Conductor: Dario Salvi
Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra

Daniel-François-Esprit Auber was a French composer and director of the Paris Conservatoire.

Born into an artistic family, Auber was at first an amateur composer before he took up writing operas professionally when the family's fortunes failed in 1820. He soon established a professional partnership with the librettist Eugène Scribe that lasted for 41 years and produced 39 operas, most of them commercial and critical successes. He is mostly associated with opéra-comique and composed 35 works in that genre. With Scribe he wrote the first French grand opera, La Muette de Portici (The Dumb Woman of Portici) in 1828, which paved the way for the large-scale works of Giacomo Meyerbeer.

The composer's operatic music is noted for the brilliance of coloratura passages for chorus as well as soloists, and the quantity of ensemble writing, particularly in the finales to acts. Auber's orchestration, which reflects the influence of his friend Rossini, became the model for French operatic compositions throughout the 19th century, including those of Bizet and Massenet.

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