Robert Ignatius Letellier

Daniel-Francois-Esprit Auber's La Part du Diable Robert Ignatius Letellier

Daniel-Francois-Esprit Auber (1782-1871) was long considered one of the most typically French, as well as one of the most successful, of the opera composers of the 19th 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 opera-comique La Bergere Chateleine (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 Eugene Scribe (1791-1861), with whom he developed a long and hugely successful working partnership that only ended with Scribe's death. La Part du Diable, first produced on 16 January 1843, proved to be one of Auber's most popular works: 263 performances by 1881. It marks the beginning of the composer's third creative period, characterized by a more lyrical manner, and moreover, is one of his best works, evincing a variety of effects, rhythmic combinations, finesse of orchestral detail, piquant and original harmony, verve and brio. The story, set around Madrid and Aranjuez, concerns the celebrated eighteenth-century castrato singer Farinelli (Carlo Broschi) (a travesti part), who was employed to sing in order to soothe King Ferdinand VI of Spain in his melancholia (played by Juana Rossi-Caccia). Farinelli's sister Casilda was created by Anna Thillon; her admirer Rafael d'Estuniga by the famous tenor Gustave Roger. The opera was long performed in Germany under the twin titles of Carlo Broschi and Des Teufels Anteil. The music of La Part du Diable is very effective in the lyrical moments, with most unusually differentiated movements in the ensembles. This book presents an insight into the life and work of Auber by close examination of one of his famous operas, with consideration of origins, casting, plot, and analysis of dramaturgy, musical style, and reception history. This volume provides the vocal/piano score of La Part du Diable, preceded by an introduction to the life and work of Auber, and a close reading of the opera. There are examples from the score, prints from the complete works of Scribe and other theatrical memorabilia, adding an important iconographical aspect to the general place and relevance of this work in nineteenth-century operatic culture.