MARCH IN FORTY THIEVES.Michael Kelly by Adele Romany, between 1802 and 1814. English, March (whole time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. This march, and its companion "Quick Step in Forty Thieves", was composed by Michael Kelly (1762-1826) for his opera The Forty Thieves (libretto by Richard Brinkley Sheridan and George Colman), which premiered at Drury Lane around 1806. Kelly was an Irish composer and tenor of international renown who premiered many roles alongside the best singers of his day, including Nancy Storace and Francesco Benucci. He is perhaps best remembered, though, for his close association with Mozart. It is generally less known that Kelly spent the last decades of his career as a successful composer and theater manager, contributing to the composition and/or production of sixty operas at Drury Lane in the early nineteenth century.
Additional notes
Printed sources : - Edward Riley (Riley’s Flute Melodies vol. 1), New York, 1814; No. 133, p. 34.
