This volume presents the various pieces of music from fragments, through complete pieces, to whole scenes that were not used in the final performing edition of Meyerbeer s L Africaine.  The genesis of Meyerbeer s last opera is something of a legend. He had first considered the subject in 1837 when Scribe presented him with two new drafts, intended to clinch the triumphant successes of Robert le Diable (1831) and Les Huguenots (1836). The composer began composing Le ProphÃ¨te immediately, but had the other project, L Africaine, ever in his mind. By 1843 a piano score was ready, but the subject as it stood then, concerning Fernando da Soto s explorations in West Africa, did not satisfy Meyerbeer. Scribe was asked to rewrite the libretto in 1851, with the hero changed to Vasco da Gama, and focussed on his epic voyage around the Cape of Good Hope to India. A new contract was signed in 1857, and the greater part of the opera was written between 1857 and 1863, in spite of the Meyerbeer s growing debility.  Meyerbeer died on 2 May 1864, the day after the completion of the copying of the full score of Vasco da Gama. The rehearsal period was always a time of radical revision and excision for the composer, and he left a verbal request that the work should not be produced if he were not alive to supervise it. Minna Meyerbeer and CÃ©sar-Victor Perrin, the director of the OpÃ©ra, however, entrusted the editing of a performing edition to the famous Belgian musicologist FranÃ§ois-Joseph FÃ©tis, while the libretto was revised by MÃ©lesville. Because of the long public expectation, the editors restored the original title, and attempted to reconcile this to the Hindu elements of the action by shifting the action to the island of Madagascar.  L Africaine was produced on 28 April 1865, a glorious posthumous tribute to Scribe and Meyerbeer. Much of the music and action was suppressed, in spite of the resultant strain on the internal logic of the story. The opera caused tremendous enthusiasm, and became enormously popular, being staged 60 times in the first four seasons, and eventually receiving 485 performances in Paris until the end of the century. The Ship Scene, the exotic Indian act, and the finale under the Manchineel Tree exerted a fascination on audiences, and elicited new praise. The work began a triumphal progress through the world, beginning with the big stages of London and Berlin. In its glorious vocal writing, resplendent orchestral colouring and fragrant exoticism, it was a source of delight to many like Franz Liszt, who produced two books of transcriptions from the work.  FÃ©tis edited a performing edition of the score, subsequently used all over the world. However, most of Meyerbeer s manuscript was reproduced intact in the orchestral score printed by G. Brandus & S. Dufour. But FÃ©tis also collected all 22 of the unused variants and fragments in vocal score for publication as the so-called DeuxiÃ¨me Partie. These remain a crucial source of information for the history and future performing editions of this great opera.

Giacomo Meyerbeer: L'Africaine Deuxième Partie (22 morceaux et fragments inédits)

Arts & Photography

Robert Ignatius Letellier

Music

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

The fame of Giacomo Meyerbeer is associated preeminently with the operatic stage, but he wrote for the voice extensively in other genres as well, and produced a small body of carefully crafted religious works throughout his life that reveal the depth of his religious convictions, and also his ecumenical openness to all forms of religious devotion. While studying with the Abbe Vogler in Darmstadt, the young composer had opportunities to show off his skills and serious endeavours. These were crowned by the composition of choral settings for seven religious odes by the influential eighteenth-century poet, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724 1803) (Sieben Geistliche Gesange, 1812, revised 1841). During his stay in Vienna, the young Meyerbeer produced another religious song in 1814, a setting of Friedrich Wilhelm Gubitz s meditational poem 'An Gott'. This gifted and richly varied youthful work for four solo voices is characterized by its blooming melody and simple piano accompaniment. The seven Klopstock Lieder (or Sieben Geistliche Gesänge), also for vocal quartet, are on a higher artistic level. Klopstock, famous for his religious epic Der Messias (1745 73) inspired by Virgil and Milton, was regarded as a great religious poet who, particularly through his highly influential odes, helped to inaugurate the golden age of German literature. The seven poems used by Meyerbeer, in both strict strophe and freely composed verse effusion, capture the essence of Klopstock s vision, the rhetorical and rhapsodic nature of his spiritual fervour, modelled closely as they are on the Psalms. They affirm a life-transforming faith in the resurrection (Morgenlied), proclaim a Trinitarian faith in the creator-redeemer (Dem Dreieinigkeit), the enthusiasm of a believing community in sacrament and Sabbath (Vorbereitung zum Gottesdienst), a prayer of thanksgiving and divine consolation (Danklied), a renewal of faith in forgiveness and covenantal promise (Nach dem Abendmahl), exhilaration in earthly pilgrimage and the promise of immortality (Wach auf, mein Herz), and praise of Jesus as revelation of the divine light and wisdom, teacher of how to live and how to die (Jesus Christus wir sind hier). The Klopstock Lieder are highly lyrical and melodic, and for all their considerable technical challenges, are easily performable, and indeed were later revised for a wider European audience (1841). Meyerbeer s two most famous religious works were written late in his life, and within four years of each other. The monumental eight-part setting of Psalm 91 (known as 'Trost in Sterbengefahr' comfort in danger of death) (for four soloists and double chorus a cappella) was composed at the request of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV for the Berlin Cathedral in 1853. The music, for all its complex vocal disposition, breathes a trusting intimacy akin to that of Mendelssohn s psalm settings that became so popular. It contrasts with the intimate and beautiful four-part offertorium Pater Noster (1857), in the purest of church styles, also written for the Berlin Domchor, and printed in the musical journal La Maîtrise later in the same year. This motet deserves a high place among the many settings of this most famous of prayers. Its serene melody operates on a striking principle of contrast between the fortissimo of the emphatic injunction of the phrase 'as we forgive those who trespass against us' and the contrasting pianissimo used for anxiety and contrition of the following 'and lead us not into temptation'.

