ABSTRACT
During the early part of 1844 Michael William Balfe had worked on a second opera for Paris, Les quatre fils aymon, to a text by Leuven and Brunswick. It is interesting that one of Balfe's more unlikely enterprises was the setting of the spoken libretto of Fidelio as recitative. The first performance of The Daughter of Saint Mark was at Drury Lane Theatre on 27 November 1844 – exactly a year after the first presentation of The Bohemian Girl. One of the very surprising things about The Enchantress is that it goes almost unremarked by all three of Balfe's contemporary biographers: Charles Lamb Kenney, William Alexander Barrett and Heyward John St Leger. Balfe's yearly output of operas was maintained with the production of The Bondman at Drury Lane Theatre on 11 December 1846. Balfe's opera is described in the printed vocal score as 'A Grand Opera in Three Acts'.
