Michele Bolaffi was a distinguished musician and composer active in Livorno in the early 19th century. His tenure as musical director of the Great Synagogue of Livorno can be considered a turning point in the development of choral and instrumental music for use in the Italian synagogue. Bolaffi held international prestige: he served as the musical director to the Duke of Cambridge; toured in Germany with singer Angelica Catalani; and was in the service if Louis XVIII as a church musician in France. Many of his synagogue compositions are preserved in two related manuscripts, dated 1821 and 1826, copied by the tenor Aron Croccolo, a hazzan of the Livornese synagogue. Bolafi also composed secular music, including an opera Saul, a Misere for three voices and orchestra (1802), a sonetto on the death of Haydn (1809) and many other short vocal pieces.
