Auber, Daniel (EN)

Auber Daniel François Esprit, *29 January 1782 Caen, †12 May 1871 Paris, French composer. He came from a Norman family settled in Paris. His grandfather was a court painter; his father (a former royal court official) ran an engraving shop after the French Revolution. Auber grew up in a family that fostered a love of art, especially music. From the age of six, he learned to play the piano, violin and to sing. At the age of 11, he began composing romances for voice and piano. His arias, quartets, and Piano Sonata in C major date from his youth. After a short stay in London, where he was sent by his father to learn the profession of a merchant, he returned to Paris in 1804 with the decision to pursue a career in music. During this time, he wrote further compositions: four cello concertos, which Auber wrote for his friend, the cellist J.M. Hurel de Lamare (signed with his name), followed by a Piano Trio and a Violin Concerto written for J.F. Mazas, who was the first performer of this work. In 1806, Auber was accepted into the academic association “Les enfants d’Apollon” with the title of “composer.” Despite his already established reputation, the nearly 30-year-old artist decided to undertake systematic studies in composition under Cherubini. Under the influence of Cherubini and Boieldieu, his artistic interests crystallised — Auber devoted himself entirely to opera. According to Ch. Malherbe, Auber’s opera debut took place in 1805, but it was not until 1813 that opera became his main field of activity. According to Malherbe, Auber’s first opera was the one-act comic opera L’erreur d’un moment, performed in 1805 by amateur performers at the Salle Doyen in Paris. According to other researchers, it was the three-act opera Julie, performed in 1811 with string quartet accompaniment at Chimay Castle (Belgium); perhaps this is the same work, as the main character in L’erreur d’un moment is named Julie. Auber found his contact with the Prince de Chimay, a well-known patron of the arts who gathered writers and artists from various fields in his Paris salon and at Chimay Castle, very inspiring. He composed instrumental works, airs, romances, a serenade, and a mass for a large orchestra at a time (it was probably his diploma work, of which only a fragment has survived, included in La muette de Portici as a prayer). In 1812, Auber’s next opera, Couvin, was staged at Chimay Castle, with the owners of the residence, the Counts of Chimay, performing the leading roles. Aubert’s first operas were written for amateur circles, but it was Le séjour militaire, composed after his studies and staged in 1813 at the Opéra Comique in Paris, that found a wider audience. His next works, La bergère châtelaine (1820) and Emma (1821), were highly successful and marked the beginning of Auber’s 50-year career as a composer of comic operas. This career was furthered by his collaboration with the famous poet E. Scribe, who wrote the librettos for almost all of Auber’s operas from 1823 onwards. The composer achieved European fame with the grand opera La muette de Portici (1828) and the comic opera Fra Diavolo (1830). Auber’s last opera, Rêves d’amour, was written in 1869. Contemporary recognition of Auber’s creative work was reflected in the positions and honours he was awarded. In 1829, he was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux Arts, succeeding the late F.J. Gossec. In 1839, he assumed the post of director of court concerts, and in 1842, Louis Philippe appointed him director of the conservatory; and in 1852, Napoleon III entrusted him with the position of choirmaster the imperial orchestra. Auber was awarded the Legion of Honour four times, receiving successive higher classes of the decoration (1825, 1835, 1847, 1861). He also received high honours from Prussia, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands. In the last months before his death, during the Paris Commune, he wrote string quartets; he died in Paris, the city with which his entire life was connected. 

Of Auber’s rich oeuvre, only his operatic works have gained historical significance, mainly reflecting the developmental trends of French opera in the first half of the 19th century: comic opera and the so-called grand opéra. Auber wrote music for over 30 comedies, which is why he is considered — alongside Boieldieu and Adam — one of the leading representatives of 19th-century French comic opera. A unique feature of his legacy is the grand opera La muette de Portici, which marked the beginning of the heyday of this dramatic genre (Halévy, Meyerbeer). Auber also sporadically composed other types of dramatic music, such as historical operas (Gustave III) and magical operas (Le cheval de bronze), ballet operas (Le dieu et la bayadère, the second version of Le cheval de bronze) and lyrical dramas (Vendôme en Espagne, La arquise de Brinoilliers), written in collaboration with other composers.

