Michael Kelly (tenor)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Portrait by Adèle Romany, between 1802 and 1814

Michael Kelly (25 December

Paisiello, and created roles for the operas of both composers. With his friend and fellow singer Nancy Storace, he was one of the first tenors of that era from Britain and Ireland to become famous in Italy and Austria. In Italy he was also known as O'Kelly[3] or even Signor Ochelli.[4] Although the primary source for his life is his Reminiscences, doubt has been cast on the reliability of his own account, and it has been said that '[a]ny statement of Kelly's is immediately suspect.'[5]

Dublin beginnings

Michael Kelly's father Thomas, a

Metastasio text) Artaxerxes (title role).[7] Kelly remarked that Peretti possessed the true portamento,[8] 'little understood by the 1820s.' With him Kelly studied the air 'In infancy our hopes and fears', composed for Peretti.[9] Kelly also studied keyboard with Thomas Arne's son, Michael Arne
.

Sent to Dr Burke's academy, Kelly met many "men of genius" at friends' houses during vacations. He received singing lessons from a "signor St Giorgio" at the

François-Hippolyte Barthélemon, Wilhelm Cramer (father of John), Thomas Pinto (grandfather of George), Johann Peter Salomon and the cellist John Crosdill.[12]

Among them was the male soprano

Haydn and Charles Burney who, after a period at Vienna and Munich, settled in England c.1774 and was the teacher of the young Nancy Storace.[13] While in Dublin in 1778, he took Michael Kelly under his wing, gave him lessons and taught him several songs, including his own "Fuggiamo di questo loco" (which Linley introduced into The Duenna with words by Sheridan as "By him we love offended"). Rauzzini advised he should be sent to a conservatory in Rome or Naples, and his father laid plans accordingly. Meanwhile, Michael Arne stayed in Dublin to produce Garrick's dramatic romance Cymon, for which he had written the music: in exchange for his father's kindnesses, Arne gave Michael daily lessons and regular encouragement.[14]

Kelly also made his stage debut in Dublin. A promoter, Pedro Martini, brought an Italian company (including Peretti) to perform comic opera at the Smock Alley Theatre. Sig. Savoy, who was to have sung the high soprano role of the Count in Piccinni's La buona figliuola, was ill, and Kelly (who still sang treble) was brought in and made a great success. However Martini failed to pay, and the distinguished cast immediately struck and dispersed. Michael Arne then had him play the role of Cymon for three nights at Crow Street Theatre, and he had a benefit performance as Master Lionel in Baldassare Galuppi's Lionel and Clarissa.[15]

Italy, 1779–1783

In May 1779, Kelly travelled to Naples where, as protégé of Sir

Vesuvius.[19]

At Naples the male soprano

Teatro La Pergola, and obtained Kelly's place on a ship for Livorno. "Under his care and patronage," said Aprile, "you cannot fail of success because you have the peculiar distinction of being the only public scholar I ever taught."[24]

At Livorno, Kelly first met

Tartini's sonata. He made a successful debut in Il francese in Italia, coached by the actor-tenor Filippo Laschi[29]), opposite the charming Signora Lortinella (called "Ortabella"), and Andrea Morigi as primo buffo.[30] He was in lodgings with the composer Gaetano Andreozzi [it] (1755–1826): the male soprano Tommaso Guarducci [it] (a famous cantabile singer[31]) gave Kelly some lessons.[32]

The offer of a five-year contract from Linley for

Grétry's Zémire et Azor.[36] He returned to Venice for Easter and was recruited for a Brescia production of Cimarosa's Il pittor parigino [it], which he rehearsed and began performing with Ortabella, but the jealous sponsor-manager became murderous, and Kelly escaped to Verona, slipping out of the theatre in mid-performance.[37]

