London when his father died in 1823, apprenticed himself to an organist and music-teacher, Charles Edward Horne, and soon got a position as violinist in the orchestra of the Drury Lane Theater. One night, sitting in the gallery at the performance of a comedy, "Paul Pry," Balfe, to his astonishment, heard one of his own songs sung on the stage. When he recovered from his surprise and cried out that he was the composer of the air he was called a braggart and a liar, and told to sit still and let the performance go on. It was an episode which did a good deal to make Balfe understand his own powers and resolve to take advantage of them.
He found that he had a voice and thought he might make a success as an opera-singer. His début was a failure, but Count Mazzari became interested in Balfe and took him to Italy, where Balfe studied singing for two years, and in 1828 took the part of Figaro in a performance of Rossini's "Barber of Seville" at the Théâtre des Italiens at Paris. His estimate, however, of his own gifts as a singer was hardly realized.
"The Bohemian Girl," first performed at the Drury Lane Theater, London, November 27, 1843, may best be described as a ballad opera. The scenes are introduced to make occasion for the songs, rather than vice versa. There is much dialogue and some clowning. The story has but little relation to Bohemia. Arline, daughter of Count Arnheim, is about to be gored by a stag when she is saved by Thaddeus, a Polish exile. The count, unaware of Thaddeus' nationality, is grateful to him until the latter refuses with contempt to toast the Austrian Emperor, oppressor of his country. Thaddeus, in danger from the retainers of the count, flees from the spot with Devilshoof, leader of a gipsy band, who kid-naps Arline. Thaddeus and Arline are married, gipsy fashion, but the gipsy queen, who loves Thaddeus, contrives, when the tribe is in the vicinity of the count's castle, to implicate Arline in a theft. This is twelve years after the kidnapping. The count recognizes Arline by a scar. Thaddeus reveals his high descent. The father is reconciled to the union of the lovers. The gipsy queen orders one of her followers to shoot Thaddeus, but through his faulty aim receives the bullet herself.
This libretto, by Alfred Bunn, is full of infelicities and even faults of grammar. Why, then, it might be asked, the success of the opera? Simply this: Balfe had melody. He touched the heart. His workmanship was usually flimsy, but his song found its mark. Two chords are used to accompany sixteen measures of Arline's air in Act II, "I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls," yet the air lives, solely by the grace and felicity of the melodic line. Sung by a sentimental, silvery-voiced tenor, the song " Then You'll Remember Me still haunts the ear, whether it is heard in an opera-house or as a cornet solo at the seashore. The accompaniments of the air for soprano and chorus, " Come with the Gipsy Bride," and that of " The Heart Bowed Down," are practically identical in character, though neither sentiments nor melodies bear the least resemblance. A plank and a tune sufficed the early Verdi to make an effect. Balfe was far from being a Verdi. Nevertheless he was a composer of great natural talent.
Of the many melodious airs from this opera the following may here be noted. "Come with the Gipsy Bride" is the song sung by Arline, when, after the gipsy wedding, she and her girl companions visit a fair in the neighborhood of their encampment. The character of gipsy music is felt here more strongly than in other pages of the opera.
" Come with the Gipsy Bride "
Sung by Grace Kerns
Columbia Record A 5410
Arline, waking from deep slumber in the tent of the gipsy queen, finds Thaddeus watching over her. In the appealing song, "I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls," she tells him of her childhood home which she has seen in her dream.
" I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls "
Sung by Grace Kerns
Columbia Record A 5410
"Then You'll Remember Me" is sung by Thaddeus in the castle of Count Arnheim when he believes his bride forever lost to him through her restoration to her father.
" Then You'll Remember Me "
Sung by Morgan Kingston Columbia Record A 5604
Sung by Vernon Stiles Columbia Record A 2435
