Life
1762-1826 [var. 1764]; b. 25 Dec. 1762; son of Master of Ceremonies in Dublin Castle, his voice was
renowned in Smock Alley; toured Europe (where he was known as Ochelli)
and sang in the first production of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro;
Reminiscences, ed. Theodore Hook [ghost-writer] (2 vols., London
1826); d. 9 Dec. 1826; there is a biography by Stewart M. Ellis (Life of Michael Kelly,
1930). DNB DIB BREF DIW OXT
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Stewart M. Ellis, Life of Michael Kelly, 1930.
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Notes
Musical sources: Michael Arnott, English Theatrical Literature (1979), see Lowe’s note; also Oxford Dictionary of Music, ‘part of the Irish set in London’. BIBL, also The Irish Boy (1955), biographical romance by Naomi Jacob [IF2; see summary under Jacob, RX].
Henry Boylan, Dictionary of Irish Biography (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1988); Vienna, 1783-1787; Drury Lane, 1797-1807; opened music shop in London, and went bankrupt; last Dublin appearance, 5 Sept. 1811.
Desmond Clarke, Ireland in Fiction: A Guide to Irish Novels, Tales, Romances and Folklore [Pt. 2] (Cork: Royal Carbery 1985), gives summary of The Irish Boy, 1955, by Naomi Jacob: son of Dublin wine merchant; retained gift of pure song after his voice broke; lessons from St. Georgio; meeting with Rauzzini proved turning-point in career; sang for Charles Edward (Pretender); met Casanova; close friend of Mozart, performing in his operas; creates robust and endearing Dublin of [his] childhood.
COPAC lists The Woodpecker, air by M[ichael] Kelly (1762-1826), arranged by John Creed [for] S.A.T.B. [with piano] (London: Bosworth & Co. [1971]), 5pp. score; 26cm. [also Thomas Moore, presum. author of lyric].
Douglas Hyde cites from the Memoirs of Michael Kelly, where
the musician recalls being in the German court at Schoenbrunn, in the
company of generals O’Donnell and Kavanagh, ‘my gallant countrymen’;
the latter addresses him in Irish, and the Emperor inquires if he does
not understand or speak it; Kelly replies that ‘none but the lower
orders of the Irish people speak Irish’, and is struck by the impropriety
of his remark, which the Irishmen, do not, or else pretend not to hear.
[See Literary History of Ireland, 1901 ed., 622]
The Irish Boy (1955): title character is supposedly addressed in Irish by Jacobite officers in exile, before the king of Bavaria, and dismissed his ignorance of ‘his own language’ by saying that ‘in Ireland only the lower classes speak Irish’. (See Frank O’Connor, Leinster, Munster and Connaught; cited in P. J. Kavanagh, Voices in Ireland, 1994, p.176.)
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)