After a benefit concert at Verona, at Treviso he met the 'greatest reputed dilettante singer in Europe', Teresa de Petris.[38] She invited Kelly to sing with her in Anfossi's new oratorio, and her consort Count Vidiman engaged him for four months, sending him first to Parma and Colorno to present himself to the Archduchess, for whom he sang and played billiards for a week.[39] He returned to Venice in October for Vidiman, where Nancy Storace was appearing in an opera of Vicente Martín y Soler.[40] When his contract was completed, through Countess Rosenberg he (and Storace) received an invitation to join an Italian company then being assembled to occupy a permanent residency at the court of Emperor Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor at Vienna.[41]

Austria, 1783–1787

At Vienna Kelly presented himself to the Court composer

Wanhal and Dittersdorf, but a special friendship began at a dinner where he found himself seated between Wolfgang and Constanze Mozart. He often dined with Mozart and invariably lost at billiards to him: he became close friends with Mozart's young English pupil Thomas Attwood.[44]

Kelly sang opposite Nancy Storace in this company. In 1785, they were performing Stephen Storace's opera Gli sposi malcontenti. After she lost her voice for a time he sang in three operas with Mmes Cortellini, Antonia Bernasconi and Laschi, and won applause humorously modelling a character on the mannerisms of da Ponte in performances witnessed by that writer. He and one Calvasi played the two Antipholus roles in Storace's Gli equivoci, based on The Comedy of Errors.[45]

Paisiello's The Barber of Seville was presented with Nancy Storace: Kelly and Mandini alternated in the role of the Count.[46] When Paisiello came to the court Kelly witnessed his meeting with Mozart. The poet Giovanni Battista Casti also arrived, and in 1784 with Paisiello produced a new opera Il re Teodoro in Venezia. The cast included Mandini, Francesco Benucci, Francesco Bussani [it], Laschi, Storace and Viganoni, and Kelly took the buffo role of Gaforio, which became his nickname thereafter.[47]

In each year the Italian company attended the Emperor to Luxembourg for three months.[48] In Vienna, Joseph had two operas staged for the benefit of visiting potentates, Iphigénie en Tauride and L'Alceste. Kelly played in both, being Pylades to Bernasconi's Iphigénie and the Oreste of the tenor Valentin Adamberger, in all of which they were coached by Gluck in person.[49]

In 1786, three operas were being rehearsed, one by Righini, one Salieri's La grotta di Trofonio (to a text by Casti), and one Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. Kelly took his most famous premiere role as Don Curzio (the stuttering role), and also Don Basilio, with Storace as Susanna. He was on most friendly terms with Mozart, and was the first to hear the duet "Crudel, perche finora?" played over by Mozart while the ink was still wet. Kelly argued with Mozart, who wished him not to stutter in the concerted ensembles. Kelly insisted, threatening to walk out, and carried it off to Mozart's great satisfaction.[50]

With new offers pending for Drury Lane, Kelly had one more Luxembourg season, and then obtained a year's leave to visit home and his ailing mother.[51] Yet he remained until February 1787 at Vienna, appearing in Paisiello's La frascatana nobile [ca],[52] before setting off with Nancy and Stephen Storace and their mother, and Thomas Attwood, all together in a carriage for England. He and Mozart parted in tears of friendship. They stopped in Munich, Augsburg and Stuttgart, where Kelly went to the top of the spire with Ignace Pleyel. They witnessed some of the greatest theatrical artists performing in Paris, before arriving in London in mid-March.[53]

Old Drury Lane, 1787–1791

In London, Kelly and Stephen Storace met at once with

Mrs. Sheridan and Mrs. Tickell), and saw John Kemble and Mrs Crouch in Richard Coeur de Lion.[54] Kelly's Drury Lane debut was in Dibdin's Lionel and Clarissa, introducing an original duet which Storace orchestrated.[55] He was then Young Meadows in Arne's Love in a Village, adding a Glück song in English, and next appeared at Theatre Royal opposite Mrs Crouch, who was his stage partner for many years.[56] He became a friend of John Philpot Curran
.

