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
Freischtitz' has been called a dramatized _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 recognized by a
genuine Scotchman; but what it loses in homely vigor 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 characterized 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 revolutionized
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 civilization. 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 lixes him in his
right place:
"He falls short of his mark in situations of profound pathos (save
perhaps in the 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 labor--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 analyzes some new chord the uoliness 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."