Daniel-François-Esprit Auber Les Diamants de la coronne (I diamanti della corona/The Crown Diamonds) Opéra-Comique en trois actes Paroles de Eugène-Augustin Scribe et Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges In Italian and English translation

1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4438-5443-6
Verlag: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 290 Seiten

Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (1782–1871) was long considered one of the most typically French, as well as one of the most successful, opera composers of the nineteenth 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 only ended 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). He died on 12 May 1871 as a result of a long illness aggravated by the privations and dangers of the Siege of Paris.

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.

Les Diamants de la couronne (1841) is a piece of really refined, almost surreal, fantasy. In many respects, it represents something of a distillation of the art of Scribe and Auber, a synthesis in some ways of the more earthy comedy of Fra Diavolo and the almost spiritual sophistication of Le Domino noir. Both plot and music carry the natural instincts of both creators to their extreme attainment. Berlioz singled out its musical beauty in his critique of the work. The narrative, with its story of royal counterfeiting, romance fulfilment and social restitution, combines several recurrent motifs that preoccupied Scribe, with the exotic Iberian setting opening up the Mediterranean sphere so stimulating to the artistic imagination of both librettist and composer. Catarina, heiress to the crown of Portugal, has a copy of the crown jewels made so that she can sell off the originals to pay off the national debt. The young queen's ploy works, the nation is saved. The music is very brilliant for the principal character who, by turns queen, brigand, and prima donna, sings variations of the greatest virtuosity and in the best of vocal styles.

This edition reproduces the vocal score published in London by Boosey and Co. (c. 1880), the Royal Edition, edited by Arthur Sullivan and Josiah Pittman (with Italian and English words).

Autoren/Hrsg.

Letellier, Robert Ignatius

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikwissenschaft Allgemein Einzelne Komponisten und Musiker
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikgattungen Opernmusik
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Geschichte der Musik Geschichte der Musik: Romantik (ca. 1830-1900)

Über Autor(innen)

Letellier, Robert Ignatius
Robert Ignatius Letellier was educated in Grahamstown, Cambridge, Salzburg, Rome and Jerusalem. He is a member of Trinity College, Cambridge, the Maryvale Institute in Birmingham, and the Institute for Continuing Education at Madingley Hall, Cambridge. His publications total over 80 items, including books and articles on the late-seventeenth-, eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century novel (particularly the Gothic Novel and Sir Walter Scott), the Bible, and European culture. He has specialized in the Romantic opera, especially the work of Giacomo Meyerbeer (a four-volume English edition of his diaries, studies and analysis of his operas), Daniel-François-Esprit Auber, the opéra-comique, Ludwig Minkus and the Romantic Ballet.

Robert Ignatius Letellier was educated in Grahamstown, Cambridge, Salzburg, Rome and Jerusalem. He is a member of Trinity College, Cambridge, the Maryvale Institute in Birmingham, and the Institute for Continuing Education at Madingley Hall, Cambridge. His publications total over 80 items, including books and articles on the late-seventeenth-, eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century novel (particularly the Gothic Novel and Sir Walter Scott), the Bible, and European culture. He has specialized in the Romantic opera, especially the work of Giacomo Meyerbeer (a four-volume English edition of his diaries, studies and analysis of his operas), Daniel-François-Esprit Auber, the opéra-comique, Ludwig Minkus and the Romantic Ballet.