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BENEDICT AND BALFE 107
the case of "When other lips' ("Then you'll remember me"), another of Balfe's immensely popular songs. Says John Hullah a little unkindly, writing of "When other lips " : " The town fairly went mad about it. Balfe's graceful but somewhat commonplace melody was exalted to the skies, and the brows of Mr. Bunn, the author of the words, might have ached under the laurels that were heaped upon them." The cornet he refers to as a "cheap and nasty trumpet."
This song was created by William Harrison, the tenor, who was the original Thaddaeus in The Bohemian Girl. "I well recollect," says Beale, "although a mere boy at the time, the prodigious uproar occasioned by his singing 'Then you'll remember me,' on the first night of the opera. The majority of the audience insisted upon hearing the song a second time. To this there were numerous opponents, and the noise made by the rival factions was deafening. Balfe laid down the baton and folded his arms, the singer on the stage made signs of compliance which were unheeded in the tumult; some minutes elapsed, after which the dissentients gave way, and the song, destined to become a national melody, was sung again."
Harrison was an extremely popular singer. |
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