AUBER and Meyerbeer

Meyerbeer and Auber:

Relations Between the Two Composers

as Recorded in Meyerbeer's Diaries

Symposium on Opéra Comique

Villa Lanna, Prague, May 1999

Robert Ignatius Letellier

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a) Introduction

The aim of this paper is to describe the relationship which existed between the great master of French grand opéra, and the chief exponent of the opéra comique, based on the evidence provided by Meyerbeer's diaries, the translation of which I have been working on for the past six years.

Apart from the knowledge that both composers lived and worked in Paris as direct contemporaries, almost nothing is generally understood about their attitudes, let alone actual dealings with each other. Auber had just secured his first truly international success with Le Maçon (1825) when Meyerbeer first came to Paris for the first French staging of his own first work to achieve worldwide popularity, Il Crociato in Egitto (1826). The next few years would be decisive for both composers, as Auber completed and premiered the opera generally considered to be the blue print for the form of grand opéra which Spontini and then Rossini had fashioned out of the French traditions of traqedie lyrique. Meyerbeer, seeking to find his own truly independent voice, and deeply responsive to the heady new trends developing in Paris, was involved in an evolutionary process of assimilation and reforging of the new ideas around him, as he sought for his ideal text and its appropriate generic adaptation. In the process, Robert le Diable would move from opéra comique to grand opéra to become the premiere opéra romantique and a legend of operatic history.

b) Scribe

The common factor in both Auber and Meyerbeer's groundbreaking work was their association with their principal collaborator, the author of the wonderful stories and texts which stimulated their musical inspirations, the librettist Eugene Augustin Scribe. The five texts he provided for Meyerbeer were to be his among his most famous triumphs, while the thirty-eight he wrote for Auber over forty years made this the most sustained and fertile working partnership. In each instance, Scribe's stories, situations, sense of theatre, and influence on structure , were of decisive formal and thematic consequence for the history of opera, principally through the widespread popularity of the operas lie created with these two composers.

c) Early relations

While the earlier parts of Meyerbeer's diaries, which were only spasmodically maintained, do not have much to say about his dealings with Auber, there are important hints in 1829, the year so vital for the genesis of Robert le Diable, of his perception of the importance of Scribe and Auber's work in Paris.

Meyerbeer's uncertainties about the new situation in Paris, his suspicions about the integrity of the artistic scene, and his perception of the close partnership between Scribe and Auber, all come to the surface in the notes for a letter to his brother Michael Beer sketched at the beginning of the Taschenkalender he kept in Berlin in early 1829. He discusses his relations with Scribe in the choice of new subject matter, his fears for the new text of Robert, and his envious perception of the close relationship of the librettist to Auber.

That Scribe has rejected the Galgenmännlein and is writing a grand opera with devilry in it for Auber, smacks of treachery. What if this meant that I would not receive this opera [Robert] ... ? Scribe will now be against all splendour in Robert because of Auber.

At the end of the year, for all the positive developments in the creation of the new opera, Meyerbeer was still full of suspicion, and apparently distrustful of Scribe's loyalty because of his association with Auber.

Scribe is now against the poem, because Lubbert wants it, [and] on account of Auber. Endeavoured to find out just how far Rossini has been influential against me so that I can defend myself. Is it because I have not yet finished with the Feydeau, or because the poem is bad, or because the other opera will be ready earlier?

As it happens, delays in the preparation of the mise en scène for the new opera Le Dieu et la Bayadère did mean postponements in rehearsals of Robert le Diable until 10 December 1830.

The anxiety about securing a fresh and original libretto, and the fears about the intimacy of the Scribe-Auber working partnership, were capable of inducing a mild neurosis. Even in the period of preparation for Robert, Meyerbeer secured an opéra comique libretto, Le Portfaix, from Scribe, but was still uneasy about Scribe's professional loyalty. On Tuesday 1 February 1831 he confided to his diary:

Wrote out the 2 copies of the contract in neat hand for Scribe. This took until 1/2 12, long past the time agreed for our rendezvous. When I arrived, Auber was there. I did not have myself announced, but rather waited in the dining-room until he left. During this time, my heart was beating wildly. What if Scribe should have told Auber (his friend of many years) about our contract, and Auber should fancy the subject for himself and ask Scribe to reserve it for him, and Scribe should agree? And if not that, what if he should have betrayed our dark secret about my position with regard to Hérold in the matter? Fortunately, nothing like this happened, and when Scribe appeared, he assured me that neither I nor the opera had been mentioned. He read the contract, received the 3000 fr. guarantee, and signed it.

