Le cheval de bronze
Music by Daniel Auber · libretto by Eugène Scribe · premiered 1835 · at Paris Opera
Le Cheval de bronze (The Bronze Horse) is an opéra comique by the French composer Daniel Auber, first performed on 23 March 1835 by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle de la Bourse in Paris. The libretto (in three acts) is by Auber's regular collaborator, Eugène Scribe and the piece was a great success in its day. In 1857, it was transformed into an opera-ballet, but this did not hold the stage. The overture is one of Auber's most popular. The first-act finale expands on the final phrases from the first-act finale of Mozart's Così fan tutte. The composer tried to reflect the Chinese setting of the story in the music.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Le cheval de bronze", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (French: [danjɛl fʁɑ̃swa ɛspʁi obɛːʁ]; 29 January 1782 – 12 May 1871) was a French Romantic 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,…
Text from the Wikipedia article "Daniel Auber", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Daniel Auber
- Gustave III
- La circassienne (1787)
- Fra Diavolo (1800)
- La muette de Portici (1830)
- L'ambassadrice (1836)
- La part du diable (1843)
- La sirène (1844)
- La barcarolle (1845)