Daniel-François-Esprit AUBER La Sirène Crousaud • Lorthiois • Flabat • Teyssier • Setti Mayenobe • Calatayud • Les Métaboles Orchestre des Frivolités Parisiennes • David Reiland 1 Overture 8:31 Daniel-François-Esprit 2 Act I. In the Abruzzi A(1U782B–18E71R) No. 1. Ballade: Quand vient l’ombre silencieuse 3 (Mathéa , Zerlina , Scipion , Bolbaya ) 4:57 No. 2. Quintette: Qu’une heureuse rencontre La Sirène 4 (Zerlina , Mathéa , Scopetto , Scipion , Bolbaya ) 5:58 (‘The Siren’) No. 3. Finale: Une idée, à vous Monseigneur (Scopetto , Scipion , Le Duc , Bolbaya ) – Opéra-comique in three acts (AWV 37) Couplets: Ô Dieu des flibustiers! ( Scopetto ) – Libretto by Augustin-Eugène Scribe (1791–1861) Quatuor: Ô bonheur qui m’arrive ( Scopetto , Scipion , Le Duc , Bolbaya ) 7:16 First performance: Opéra-Comique (Deuxième Salle Favart), Paris, 26 March 1844. 5 Act II. Scopetto’s tavern in the mountains No. 4. Entr’acte – Chœur: Pour étourdir la misère Zerlina, a young peasant, sister of Scopetto . Jeanne Crousaud , Soprano (Scopetto , Pecchione , Chœur ) – Mathéa, a servant . Dorothée Lorthiois , Soprano 6 Air: Qu’est-ce donc, mes amis? ( Scopetto ) 4:43 Engraving of Auber (c. 1840) Scopetto, an adventurer . Xavier Flabat , Tenor 7 No. 5. Couplets: Prends garde, Montagnarde! ( Zerlina ) 2:53 8 No. 6. Duo: C’est quel qu’ouvrier? ( Zerlina , Scopetto ) 6:47 Scipion, a young mariner . Jean-Noël Teyssier , Tenor No. 8. Scène et Chœur: Qu’est-ce donc? Le Duc de Popoli, governor of the Abruzzi . Jean-Fernand Setti , Bass 9 (Scopetto , Scipion , Bolbaya , Pecchione , Chœur ) 3:04 Nicolaio Bolbaya, director of Court pageants . Benjamin Mayenobe , Bass No. 9. Finale: lllustre Bolbaya, venez, on vous demande Pecchione, companion of Scopetto . Jacques Calatayud , Baritone (Zerlina , Scopetto , Scipion , Le Duc , Bolbaya , Pecchione , Chœur ) – Le Grand-Juge . Pierre de Bucy, Speaker Cavatine: Ah! je n’ose pas ( Zerlina ) 9:27 Chorus of Soldiers and Smugglers . Les Métaboles Léo Warynski , Chorus Master 0 Act III. The ducal palace at Pescara No. 10. Entr’acte et Chœur: Les chagrins arrière! ! (Mathéa , Scopetto , Bolbaya , Pecchione , Chœur ) 4:05 Orchestre des Frivolités Parisiennes @ No. 12. Duo: Je fais mal, je le sais ( Zerlina , Scipion ) 6:09 David Reiland , Conductor No. 14. Finale et Vocalise: Voyez vous là-bas (Zerlina , Mathéa , Scopetto , Scipion , Le Duc , Bolbaya , Chœur ) 5:17 This live recording uses the performance material employed at the Théâtre des Arts de Rouen (14 April to 27 June 1849). Engraving of Scribe (after a photo by Nadar) This omitted three numbers (7, 11 & 13) and shortened the Act II finale. Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (1782 –1871) La Sirène will not detract from his air in Act 2. Now only our vocal ornamentation. It is one the most virtuosic parts that lover remains, whom we have always reserved for Auber ever composed. As the title of the work indicates, La Sirène was premiered in Paris on 26 March 1844 at prestigious employment at the Court of King Louis-Philippe a secondary role. Let us see if this young Giraud this role intends to captivate the listener, as well as the the Opéra-Comique, and was an immediate success. (as director of Royal concerts). Auber was much admired you introduced to me, and who you think augurs characters in the story, by her voice. Performances followed in the provinces and in Germany. and honoured, and on the death of Cherubini in 1842, well, will be able to sing and fill this part. This will The tenor Gustave-Hippolyte Roger created the role It remained in the repertoire during l844–52, 1861–62 and became director of the Paris Conservatoire. be a real gain, because with Giraud, Roger and of Marco Tempesta with consummate mastery. He played 1887, receiving 164 performances in all (including 17 Over a period of 17 years, Auber and Scribe achieved Mlle Lavoye we will immediately have a young the part well with his gracious cadences, but above all in performances at the Théâtre-Lyrique, 1865–66). The a series of striking successes at the Opéra-Comique and new profile for our work which is rare for the finely chiseled motifs. Marius-Pierre Audran, the second work played a hundred times at the Opéra-Comique (1823–1840) which brought them huge artistic renown. Opéra-Comique, and is almost of itself a pledge tenor Scipion, was known for his light pleasing voice. (He during its first two seasons, and was Auber’s 14th most The intimacy of their lifelong collaboration was of success. For the rest, fingers crossed, Crosnier returned to this opera in 1855 when he took over Roger’s popular work in the French capital. Pot-pourris of exceptional. One of Auber’s biographers recounts how [the director of the Opéra-Comique] has promised role as the hero.) The two tenors often sing together most