The operas of Daniel Auber are rarely staged or recorded these days; most of them are opéras comiques , and perhaps it is the prejudice against the comic that hurt him with posterity. La Sirène was composed in 1844 at the height of Auber's fame, and it was so popular that potpourris of its tunes circulated in print in the following years. Yet this is its world recorded premiere. Sample the big Act I finale, or in any one of a number of other places, if you want to hear a generally underappreciated influence on the style of ...
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The operas of Daniel Auber are rarely staged or recorded these days; most of them are opéras comiques , and perhaps it is the prejudice against the comic that hurt him with posterity. La Sirène was composed in 1844 at the height of Auber's fame, and it was so popular that potpourris of its tunes circulated in print in the following years. Yet this is its world recorded premiere. Sample the big Act I finale, or in any one of a number of other places, if you want to hear a generally underappreciated influence on the style of Arthur Sullivan. The opera was written in collaboration with Auber's longtime librettist, the playwright Eugène Scribe, and the chemistry between the two was so close that Auber could sometimes write music and have Scribe set words to it. All this suggests that their work could be a bit formulaic, and so it is. But the story is funny, down to earth, and satirical; it concerns a girl, Zerlina (and indeed she is a rather Mozartian character), who sings in order to lure travelers...
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