Michael Kelly (tenor)

Michael Kelly (25 December 1762 – 9 October 1826) was an Irish tenor, composer and theatrical manager who made an international career of importance in musical history. One of the leading figures in British musical theatre around the turn of the nineteenth century, he was a close associate of playwright and poet Richard Brinsley Sheridan. He also became friends with musicians such as Mozart and 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 or even Signor Ochelli. 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 ' y statement of Kelly's is immediately suspect.'

Dublin beginnings

Michael Kelly's father Thomas, a Roman Catholic wine merchant and dancing-master, held an important social position as Master of Ceremonies at Dublin Castle, the seat of British government in Ireland. Michael was given a serious musical education (mainly voice and keyboard) from a young age, his first teachers being the Italians, Passerini (of Bologna) and Niccolò Peretti, a male contralto, who sang at Covent Garden in the original productions of Thomas Arne's opera (on a Metastasio text) '' Artaxerxes'' (title role). Kelly remarked that Peretti possessed the ''true portamento,'' 'little understood by the 1820s.' With him Kelly studied the air 'In infancy our hopes and fears', composed for Peretti. 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 Rotunda and piano lessons from Philip Cogan. Also the famous surgeon-violinist John Neale, a constant family visitor, tutored him in an aria from Vento's opera ''Demofoonte''. At various times the visitors to the Kellys' house included such distinguished musicians as François-Hippolyte Barthélemon, Wilhelm Cramer (father of John), Thomas Pinto (grandfather of George), Johann Peter Salomon and the cellist John Crosdill.

Among them was the male soprano Venanzio Rauzzini (1746–1810), friend of 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. 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.

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''.

Italy, 1779–1783

In May 1779, Kelly travelled to Naples where, as protégé of Sir William Hamilton, he enrolled with Fenaroli at the 1537 Conservatorio Santa Maria di Loreto, with privileges. He began to attend operas and ballets, and received introductions at many noble houses, meeting Domenico Cimarosa, Fenaroli's favourite pupil, at one. Hamilton gained him a meeting with the King and Queen of Naples, for whom he sang, and with Hamilton (a vulcanologist) he witnessed the August 1779 eruption of Vesuvius.

At Naples the male soprano Giuseppe Aprile (1732–1813) (also a teacher of Cimarosa) offered him free tuition during a festival visit to Sicily in Spring 1780. Kelly went first to Gaeta, where he sang a ''salve regina'' under Aprile, who continued to give him daily lessons and dinners: then to Palermo, where he studied several hours a day as his voice dropped to a tenor. He was soon singing the tenor arias which formed the original repertoire of Giacomo Davide and Giovanni Ansani (1744–1826). With Aprile he visited many noble houses and made his first regular Festival appearance at the Chiesa Grande, Palermo, in a motet of Gennario Maro. Aprile taught him the work of Metastasio and other Italian poets and, their season ended, told him he was now ready to sing in any theatre in Europe. He wrote letters of introduction to Andrea Campigli, impresario of the Florence 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."

At Livorno, Kelly first met Stephen and Nancy Storace, who, aged 15, was then prima donna of the comic opera there. Stephen Storace helped him mount a concert, and with funds he went on to Pisa, met the tenor Giuseppe Viganoni (1754-1823), appeared at the theatre with soprano Clementina Baglioni, and dined with the violinist Soderini. At Florence, Campigli gave him a spring season as first comic tenor at the Teatro Nuovo, and at Lord Cowper's house he heard Pietro Nardini play Tartini's sonata. He made a successful debut in '' Il francese in Italia'', coached by the actor-tenor Filippo Laschi), opposite the charming Signora Lortinella (called "Ortabella"), and Andrea Morigi as primo buffo. He was in lodgings with the composer (1755–1826): the male soprano (a famous ''cantabile'' singer) gave Kelly some lessons.Thal (ed.) 1972, p. 73.

The offer of a five-year contract from Linley for Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, arranged by Stephen Storace, was blocked by Kelly's father. After the Florence contract Campigli offered him six months as primo tenore in Venice, and he travelled via Bologna making many musical acquaintances, but found the project had collapsed. Out of money, he still managed to attend operas and concerts and met the singer and actress Benini, who took him on an autumn tour to Graz. He appeared in Pasquale Anfossi's '' La vera costanza'', and for the Carnival opposite Benini in Grétry's '' Zémire et Azor''. He returned to Venice for Easter and was recruited for a Brescia production of Cimarosa's ', 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.

After a benefit concert at Verona, at Treviso he met the 'greatest reputed dilettante singer in Europe', Teresa de Petris. 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. He returned to Venice in October for Vidiman, where Nancy Storace was appearing in an opera of Vicente Martín y Soler. 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.

Austria, 1783–1787

At Vienna Kelly presented himself to the Court composer Antonio Salieri, whose ''La scuola de' gelosi'' was to be staged first. He had a successful debut. The theatre was in the palace, and the Emperor attended performances and many rehearsals. Kelly was friendly with Salieri and with the actors Friedrich Ludwig Schröder and . He went to Eisenstadt to visit Haydn for three days. In Vienna he met the composers Vanhal and Dittersdorf

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases