Michael Kelly (actor)
Encyclopedia
Michael Kelly was an Irish actor
, singer (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, and a close associate of Richard Sheridan's, he had been a friend of Mozart and Paisiello, and created roles in operas of both. With his friend Nancy Storace
, he was one of the first singers in that age from Britain and Ireland to make a front-rank reputation 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, it has been said 'Any statement of Kelly's is immediately suspect.'
, 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 Nicolo 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 Sig. St Giorgio at the Rotunda, and piano lessons from Dr 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 Kelly's 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 Dr Charles Burney
, who after a period at Vienna and Munich settled in England in 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.
, he enrolled with Finerolli 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 Cimarosa, Finerolli'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 educated him in 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 Campigli, manager of the Florence
Pergola Theatre, 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 Viganoni, appeared at the theatre with Clementina Baglioni, and dined with the violinist Soderini.Kelly, ed. Thal 1972, 66–68. 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 Laschi), opposite the charming Signora Lortinella (called 'Ortabella'), and Morigi as prima buffo. He was in lodgings with the composer Gaetano Andreozzi (17751826): the male soprano Tommaso Guarducci (a famous cantabile singer) gave Kelly some lessons.
The offer of a five-year contract from Linley for 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 leading 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 Il pittore Parigino, 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
.
and Franz Brockman. He went to Eisenstadt
to visit Haydn for three days. In Vienna he met the composers Vanhal 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
.
Kelly sang opposite Nancy Storace in this company. In 1785 they were performing her brother's opera Gli sposi malcontenti. After she lost her voice for a time he sang in three operas with Mmes Cortellini, Bernasconi and Laschi, and won applause humorously modelling a character on the mannerisms of da Ponte in performances witnessed by that writer. He and Calvasi played the two Antipholus roles in Storace's Gli equivoci
, based on The Comedy of Errors
.
Paisiello's Il barbiere di Siviglia
was presented with Nancy Storace: Kelly and Mandini alternated in the role of the Count. 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: in the cast including Mandini, Benucci, Bussani, Laschi, Storace and Viganoni, Kelly took the buffo role of Gaforio, which became his nickname thereafter.
In each year the Italian company attended the Emperor to Luxembourg
for three months. 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 Ademberger, in all of which they were coached by Gluck
in person.
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 Le Nozze di 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.
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. Yet he remained until February 1787 at Vienna, appearing in Paisiello's La frascatana, 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, Augsberg 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.
), and saw John Kemble
and Mrs Crouch
in Richard Coeur de Lion. Kelly's Drury Lane debut was in Dibdin
's Lionel and Clarissa, introducing an original duet which Storace orchestrated. 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. He became a friend of John Philpot Curran
.
His entry to oratorio for Dr Arnold
was delayed, but he sang in the May 1787 Handel
commemoration at Westminster Abbey
. In June, with Mrs Crouch in Dublin he played Lionel, and was first bacchanal in Comus
, introducing the (Martini) duet ‘O thou wert born to please me.’ 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.
In summer 1788 they toured in Liverpool
, Chester
, Manchester
, Worcester
and Birmingham
, and Kelly decided not to return to Vienna. His oratorio work with Mme Mara
began, and she played Mandane in Artaxerxes for him. Engaged as principal tenor of the Ancient Concerts under Joah Bates
, he sang 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 The Messiah
with Mme Mara at Norwich
Festival. With her he often performed the recit ‘And Miriam the prophetess took a timbrel’ from Israel in Egypt.
Kelly played Macheath
for the first time in April 1789, with Mrs Crouch (Polly) and Marie Therese De Camp
(Lucy). With Mrs Crouch, La Storace, Mme Mara and Dr Arnold he assisted a large Handel concert at Little Stanmore (the former home of the Duke of Chandos
, where at St Lawrence's the organ had been played by Handel.) Kelly scored a great hit in Storace's The Haunted Tower, delivering a ringing top Bb in the evergreen 'Spirit of my sainted sire'. In August 1790 he spent some weeks with Mr and Mrs Crouch in Paris, seeing Grétry's La Caravane and Raoul Barbe-bleu, which they were to perform in English versions. They began 1791 at Drury Lane with Stephen Storace's The Siege of Belgrade (incorporating a Martini scena), and his version of Salieri's Cave of Trofonio (Prince Hoare text) was given. On 4 June they performed The Country Girl
and No song, no supper
(Storace) for the very last night of the Old Drury Lane Theatre, which was then closed and demolished.
, at Drury Lane
in 1787, he had a great success, and thenceforth was the principal English tenor at that theatre. In 1793 he became acting-manager of the Kings Theatre, and he was in great request at concerts.
Kelly also made his mark as a composer of music for the stage. 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. An 1801 comic opera
The Gypsy Prince
written in collaboration with Thomas Moore
was not successful.
His relationship with Anna Maria Crouch
, whom he shared for a time with the Prince of Wales
, added to his notoriety. Kelly wrote a number of songs (including The Woodpecker), and the music for many dramatic pieces, which have now fallen into oblivion.
In 1826 he published his entertaining Reminiscences, written with the assistance of Theodore Hook. 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.
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, singer (tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
), composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
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, and a close associate of Richard Sheridan's, he had been a friend of Mozart and Paisiello, and created roles in operas of both. With his friend Nancy Storace
Nancy Storace
Nancy Storace , , was an English operatic soprano...
, he was one of the first singers in that age from Britain and Ireland to make a front-rank reputation in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. In Italy he was also known as O'Kelly or even Signor Ochelli. Although the primary source for his life is his Reminiscences, it has been said 'Any 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 CastleDublin Castle
Dublin Castle off Dame Street, Dublin, Ireland, was until 1922 the fortified seat of British rule in Ireland, and is now a major Irish government complex. Most of it dates from the 18th century, though a castle has stood on the site since the days of King John, the first Lord of Ireland...
, 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
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
) and Nicolo Peretti, a male contralto, who sang at Covent Garden in the original productions of Thomas Arne's opera (on a Metastasio
Metastasio
Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, better known by his pseudonym of Metastasio, was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti.-Early life:...
text) Artaxerxes
Artaxerxes (opera)
Artaxerxes is an opera in three acts composed by Thomas Arne set to an English adaptation of Metastasio's 1729 libretto Artaserse. The first English opera seria, Artaxerxes premiered on 2 February 1762 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden and continued to be regularly performed until the late 1830s...
(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
Michael Arne
Michael Arne was an English composer, harpsichordist, organist, singer, and actor. He was the son of composer Thomas Arne and lauded soprano Cecilia Young, the latter of which belonged to the famous Young family of musicians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries...
.
Sent to Dr Burke's academy, Kelly met many 'men of genius' at friends' houses during vacations. He received singing lessons from Sig. St Giorgio at the Rotunda, and piano lessons from Dr 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 Kelly's house included such distinguished musicians as François-Hippolyte Barthélemon
François-Hippolyte Barthélémon
François Hippolyte Barthélemon was a French violinist, pedagogue, and composer active in England.-Biography:François Barthélemon was born in Bordeaux , France. He received his education in Paris, where he studied musical composition and violin, and performed in the orchestra of the Comédie-Italienne...
, Wilhelm Cramer (father of John)
Johann Baptist Cramer
Johann Baptist Cramer was an English musician of German origin. He was the son of Wilhelm Cramer, a famous London violinist and musical conductor, one of a numerous family who were identified with the progress of music during the 18th and 19th centuries.-Biography:Johann Baptist Cramer was born in...
, Thomas Pinto (grandfather of George
George Pinto
George Pinto was an English composer and keyboard virtuoso.-Family:He was baptized at St. Mary's, Lambeth on February 11, 1786 as George Sanders. Accounts of Pinto's life and character are tenuous. There seems to be no surviving correspondence, nor did he have any descendants preserving a family...
), Johann Peter Salomon
Johann Peter Salomon
Johann Peter Salomon was a German violinist, composer, conductor and musical impresario.-Life:...
and the cellist John Crosdill.
Among them was the male soprano Venanzio Rauzzini
Venanzio Rauzzini
Venanzio Rauzzini was an Italian castrato, composer, pianist and singing teacher. As a boy he was a member of the Sistine Chapel Choir and was a pupil of Domenico Corri and Muzio Clementi. He also studied with Giuseppe Santarelli in Rome and Nicola Porpora in Naples.Rauzzini was born at Camerino...
(1746–1810), friend of Haydn and Dr Charles Burney
Charles Burney
Charles Burney FRS was an English music historian and father of authors Frances Burney and Sarah Burney.-Life and career:...
, who after a period at Vienna and Munich settled in England in 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
The Duenna
The Duenna is a three-act comic opera, mostly composed by Thomas Linley the elder and his son, Thomas Linley the younger, to an English-language libretto by Richard Brinsley Sheridan...
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
Michael Arne
Michael Arne was an English composer, harpsichordist, organist, singer, and actor. He was the son of composer Thomas Arne and lauded soprano Cecilia Young, the latter of which belonged to the famous Young family of musicians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries...
stayed in Dublin to produce Garrick
David Garrick
David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson...
's dramatic romance Cymon
Cymon
Cymon is a five-act opera composed by Michael Arne, with a libretto by David Garrick.Based on the poem Cymon and Iphigenia by John Dryden, Cymon tells the story of a captive prince who falls in love with a shepherdess named Sylvia...
, 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
Niccolò Piccinni
Niccolò Piccinni was an Italian composer of symphonies, sacred music, chamber music, and opera. Although he is somewhat obscure, even to music lovers today, Piccinni was one of the most popular composers of opera—particularly the Neapolitan opera buffa—of his day...
's La buona figliuola
La buona figliuola
La Cecchina, ossia La buona figliuola is an opera buffa in three Acts by Niccolò Piccinni. The libretto, by Carlo Goldoni, is based on Samuel Richardson's novel Pamela. This was Piccinni's most successful Italian opera. There was a sequel entitled La buona figliuola maritata by the same composer...
, 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 HamiltonWilliam Hamilton (diplomat)
Sir William Hamilton KB, PC, FRS was a Scottish diplomat, antiquarian, archaeologist and vulcanologist. After a short period as a Member of Parliament, he served as British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples from 1764 to 1800...
, he enrolled with Finerolli at the 1537 Conservatorio Santa Maria di Loreto
Music Conservatories of Naples
The Music Conservatory of Naples is a music institution in Naples, southern Italy. It is currently located in the complex of San Pietro a Majella.-San Pietro a Majella:...
, with privileges. He began to attend operas and ballets, and received introductions at many noble houses, meeting Cimarosa, Finerolli'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
Giuseppe Aprile
Giuseppe Aprile was an Italian castrato singer and music teacher. He was also known as 'Sciroletto' or 'Scirolino'....
(1732–1813) (also a teacher of Cimarosa) offered him free tuition during a festival visit to Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
in Spring 1780. Kelly went first to Gaeta
Gaeta
Gaeta is a city and comune in the province of Latina, in Lazio, central Italy. Set on a promontory stretching towards the Gulf of Gaeta, it is 120 km from Rome and 80 km from Naples....
, where he sang a salve regina under Aprile, who continued to give him daily lessons and dinners: then to Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, 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 educated him in the work of Metastasio
Metastasio
Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, better known by his pseudonym of Metastasio, was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti.-Early life:...
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 Campigli, manager of the Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
Pergola Theatre, and obtained Kelly's place on a ship for Livorno
Livorno
Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...
. '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
Stephen Storace
Stephen Storace was an English composer. His sister was the famous opera singer Nancy Storace. He was born in London in the Parish of St Marylebone to an English mother and Italian father...
and Nancy Storace
Nancy Storace
Nancy Storace , , was an English operatic soprano...
, 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
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
, met the tenor Viganoni, appeared at the theatre with Clementina Baglioni, and dined with the violinist Soderini.Kelly, ed. Thal 1972, 66–68. 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
Pietro Nardini
Pietro Nardini was an Italian composer and violinist.-Life:He was born in Fibiana and studied music at Livorno, later becoming a pupil of Giuseppe Tartini. Having been a student of Giuseppe Tartini, he moved to Germany where he joined the court chapel in Stuttgart where he became conductor in 1762...
play Tartini's sonata. He made a successful debut in Il francese in Italia, (coached by the actor Laschi), opposite the charming Signora Lortinella (called 'Ortabella'), and Morigi as prima buffo. He was in lodgings with the composer Gaetano Andreozzi (17751826): the male soprano Tommaso Guarducci (a famous cantabile singer) gave Kelly some lessons.
The offer of a five-year contract from Linley for 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....
, arranged by Stephen Storace, was blocked by Kelly's father. After the Florence contract Campigli offered him six months as primo tenore in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, and he travelled via Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
making many musical acquaintances, but found the project had collapsed. Out of money, he still managed to attend operas and concerts and met the leading singer and actress Benini, who took him on an autumn tour to Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
. He appeared in Pasquale Anfossi
Pasquale Anfossi
Bonifacio Domenico Pasquale Anfossi was an Italian opera composer. Born in Taggia, Liguria, he studied with Niccolò Piccinni and Antonio Sacchini, and worked mainly in London, Venice and Rome....
's La vera costanza
La vera costanza (Anfossi)
La vera costanza , is an operatic dramma giocoso in three acts by Pasquale Anfossi. The comédie larmoyante-influenced Italian libretto was by Francesco Puttini. The opera preceded Joseph Haydn's better known setting of the same libretto by three years.-Performance history:The work was first...
, and for the Carnival opposite Benini in Grétry
Grétry
People of the surname Grétry include* André Grétry , composer of opéras comiques;* Jeanne-Marie Grandon Grétry , painter, wife of André;...
's Zémire et Azor
Zémire et Azor
Zémire et Azor is an opéra comique, described as a comédie-ballet mêlée de chants et de danses, in four acts by the Belgian composer André Grétry, The French text was by Jean François Marmontel based on La Belle et la bête by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont, and Amour pour amour by P. C....
. He returned to Venice for Easter, and was recruited for a Brescia
Brescia
Brescia is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, between the Mella and the Naviglio, with a population of around 197,000. It is the second largest city in Lombardy, after the capital, Milan...
production of Cimarosa's Il pittore Parigino, which he rehearsed and began performing with Ortabella: but the jealous sponsor-manager became murderous, and Kelly escaped to Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
, slipping out of the theatre in mid-performance.
After a benefit concert at Verona, at Treviso
Treviso
Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...
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
Parma
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
and Colorno
Colorno
Colorno is a comune in the Province of Parma in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 90 km northwest of Bologna and about 15 km north of Parma...
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
Vicente Martín y Soler
Vicente Martín y Soler was a Spanish composer of opera and ballet. Although relatively obscure today, in his own day he was compared favorably with his contemporary, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as a composer of opera buffa. He has been called the Valencian Mozart.He was born in Valencia and studied...
. 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
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...
at 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...
.
Austria, 1783–1787
At Vienna Kelly presented himself to the Court composer Salieri, whose La scuola dei 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 SchröderFriedrich Ludwig Schröder
Friedrich Ludwig Schröder was a German actor, manager and dramatist.He was born in Schwerin. Shortly after his birth, his mother, Sophie Charlotte Bierreichel , separated from her husband, and, joining a theatrical company, toured with success in Poland and Russia...
and Franz Brockman. He went to Eisenstadt
Eisenstadt
- Politics :The current mayor of Eisenstadt is Andrea Fraunschiel ÖVP.The district council is composed as follows :* ÖVP: 17 seats* SPÖ: 8 seats* Austrian Green Party: 2 seats* FPÖ: 2 seats- Castles and palaces :...
to visit Haydn for three days. In Vienna he met the composers Vanhal and Dittersdorf
Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf
----August Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf was an Austrian composer, violinist and silvologist.-1739-1764:...
