Auber was one of the leading nineteenth-century exponents of opera comique. The son of a huntsman turned art dealer, he was born m Normandy and at an early age revealed his gift for playing the piano. By the time he was a teenager, he had written Italianate concert arias, a piano sonata, and a string quartet.
In 1802 England and France signed the Peace of Amiens. Auber's father sent him to England to acquire skills in commerce, but the following year England again declared war on France, and Auber returned home to concentrate on music. His single-act pasticcio (a composition formed by combining the music of two or more composers). L'erreur d'un moment, was performed in Pans in 1805 and was seen by Cherubim, who agreed to give him further instruction. He began to compose prolifically in many forms, and with Cherubim's guidance achieved his first successful operas comiques with La bergere chatelainein 1820 and Emma in 1821. This led to his meeting the important librettist Eugene Scribe, with whom he struck up a working friendship that would last 40 years.
Auber deviated from the French style of opera for the next three productions, drawing on Rossini's work, winch he much admired. He reverted to the French idiom in 1824 with Leocadie and in 1825 withLe mасоn, which epitomized the best of French opera comique. Other successes followed, Auber and Scribe achieving a musical cocktail of French opera with the flair of Rossini's ideas and alternately funny and sad reflections upon life from the pen of Scribe. The partnership grew in strength and they were invited to compose the opera La muette de Portici for the Academie Royale, which was successfully performed in 1828. An opera on a grand scale based on the French Revolution, its impact was such that its premiere in Brussels is said to have sparked off a revolt to free Belgium from Dutch rule. Typically of Grand Opera, it features dramatic stage effects and huge crowd scenes.
In all, more than 45 operas by Auber were presented in Paris, 37 in collaboration with Scribe. A good example of Auber's comic opera style is Frva Diavolo, in which the story of the pursuit and capture of a Robin Hood-like criminal is accompanied by simple, well-orchestrated melodies, punctuated by decorative figures which allow the singers to show off.
In 1 825 Auber was awarded the Legion d'Honneur by Charles X, and in 1852 Napoleon III appointed him musical director of his Imperial Chapel. In 1842, following in the footsteps of Cherubini, he became director of the Pans Conservatoire, a post he occupied until a year before his death in 1871.
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