That this fearfulness on Meyerbeer's part did not result in any awkwardness between himself and Auber, is suggested by the entry for Monday, 21 March 1831 when Meyerbeer recorded the details of a celebration he arranged for Paganini) whose grand European tour had brought him to Paris.

I hosted a dinner for Paganini. The guests were Boieldieu, Auber, Rossini, Bertin, Cherubini, Casimir and Germain Delavigne, Habeneck and Count Moretti.

The details of the diaries and Taschenkalender for the rest of the 1830s list no further references to, or contacts with, Auber. During the early 1840s any observations are incidental, and inevitably record some artistic experience. For example, on Sunday 3 January 1841 he notes seeing a German performance of Le Serment which gives some interesting details of contemporary theatre practices.

In the evening to the Theatre where they performed Auber's Die Falschmunzer. The Theatre has acquired a quite outstanding baritone in the person of Herr Pischek; he sang an interpolated aria by Kreutzer slowly and broadly with plenty of spirit in all styles.

Meyerbeer's reactions to the situation at the Opéra during the 1840s under the administration of Léon Pillet contains another passing reference to Auber which has much corroborative force in understanding Meyerbeer's detachment from the artistic scene in Paris during these years. On Sunday 14 November 1841 he observes:

Letter from Gouin in which he tells me that Leon Pillet has definitely stated that if I do not commit myself positively to beginning rehearsals in June, he will have Donizetti or Auber compose an opera for next winter. Since I cannot decide before I have heard singers whom I hardly know, I find myself in an embarrassing position.

While in Paris from 4 July - 24 December 1842 he attended Auber's Les Diamants de la couronne, and on his visit in the last few months of 1843 he records a visit to Auber's house on 6 December as part of his round of social engagements. On Friday 5 November 1847 he attended Le Part du Diable "to hear the tenor Roger and to judge whether I could use him in the role of the Prophet", and a few days later, on Monday 8 November he "read through the vocal score of Auber's opéra comique, La Barcarolle". He was also present at the opening of Adam’s new venture, the Opéra-National, on Thursday 18 November 1847, inaugurated by a musical mosaic which featured music by Auber among others.

In the newly opened Opéra Theatre, I heard Les deux Genies, a prologie by Gustav Vaez and Alphonse Royer, with music by Auber, Halévy, Carafa, and Adam...

d) Later relations

The last years of the 1840s and the first years of the 1850s saw a remarkable intensification in the contact between the two composers. On Friday 24 November 1847 Auber is listed among those visited by Meyerbeer. Auber now emerges as a regular feature in many social circumstances. On Thursday 16 December 1847 we are told that Meyerbeer attended:

Dinner with Panseron where I found Auber, Halévy, Adam and Batton.

Then a few days later on Thursday 30 December 1847:

Dined with Zimmermenn: Auber and Halévy were also there.

This accelerated contact continued into the new year. On Friday 21 January 1848 there appears to have been a private meeting between the two composers since Meyerbeer observes that he "dined with Auber". A month later, on Sunday 20 February 1848 he records that:

I hosted a dinner (a 20 fr.) to which I invited Scribe, Delavigne, Auber, Halévy, Batton, Zimmermenn, Adam, Buloz and Panseron.

This guest list includes some of the most illustrious names then active on the Parisian musical scene: composers, librettists, musicologists and critics, all colleagues and friends of Meyerbeer, a unique gathering of some of the most famous representatives of the mid-19c. efflorescence of the opéra comique.

Some of the most detailed contacts with Auber take place in 1849, the year of the premiere of Le Prophète. On Monday 12 February 1849 Meyerbeer observes:

The funeral of Haberneck. I was elected to be one of the pall-bearers. The other three corners were carried by Spontini, Auber and Baron Taylor.

Later in the year, in the period of serenity and tranquility which followed in the wake of the triumph of Prophète, one of the most intimate and charming of social contacts between the two composers occurred, and in fact took up most of Saturday 23 June 1849.

Had lunch with Auber, and also spent the evening there. The other guests were Scribe and his wife, Adam, Ambroise Thomas, Monnais and Perrot.

