Balfe in Italy

The nineteenth-century Irish-born composer and singer Michael William Balfe (1808-70), best remembered today as the composer of "The Bohemian Girl," spent about eight years learning his craft in Italy. Balfe's experience and activities on the peninsula from around 1825 until his final move to London in the 1830s would no doubt have made for a fascinating book of memoirs, but he seems to have been too busy composing operas to find the time to pen his autobiography.