Aubert’s comic operas were based on E. Scribe’s skilfully constructed librettos with perfectly outlined characters. The action usually takes place in contemporary times — during the Bourbon Restoration. The juxtaposition of characters from different social backgrounds (aristocrats, officers, merchants, doctors, a pair of servants) helped to create amusing situations and the construction of a comedic storyline. The action takes place in France, as well as Germany, Portugal, Austria, Italy and even India, which entailed a variety of sets and costumes, but was not reflected in the music, which retains its French character in all of Auber’s works. This was due to the forms and musical means used by the composer, drawn from the most vibrant traditions of French music. The solo vocal parts usually take the form of airs, rondos, and especially couplets, or types of songs common in Romantic opera, such as ballads (La fiancée), serenades (Le duc d’Olonne), romances (Fra Diavolo, Le domino noir, La part du diable), barcarolle (Fra Diavolo, La barcarolle, Haydée), canzonetta and cavatina (La part du diable). Auber, on the other hand, used grand arias with coloratura in exceptional cases, justified by the content of the opera, such as in L’ambassadrice, in which the main character is a prima donna, or for parodic purposes in the opera Le concert, which is set in a caricatured musical environment. In addition, the vocal parts in Auber’s comic operas consisted of duets, usually in the form of dialogue couplets, trios (a three-voice canon in La fiancée) and larger ensembles, usually introduced at the end of acts. Above all, in his duets, Auber skilfully used musical means to emphasise the comedy contained in the lyrics (e.g. the duet of the English married couple in Act 1 of Fra Diavolo). Choruses often accompanied ballet scenes, characteristic of French opera. Auber’s fondness for the march form (e.g. the overture to Fra Diavolo) stemmed from the tradition of French historical opera. The main asset of Auber’s music was its fluid, graceful melody, showing a kinship with the popular chanson typical of vaudeville; its expressive, homogeneous, sometimes dance-like rhythm finds analogies in French folk music.

Based on authentic events, the plot of La muette de Portici introduces the people introduces the people as a character in the drama. Numerous crowd scenes and prominent choral parts are characteristic features of grand French opera, to which we can add spectacular scenery (the fishermen’s revolt, the eruption of Vesuvius, the storm), an elaborate ballet scene (Act 2, solo Tarantella in Act 3), an expanded orchestra and marching rhythms in the musical themes. The solo parts of La muette de Portici are dominated by recitatives. Limiting the function of arias in the opera, the composer went so far as to treat the title role as a pantomime role entrusted to a dancer; instead, he introduced song forms typical of 19th-century opera: a barcarolle (Acts 2 and 5) and a lullaby (Act 4). The famous mad scene of Masaniello marked the beginning of madness scenes that later became characteristic for the Romantic opera. In order to build dramatic tension, Auber skilfully used musical contrasts achieved through the constant interweaving of recitatives with choral parts (maintained in homophonic technique) and orchestral parts, the simultaneous use of different choral parts, sharp contrasts between instrumental groups, sudden transitions from cantilena melodies to march themes, frequent temporal changes, and the juxtaposition of fragments with a festive mood with prayerful ones.

Of Auber’s dramatic works, only Fra Diavolo has survived to this day in the global opera repertoire, but in the 19th century his operas enjoyed widespread popularity. Among his comic operas, the following were particularly popular: Le maçon, Fra Diavolo, Le domino noir, La part du diable, as well as La fiancée, L’ambassadrice, Haydée, and Les diamants de la couronne. According to Malherbe, when preparing the staging of Fra Diavolo in Germany and Italy, the composer replaced the spoken parts with recitatives. Songs from Auber’s operas became fashionable hits, such as Zerlina’s romance from Fra Diavolo, which was also widely sung in Poland (known under the title Czy widzisz na tej skale?). The popularity of Auber’s comic operas was enhanced by their social character and simplicity of musical form, melodiousness and attention to the clarity of the words. La muette de Portici also owed its artistic success to its musical qualities, although the political situation at the time undoubtedly contributed to its triumphant march across European opera stages — the work became a musical symbol of the revolutions of 1830. The slogan “la liberté” from the finale of Act 3 resonated strongly in various countries. The staging of La muette de Portici in Brussels caused revolutionary sentiments among the population and accelerated the outbreak of an uprising, as a result of which Belgium gained independence. The Warsaw audience enthusiastically received this opera, staged under the direction of Kurpiński; during its January premiere (15 January 1831), the public rose in an ovation in honour of Józef Chłopicki.  

