       |
Life
| 1812-1865; b. Waterford, 11 March, son and eldest child of Spencer Wallace, a Scottish fifer with the North Mayo Militia (his place of birth) who as stationed in Waterford and ended as bandmaster of the 29th Regt. of Foot; Wallace appt. Thurles Cathedral organist at 16 [?1828]; he and his brother Wellington (b.1814; flautist) enlisted in the 29th, 1825; Spencer bought discharges from the Army when the regt. was due to be stationed in Mauritius, and moved to Dublin, 1827; found employment with his sons in orchestra at Adelphi Th., Dublin; Wallace joined the pit as a violinist at Theatre Royal, 1828; performed as supporting act to Paganini in the Dublin Musical Fest., 1831; eloped with Isabella Kelly whom he taught music in Frascati [Hse.] (Blackrock, Co. Dublin), and married - with whom a son and namesake, converting to Catholicism and adopted the name Vincent; emigrated to Australia, 1835, and attempted sheep-farming successfully with a English partner; parted from his wife and son, who returned to Ireland and whom he never saw again; involved in selling pianos in Sydney, 1837; sailed o Valparaiso (Chile), 1838; travelled in New Zealand and Tasmania, encountering Maoris and Maori girls; narrowly escaped death in a whaling mutiny; visited India, and Mexico, giving concerts; |
| reached New York, 1843, and enjoyed success as violinist and pianist virtuoso but sustained losses in American tobacco investments; worked with he Philharmonic Orchestra, NY; and there met Hélène Stoepel (1822-85), a pianist, who was to be his life-companion, 1844, moved to London, 1845; composed Maritana (libretto by Edward Fitzball) and enthusiastically received in Drury Lane, 15 Nov. 1845 - in spite of week libretto, and notably for its Spanish style; returned to S. America, with Stoepel, 1849; back in New York, he became an American citizen in 1854 but returned to London with Stoepel and their two sons in 1856; composed Lurline, which was successful at Covent Garden in 1860, but failed with The Amber Witch (1861); wrote his last opera, The Desert Flower (1863), set in Dutch Guyana; moved to Paris for treatment of a long-standng heart-condition; facetiously known with Balfe’s Bohemian Girl and Benedict’s Lily of Killarney as ‘the Irish Ring’; conducted by Charles Hallé; taken by Stoepel ailing to Chateau de Bagen, the home of her sister, the baroness de Saintegême (nr. Barbazan, French Pyrenees); d. 12 Oct.; his embalmed remains were brought to London and bur. at Kensal Green; there is a portrait in water-colour by J. Hanshew (1853). ODNB DIB RIA/DIB |
[ top ]
Criticism
Robert Phelan, William Vincent Wallace: Vagabond Composer (Celtic Publ. Waterford 1995), 125pp., incorporates material from unpublished biography of Wallace by A. P. Graves [Books Ireland, Feb. 1996]. See also T. N. Fewer, Waterford People: A Biographical Dictionary (Ballylough Books 2005).
| “There Is a Flower That Bloometh” | |
|
It wafted perfume o’er us Of sweet, though sad regret For the true friends gone before us, Whom none would e’re forget. Let no heart brave its power, By guilty thoughts o’ercast, For then, a poison flow’r Is - the memory of the past! |
| —from Maritana by William Vincent Wallace; libretto by Edward Fitzball quoted in Don Gifford, Joyce Annotated [... &c.] (California UP 1982) [rev. edn.], p.68. |
|
Notes
Donn Byrne: Wallace is cited in Donn Byrne’s Hangman’s Hill (pref.) as Mr. Wallace of Waterford, author of Maritana.
Portraits: 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.
[ top ]