Social relations between Meyerbeer and Auber can thus safely be construed as very cordial. This impression is borne out by a touching vignette from a month later, Friday 27 July 1849, which combines the personal, social and professional dimensions of their association in a unique moment of kindness and admiration.

Today I spent the whole morning on the jury in the Conservatoire where the prize contest for singing in grand opera took place. Mademoiselle Nantier sang Fides's act 5 from Le Prophete, and the following duet with Gueymard, very well indeed, and to the stormy applause of the very numerous public who would not stop clapping. They turned towards the box in which I was sitting with the other members of the jury, and would not stop the applause until Auber, as Director of the Conservatoire, led me to the edge of the box, and I, with appropriate bows, thanked the public who then broke into renewed jubilation. Depallio then sang the bouffe duet and Bertram's subsequent aria from Robert le Diable; he has a very lovely bass voice. I was at Auber's for dinner.

Following on his return to Paris from the Tyrol where he was working on Act 1 of L'Étoile du nord, the series of cordial contacts with Auber continued. On Saturday 6 October 1849 he "called on Auber", while on Saturday 27 October 1849 he included Auber among the guests of another of his famous supper parties, this time for some of his most illustrious colleagues and friends in Paris:

I gave a dinner: Véron, Armand Berton, Benoit Fould, Auber, Halévy, Berlioz, Marquis Durn, Jules Janin, Edmond Blanc, Ernest Blanc, Gouin. This dinner was 20 fr. per person.

The sense of expansiveness, generosity, and new artistic experience continued in this unique year of artistic triumph for Meyerbeer. Auber was included in a matinée artistique, this time on Saturday 10 November 1849.

Today, in honour of Baron Luttichau, I invited the following guests to lunch with me: Kaskel, Count Wielhorsky, Martschendorff, Scribe, Auber, Halévy, Adam, Vatry, Gouin.

The sense of professional cooperation with Auber is demonstrated by Meyerbeer's regard for the latter in the political dimension inevitably assumed by the management of the Opéra. On Saturday 17 November 1849 he observed:

Visit from Nestor Roqueplan who begged me to go with Véron to the Minister of the Interior in order to expedite his permission for Roqueplan to remain as sole director of the Opéra. I promised this on condition that Auber should also go with me.

There was never to be a period quite like 1849 for the warmth and frequency of contact between the two composers. The 1850s were a very busy time for Meyerbeer, who, riding on the greatest crest of his illustrious career, now turned his attention to opéra comique and flung himself into the creation of two very diverse scores, and the successful production of two operas which represent a highly original contribution to a genre already graced by a canon of masterpieces, in a very special tradition going back to Pergolesi and Rousseau.

Contacts with Auber were now a series of regular visits whenever Meyerbeer came to Paris. Such courtesy calls are recorded on:

- Thursday 10 October 1850,

- Sunday 3 October 1852,

- Friday 2 October 1852 (when Auber returned the call),

- Thursday 9 June 1853,

- Friday 29 July 1853,

- Monday 24 April 1854 (Auber was ill),

- Tuesday 30 May 1854 (to consult about Malmene),

- Friday 14 September 1855, and

- Wednesday 3 September 1856.

Auber was also included in another of the famous supper parties. On Friday 26 November 1852:

I hosted a dinner. The guests were: Romieu (le Directeur des Beaux Arts), Veron, Roqueplan, Brindeau, Halévy, Auber, Adam, Thomas, Bouche. All in all the dinner cost me 400 fr. even though we were only 10 persons.

Once again the leading lights of the operatic world in Paris were all assembled under Meyerbeer's hospitality.

On 13 January 1853 he dined with the Marquis Pastoret, where he found Auber and Scribe as well.

Otherwise the composers were linked by professional or honorific events. On Tuesday 24 June 1852 Meyerbeer was requested to communicate with Auber:

[Wrote] to Auber with an enclosure from Herr von Humboldt: informed him of his nomination to the Order Pour le mérite.

Auber's answer, presumably accepting the award, arrived on Thursday 8 July 1852.

On Thursday 25 October 1860 Meyerbeer received a communication from France:

Letter from Auber in Paris: he invites me to contribute to the publication which the Institut de France is preparing for a monument to Cherubini. I answered him today and sent him 400 fr. for this purpose.

