Balfe

[giles.enders]

While researching something quite else, I came accross this sad newspaper cutting dated 12.12 1903.
"Balfe's son is broken down with ill health and old age (66) and is penniless.  ----came to this newspaper offices to secure funds for a barrel-organ set with his father's tunes, which he may work in the gutter and thus earn a living of sorts".

The article goes on to talk about the irony of "grinding out 'I Dreampt that I Dwelt in Marble Halls' on his barrel organ.

His father, the composer left an estate of £600 plus his compositions when he died in 1870 which was a considerable sum. The composer's wife the singer Lina Rosa gave it all away and needed charity to support her in old age and I suspect was a burden on her son who appears to have worked for most of his life.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Thank you for sharing that, Giles. Just by sheer coincidence I listened to Balfe's Falstaff last night - and much enjoyed it!

An awfully sad story. Balfe had four children. Maybe the two daughters got comfortably married off? The eldest boy died when very young, and that leaves Michael William Balfe (Junior!). Wiki has him dying in 1915 - which is at odds with your newspaper cutting of 1903. Maybe Wiki contains a mistake? Balfe himself went off to wherever Victorian opera composers go in 1870.

But I'm curious about the family finances. I'm no music economist (if there is such a thing), but I would have thought Balfe ended up rather well off - and certainly much better than that £600. After all he had written almost 40 operas: they contained some real duds, but some which had repeated productions. There must have been a considerable income from a large number of songs. In addition Balfe, who remained busy up until near the end of his life, held some quite prestigious posts. In later years he lived on his estate in Hertfordshire. Did Lina dispose of the whole lot, and then leave herself penniless? If so, why? Why did his son, William, end up destitute?

I suspect there are answers available to all those questions, but then I'm not knowledgeable about Balfe's life and circumstances (nor in fact about his work apart from having a soft spot of 2-3 operas).

[JimL]

He seems to have quite an extensive bio on Wikipedia.  There appears to be quite a large quantity of instrumental music as well, including at least one cello sonata.  The British/Irish Archive (which I believe is ensconced over at the AMF) contained a concert overture, and there may be several symphonies and possible concertos as well.  He was apparently quite prolific.

[eschiss1]

I downloaded but am not sure if I've listened to the concert overture yet (back when it was over here ). The cello sonata is on a Dutton CD,  I believe (sonata in A-flat, on the Spooner-cello-etc. 2009-released disc with music by Balfe, Ellicott, Walter Macfarren, Coleridge-Taylor, Quilter and Bainton.)

[giles.enders]

According to the article, his estate drained him of a lot of money and his wife who was a Hungarian singer, then gave away most of her inheritance.  There was no such thing as royalties in those days.  Balfe Jnr would have been 78 when he died in 1915.

I seem to recall that The British Music Society had an illustrated talk about him and there was still some controversy about where some of his archive is/was. 

[Jimfin]

Basil Walsh's biography is worth reading, though I had problems with the prose style: it's written in very 'spoken' Englsh, like a speech. But it is well-researched and about the only reasonably accurate general biography. As always with these books, it makes me long to hear all those operas that still lie in dusty rooms. But I should be grateful for the ones that have been recorded. The cello sonata is rather lovely too.