Giacomo Meyerbeer: Sacred Works

<p>The cantatas of Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791 1864), spanning his middle and late life, were written in response to royal and civic commissions to celebrate dynastic events and to praise the deeds of famous men. Their festive nature is indicated in the titles: festival song, festival greeting, festival hymn, homage. Like a continuation of the 18th-century tradition of patronage, the more famous Meyerbeer became, the more his services were required by public authorities. Although a burden to him, and a distraction from his dramatic vocation, the composer understood the importance of these works for his life and public perception especially in Germany, where his Jewishness was always a source of comment. His special relationship with the Prussian Royal Family was one of the most significant features of his life as it was for Felix Mendelssohn. Meyerbeer s cantatas can be divided into Royal commissions and civic/national ones. There are royal birthdays (the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the Grand Duchess of Baden), weddings (Princess Louise of Prussia), marriage anniversaries (King Friedrich Wilhelm IV and Prince Karl of Prussia), coronations (King Wilhelm I) and state visits (Queen Victoria). These are parallelled by commemoration of historical events and personages the invention of printing (1436) by Johannes Gutenberg (1397 1468), commemoration of the Prussian national hero Frederick the Great (1712 1786), the unveiling of the monumental equestrian statue of the famous king by the great sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch (1777 1857), and the commemoration of the centenary of the birth of the illustrious dramatic poet and chronicler of idealism and freedom, Friedrich Schiller (1759 1805). In all of these works, Meyerbeer s powers of lyric beauty, dramatic perception, orchestral colour and drama, and sense of pomp and circumstance, are amply in evidence. They reveal a side to this great operatic composer that has been completely forgotten, and now awaits discovery. This collection, including both published vocal and full scores, contains the unpublished cantata written for Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (b.1784, ruled 1806 1844), the father of Prince Albert the Prince Consort of Queen Victoria.</p>