In Poland, Auber was one of the favourite composers; the Warsaw Opera staged several of his operas shortly after their Paris premieres, reviving some of them several times during the 19th century. Auber’s stage works were also presented in other cities, e.g. Fra Diavolo was performed in Płock (1838). Polish composers were also interested in Auber’s work: Kurpiński translated the libretto of Le cheval de bronze, Każyński accurately interpreted his music in his Notatki z podróży muzykalnej… [Notes on a musical journey…] (St Petersburg 1845), and Moniuszko, who became acquainted with Auber’s operas in his youth in Vilnius, referred to them with particular fondness. Le cheval de bronze (1859), Le premier jour de bonheur (1869) and Fra Diavolo (1871) were staged in Warsaw under baton of Moniuszko; he also added 13 recitatives to Le cheval de bronze, as well as musical parts to Haydée and Actéon, and arranged choral fragments from La muette de Portici (prayer, fishermen’s chorus). Auber’s operas also influenced Moniuszko’s dramatic works, which is evident in both his operettas and operas. La muette de Portici influenced the work of many 19th-century composers, including Wagner’s early operas (The Ban on Love, Rienzi), who later radically changed his position. In his sarcastic memoir about Auber, Wagner acknowledges the dramatic and musical value of La muette de Portici, but does not spare French opera from many harsh, tendentious accusations. Other German composers (Schumann, Mendelssohn) were also critical of Auber’s music. The roots of this attitude lay in the different understanding of musical art by the German and French national schools, of which Auber was a classic representative. Only his early operas (Leicester, La neige) show the influence of Rossini, while his later works are strongly linked to his native traditions. Auber’s comic operas show connections with vaudeville; in his lyrical dramas and ballet operas, the composer referred to the genre developed by Lully, and in La muette de Portici, he conveyed in an original way the musical achievements of Gluck and the composers of the revolutionary period. The entertaining nature of Auber’s stage works corresponded to the social function of opera at the time, which, in the new political conditions, had become an everyday aesthetic need of the bourgeoisie.

Literature: R. Wagner Erinnerungen an Auber, “Musikalisches Wochenblatt” from 31 October 1871, reprint in Sämtliche Schriften und Dichtungen, vol. 9., Leipzig no date; Ch. Malherbe Auber, Paris 1911; W.H. Riehl Zur Geschichte der romantischen Oper, Berlin 1928; E. Bücken Die Musik des 19. Jahrhunderts bis zur Moderne, Potsdam 1932; W. Brumer Pierwsze przedstawienie “Niemej z Portici” Aubera w Warszawie, “Kwartalnik Muzyczny” 1931 issues 12/13; Stanisław Moniuszko. Listy zebrane, ed. W. Rudziński, Kraków 1969; Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis sämtlicher Werke von Daniel-François-Esprit Auber, 2 vols., ed. H. Schneider, Hildesheim 1994; R. Longyear La muette de Portici, “The Music Review” XIX, 1958; Slatin Opera and Revolution. “La Muette de Portici” and the Belgian Revolution of 1830 Revisited, “Journal of Musical Research” III, 1979; L. Finscher Aubers “La muette de Portici” und die Anfänge der Grand-opéra, in the commemorative book of H. Becker, ed. J. Schläder and R. Quandt, Laaber 1982; D. Rieger “La Muette de Portici” von Auber/Scribe. Eine Revolutionsoper mit antirevolutionären Libretto, “Romantische Zeitschrift für Literaturgeschichte” X, 1986.