Nicolas-Charles Bochsa
French composer and harpist
Robert-Nicolas-Charles Bochsa (French pronunciation: [ʁɔbɛʁ nikɔla ʃaʁl bɔksa]; 9 August 1789 – 6 January 1856) was a French harpist and composer. His relationship with Anna Bishop was popularly thought to have inspired that of Svengali and Trilby in George du Maurier's 1894 novel Trilby.
Life
The son of a Bohemian-born musician, Charles Bochsa, Bochsa was born in Montmédy, Meuse, France. He was able to play the flute and piano by the age of seven. In 1807, he went to study at the Paris Conservatoire, winning the first prize in harmony the following year. He was appointed harpist to the Imperial Orchestra of Napoleon in 1813, and began writing operas for the Opéra-Comique. However, in 1817 he became entangled in counterfeiting, fraud, and forgery, and fled to London to avoid prosecution. He was convicted in absentia, and sentenced to twelve years hard labour and a fine of 4,000 francs.
Safe from French law in London, he helped found the Royal Academy of Music in 1821, and became its secretary. He taught there, among others, the British harp virtuoso Elias Parish Alvars.
“Nicolas-Charles Bochsa” enters the record as french composer and harpist. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Nicolas-Charles, Bochsa and French can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q251397. VIAF identifies the subject as 120710111. The Library of Congress control number is n79150254. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1789, 1856, 1894 and 1807.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nicolas-Charles Bochsa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.