Daniel-François-Esprit Auber

Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (1782–1871), the most amiable French composer of the 19th century, came to his abilities late in life. After a stalled commercial career, he studied with Cherubini. His first works were not a success, but La Bergère Châteleine (1820), written at the age of 38, established him as an operatic composer. He then met the librettist Eugène Scribe (1791–1861), with whom he developed a working partnership, one of the most successful in musical history, that lasted until Scribe’s death. After Le Maçon (1825) and La Muette de Portici (1828), Auber’s life was filled with success. 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 Légion d’Honneur.Auber’s famous historical grand opera La Muette de Portici (also known by its hero’s name as Masaniello) is a key work in operatic history, and helped to inspire the 1830 revolution in Brussels that led to the separation of Belgium from Holland. Auber himself experienced four French Revolutions (1789, 1830, 1848, 1870). The latter (the Commune) hastened the end of his life. He died on 12 May 1871, at the advanced old age of 89, and in the pitiful conditions of civil strife, after a long and painful illness which worsened during the Siege of Paris. He had refused to leave the city he had always loved despite the dangers and privation, even after his house had been set on fire by the petroleurs et petroleuses. By some irony a mark had been placed against the house of the composer of Masaniello, the very voice of Romantic liberty!Auber’s overtures were once known everywhere, a staple of the light Classical repertoire. The influence of his gracious melodies and dance rhythms on piano and instrumental music, and on the genre of Romantic comic opera, especially in Germany, was overwhelming. The operas themselves, apart from Fra Diavolo (1830), have virtually passed out of the repertoire, since Auber’s elegant and restrained art now has little appeal for the world of music, attuned as it is to the meatier substance of verismo, high Wagnerian ideology, and twentieth-century experimentalism.Actéon, an opéra-comique in one act with libretto by Eugène Scribe, was first performed at the Opéra-Comique (Salle de la place de la Bourse) on 23 January 1836.The story is set in eighteenth-century Sicily. Prince Aldobrandi has jealously shut up his wife Lucrezia and his sister Adèle in a palace where only women are permitted. Count Léoni, wishing to see Adèle, disguises himself as a blind street-singer to gain the attention of the ladies. Lucrezia is painting a picture of Diana and her nymphs being surprised by Actaeon, and persuades her husband to allow the blind man to pose as a model. Léoni’s deception is revealed when Adèle catches him reading a letter sent to her by the Cherubino-like page Stéfano, who jealously betrays the Count to Aldobrandi. A poignarding is narrowly averted when Léoni admits that he came to see Adèle and not Lucrezia; the chastened Prince then graciously consents to pose as Actaeon.The score of this lever de rideau, originally destined for the Opéra, was written for the agile voice of Laure Cinti-Damoreau. It is overshadowed by the other more popular creations of the composer, but nonetheless contains several remarkable pieces. The overture, with its perky introduction broken by slower cello and oboe sequences is dominated by Mediterranean rhythms: a vigorous bolero encloses a beautiful hushed central movement, the sicilienne, which is dreamily passed from horns to clarinets to oboes.Of real elegance are: the aria “Il est des époux complaisants”; the romance “Jeunes beautés, charmantes desmoiselles” and the syllabic quartet “Le destin comble mes voeux”. Mme Damoreau excited general enthusiasm when she sang the Sicilienne (“Nina, jolie et sage”), an air à vocalise which is a masterpiece of grace and finesse in this small work.The opera is unique among the works of Scribe and Auber for its brevity, for its use of a classical framework (the myth of Diana and Actaeon) to provide an updated contemporary fable that celebrates art and love. All these elements, and the gift of the vocally challenging part for Cinti-Damoreau, come together in the brilliant finale.The original cast was: Jean-Francois Inchindi [Hinnekindt] (Aldobrandi); Laure Cinti-Damoreau (Lucrezia); Louis-Benoît-Alphonse Révial (Léoni); Mlle Camoin (Adèle); and Mme Félicité Pradher (Stéfano).The work was in the repertoire between 1836 and 1852, with a total of 92 performances. It was translated into German, and produced in Brussels, Berlin, Vienna, London and Philadelphia.