Happy St.
Patrick’s Day! No other day of the year presents a more significant platform
through which to honor Irish culture than the annual holiday. Worldwide
celebrations abound for revelers with and without Irish ancestry. For on this
day, everyone is considered to be a part of the Emerald Isle and welcomed to
partake in the festivities.
Besides the
coveted pints of Guinness, music is also a central part of the observance. A
soundtrack featuring traditional Irish music with tin whistles, fiddles and
flutes can be heard everywhere in conjunction with contemporary sounds. Even the
most ardent non-dancers are motivated to twirl about and cut a rug!
Evidence of
music in Ireland dates back to the Iron Age around 500 BC. Traditional Irish
music is rich and diverse. There’s more to the genre than the stereotypical
jig. There’s also more to Irish artists than the music of their homeland. So, I’ll
embrace the opportunity to introduce you to an extraordinary Irish artist whose
name escapes most curricula, programs and publications.
Tenor
Michael Kelly was born in Dublin on Christmas Day 1762 and rose to prominence
as a teenager in his native city, which was at that time a renowned musical
capital. News of his ability reached visiting Italian artists who recommended
further opportunities for his study and performance in Italy, where he became
the first Irishman to appear on stage. His popularity in Italy led to his
employment in Vienna, where he eventually met Mozart.
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| Michael Kelly |
In his 1826 memoir,
Reminiscences, Kelly gifted posterity with some of the most descriptive
first-hand accounts of the composer. He described Mozart as “a remarkably small
man, very thin and pale, with a profusion of fine fair hair, of which he was
rather vain. He gave me a cordial welcome to his home and I spent a great deal
of time there. He always received me with kindness and hospitality. He was fond
of billiards and many a game have I played with him, but I always came off
second best.”
Kelly received
one of the greatest honors of his career when he was cast in the premiere of
Mozart’s opera, Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) where he performed
not one, but two tenor roles: Don Curzio (judge) and Don Basilio (music
teacher). While working on the opera, Mozart introduced him to a duet he was composing
entitled “Crudel! Perchè finora” and they sang it together with Mozart at the
keyboard.
It’s amusing
given that this particular duet represents a scene where Count Almaviva is
trying to seduce his wife’s maid Susanna! I wonder who sang which part? If I
had to guess, I’d say Mozart sang the role of Susanna. Constanze Mozart wrote
of her husband’s voice that it was “a tenor, rather soft in oratory and
delicate in singing…” With both Kelly and Mozart being tenors and men of the
theater, I can only imagine the beauty of their harmonic and emotive exchange!
Kelly
described it in his memoir: “A more delicious morceau never was penned by man;
and it has often been a source of pleasure to me, to have been the first who
heard it, and to have sung it with its greatly-gifted composer.”
Kelly was a
celebrity in his own right and became particularly famous as a singer and
theater manager in Great Britain and Ireland, but what I glean from passages in
his memoir is that no other accomplishment seems to have compared to his encounter
with Mozart.
"I
remember that at the first rehearsal of the full band Mozart was on the stage,
with his crimson pelisse and his gold-banded cocked hat, giving the time of the
music to the orchestra. I shall never forget the little animated countenance
when lighted up with the glowing rays of genius. It is as impossible to
describe it as it would be to paint sunbeams."
Explore Reminiscences
via the University of Pittsburgh’s Digital Collections at: https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735056285756
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