The Wireless Orchestra: Conducted by Capt. W. A. Featherstone
Sheep-Farming in the Australian bush, playing the Violin to the Governor-General, cruising on a whaler, mutiny, capture by ferocious rebel Maoris-all these were among the lively experiences of William Vincent Wallace, the Irish composer of Maritana. He is not to be confused, by the way, with the William Wallace of our own times, composer of the Freebooter Songs, etc.
This William Wallace was born in 1814, and died just over sixty years ago. Ho wrote, among other things, half a dozen Operas, but Maritana was the only really successful one, and it has indeed, easily made up for the rest as far as popularity goes.
Waldteufel spent some years in a piano factory, and later became Pianist to the Empress Eugenie. His waltzes and other dances followed close on the heels of those by the Johann Strausses, father and son, and vied with their popularity.