The 1860s contain no direct references to either meetings with, or communications from, Auber. He is mentioned in relation to the concert held in the Crystal Palace to inaugurate the National Exhibition of 1862 in London. The commission is discussed in the diary for Monday 20 May 1861, and details of the choice of compositions on Saturday 3 August 1861. The actual concert is described on Tuesday 29 April 1862. The last references to Auber are almost a return to the anxious days of 1831, since the performances of these various exhibition works were a source of tension and concern for Meyerbeer, who felt himself increasingly the victim of public slight and critical prejudice.

On Monday 9 June 1862 Meyerbeer confided to his diary:

I cannot achieve the right frame of mind for my intellectual work. Reading the papers irritates me, While the many performances of my operas announced at Covent Garden and Her Majesty's Theatre should please me, I am nonetheless disheartened by the fact that while Auber's Exhibition March is being played in many London concerts, my Overture is not.

Then a few days later, on 29 June 1862:

I am unable to give Perrin my London Overture for performance in his theatre since I have already promised it to someone else. The true reason is that in this concert Verdi’s Exhibition Cantata and Auber's Exhibition March will be played, and on such occasions the critics always take up party positions and evince hateful partiality.

e) Artistic reactions

But perhaps the most interesting feature in Meyerbeer's relations with Auber is his reactions to the latter's art. Meyerbeer was unpredictable in the extent to which he commented at any length about anything in his diaries, so when any sustained reactions are recorded, they really come from the heart, and for all their brevity, they do convey a distillation of some of his most deeply felt reactions. It is a measure of his deep regard for Auber that responses to the latter's work are consistently among Meyerbeer's most enthusiastic and precise entries. Auber's musical mentality, so very different from his own, obviously held great appeal for him. Take for example the brief but cogent reaction to a revival of Le Philtre on Wednesday 17 November 1847:

To the Opéra for Auber's Le Philtre. This gracious, melodious opera which used to be produced here so outstandingly, is now performed badly by singers, orchestra and chorus alike. Only Alizard's lovely bass voice was impressive.

This entry not only conveys Meyerbeer's deep affection for this music, but shows how acutely style and performance reflected the traditions associated with the opera houses of Paris and the genres identified with them.

Responses to the first night of one of Auber's most significant scores shows how deeply affected Meyerbeer's aesthetic attitudes were by Auber's art. On New Year's Day 1848 he wrote:

To the Opéra Comique for Auber's new opera Haydée, a very serious subject, but dramatic and interesting. The melodic element in this music is surprisingly curtailed for such a tuneful composer as Auber. On the other hand, the dramatic dimension of the music and the orchestration are most arresting, composed with aptness and skill. Roger plays his very serious role so outstandingly, that he shows himself more than appropriate for Le Prophète .... The mise en scène of Act 2 of Haydée reproduces Act 3 of L'Africaine exactly, thereby robbing the latter of all the charm of novelty in advance.

Meyerbeer's regard for Auber's music is even more directly expressed a few years later when he attended another premiere in Paris on Monday 25 August 1856:

In the Opéra Comique: Auber's Manon Lescaut. Auber's music is still full of freshness and invention, melodious and witty, in spite of his advanced age. This opera afforded me much pleasure.

And in the following year he was at the revival of an old work by the French composer. On Friday 25 September 1857 he recorded:

In the Grand Opéra Le Cheval de bronze. Scribe and Auber have transformed the existing 3-act Opéra comique into a grand opéra in 4 acts with recitatives and a dancing role .... Auber has furthermore added a duet and an octet.

On Friday 16 October 1857 Meyerbeer attended another performance of the opera and noted:

The new octet parlante which Auber has written at the end of the work is delightful.

f) Auber in performance

Perhaps of even greater interest to the history of Opéra comique is the record Meyerbeer's diaries provide of the performances he attended of Auber's works. These daily entries provide a minute chronicle of the repertoire of the contemporary European theatre, and the prevalence of Auber's operas right across Europe make for one of the most detailed constants of Meyerbeer's inveterate theatre-going.

Reactions to Auber's work not only provide invaluable gauge of regularity and distribution, but also clues to performing practice and standards, and the style and capacity of individual singers. So on Sunday 29 April 1848 he notes:

In the opéra comique heard Auber's Haydée again in order to study all the more Roger's tessitura and vocal calibre. I am a little dubious about the effect his voice will have in the Grand Opéra.

