Daniel-Fran

Product Description Daniel-Francois-Esprit Auber (1782-1871), once one of the most well-known and well-loved names in French 19th-century opera. He came later in life than many famous composers to his art, yet had one of the longest and most successful careers. He studied with Cherubini after abandoning an initial attempt to establish a career in commerce, and experienced his first real triumph at the age of 38 with La Bergere Chateleine (1820). His subsequent association with the librettist Eugene Scribe (1791-1861), a collaboration that lasted until Scribe's death, became one of the most famous and successful partnerships in musical history. Works such as Le Macon (1825) and La Muette de Portici (1828) cemented Auber's popularity with the public and drew official recognition and honours. In 1829 he was appointed a member of the Institut, in 1839 Director of Concerts at Court, in 1842 Director of the Conservatoire, in 1852 Musical Director of the Imperial Chapel, and in 1861 Grand Officer of the Legion d'Honneur. Auber's grand opera La Muette de Portici (also known by its hero's name as Masaniello), a work of great significance in the history of opera, is set against a background of revolution and uprising - a situation that Auber knew only too well. He lived through four French Revolutions (1789, 1830, 1848, 1870), dying at the advanced age of 89 in the desperate conditions of the Commune, of a long-standing illness aggravated by the dangers and privations that attended the Siege of Paris. Auber had always loved his home city, and was not prepared to leave it, even after his house had been set on fire by the petroleurs et petroleuses. Ironically, a mark had been placed against the house of the composer of La Muette de Portici, a man so successful in depicting revolutionary fervour that a performance of this opera in Brussels in 1830 had helped to inspire the revolution that led to the separation of Belgium from Holland. Auber's charming and graceful overtures were once staples of the light Classical repertoire, known and loved everywhere. His gracious melodies and dance rhythms had an overwhelming influence on piano and instrumental music, and on the genre of Romantic comic opera, especially in Germany. His operas, apart from Fra Diavolo (1830), have virtually passed out of the repertoire. Contemporary audiences are not attuned to Auber's elegant and restrained art, accustomed as they are to verismo, high Wagnerian ideology, and 20th-century experimentalism, but those willing to listen are rewarded by works that retain all their freshness, delicacy and charm. La Barcarolle, an opera-comique in three acts, with libretto by Eugene Scribe, was premiered at the Opera-Comique (Deuxieme Salle Favart) on 22 April 1845. The opera is set in Parma in the 18th century, and the story involves a tale of artistic rivalry and social aspiration in the midst of Court intrigue. The Count de Fiesque gives his half-brother, the composer Fabio, the poem to a barcarolle which Fabio is to set to music, and thus bring his work to the attention of the Grand Duke. The Kapellmeister Cafarini and the Marquis de Felino, who are seeking advancement at court themselves, secretly copy the poem, set it to the music they overhear Fabio singing, and send it to the Duchess. The Grand Duke discovers the barcarolle, suspects the Count of being an admirer of his wife, and has him arrested. Fabio learns through Cafarini's niece Gina of the Kapellmeister's part in the plot, and having been forbidden entry to the Duke's concert, disguises himself as a member of the orchestra and places the parts to his barcarolle on the music stands. Gina saves Fabio from arrest by producing the music in Cafarini's handwriting; the Kapellmeister disentangles himself by identifying the Marquis' draft. The Duke pardons everyone. The libr About the Author Robert Ignatius Letellier has specialized in the music and literature of the Romantic Period. He has studied the work