About the Book
Daniel-François-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 opéra-comique La Bergère Châteleine (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 Eugène 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 Rafaël 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.
About the Author :
Robert Ignatius Letellier has specialized in the music and literature of the Romantic Period. He has studied the work of Giacomo Meyerbeer, publishing a four volume English edition of his diaries, a collection of critical and biographical studies, a guide to research, and two readings of his operas, as well as compiling and introducing editions of the complete libretti and non-operatic texts, and a selection of manuscripts facsimiles. He has also written on the ballets of Ludwig Minkus, compiled a series of scores on the Romantic Ballet, a sourcebook on the French opéra-comique, and a study of Daniel-François-Esprit Auber, and edited anthologies of Auber's overtures, ballet music, and a series of his operatic vocal scores.
Review :
'This well produced book by Robert Letellier, provides an informative, illustrated and referenced introduction, to the reproduction of the score for Auber's comic opera La Part du Diable. This includes a cast list and clearly written accounts of the origins, sources and musicology of the opera. The opera takes its inspiration from the love of King Philip V of Spain for music. Following the death of his son, Philip was bereft and increasingly mad. Queen Elizabeth his wife realised that music was the only means to reduce his melancholia, so in 1737 she used her ambassador to obtain the services at court of the great opera castrato Carlo Broschi and, as the British ambassador noted, the recovery was amazing. A precis of the scenes of the three acts is included, and augmented by tasteful contemporary prints of portraiture and iconography. Letellier concludes with his commentary on the opera. The opera had a good reception, as it appeared throughout Europe, New York and Rio de Janeiro, notably 263 times in Paris. However, its popularity had waned by the 20th century and its last production was in 1930. The book concludes with an extensive bibliography and references.Letellier also includes a useful biography of Auber. Auber started composing before he was eleven and was described as being, a gifted, witty, but modest musician. Letellier notes that he had a disposition that was warm and open with fellow composers. Thus, he was both popular and influential: in essence, a delightful person indicated by the extracts of his correspondence. [...] Daniel-Francois-Esprit Aubers's La Part du Diable, Edited by Robert Ignatius Letellier is a well written and excellently text on this opera. It discusses the opera in such a way that one can sense the zeitgeist of the 1843 France.'RF Gibson9th August, 2019.