Later in the same year Auber's music again enabled him to draw valuable conclusions about another singer, when on Thursday 28 September 1848 he again was at the Opéra comique:

Then came Auber's L'Ambassadrice : Madame Ugalde has a beautiful, very attractive mezzo-soprano voice, but can reach high C easily. She has extraordinarily brilliant coloratura and sings with both method and taste.

Experience of Auber's operas in Paris had set performing standards, so it is interesting to observe Meyerbeer's reactions to productions outside France. In Berlin Roger disappointed him slightly in the assumption of one of the great comic roles. On Wednesday 7 March 1855 he noted:

In the evening to the Theatre: Auber's Fra Diavolo. Roger sang Fra Diavolo elegantly, but without sufficient gaiety.

On the other hand, performances of Auber's works in Austria and Germany, where they enjoyed particular popularity, often surpassed all expectations, and even set new standards of production and interpretation. So on Saturday 11 August 1849 in Vienna he was particularly invigorated.

Then in the Kärntnertor-Theater Auber's Die-Ballnacht (Gustav ou Le Bal masqué). The act 2 final was sung by the chorus with such verve and drive that it had to be repeated.

In Dresden he was also impressed by the power of the choral interpretation. On Thursday 11 January 1855 he write:

In the Opera House Auber's Die Stumme von Portici: the choruses were outstanding.

The imaginative interpretations realized on the Viennese stage, and brought out by the same opera, emphasize the hold of this opera on the 19th-century mentality. On Monday 29 October 1855 he attended a production

in the Kärntnertor-Theater: Auber's Die Stumme von Portici. The Tarantella in act 3 was wonderfully staged, much more effectively than in Paris.

On the very next night he saw Fra Diavolo at the same theatre, proof of the incredible ubiquity of Auber's music in these mid years of the 19th century.

g) Performance records

Some years were indeed very rich in productions of Auber's work. Given his complete neglect by his native county, it is interesting to see how in 1853 alone in Paris there were productions of L'Ambassadrice, Le Domino noir, Haydée, Le Lac des fées, Le Maçon, and Marco Spada. In 1863-64, during the last months of Meyerbeer's life, he attended Parisian performances of Le Domino noir, Haydée, La Muette de Portici and the premiere of La Fiancée du Roi Garbe.

The performance statistics of Auber's works seen by Meyerbeer throughout his life and as recorded in his diaries, makes for impressive reading. It is full of surprises.

1. The Auber opera most often seen was neither Fra Diavolo nor La Muette de Portici, but Haydée which Meyerbeer attended 10 times between 1848 and 1863.

2. Then comes La Muette de Portici with 9 performances between 1831 and 1863.

3. The third highest rating goes to Marco Spada with 7 performances in the year 1852-53.

4. Next comes Le Part du Diable with 6 performances between 1847 and 1858.

5.This is followed by 5 performances each of:

- L'Ambassadrice (1847-56)
- Le Domino noir (1841-63)
- Fra Diavolo (1849-62)
- Le Lac des fées (1847-56)
- Le Maçon (1849-58)

6.There are 4 recorded attendances at Manon Lescaut (1856).

7.The operas he saw 3 times are:

- Les Diamants de la couronne (1842-59)
- Gustave III, ou Le Bal masqué (1849, 1860)
- Le Philtre (1847, 1848, 1852)
- La Sirene (1844-49)

8. The operas seen twice:

- Actéon
- Le Cheval de bronze (1857)
- Le Dieu et la Bayadere (1831)
- La Fiancee (1847, 1849)
- Le Serment (1841)

9.One performance or reference is made to:

- La Barcarolle (1847)
- L'Enfant prodique (1851)
- La Fiancée du Roi Garbe (1864)
- Zerline (1851)

The total is 23 out of Auber's 40 operas.

h) Conclusion

In all, Meyerbeer's diary presents evidence of a long, sustained relationship between the master of French grand_opéra and the chief representative of the opéra comique, a relationship built on professional contact, personal regard and aesthetic admiration. This record provides an invaluable glimpse into the heart of the attitudes and practices characterizing the opéra comique and its reception in the world of opera in Paris and other centres of the mid-19th century cultural scene.

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