, but a special friendship began at a dinner where he found himself seated between Wolfgang and Constanze Mozart
Constanze Mozart
Constanze Mozart was the wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.-Early years:Constanze Weber was born in Zell im Wiesental. Her mother was Cäcilia Weber, née Stamm. Her father Fridolin Weber worked as a "double bass player, prompter and music copyist." Fridolin's half-brother was the father of composer...
. He often dined with Mozart and invariably lost at billiards to him: he became close friends with Mozart's young English pupil Thomas Attwood
Thomas Attwood (composer)
Thomas Attwood was an English composer and organist.The son of a musician in the royal band, Attwood was born in London. At the age of nine he became a chorister in the Chapel Royal. In 1783 he was sent to study abroad at the expense of the Prince of Wales , who had been favourably impressed by...
.
Kelly sang opposite Nancy Storace in this company. In 1785 they were performing her brother's opera Gli sposi malcontenti. After she lost her voice for a time he sang in three operas with Mmes Cortellini, Bernasconi and Laschi, and won applause humorously modelling a character on the mannerisms of da Ponte in performances witnessed by that writer. He and Calvasi played the two Antipholus roles in Storace's Gli equivoci
Gli equivoci
Gli equivoci , is an opera buffa by Stephen Storace to a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, based on Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors....
, based on The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's earliest plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. The Comedy of Errors is one of only two of Shakespeare's...
.
Paisiello's Il barbiere di Siviglia
Il barbiere di Siviglia (Paisiello)
Il barbiere di Siviglia, ovvero La precauzione inutile is a comic opera by Giovanni Paisiello from a libretto by Giuseppe Petrosellini, even though his name is not identified on the score's title page....
was presented with Nancy Storace: Kelly and Mandini alternated in the role of the Count. When Paisiello came to the court Kelly witnessed his meeting with Mozart. The poet Giovanni Battista Casti
Giovanni Battista Casti
Giovanni Battista Casti was an Italian poet, satirist, and author of comic opera librettos, born in Acquapendente...
also arrived, and in 1784 with Paisiello produced a new opera Il re Teodoro in Venezia: in the cast including Mandini, Benucci, Bussani, Laschi, Storace and Viganoni, Kelly took the buffo role of Gaforio, which became his nickname thereafter.
In each year the Italian company attended the Emperor to Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
for three months. In Vienna Joseph had two operas staged for the benefit of visiting potentates, Iphigénie en Tauride
Iphigénie en Tauride
Iphigénie en Tauride is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck in four acts. It was his fifth opera for the French stage. The libretto was written by Nicolas-François Guillard....
and L'Alceste
Alceste (Gluck)
Alceste is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck from 1767. The libretto was written by Ranieri de' Calzabigi and based on the play Alcestis by Euripides. The premiere took place in Vienna.-Preface and reforms:...
. Kelly played in both, being Pylades to Bernasconi's Iphigénie and the Oreste of the tenor Ademberger, in all of which they were coached by Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...
in person.
In 1786 three operas were being rehearsed, one by Righini
Vincenzo Righini
Vincenzo Maria Righini was an Italian composer, singer and kapellmeister.- Biography :Righini was born at Bologna and studied singing and composition with Padre Martini in his home town. Initially he performed as a singer in Florence and Rome , however, according to Fétis he made his debut as a...
, one Salieri's La grotta di Trofonio
La grotta di Trofonio
La grotta di Trofonio is an opera, described as an opera comica, in two acts composed by Antonio Salieri to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Battista Casti....
(to a text by Casti), and one Mozart's Le Nozze di 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.
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. Yet he remained until February 1787 at Vienna, appearing in Paisiello's La frascatana, 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, Augsberg and Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, where Kelly went to the top of the spire with Ignace Pleyel
Ignaz Pleyel
Ignace Joseph Pleyel , ; was an Austrian-born French composer and piano builder of the Classical period.-Early years:...
. They witnessed some of the greatest theatrical artists performing in Paris, before arriving in London in mid-March.
Old Drury Lane, 1787–1791
In London Kelly and Stephen Storace met at once with Thomas Linley and his daughters (Mrs. Sheridan and Mrs. TickellMary Linley
Mary Linley was one of 7 musical siblings born to Thomas Linley the elder and his wife Mary Johnson. She sang publicly until she married the playwright Richard Tickell in 1780....