Giacomo Meyerbeer: Cantatas for Festive Occasions

Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (1782-1871), the composer of La Muette de Portici (1828) and Fra Diavolo (1830), was once regarded as one of the great figures of music, a staple of the operatic repertoire in France, and indeed around the world. It is now almost impossible to understand the extent of his once universal fame and his influence on contemporary composers. His operas were in the theatre repertories of the world until the 1920s, and innumerable arrangements of them were published and sold everywhere. The ubiquity of his overtures Masaniello, Fra Diavolo, The Bronze Horse, The Black Domino, The Crown Diamonds once as popular as those of Rossini and Suppé, and the influence of his melodies and dance rhythms on piano and instrumental music, and on Romantic comic opera, was overwhelming. Auber s style was distinguished by an avoidance of excess in dramatic expression; all feeling and expressiveness, any vivid depiction of local colour, were realized within his discreetly nuanced tones, always stamped with a Parisian elegance. Many important posts were conferred on Auber. His appointment to the Institute (1829) was followed by other prestigious positions: Director of Concerts at Court (1839), director of the Paris Conservatoire (1842), Musical Director of the Imperial Chapel (1852), and Grand Officer of the Légion d Honneur (1861). His death during the Siege of Paris (1871), in the city he always loved, marked the end of an era. Auber s operas continued to be loved in France up to the years preceding First World War, but the influence of Wagner, Impressionism and the Neo-Classicism of the Ballet Russe resulted in a neglect of the ancient traditions of opéra-comique in the country of its origin. Only in Germany did the genre continue to flourish. Auber s most enduring work Fra Diavolo is still performed there. The time has surely come for Auber s life and work to be reassessed; perhaps then the world will begin to hear more of his elegant gracious, life-affirming music. The aim of the present study is to offer an overview of the life and work of Auber by close examination of his forty operas, with consideration of origins, casting, plot, analysis of dramaturgy and musical style, and reception history. This is presented in the context of Auber's relationship to the dominant genres of early nineteenth century French opera. The analysis of the operas is made in the context of Auber's crucial working relationship with Eugène Scribe (1791-1861) master dramatist and supreme librettist, a determining force in the history of opera who provided 38 of his libretti. Their cooperation is unique and of great importance on several literary, musical and cultural levels. The nature of their interaction and personal friendship is assessed by a translation of the extant correspondence between them, some 80 letters that have not appeared in English before. The presentation of each opera is illustrated by musical examples from all the scores, prints from the complete works of Scribe and other theatrical memorabilia. The study also contains bibliographies of Auber s works and their contemporary arrangements, studies of Auber s and Scribe s life and work, their artistic and historical milieux, and a discography.

Daniel-François-Esprit Auber: The Man and His Music

Biographies & Memoirs

The manuscripts scores contained in this collection further extend knowledge about Meyerbeer s non-operatic compositions instrumental, choral and occasional. These totally unknown works by a great operatic master range from a substantial cantata in the style of a dramatic monologue (for tenor solo with chorus and brass orchestra), through a brassy celebratory processional march, to a brief unaccompanied chorus of welcome. All the pieces are linked by their association with the various German Royal families with whom the composer had some association. All the were written, as it were, by Royal Command , for regal occasions either based on texts by a king for that monarch (King Ludwig I of Bavaria), for a Court festivity ordered by the ruler (King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia), or to celebrate the formal visit of a royal head of state to the nation (Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to Prussia). A synthesis of old and new, with implications of the dramatic monologue, is characteristic of Der Bayerischer Schützen-Marsch, a cantata for four soloists and brass instruments to a text by King Ludwig I of Bavaria (January 1814) commemorating the struggle against Napoleon, which Meyerbeer set for the king. It was performed in the presence of the monarch on 18 March 1831, just eight months before the spectacular success of Robert le Diable, and forms a type of prelude to the composer s French period. In spite of the choral and military nature of this work, the essentially lyrical and confessional mode of the words make up a psychological drama born of a frustrated yearning for action in a struggle against tyranny for the restoration of freedom and peace. On the 28 February 1843 at the Berliner Schloss, immediately after taking up his new position as Generalmusikdirektor, Meyerbeer prepared an occasional piece, a masque for a ball at Court for some three thousand guests. Called Die Hoffest zu Ferrara, the text was by the poet Ernst Raupach, The masque was a paraphrase of elements taken from Torquato Tasso s Gerusalemme liberata (1581), a Renaissance epic celebrating the First Crusade. Members of the Royal family appeared in costume as guests from the House of D Este of Ferrara, forming part of a series of tableaux vivants presenting scenes from famous epic:   Meyerbeer composed music for all the scenes, some for soloists, some for chorus. Most is known from contemporary newspaper reports, because the score is lost. Herminia s Romance was the only piece to be published; the processional march has survived in manuscript. The masque is interesting for focussing on a particular and recurrent features of Meyerbeer s style the pastoral topos, exemplified in the Chorus of Shepherds, and the military mode in the Festmarsch for the entry of the guests. This 'military' overtone is so often identifiable, characterized by strutting dotted rhythms and relentless propulsion. On 25 August 1842 he completed the first of his four Fackeltänze, the ceremonial polonaises written for the special torch-lit rituals attendant on the public betrothal of a member of the Prussian Royal family. On 9 August 1845 Meyerbeer travelled to Cologne to direct the Court concert held by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia for the reception of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert who were paying a state visit to Prussia. One of the duties incumbent upon Meyerbeer as general director of the royal music, was the provision of pieces required for state occasions involving the king. Just such a piece was the brief choral work written to welcome the Queen of England to Prussian territory. The short four-part choral work with allusion the British anthem, has never been published, and deserves to be better known.

