1866 in music

Events

• Sir William Sterndale Bennett becomes Principal of the British Royal Academy of Music.
• May 30 - Bedřich Smetana's opera Prodana Nevesta (The Bartered Bride) debuts in Prague at the Provisional Theater
• August 4 - First performance of Gabriel Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine
• October 21 - Jacques Offenbach's operetta La Vie Parisienne debuts in Paris's Palais Royale
• November 17 - Ambroise Thomas's opera Mignon debuts in Paris at the Opéra-Comique.
• Marie Trautmann marries fellow musician Alfred Jaëll.

Published popular music

• "Come Back To Erin" w.m. Claribel
• "We Parted By The River" w.m. William Shakespeare Hays
• "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" by James A. Butterfield & George Washington Johnson
• "Write Me A Letter Home"     w.m. Will S. Hays

Classical music

• Georges Bizet - La jolie fille de Perth: suite
• Felix Draeseke - Fantasie on Themes from Boieldieus "Weisse Dame"
• Johann Gottfried Piefke - Königgrätzer Marsch
• Amilcare Ponchielli - Concerto for Trumpet in F major
• Franz von Suppé - Light Cavalry Overture

Opera

• Karel Miry
  • Maria van Boergondië (opera in 4 acts, libretto by N. Destanberg, premiered on August 28 in Ghent)
  • De Keizer bij de Boeren (opera in 1 act, libretto by N. Destanberg, premiered on October 29 in Ghent)
  • De occasie maakt den dief (opera in 1 act, libretto by N. Destanberg, premiered on December 24 in Ghent)

Musical theater

• La Belle Hélène (Lyrics: Henri Meilhac & Ludovic Halévy Music: Jacques Offenbach) London production opened at the Adelphi Theatre on June 30
• The Black Crook - the first "book musical". Broadway production opened at Niblo's Garden on September 12 and ran for 474 performances

Births

• January 13 - Vasily Kalinnikov, composer (d. 1901)
• April 1 - Ferruccio Busoni, pianist, composer (d. 1924)
• April 13 - Carl Valentin Wunderle, violinist (d. 1944)
• May 17 - Erik Satie, composer (d. 1925)
• June 15 - Charles Wood, composer (d. 1926)
• June 29 - George Frederick Boyle, composer (d. 1948)
• July 13 - La Goulue, can-can dancer (d. 1929)
• July 26 - Francesco Cilea, composer (d. 1950)
• September 26 - George H. Clutsam, pianist, composer and writer (d. 1951)
• November 7 - Paul Lincke, composer (d. 1946)
• date unknown - Annibale Fagnola, violin maker (d. 1939)

Deaths

• January 25 - Minna Wagner, estranged wife of Richard Wagner, 56 (heart attack)
• February 6 - Anna Liszt, pianist and mother of Franz Liszt, 77
• March 20 - Rikard Nordraak, composer, 21 (tuberculosis)
• July 25 - Aloys Schmitt, composer, pianist and music teacher, 77
• October 2 - Adam Darr, guitarist, singer and composer, 55 (suicide by drowning)
• November 26 - Adrien-Francois Servais, cellist, 59
• November 29 - Sophie Löwe, operatic soprano, 51
• December 1 - Jules Demersseman, flautist and composer, 33 (tuberculosis)
• December 3 - Jan Kalivoda, violinist, conductor and composer, 65