), and saw John Kemble
John Philip Kemble
John Philip Kemble was an English actor. He was born into a theatrical family as the eldest son of Roger Kemble, actor-manager of a touring troupe. His elder sister Sarah Siddons achieved fame with him on the stage of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane...
and Mrs Crouch
Anna Maria Crouch
Anna Maria Crouch , often referred to as Mrs Crouch, was a singer and stage actress in the London theatre. She was a mistress of George, Prince of Wales.-Early life and acting career:...
in Richard Coeur de Lion. Kelly's Drury Lane debut was in Dibdin
Charles Dibdin
Charles Dibdin was a British musician, dramatist, novelist, actor and songwriter. The son of a parish clerk, he was born in Southampton on or before 4 March 1745, and was the youngest of a family of 18....
's Lionel and Clarissa, introducing an original duet which Storace orchestrated. He was then Young Meadows in Arne's Love in a Village
Love in a Village
Love in a Village is a ballad opera in three acts that was composed and arranged by Thomas Arne. A pastiche, the work contains 42 musical numbers of which only five were newly composed works by Arne. The other music is made up of 13 pieces borrowed from Arne's earlier stage works, a new overture...
, adding a Glück song in English, and next appeared at Theatre Royal opposite Mrs Crouch, who was his stage partner for many years. He became a friend of John Philpot Curran
John Philpot Curran
John Philpot Curran was an Irish orator, politician and wit, born in Newmarket, County Cork. He was the son of James and Sarah Curran.-Career:...
.
His entry to oratorio for Dr Arnold
Samuel Arnold (composer)
Samuel Arnold was an English composer and organist.Arnold was born in London , and began writing music for the theatre in about 1764. A few years later he became director of music at the Marylebone Gardens, for which much of his popular music was written...
was delayed, but he sang in the May 1787 Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
commemoration at Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
. In June, with Mrs Crouch in Dublin he played Lionel, and was first bacchanal in Comus
Comus (John Milton)
Comus is a masque in honour of chastity, written by John Milton. It was first presented on Michaelmas, 1634, before John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater at Ludlow Castle in celebration of the Earl's new post as Lord President of Wales.Known colloquially as Comus, the mask's actual full title is A...
, introducing the (Martini) duet ‘O thou wert born to please me.’ Then the pair led at York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
in these works, for Tate Wilkinson
Tate Wilkinson
Tate Wilkinson , English actor and manager, was the son of a clergyman.His first attempts at acting were badly received, and it was to his wonderful gift of mimicry that he owed his success. His imitations, however, naturally gave offence to the important actors and managers whose peculiarities he...
, also giving Arnold's Maid of the Mill and Sheridan's The Duenna
The Duenna
The Duenna is a three-act comic opera, mostly composed by Thomas Linley the elder and his son, Thomas Linley the younger, to an English-language libretto by Richard Brinsley Sheridan...
at Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, and Love in a Village there and at Wakefield
Wakefield
Wakefield is the main settlement and administrative centre of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder on the eastern edge of the Pennines, the urban area is and had a population of 76,886 in 2001....
. 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.
In summer 1788 they toured in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, Chester
Chester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, Worcester
Worcester
The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...
and Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, and Kelly decided not to return to Vienna. His oratorio work with Mme Mara
Gertrud Elisabeth Mara
Gertrud Elisabeth Mara [née Schmeling] was a German operatic soprano.She was born in Kassel, the daughter of a poor musician, Johann Schmeling. From him she learnt to play the violin, and while still a child, her playing at the fair at Frankfurt was so remarkable that money was collected to...
began, and she played Mandane in Artaxerxes for him. Engaged as principal tenor of the Ancient Concerts under Joah Bates
Joah Bates
Joah Bates was an English musician.Bates was born at Halifax 19 March 1740–1, received his early education at Dr. Ogden's school, and learned music from Hartley, organist of Rochdale. He went afterwards to Manchester to Dr. Parnell's school, and while there he was much struck by the organ-playing...
