Nicolas-Charles Bochsa

Nicolas-Charles Bochsa studied at Conservatoire de Paris. Training under Étienne Méhul is recorded. The recorded working language is French. The field of work recorded is music, harp performance and conducting. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are opera. Employment is recorded with Royal Academy of Music.

• Born — 9 August 1789 • Birthplace — Montmédy, France • Place of death — Sydney, Australia • Occupation — Composer, harpist • Spouse — Georgette Ducrest (m. 1815) • Partner — Amy Wilson, Anna Bishop • Children — 2 from Georgette

section The son of a Bohemian-born musician, Charles Bochsa, Bochsa was born in Montmédy, Meuse, France. He was able to play the flute and piano by the age of seven. In 1807, he went to study at the Paris Conservatoire, winning the first prize in harmony the following year. He was appointed harpist to the Imperial Orchestra of Napoleon in 1813, and began writing operas for the Opéra-Comique. However, in 1817 he became entangled in counterfeiting, fraud, and forgery, and fled to London to avoid prosecution. He was convicted in absentia, and sentenced to twelve years hard labour and a fine of 4,000 francs. Safe from French law in London, he helped found the Royal Academy of Music in 1821, and became its secretary. He taught there, among others, the British harp virtuoso Elias Parish Alvars. When his criminal conviction was revealed in 1826, he was forced to resign. He then became musical director of the Kings Theatre, London. • Illustration — Bochsa's vandalised grave in Camperdown Cemetery, Sydney In 1839, he became involved in another scandal when he ran off with the opera singer Anna Bishop, wife of the composer Henry Bishop. They performed together in North America and throughout Europe (except France). In Naples, Bochsa was appointed director of the opera house Teatro di San Carlo and stayed there for two years. Bochsa arrived with Bishop in Sydney, Australia, at the time of the Victorian gold rush in December 1855, but they gave only one concert together before Bochsa died. Bishop was heartbroken, and commissioned an elaborate tomb for him in Camperdown Cemetery.

• Le Retour de Trajan, ou, Rome triomphante • Les Héritiers Michau, ou Le Moulin de Lieursain • L'Héritier de Paimpol • Le Roi et la ligue • Les Noces de Gamache • La Lettre de change (English: The Promissory Note; German: Der Wechselbrief) • Un Mari pour étrennes