Life
1812-1865; composer, b. Waterford, son of Scottish reg. bandmaster stationed
in Waterford, who moved to Dublin in 1827; Thurles Cathedral organist
at 16; m. a Miss Kelly in Blackrock, 1835; emigrated to Australia to sheep-farm;
travelled in New Zealand and Tasmania, and parted from his wife and children
whom he never saw again, encountering Maoris and Maori girls; narrowly
escaped death in whaling mutiny; visited India, S. America (Valparaiso),
and Mexico, giving concerts; sustained losses in tobacco investment in
America; m. Miss Stoepel, a pianist, in NY, 1844; Maritana enthusiastically
received in Drury Lane, 15 Nov. 1845; six operas first performed at Drury
Lane or Covent Garden, 1845-1863, incl. his last The Desert Flower,
being facetiously known with Balfe’s Bohemian Girl and Benedict’s
Lily of Killarney as ‘the Irish Ring’; tours in Germany,
and America; Lurline, successful at Covent Garden, 1860; died in
France at Chateau de Bagen (Pyrenees); there is a portrait in water-colour
by J. Hanshew (1853). DNB DIB
Criticism
Robert Phelan, William Vincent Wallace: Vagabond Composer (Celtic
Publ. Waterford 1995), 125pp., incorporates material from unpublished
biography of Wallace by A. P. Graves [reviewed Books Ireland,
Feb. 1996].
Notes
There is a water-colour portrait by J. Hanshew (dated 1853, Wat[er]ford)
in the National Gallery of Ireland; also an unsigned engraving, reprinted
in Brian de Breffny, ed., Ireland: A Cultural Encyclopaedia (London:
Thames & Hudson 1982), p.160.
Cited in Donn Byrne’s Hangman’s Hill (pref.) as Mr. Wallace of Waterford, author of Maritana.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)