William Vincent Wallace
Encyclopedia
Early life
Wallace was born at Colbeck Street, WaterfordWaterford
Waterford is a city in the South-East Region of Ireland. It is the oldest city in the country and fifth largest by population. Waterford City Council is the local government authority for the city and its immediate hinterland...
, Ireland. Both parents were Irish, his father, of County Mayo
County Mayo
County Mayo is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the village of Mayo, which is now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 130,552...
, was a regimental bandmaster.
Wallace learned to play several instruments as a boy, became a leading violinist in Dublin and a fine pianist. Under the tuition of his father and uncle, he wrote pieces for the bands and orchestras of his native area. At the age of 18 he was organist of the Thurles
Thurles
Thurles is a town situated in North Tipperary, Ireland. It is a civil parish in the historical barony of Eliogarty and is also an ecclesiastical parish in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly...
Roman Catholic Cathedral and taught piano at the Ursuline Convent
Ursuline Convent
Ursuline Convent was a series of historic Ursuline convents in New Orleans, Louisiana.-The first building:The first building for the Ursuline nuns in New Orleans was designed by Ignace Francois Broutin in 1727 when the nuns arrived in New Orleans. Michael Seringue was the builder. Planning,...
. He fell in love with a pupil, Isabella Kelly, whose father consented to their marriage in 1831 on condition that Wallace become a Roman Catholic and take the name of Vincent.
Career and travels
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
, and his brother Wellington, a flautist
Flautist
A flautist or flutist is a musician who plays an instrument in the flute family. See List of flautists.The choice of "flautist" versus "flutist" is the source of dispute among players of the instrument...
, emigrated in 1835 to Australia and gave family concerts. The family went to Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
in 1836 and opened the first Australian music school
Music school
The term music school refers to an educational institution specialized in the study, training and research of music.Different terms refer to this concept such as school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department or conservatory.Music instruction can be provided...
. Elizabeth, a very accomplished pianist, married a well-known Australian singer, John Bushelle, with whom she gave many recitals. Wallace also imported pianos and gave recitals in Australia under the patronage of General Sir Richard Bourke
Richard Bourke
General Sir Richard Bourke, KCB was Governor of the Colony of New South Wales, Australia between 1831 and 1837.-Early life and career:...
. Having separated from his wife, he began a roving career. Wallace claimed that from Australia he went to New Zealand on a whaling-voyage in the South seas, visited most of the interior provinces of India and spent some time in tiger-hunting, and finally visited Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
and Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, giving concerts in the large cities of those countries. In 1841 Wallace conducted Italian opera in Mexico, and in the early 1840s he made a successful tour of the United States and helped to found the New York Philharmonic Society.
He returned to London in 1845 and made various appearances as a pianist. In November of that year, his opera Maritana
Maritana
Maritana is a grand opera in three acts composed by William Vincent Wallace, with a libretto by Edward Fitzball . The opera is based on the play Don César de Bazan by Adolphe d'Ennery and Philippe François Pinel Dumanoir , which was also the source material for Jules Massenet's opéra comique Don...
was performed at Drury Lane
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....
with great success and was later presented in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, at Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
and in Australia. Wallace's sister, Elisabeth, appeared at Covent Garden in the title role in 1848. Maritana was followed by Matilda of Hungary (1847), Lurline
Lurline
Lurline is a poetic variation of the name of the legendary Rhine river siren Loreley. See also Lurleen .Lurline may refer to:-Literature:*Lurline is the title of a poem by Henry Kendall , Australian poet:...
(1860), The Amber Witch
The Amber Witch (opera)
The Amber Witch is an opera four acts composed by William Vincent Wallace to an English libretto by Henry Fothergill Chorley, after Lady Duff-Gordon's translation of Meinold's Maria Schweidler: Die Bernsteinhexe....
(1861), Love's Triumph (1862) and The Desert Flower
The Desert Flower
The Desert Flower is an opera in three acts composed by William Vincent Wallace. The libretto was an English translation and adaptation by A. Harris and Thomas J. Williams of the libretto by Henri Saint-Georges and Adolphe de Leuven for Halévy's Jaguarita l'Indienne...
(1863) (based on the libretto of Halévy
Fromental Halévy
Jacques-François-Fromental-Élie Halévy, usually known as Fromental Halévy , was a French composer. He is known today largely for his opera La Juive.-Early career:...
's Jaguarita l'Indienne
Jaguarita l'Indienne
Jaguarita l'Indienne is a three act opéra comique, to a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Adolphe de Leuven, with music by Fromental Halévy....
). He also published a number of compositions for the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
.
Vincent Wallace was a cultivated man and an accomplished musician, whose work as an operatic composer, at a period by no means encouraging to music in England, has a distinct historical value. Like Michael William Balfe
Michael William Balfe
Michael William Balfe was an Irish composer, best-remembered for his opera The Bohemian Girl.After a short career as a violinist, Balfe pursued an operatic singing career, while he began to compose. In a career spanning more than 40 years, he composed 38 operas, almost 250 songs and other works...
, he was born an Irishman, and his reputation as one of the few composers known beyond the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
at that time is naturally coupled with Balfe's.
Late life
In 1850, Wallace became an American citizen after a marriage in New York with Helen Stoepel, a pianist, and sister of composer Robert StoepelRobert Stoepel
Robert Auguste Stoepel was a German-born American composer and conductor.- Biography :He was born Auguste Stoepel in Berlin, 1821. Because his father had a reputation as a court musician, he adopted his forename...
. In later years he became almost blind, and he died in poor circumstances at the Château de Bagen, Sauveterre de Comminges, near Barbazon, Haute Garonne, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, (the Pyrennes mountains) on 12 October 1865 leaving a widow and two children; he was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in Kensal Green, in the west of London, England. It was immortalised in the lines of G. K. Chesterton's poem The Rolling English Road from his book The Flying Inn: "For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen; Before we go to Paradise by way of...
, London.
External links
- Wallace, William Vincent (1812 - 1865) at the Australian Dictionary of BiographyAustralian Dictionary of BiographyThe Australian Dictionary of Biography is a national, co-operative enterprise, founded and maintained by the Australian National University to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's history....
- Information about Wallace and Maritana