Carafa (de Colobrano), Michele (Enrico-Francesco-Vincenzo-Aloisio- Paolo)

Carafa (de Colobrano), Michele (Enrico-Francesco-Vincenzo-Aloisio- Paolo), Italian composer; b. Naples, Nov. 17, 1787; d. Paris, July 26, 1872. He was a son of Prince Colobrano, Duke of Al vito, and began to study music at an early age. Though he became an officer in the army of Naples, and fought in Napoleon’s Russian campaign, he devoted his leisure time to music, and after Waterloo adopted it as a profession. In 1827 he settled in Paris, succeeding Le Sueur as a member of the Academy (1837). In 1840 was appointed a prof, of composition at the Paris Cons.

Works

DRAMATIC Opera: Gabriella di Vergy (Naples, July 3, 1816); Ifigenia in Tumide (Naples, June 19, 1817); Berenice in Siria (Naples, July 29, 1818); Elisabetta in Derbyshire (Venice, Dec. 26, 1818); the following operas were produced at the Opéra-Comique in Paris: Jeanne d’Arc (March 10, 1821); Le Solitaire (Aug. 17, 1822); Le Valet de chambre (Sept. 16, 1823); L’Auberge supposée (April 26, 1824); Sangarido (May 19, 1827); Masaniello (Dec. 27, 1827; on the same subject as Auber’s La Muette de Portici, staged at the Paris Opéra 2 months later; yet Carafa’s Masaniello held the stage in competition with Auber’s famous opera for 136 nights); La Violette (Oct. 7, 1828); Jenny (Sept. 26, 1829); Le Livre de l’ermite (Aug. 11, 1831); La Prison d’Edimbourg (July 20, 1833); Une Journée de la Fronde (Nov. 7, 1833); La Grande Duchesse (Nov. 16, 1835); Thérèse (Sept. 26, 1838). Also ballets, cantatas, and much church music.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire