Editing Michael William Balfe (section)

===Composing success===
[[File:Michael William Balfe portrait.jpg|thumb|left|Balfe in London|209x209px]]

Balfe returned to London with his wife and young daughter in May 1835. His initial success took place some months later, with the premiere of ''The Siege of Rochelle'' on 29 October 1835 at Drury Lane. Encouraged by his success, in 1836 he produced ''[[The Maid of Artois]]'', which was followed by more operas in English.

In July 1838, Balfe composed a new opera, ''Falstaff'', for [[Her Majesty's Theatre|The Italian Opera House]], based on ''[[The Merry Wives of Windsor]]'', with an Italian libretto by S. Manfredo Maggione. The production starred his friends [[Luigi Lablache]] (bass) in the title role, Giulia Grisi (soprano), [[Giovanni Battista Rubini]] (tenor), and [[Antonio Tamburini]] (baritone). The same four singers had premiered [[Vincenzo Bellini|Bellini]]'s ''[[I puritani]]'' at the Italian Opera in Paris in 1835.<ref name=Irish>Walsh Basil. [http://www.britishandirishworld.com/ "Michael William Balfe"] at the British and Irish World website</ref>

In 1841, Balfe founded the National Opera at the [[Lyceum Theatre, London|Lyceum Theatre]], but the venture was a failure. The same year, he premiered his opera ''Keolanthe''. He then moved to Paris, presenting ''Le Puits d'amour'' (1843) in early 1843, followed by his opera based on ''[[Les quatre fils Aymon]]'' (1844) for the [[Opéra-Comique]] (also popular in German-speaking countries for many years as ''Die vier Haimonskinder'') and ''[[L'étoile de Seville]]'' (1845) for the [[Paris Opera|Opéra]]. Their libretti were by [[Eugène Scribe]] and others.<ref>Burton, in Sadie (ed.) (1998), p. 288</ref> Meanwhile, in 1843, Balfe returned to London, where he produced his most successful work, ''[[The Bohemian Girl]]'', on 27 November 1843 at the [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane]]. The piece ran for over 100 nights, and productions were soon mounted in New York, Dublin, Philadelphia, Vienna (in German), Sydney, and throughout Europe and elsewhere. In 1854, an Italian adaptation called ''La Zingara'' was mounted in [[Trieste]] with great success, and it too was performed internationally in both Italian and German. In 1862, a four-act French version titled ''La Bohemienne'' was produced in France and was also a success.<ref name=Irish/>