His entry to oratorio for

Martini) duet 'O thou wert born to please me.'[58] Then the pair led at York in these works, for Tate Wilkinson, also giving Arnold's Maid of the Mill and Sheridan's The Duenna at Leeds, and Love in a Village there and at Wakefield. This summer tour set the pattern for future years. For their London season commencing in September Linley revived his Selima and Azor, and Dittersdorf's Doctor and Apothecary.[59]

In summer 1788, they toured in

Handel's "Deeper and deeper still", and brought fresh humour to "Haste thee, nymph" (coached by Linley) to the delight of the royal audience. "In singing sacred music I was aware of its value, and fagged at the tenor songs of Handel with unremitting assiduity", he wrote. In October 1788, he sang Richard Coeur de Lion for Sheridan in London, and in Messiah with Mme Mara at Norwich Festival.[60] With her he often performed the recitative "And Miriam the prophetess took a timbrel" from Israel in Egypt.[57]

Kelly played

No song, no supper (Storace) for the very last night of the Old Drury Lane Theatre, which was then closed and demolished.[65]

Later life

Appearing in London at Drury Lane in 1787, Kelly enjoyed great success, and thenceforth was the principal English-language tenor at that theatre. In 1793, he became acting manager of the King's Theatre, and he was in great demand at concerts.

His relationship with

Prince of Wales,[citation needed
] added to his notoriety.

In 1826, he published his entertaining Reminiscences, written with the assistance of Theodore Hook.[66] He combined his professional work with conducting a music shop and a wine shop, but with disastrous financial results. He died at Margate, aged 64.

See also

The zestful anecdotes of the Reminiscences are quoted in several articles in this encyclopedia:

Compositions

There is no reliable register of Kelly's compositions. In his Reminiscence he lists 62 works for various London theatres, which he had "composed and selected".[67] This means that he often mixed his own music with that of other composers or arranged works by others to suit his purposes. In these cases, therefore, the share of his original contribution is not at all clear and may vary a lot. In a number of cases, Kelly merely wrote the melody and "relied on professional assistants in matters of orchestration and technique."[68] It is claimed that the first Cinderella Pantomime in England was the 1804 production at Drury Lane, for which the music was by Michael Kelly.[69] An 1801 comic opera The Gypsy Prince, written in collaboration with Thomas Moore, was not successful. Some of his original operas are:

Kelly also wrote many songs, one of the best-known being The Woodpecker to words by Thomas Moore.

Recordings

Recordings of Kelly's music are extremely rare. They can be found on one 1971 LP and two CDs issued in 2011 and 2012.

  • Michael Kelly & Mozart, performed by Sasha Abrams (S), Dan Klein (tenor), Peter Alexander (piano): Decca Ace of Diamonds SDD 273 (LP, 1971). Contains the songs: Cara son tuo così, Soffri che intraccia, The Woodpecker, Placa gli sdegni tuoi, Rui seize thee, as well as the Kelly/Mozart collaboration Grazie agl'inganni tuoi.
  • Entertaining Miss Austen. Newly discovered music from Jane Austen's family collection, performed by Amanda Pitt (soprano), John Lofthouse (baritone), David Owen Norris (piano): Dutton Epoch CDLX 7271 (CD, 2011). Contains the songs: The Wife's Farewell, The Husband's Return.
  • English and Scottish Romantic Songs, performed by Gudrún Ólafsdóttir (mezzo) and Francisco Javier Jáuregui (guitar): EMEC Discos E-104 (CD, 2012). Contains the song Flora McDonald in a 19th-century arrangement with guitar by C.M. Sola.