, he sang Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
'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 The Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
with Mme Mara at Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
Festival. With her he often performed the recit ‘And Miriam the prophetess took a timbrel’ from Israel in Egypt.
Kelly played Macheath
The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today...
for the first time in April 1789, with Mrs Crouch (Polly) and Marie Therese De Camp
Charles Kemble
Charles Kemble was a British actor.-Life:The youngest son of Roger Kemble, and younger brother of John Philip Kemble, Stephen Kemble and Sarah Siddons, he was born at Brecon, South Wales. Like John Philip, he was educated at Douai...
(Lucy). With Mrs Crouch, La Storace, Mme Mara and Dr Arnold he assisted a large Handel concert at Little Stanmore (the former home of the Duke of Chandos
James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos
James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, MP, PC was the first of fourteen children by Sir James Brydges, 3rd Baronet of Wilton Castle, Sheriff of Herefordshire, 8th Baron Chandos; and Elizabeth Barnard...
, where at St Lawrence's the organ had been played by Handel.) Kelly scored a great hit in Storace's The Haunted Tower, delivering a ringing top Bb in the evergreen 'Spirit of my sainted sire'. In August 1790 he spent some weeks with Mr and Mrs Crouch in Paris, seeing Grétry's La Caravane and Raoul Barbe-bleu, which they were to perform in English versions. They began 1791 at Drury Lane with Stephen Storace's The Siege of Belgrade (incorporating a Martini scena), and his version of Salieri's Cave of Trofonio (Prince Hoare text) was given. On 4 June they performed The Country Girl
The Country Wife
The Country Wife is a Restoration comedy written in 1675 by William Wycherley. A product of the tolerant early Restoration period, the play reflects an aristocratic and anti-Puritan ideology, and was controversial for its sexual explicitness even in its own time. The title itself contains a lewd pun...
and No song, no supper
No song, no supper
No song, no supper is an opera with music by Stephen Storace to a libretto by Prince Hoare.No song, no supper is an operatic afterpiece which is the first of Storace's five collaborations with Hoare. Its premiere was at the Drury Lane Theatre in London, on April 16, 1790.The piece was first given...
(Storace) for the very last night of the Old Drury Lane Theatre, which was then closed and demolished.
Later
Appearing in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, 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....
in 1787, he had a great success, and thenceforth was the principal English tenor at that theatre. In 1793 he became acting-manager of the Kings Theatre, and he was in great request at concerts.
Kelly also made his mark as a composer of music for the stage. It is claimed that the first Cinderella Pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
in England was the 1804 production at Drury Lane, for which the music was by Michael Kelly. An 1801 comic opera
Comic opera
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
The Gypsy Prince
The Gypsy Prince
The Gypsy Prince is a 1801 Comic opera written by Thomas Moore and Michael Kelly staged at the Haymarket Theatre by George Colman. The two men were initially happy to collaborate with each other, but Moore objected to Kelly's making correction's to his work - something that Mozart had allowed when...
written in collaboration with Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore was an Irish poet, singer, songwriter, and entertainer, now best remembered for the lyrics of The Minstrel Boy and The Last Rose of Summer. He was responsible, with John Murray, for burning Lord Byron's memoirs after his death...
was not successful.
His relationship with Anna Maria Crouch
Anna Maria Crouch
Anna Maria Crouch , often referred to as Mrs Crouch, was a singer and stage actress in the London theatre. She was a mistress of George, Prince of Wales.-Early life and acting career:...
, whom he shared for a time with the Prince of Wales
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
, added to his notoriety. Kelly wrote a number of songs (including The Woodpecker), and the music for many dramatic pieces, which have now fallen into oblivion.
In 1826 he published his entertaining Reminiscences, written with the assistance of Theodore Hook. He combined his professional work with conducting a music-shop and a wine-shop, but with disastrous financial results. He died at Margate
Margate
-Demography:As of the 2001 UK census, Margate had a population of 40,386.The ethnicity of the town was 97.1% white, 1.0% mixed race, 0.5% black, 0.8% Asian, 0.6% Chinese or other ethnicity....
, aged 64.