1-1 	Ouverture 	7:30
1-2 	N.1 Introduction & Air: Du Prince Objet De Notre Amour 	8:17
1-3 	N.2 Recitatif & Choeur: Mais Du Cortege Qui S'avance... Du Prince Objet De Notre Amour 	2:36
1-4 	N.3 Air: Plaisir Du Rang Supreme 	8:21
1-5 	Ballet: Guarache 	1:27
1-6 	N.4 Scene & Choeur De La Chapelle: Dans Ces Jardins, Quel Bruit Se Fait Entendre? 	10:39
1-7 	N.5 Finale: Ils Sont Unis! 	8:14
1-8 	N.6 Choeur & Recitatif: Amis, Amis, Le Soleil Va Paraitre 	5:47
1-9 	N.7 Barcarolle: Amis, La Matinee Est Belle 	6:20
1-10 	N.8 Duo: Mieux Vaut Mourir Que Rester Miserable 	9:15
1-11 	N.9 Finale: Venez, Amis, Venez, Venez Partager Mes Transports 	6:36
2-1 	N.10 Duo: N'esperez Pas Me Fuir 	8:19
2-2 	N.11 Choeur De Marche: Au Marche Qui Vient De S'ouvrir 	4:09
2-3 	N.12 Finale - Scene: Non, Je Ne Me Trompe Pas, C'est Bien Elle 	7:36
2-4 	N.13 Air & Cavatine: Spectacle Affreux 	11:21
2-5 	N.14 Cavatine & Choeur: Mais On Vient. C'est Pietro 	10:58
2-6 	N.15 Scene & Choeur: Des Etrangers Dans Ma Chaumiere 	6:52
2-7 	N.16 Marche & Choeur: Honneur Et Gloire! Celebrons Ce Heros 	4:42
2-8 	N.17 Barcarolle & Choeur: Voyez Du Haut De Ces Rivages 	5:10
2-9 	N.18 Finale: On Vient! Silence, Amis! 	13:48

Soprano Vocals – June Anderson
Mezzo-soprano Vocals – Martine Mahé
Tenor Vocals – Alain Munier, Alfredo Kraus, John Aler
Baritone Vocals – Jean-Philippe Lafont
Bass Vocals – Daniel Ottavaere, Frédéric Vassar, Jean-Philippe Courtis

Ensemble Choral Jean Laforge
Orchestre Philharmonique De Monte-Carlo
Conductor – Thomas Fulton

With La Muette de Portici, Daniel-François-Esprit Auber and Eugène Scribe created a new genre of nineteenth century opera. It was to become known as French grand opera, and other practitioners of the genre would include Meyerbeer, Rossini, and Halévy. Eugène Scribe was the literary genius behind the form who wrote many of the texts for these composers, including La Juive, Les Huguenots, and Robert le Diable, three of the biggest hits of the nineteenth century Paris Opéra. Grand opera contained lavish sets, large crowd scenes, choruses, processions, ballets, huge tableaux, extravagant scenic effects, and sensational stories with often revolutionary themes. The political fervor of the story and music of La Muette made it instantly popular throughout Europe. It became associated with revolutionary ideas after it inspired an uprising in Brussels which led to the creation of an independent Belgian state, and it is thought to have spurred unrest in France itself in 1830. In accordance with the sensationalist tendencies of grand opera, Scribe has the revolutionary leader Masaniello go mentally insane after he has been poisoned, and has his sister Fenella hurl herself into Mount Vesuvius, just as it begins to erupt.

The libretto to La Muette, written by Germain Delavigne, was originally in three acts. The censors demanded changes to the text, and Scribe rewrote it several times before coming up with a dramaturgically successful solution. In accordance with the censor's demands, he suppressed much of the revolutionary material. But he also expanded the work into a five-act creation and added the main character of Fenella. She is a mute girl who expresses herself only through pantomime acted out against dramatic orchestral accompaniments. She is the sister to the fisherman Masaniello, and she has been betrayed and seduced by a member of the Spanish ruling class. It is Masaniello who will later become, partly because of the fate of his sister, the leader of the revolutionaries who take back the city of Naples from the Spanish. The fates of Masaniello and his mute sister are delicately intertwined throughout the opera. She is driven to suicide by the violent events of the revolution and the tragedy of her own betrayal, while he is eventually murdered by the very men whom he led to victory against the Spanish nobility. The story of Masaniello was set several times in the nineteenth century. He was an actual historical figure, and did lead a popular revolt against the Spanish in Naples in 1647. The character of Fenella was taken from an 1822 Walter Scott novel called Peveril of the Peak. The tradition of pantomime was taken from the French melodramme, and added an effective touch of pathos and dramaturgical balance to the violence of the story. ---Rita Laurance, allmusic.com