melodies from the opera appeared, beginning with often it was not the composer who set the librettist’s text me that Mlle Lavoye will not play in any other new engagingly. The trio of baritones (timid and boasting Adolphe Adam’s arrangement. This was a success typical to music, but Scribe rather who provided words for the piece before ours. I am working away because I character parts of the Trial type; and a redoubtable basse of French taste at the time. The composer Albert Lortzing musical ideas Auber had already composed and held in am not losing interest in it, and so am making the chantante playing a sombre and vindictive bandit steeped loved La Sirène ; the German public did not rate it as reserve in a small notebook. Their correspondence most of the situation. Yours, E. Scribe in ignorant machinations), added important elements to highly as Fra Diavolo , but there were nonetheless nine reveals that Auber himself would sometimes write words the story, and even a touch of comedy. The choruses play editions between 1844 and 1900. Heinrich Heine defined which Scribe would then recast. A letter from Scribe to There is another important element that contributed to an exuberant part, brief but full of character. the works as an ideal ‘divertissement’: Auber on 25 August 1843 captures the essence of their their great success. Auber and Scribe knew precisely for Auber’s opera is a fantastic comedy which, in the personal and artistic relationship: what singers they were writing, and the composer worked manner of traditional Italian popular theatre, abounds in La Sirène was received with resounding bravos … in close collaboration with the artists who were going to coups de théâtre , confusions and disclosures. By a The author and the composer know how to amuse At last, and not without difficulty, my dear Friend, I create his scores. This assured the effectiveness of both boisterous sequence of ruses, love and betrayal are us agreeably, and even to enchant us, or to dazzle believe I have attended to our business better composer and that of his interpreters since they devised made and undone. Desires, passions and power are at us by the luminous facets of their spirit … By their than I had at first indicated, because I have the vocal parts together in a fashion which brought to the the heart of this sensual and transgressive fable, which smiles they efface from our memories the succeeded in securing the new role for Roger. fore the qualities of the different voices. finds resolution only in the reversal of the established nightmares of the past, and all the old concerns This will give me a lot of work, but none for you, The vocal abilities of Louise Lavoye, the creator of order – social, political and hereditary. If joy and comedy that oppress our hearts; and by their coquettish considering that it is solely in my area of work that the title role, were most impressive. One critic praised her seem to be the first concern of the work, La Sirène is caresses, they brush aside from our minds, as the problem is difficult to resolve, and so I have ‘purity, the prodigious extension and flexibility of the actually a critique of power and its abuse, something that with a gentle whisk of peacock feathers, troubling not made any changes affecting a note of the voice’. This was the first time Auber had written a role for finds a deep resonance in our contemporary world. This is thoughts of the future. ( Lutèce: lettres sur la vie music; only in the finale of Act 1 which you have such a high-pitched talent, since the vocal line on several closely related to both the Italian setting and the principal politique, artistique et sociale de la France , 1855) not yet composed. When I wrote the role for occasion rises to high D, something which does not occur thematic topos of outlawry. Chollet, there was no chance of doing it any other in the parts which he had composed for the other famous Italy, the land of romance, sunshine, rugged nature and The opera is one of the 38 works issuing from the way, which disappointed me. Because Chollet, sopranos he had worked with (Geneviève-Aimée-Zoé dark passion, is the backdrop to this fable that is by turns collaboration between the composer Daniel-François-Esprit who is still good in exaggerated character roles, Prévost in Fra Diavolo , Laure Cinti-Damoreau in Le dreamlike and comical. This land is the true métier of Auber (1782–1871) and the librettist Augustin-Eugène becomes detestable as soon as he must act with Domino noir , Anna Thillon in Les Diamants de la adventure, pleasure and love. Colours, luminosity, creativity Scribe (1791–1861). Auber was already a composer of reality, verve and above all involvement. couronne ). The music reveals just how much facility and folly are the shaping factors of the mise en scène .