Boïeldieu and Auber are by far the most brilliant representatives of
the French school of Opéra Comique. The work of the former which shows
his genius at its best is "La Dame Blanche." It possesses in a
remarkable degree dramatic _verve_, piquancy of rhythm, and beauty of
structure. Mr. Franz Hueffer speaks of this opera as follows:--
"Peculiar to Boïeldieu is a certain homely sweetness of melody which
proves its kinship to that source of all truly national music, the
popular song. The 'Dame Blanche' might be considered as the artistic
continuation of the _chanson_, in the same sense as Weber's 'Der
Freischütz' has been called a dramatised _Volkslied_. With regard to
Boïeldieu's work, this remark indicates at the same time a strong
development of what has been described as the 'amalgamating force of
French art and culture;' for it must be borne in mind that the subject
treated is Scotch. The plot is a compound of two of Scott's
novels--the 'Monastery' and 'Guy Mannering.' Julian, _alias_ George
Brown, comes to his paternal castle unknown to himself. He hears the
songs of his childhood, which awaken old memories in him; but he seems
doomed to misery and disappointment, for on the day of his return his
hall and his broad acres are to become the property of a villain, the
unfaithful steward of his own family. Here is a situation full of
gloom and sad foreboding. But Scribe and Boïeldieu knew better. Their
hero is a dashing cavalry officer, who makes love to every pretty
woman he comes across, the 'White Lady of Avenel' among the number.
Yet no one who has witnessed the impersonation of George Brown by the
great Roger can have failed to be impressed with the grace and noble
gallantry of the character."
The tune of "Robin Adair," introduced by Boïeldieu and described as
"le chant ordinaire de la tribu d'Avenel," would hardly be recognised
by a genuine Scotchman; but what it loses in homely vigour it has
gained in sweetness. The musician's taste is always gratified in
Boïeldieu's two great comic operas by the grace and finish of the
instrumentation, and the carefully composed _ensembles_, while the
public is delighted with the charming ballads and songs. The airs of
"La Dame Blanche" are more popular in classic Germany than those of
any other opera. Boïeldieu may then be characterised as the composer
who carried the French operetta to its highest development, and
endowed it in the fullest sense with all the grace, sparkle, dramatic
symmetry, and gamesome touch so essentially the heritage of the
nation.
Auber's position in art may be defined as that of the last great
representative of French comic opera, the legitimate successor of
Boïeldieu, whom he surpasses in refinement and brilliancy of
individual effects, while he is inferior in simplicity, breadth, and
that firm grasp of details which enables the composer to blend all the
parts into a perfect whole. In spite of the fact that "La Muette,"
Auber's greatest opera, is a romantic and serious work, full of bold
strokes of genius that astonish no less than they please, he must be
held to be essentially a master in the field of operatic comedy. In
the great opera to which allusion has been made, the passions of
excited public feeling have their fullest sway, and heroic sentiments
of love and devotion are expressed in a manner alike grand and
original. The traditional forms of the opera are made to expand with
the force of the feeling bursting through them. But this was the sole
flight of Auber into the higher regions of his art, the offspring of
the thoroughly revolutionised feeling of the time (1828), which
within two years shook Europe with such force. Aside from this outcome
of his Berserker mood, Auber is a charming exponent of the grace,
brightness, and piquancy of French society and civilisation. If rarely
deep, he is never dull, and no composer has given the world more
elegant and graceful melodies of the kind which charm the drawing-room
and furnish a good excuse for young-lady pianism.
The following sprightly and judicious estimate of Auber by one of the
ablest of modern critics, Henry Chorley, in the main fixes him in his
right place:--
"He falls short of his mark in situations of profound pathos (save
perhaps in his sleep-song of 'Masaniello'). He is greatly behind his
Italian brethren in those mad scenes which they so largely affect. He
is always light and piquant for voices, delicious in his treatment of
the orchestra, and at this moment of writing--though I believe the
patriarch of opera-writers (born, it is said, in 1784), having begun
to compose at an age when other men have died exhausted by precocious
labour--is perhaps the lightest-hearted, lightest-handed man still
pouring out fragments of pearl and spangles of pure gold on the
stage.... With all this it is remarkable as it is unfair, that among
musicians--when talk is going around, and this person praises that
portentous piece of counterpoint, and the other analyses some new
chord the ugliness of which has led to its being neglected by former
composers--the name of this brilliant man is hardly if ever heard at
all. His is the next name among the composers belonging to the last
thirty years which should be heard after that of Rossini, the number
and extent of the works produced by him taken into account, and with
these the beauties which they contain."
_MEYERBEER._