Auber

Auber, Daniel Francois Esprit, the popular French composer, was born in 1782. His father, a well-to-do print-seller, destined him for business, and he went to London as a merchant's clerk. Returning to Paris at the Peace of Amiens, he devoted himself seriously to music, and became a pupil of Boieldieu, and afterwards of Cherubini, still adhering to business. In 1813 he brought out an unsuccessful operetta, Le Sejour Militaire. His father having died, he now took up music as a profession, and from 1819 to 1826 produced several comic operas with but moderate appreciation. In 1828 he abandoned the prevalent style of Rossini, and struck out a line of his own in La Muette de Portici. His fame was at once established, and then followed a number of charming works of which the best known are Fra Diavolo, Le Domino Noir, Le Lac de Fees, Les Diamans de la Couronne, and Haydee. In 1842 he was appointed director of the Conservatoire. His style is brilliant and vivacious, though it lacks depth, but his instrumentation shows consummate skill, and no musician possessed a more keen sense of dramatic interest. He wrote an ode for the opening of the London Exhibition of 1862, and his last work, Le Reve d'Amour, appeared in 1870, just before the outbreak of the Franco-German War. He died in 1871, deeply affected by the sufferings of his country.