AUBER, Daniel
b Caen, Normandy, 29 January 1782
d Paris, 12 May 1871, aged eighty-nine

Born to an artistic and aristocratic family, he was sent to London in 1802 to learn the trade of art dealing. Whilst there he gave some public performances of his songs, and decided on a career in music. He returned to Paris in 1804 and studied with Cherubini. His operas had little success, not receiving acclaim until La Bergere chatelaine opened two days before his thirty-eighth birthday. He was very modest and retiring, despite his enormous success. He became a member of the Academie Française in 1829 and was appointed director of the Conservatory in 1842, remaining in that post until his death. In 1871 Napoleon III named him maitre de chapelle. With his contemporaries Adam and Herold, he made the link between the comic opera of Mozart, Rossini and Donizetti and the operettas of Offenbach and Messager.
1828 (46)
La muette de Portici (also called Masaniello), opera
1830 (48)
Fra Diavolo, opera
1835 (53)
The Bronze Horse, opera (revised 1857)
1837 (55)
Le Domino noir, opera
1841 (59)
Les Diamants de la couronne, opera
1846 (64)
fp Manon Lescaut, opera
1858 (76)
p Piano Trio in D major, Op 1