Nicolas-Charles Bochsa

Nicolas-Charles Bochsa, 1842

Robert Nicolas-Charles Bochsa (9 August 1789 in Montmédy, Meuse, France – 6 January 1856 in Sydney, Australia) was a musician and composer.

Life

The son of a Bohemia-born musician Karl Bochsa (de), Nicolas-Charles Bochsa was able to play the flute and piano by the age of seven. In 1807 he went to study at the Paris Conservatoire. He was appointed harpist to the Imperial Orchestra 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 branding and hard labour.

Safe from French law in London, he helped found the Royal Academy of Music in 1821, and became its secretary. He taught there, amongst 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 in London.

In 1839 he became involved in another scandal when he ran off with the opera singer Anna Rivière-Bishop, wife of the composer Henry Rowley Bishop. They performed together in America, Australia, and throughout Europe (except France). In Naples Bochsa was appointed Director of Regio Teatro San Carlo, (the Royal Opera House) and stayed there for two years. Bochsa arrived with Anna in Sydney at the time of the gold rush in December, 1855, but gave only one concert before Bochsa died. Anna Rivière-Bishop was heartbroken and commissioned an elaborate tomb for him consisting of a figure lying at the base of a tree with a harp lying against it in Camperdown cemetery, Sydney.

Operas

• 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

Bibliography

• Nicolas-Charles Bochsa, harpiste, compositeur, escroc by Michel Faul (editions Delatour France, 2003); first biography (in French) of one of the most celebrated harpists in the 19th century.
• Les tribulations mexicaines de Nicolas-Charles Bochsa, harpiste by Michel Faul (editions Delatour France, 2006)

External links

• A site (in French) introducing the two books about Bochsa above
• Further documents
• Bochsa's tomb in Camperdown cemetery
• Free scores by Nicolas-Charles Bochsa at the International Music Score Library Project

See also: Bochsa

Persondata
Name	Bochsa, Nicolas-Charles
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	9 August 1789
Place of birth
Date of death	6 January 1856
Place of death