Giacomo Meyerbeer: Music by Royal Command

The overtures of Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (1782 1871), once as popular as those of Gioacchino Rossini and Franz von Suppé, were formerly known everywhere, a staple of the light Classical repertoire. The influence of Auber s 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, but some of their overtures live on vicariously, and sound brilliant and charming when given the chance The Bronze Horse, Masaniello, The Crown Diamonds, Fra Diavolo, The Black Domino. The freshness of the melody, the incision of the orchestral colours, and the rhythmic vitality are still capable of generating a visceral excitement. Auber, 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 operas were not a success, but La Bergère Châteleine (1820), written at the age of 38, established him as an operatic composer. It was at this time that he met the librettist Eugène Scribe (1791 1861), with whom he established 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 (Masaniello) is a key work in operatic history, and helped to inspire the 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 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 La Muette de Portici, the very voice of Romantic liberty! Auber s elegant and restrained art now has little appeal for the world of music, attuned as it is to meatier substance of verismo, high Wagnerian ideology, and twentieth-century experimentalism. But he was once a household name, and his pared style, fleet rhythms and restrained emotion were a byword of taste. This collection brings together 40 of Auber s overtures, from his first great success with La Bergère Châtelaine, to his last opera, written at the age of 87, Rêve d Amour, and including the concert overture he wrote in 1862 for the London Exhibition. Auber adopted the Rossinian adaptation of the overture genre, a sonata form with foreshortened development (or a sequential passage for transition back to the recapitulation). His handling of this basic structure remained consistent throughout his career, and followed three or four differing approaches, but always invested with his characteristic verve, rhythmic élan, clarity of texture, and brilliance of orchestration. In all, the overtures, especially when viewed as a corpus, present a journey through the creative life of composer dedicated to musical drama, who always remained the perfect exemplar of a certain French style and elegance even in his serious works.

The Overtures of 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. Manon Lescaut, an opéra-comique in three acts with libretto by Eugène Scribe, was premiered at the Opéra-Comique (Deuxième Salle Favart) on 23 February 1856. The plot is derived from the novella Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut (1731) by Abbé Antoine-François Prévost d Exiles. Scribe followed his usual practice in arranging novels for the stage, retaining the names of characters, the central incidents of the plot, and effective moments which are used as coups de théâtre. He adapted the novel freely, cutting down the role of Des Grieux, reducing Manon s various adventures to a single one involving the Marquis d Hérigny, and inventing new characters and relationships. But he remained true to the novel, emphasizing to the same degree Manon s unwavering devotion to Des Grieux, her search for pleasure and dependence on luxury.

Daniel-François-Esprit Auber: Manon Lescaut

Daniel-FranÃ§ois-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 BergÃ¨re ChÃ¢teleine (1820), written at the age of 38, established him as an operatic composer. He then met the librettist EugÃ¨ne 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 MaÃ§on (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 LÃ©gion 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. Le Cheval de bronze was premiered at the OpÃ©ra-Comique on 23 March 1835. It was described as an opÃ©ra-fÃ©erique in three acts. The librettist, Scribe, derived the plot from the tale 'Les Sept Fils du Calender' in The Arabian Nights. The scene is set in Shantung province in China in legendary times. The magical Bronze Horse of the title, which has appeared mysteriously on a nearby hill, will transport any man who climbs onto its back to the planet Venus, where a group of female sirens, led by the lovely Princess Stella, live. If the traveller in space can resist the sirens advances, he can return to earth with the lady of his choice; if not, he is whisked back alone, and turned to stone if he speaks of his experiences. The witty libretto, that with its exotic subject perfectly captured the taste of the time, offers differentiated characterizations, much situational comedy, and some eroticism in the Venus scenes. The score is among Auber s best achievements, brimming over with invention: fantasy and comedy are captured perfectly, while the big love duets allow the expression of genuine feeling to break through the burlesque situations. The exotic and fairytale tone is achieved without obvious musical chinoiserie, being rather transmuted into instrumental and harmonic richness, especially in the big ensembles.

Daniel-François-Esprit Auber: Le Cheval de bronze

Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (1782 1871) was long considered one of the most typically French as well as one of the most successful of the opera composers of the 19th century. Although musically gifted, he initially chose commerce as a career, but soon realized that his future lay in music. He studied under Cherubini, and it was not long before his opéra-comique La Bergère Châteleine (1820), written at the age of 38, established him as an operatic composer. Perhaps the greatest turning point in Auber s life was his meeting with the librettist Eugène Scribe (1791 1861), with whom he developed a long and illustrious working partnership that ended only with Scribe s death. Success followed success; works such as Le Maçon (1825) and La Muette de Portici (1828) brought Auber public fame and official recognition. 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 seems to have been fated to live in revolutionary times; during his long life no less than four revolutions took place in France (1789, 1830, 1848, 1870). Auber s famous historical grand opera La Muette de Portici (also known by its hero s name as Masaniello) is perhaps unsurprisingly based on revolution, depicting the 1647 Neapolitan uprising against Spanish rule. It is a key work in operatic history, and has a revolutionary history itself: it was a performance of this work in Brussels in 1830 that helped spark the revolution that led to the separation of Belgium from Holland. It was a revolution that hastened Auber s death at the old age of 89. He died on 12 May 1871 as a result of a long illness aggravated by the privations and dangers of the Siege of Paris. He had refused to leave the city he had always loved, even after his house had been set on fire by the petroleurs et petroleuses. In a twist of fate, a mark had been placed on the house of the composer of Masaniello, the very voice of Romantic liberty! Auber s overtures were once instantly recognizable, favourites of the light Classical repertoire. His gracious melodies and dance rhythms had a huge influence, both on piano and instrumental music, and on the genre of Romantic comic opera, especially in Germany. Musical tastes and fashions have changed, and contemporary audiences are more accustomed to the heavier fare of verismo, high Wagnerian ideology, and twentieth-century experimentalism. The operas themselves, apart from Fra Diavolo (1830), are seldom performed, yet Auber s elegant, delicate and restrained art remains as appealing to the discerning listener as ever it was. Le Domino noir, an opéra-comique in three acts, with libretto by Eugène Scribe, was premiered at the Opéra-Comique (Salle de la place de la Bourse/Salle des Nouveautés) on 2 December 1837. It was an instant success, and remained hugely popular. The music is employed with economy, mellifluous, but pared and pointed. Its wit and elements of parody look forward to Jacques Offenbach. The action takes place in Madrid, around 1780; Angèle, a noblewoman who is about to take solemn vows and become the Abbess of a convent at the behest of the Queen of Spain, nonetheless still attends masked balls, disguised in a black domino. At one of the balls she falls in love with the handsome and eligible Horace de Massarena, who is equally smitten. Horace attends the installation of the new abbess and sees Angèle about to receive this great honour. Suddenly a messenger from the Queen of Spain appears, ordering the convent to select a new abbess and releasing Angèle from her vows. She and Horace are now free to marry.

Daniel-François-Esprit Auber: Le Domino noir

Daniel-Francois-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 Bergere Chateleine (1820), written at the age of 38, established him as an operatic composer. He then met the librettist Eugene 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 Macon (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 Legion 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. Haydee an opera-comique in three acts, with libretto by Eugene Scribe, was first performed at the Opera-Comique (Deuxieme Salle Favart), on 28 December 1847. It remained in the repertoire until 1894. The opera derives from Auber's third period, and after ;La Muette de Portici, Fra Diavolo and Le Domino noir, was the composer's best work. Scribe's Venetian tale uses motifs derived from Prosper Merimee's novella collection La Partie de trictrac (1830) and Alexandre Dumas (pere)'s novel Le Comte de Monte Cristo (1845). He obtained the central anecdote of the plot from one of Prosper Merimee's short stories translated from Russian Six et quatre, written in 1830. The opera is set in Dalmatia and Venice during the early years of the sixteenth century. Loredan Grimani, a victorious Venetian admiral, is haunted by the memory that several years previously he ruined his best friend, the senator Donato, at cards through cheating. The senator killed himself that night, and in reparation Loredan has brought up his daughter Rafaela, and has been searching for the senator's son, Andrea. The disquieted Loredan is blackmailed by the unscrupulous Malipieri until- Mal-ipieri is killed in a duel, and it is revealed that Andrea is the long-lost son of the senator Donato. Loredan is elevated to the dignity of doge of Venice. He reunites Rafaela and Andrea, and himself marries his Cypriot slave, Haydee. The opera belongs to the genre of the serious opera-comique. The chief themes are Loredan's pangs of conscience, Malipieri's villainy

Daniel-François-Esprit Auber: Haydée

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Robert Ignatius Letellier. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Robert Ignatius Letellier