References

  1. H. van Thal
    (ed.): Solo Recital. The Reminiscences of Michael Kelly (London: Folio Society, 1972), p. 19, note.
  2. ^ This article includes text drawn from Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911.
  3. ^ This name was given by Father Dolphin, Prior of the Convent of St Dominic at Naples, cf Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 85.
  4. ^ H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack: Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera (London: Oxford University Press, 1974).
  5. ^ Richard Graves: "The Comic Operas of Stephen Storace", in The Musical Times vol. 95 no. 1340 (October 1954), pp. 530–532.
  6. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 19.
  7. ^ van Thal, 1972 (biographical index), p. 329.
  8. ^ By using the word 'true', Kelly indicates that he means not what was vulgarly thought to be a portamento, i.e. a slur, but some lost idea of carrying-over on the breath from one note to another.
  9. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 20.
  10. ^ (i.e. Philip Cogan, 1750–1813, composer, harpsichordist, organist of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, 1780–1806, then teacher): van Thal 1972, 338.
  11. ^ (i.e. Mattia Vento, 1735–1777, Neapolitan composer): Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 370.
  12. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 21–22.
  13. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 362.
  14. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 24–26.
  15. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 26–28.
  16. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, pp. 29, 32–33.
  17. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 39–40.
  18. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 42–43.
  19. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 45.
  20. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 52–53.
  21. ^ cf. Rosenthal and Warrack, 1974.
  22. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 328.
  23. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 54–60.
  24. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 62.
  25. ^ Kelly tells the story that, arriving at Livorno from Sicily, he was as thin as a rake, with a mass of fair hair, and had not long ceased singing treble. Nancy and Stephen, whom he did not know, stood together on the Livorno Mole, and Nancy said in English to her brother, "Look at that girl dressed in boy's clothes." Kelly then astonished her by replying, also in English, "You are mistaken, Miss; I am a very proper he animal, and quite at your service!"; Thal (ed.), p. 64.
  26. ^ P. H. Highfill, K. A. Burnim and E. A. Langhans: A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800, vol. 15: Tibbett to M. West (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1993), pp. 162-64 (Google).
  27. ^ La Baglioni was Mozart's first Rosina in La finta semplice: see K.-J. Kutsch and L. Riemens, ed. H. Rost, Grosses Sängerlexikon, 4th, enlarged edition, vol. 1 (Munich: K. G. Saur, 2003), p. 205 (Google).
  28. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 66–68. For Soderini see Highfill, Burnim and Langhans, Biographical Dictionary, vol. 14 (1991), p. 193.
  29. ^ Filippo Laschi (1739-1789), see short biography in L. Macy, The Grove Book of Opera Singers, 2nd edition (O.U.P., 2008).
  30. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 68–71.
  31. ^ Highfill, Burnim and Langhans, Biographical Dictionary, vol. 5 (1978), pp. 438–440 (Google).
  32. ^ a b Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 73.
  33. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, pp. 74, 78.
  34. ^ The singer Anna Benini was the wife of Guarducci's pupil, the composer and singer Bernardo Mengozzi (1758–1800): see Highfill, Burnim and Langhans, Biographical Dictionary, vol. 10 (1984), pp. 196 ff (Google).
  35. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 85.
  36. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 87.
  37. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, pp. 93–94, 96–99.
  38. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 103.
  39. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 104–107.
  40. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 108.
  41. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 110–111.
  42. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 112.
  43. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 118–121.
  44. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, pp. 123, 126–127.
  45. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 130–131.
  46. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 140.
  47. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 131–132.
  48. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 134.
  49. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 138–140.
  50. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 140–142.
  51. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 143–144.
  52. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 146.
  53. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 150–156.
  54. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 156–157.
  55. ^ Thal (ed.), 1972, p. 158.
  56. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 160.
  57. ^ a b Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 161.
  58. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 162–163.
  59. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 163–166.
  60. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 166–171.
  61. ^ "Little Stanmore: Church | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk.
  62. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 173.
  63. ^ "030.106 - Spirit of My Sainted Sire. | Levy Music Collection". levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu.
  64. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 174–178.
  65. ^ Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 178–179.
  66. ^ Kelly, Michael (18 June 1826). "Reminiscences of Michael Kelly of the King's theatre, and Theatre royal, Drury lane [ed. by T.E. Hook]". Colburn – via Google Books.
  67. ISBN 0-19-255417-4
    .
  68. ^ Basil Walsh: "Kelly, Michael", in: The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland, ed. H. White & B. Boydell (Dublin: UCD Press, 2013), p. 560–1.
  69. ^ Russell A. Peck (John Hall Deane Professor of English at the University of Rochester) A Cinderella Bibliography (online)

Sources

External links

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