Michele Enrico was born the second son of Giovanni
Carafa, prince of Colubrano and
duke of Alvito, and princess Teresa Lembo. He was given a solid musical education. In 1802, he composed his first opera,
Il Fantasma, which was staged at the theater of his father-in-law, prince of Caramanico, in 1805. He moved in 1806 to Paris, where he was taught composition by
Luigi Cherubini and piano by
Friedrich Kalkbrenner. However, pressured by his father to give up music for a military career, he became a lieutenant of the
hussars in
Napoleon's army. Taken prisoner in the
Battle of Campo Tenese in 1806, he was freed and participated in the war against Sicily, where he became captain. Returning to Naples in 1808, he married Antoinette d'Aubenton (or Daubenton) and studied music under
Fedele Fenaroli. Again pressured by his father, he followed
Joachim Murat in the
Russian campaign. After the
Battle of Ostrovno, he was personally awarded the
Legion of Honor by Napoleon himself and made a baron of the
Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. When
the Bourbons were restored in Naples, the property of the Carafa family was confiscated and the military career of Michele Enrico was over, so he could finish his musical education. The Teatro del Fondo staged his ''Il Vascello d'occidente
in 1814 and Gabriella di Vergy
, written by Andrea Leone Tottola, in 1816. The latter was as popular as Otello
by Rossini, staged the same year at the same theater. In fact, Rossini asked him to compose an aria for his opera Mosè in Egitto'' (1818). It was the Pharaoh's aria in the first act. However, Rossini would later rewrite the aria at the request of
Ferdinand Hérold, who conducted the opera in Paris. Carafa's music is marked by a certain lightness of melody and simple orchestration, in a period dominated by Rossini,
Bellini,
Auber,
Halévy, who were all his friends. Established as an opera composer, he returned to Paris in 1821, where he had success with ''Jeanne d'Arc à Orléans
and Le Valet de Chambre'' in 1823. After
Il Parìa in
Venice, he definitely moved to Paris and struggled before
Masaniello (libretto by Moreau de Mommagny and
A.-M. Lafortelle) became a great success and was given 136 times at
Opéra-Comique. It was the pinnacle of his career, as he could not compete with the works of Rossini and
Donizetti. He obtained French citizenship in 1834 and membership in the
Académie des beaux-arts in 1837, and became director of the Academy of Military Music (Gymnase de musique militaire) in 1838. From 1840 to 1858, he taught the
counterpoint and composition at the
Conservatoire de Paris. In his history of music,
Émile Vuillermoz describes how he opposed the introduction of
saxophone, so his partisans were called the "Carafons", while the friends of
Adolphe Sax were called the "Saxons". His last staged work was
Thérèse (1838), when he was already a full-time professor. One of his last contributions to opera was the French adaptation of Rossini's
Semiramide (1861), for which Rossini released him the copyright as a sign of a long friendship. On that occasion, Carafa composed a ballet for Rossini's opera. Rossini would later dedicate one of his "old-age sins" to Carafa. In his memoirs,
Massenet mentions that Carafa was a member of the commission that accepted him into the Conservatoire de Paris. Carafa had no children, so he adopted his wife's nephew Michel Daubenton. Struck by paralysis in 1867, Carafa died in
Paris on 26 July 1872, aged 84. He was buried together with his wife Antoinette d'Aubenton and his mother-in-law Victoire Douat at
Montmartre Cemetery. Several of his operas were eclipsed by others dealing with the same subject matter:
Masaniello by Auber's
La muette de Portici (1828);
Le Nozze di Lamermoor by Donizetti's
Lucia di Lamermoor (1835);
La Grande Duchesse by
Offenbach's
La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein (1867). ==Selected operas==