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Daniel-François-Esprit Auber Les Diamants de la coronne (I diamanti della corona/The Crown Diamonds) Opéra-Comique en trois actes Paroles de Eugène-Augustin Scribe et Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges In Italian and English translation - Head Work
by Editor(s): Robert Ignatius Letellier
Description
Auber’s overtures were once instantly recognizable, favourites of the light Classical repertoire. His gracious melodies and dance rhythms had a huge influence, both on piano and instrumental music, and on the genre of Romantic comic opera, especially in Germany. Musical tastes and fashions have changed, and contemporary audiences are more accustomed to the heavier fare of verismo, high Wagnerian ideology, and twentieth-century experimentalism. The operas themselves, apart from Fra Diavolo (1830), are seldom performed, yet Auber’s elegant, delicate and restrained art remains as appealing to the discerning listener as ever it was.
Les Diamants de la couronne (1841) is a piece of really refined, almost surreal, fantasy. In many respects, it represents something of a distillation of the art of Scribe and Auber, a synthesis in some ways of the more earthy comedy of Fra Diavolo and the almost spiritual sophistication of Le Domino noir. Both plot and music carry the natural instincts of both creators to their extreme attainment. Berlioz singled out its musical beauty in his critique of the work. The narrative, with its story of royal counterfeiting, romance fulfilment and social restitution, combines several recurrent motifs that preoccupied Scribe, with the exotic Iberian setting opening up the Mediterranean sphere so stimulating to the artistic imagination of both librettist and composer. Catarina, heiress to the crown of Portugal, has a copy of the crown jewels made so that she can sell off the originals to pay off the national debt. The young queen's ploy works, the nation is saved. The music is very brilliant for the principal character who, by turns queen, brigand, and prima donna, sings variations of the greatest virtuosity and in the best of vocal styles.
This edition reproduces the vocal score published in London by Boosey and Co. (c. 1880), the Royal Edition, edited by Arthur Sullivan and Josiah Pittman (with Italian and English words).
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