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1. Act I
2. Act II & III

Fra Diavolo – Kenneth Tarver
Zerline – Sumi Jo
Lorenzo – Antonio Gigueroa
Lady Pamela – Doris Lamprecht
Lord Cockburn – Marc Molomot
Matheo – Vincent Pavesi
Giacomo – Thomas Dolie
Beppo – Thomas Morris

Choeur de Chambre Les Elements
La Cercle de l’Harmonie
Jeremie Rorer – director

Fra Diavolo at Opera Comique, Paris, France, 2009

Fra Diavolo is based on a true character although the plot of this opera is totally ficticious - it is a black comedy about a highway robber - the music is rossinian in style with florid arias and many group ensembles with every singer pattering at the same time but recitatives are replaced by spoken-dialogues as is the custom in french opéra-comique. It takes a first-class cast to pull it off and that is what we get here although most soloists are in their twillight years. Nicolai Gedda at 58 re- mains amazingly suave and dexterous as Diavolo - Mady Mesplé (52) is charmingly girlish and very agile - Jane Berbié (52) and Rémy Corazza (50) are delighfully funny as an english couple recently robbed - the rest of the cast is excellent. It is well conducted and recorded - it comes on two super-bargain CDs with a synopsis but no libretto which may be a drawback for non french-speaking people - otherwise it is highly recommandable. ---Michel-Amazon.com

Daniel François Esprit Auber (29 January 1782 – 12/13 May 1871) was a French composer. Auber had already attempted musical composition, and at this period produced several concertos pour basse, modeled after violoncellist Lamarre, in whose name they were published. The praise given to his concerto for the violin, which was played at the Paris Conservatoire by Mazas, encouraged him to undertake a resetting of an old comic opera, Julie (1811). He also began to study with the renowned Luigi Cherubini. In 1822 began his long association with librettist Eugène Scribe. Their first opera, Leicester, shows evidence of the influence of Gioacchino Rossini in its musical style. Auber soon developed his own voice, however: light, vivacious, graceful, and melodious--characteristically French. Le maçon (1825) was his first major triumph, staying in the repertory until the 20th century, with 525 performances at the Opéra-Comique alone Official and other dignities testified to the public appreciation of Auber's works. In 1829 he was elected a member of the Institute. Fra Diavolo,which premiered on 28 January 1830, was his most successful opera.

In his later years, Auber's output slowed down considerably. The 1850s were marked by Manon Lescaut, an opéra comique with a tragic end (1856), and revisions of Le cheval de bronze and Fra Diavolo (both 1857). He had one major success in the 1860s: Le premier jour de bonheur (Opéra comique, 1868). Despite his slowdown in composing, he remained a well-loved figure, known for witty sayings and personal generosity. He survived the German siege of Paris in 1870-71, but died during the upheaval of the Paris Commune on 12 or 13 May 1871. Today, the Rue Auber leads up to the Paris Opera House and the nearest RER station is called Auber.

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Jenny Bell 
1.1 	Ouverture 	7:35
L'Enfant Prodigue 	
2.1 	Ouverture 	7:35
La Siréne 	
3.1 	La Siréne 	8:41
Vendomé En Espagne 	
4.1 	Bolero 	3:56
4.2 	Air Pour Le Second Ballet 	6:34
Le Dieu Et La Bayadére 	
5.1 	Ouverture 	7:38
5.2 	No.5 Ballet 	9:58
La Muette De Portici Ballet 
6.1 	No. 1 	1:53
6.2 	No. 2 	0:47
6.3 	No. 3 	0:50
6.4 	No. 4 	1:01
6.5 	No. 5 	2:15
Le Premier Jour De Bonheur 	
7.1 	Ouverture 	5:47

Gothenburg Opera Orchestra
Andersson, B. Tommy - conductor

Composer François Auber was a major figure in nineteenth century French music, as well known as Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt. Auber's immense popularity in his own time has not helped his case since his death, as conventional wisdom dictates that the reason for Auber's neglect is the slight nature of his music's substance. This collection, Auber: Ouvertures et ballets rares, has arrived to set the record straight, and helps to establish that Auber may be the missing link in the main musical development of the Romantic era.

One can hear in the "Bolero" and "Air" from the 1823 opera Vendome en Espagne that Auber had already learned the lessons of Beethoven. By the time of La Sirène in 1844, he approaches a style strongly reminiscent of Tchaikovsky, which is striking as the Russian composer was only a year old at the time this work was composed! From the slow opening of the same work, one can easily deduce what Richard Wagner may have gleaned from the work of Auber, although Wagner openly detested the composer. The specter of Rossini never seems very far from Auber's music, and it's hard to say who influenced whom. But more so than in Rossini you hear glimpses of music in Auber that belong in the future, particularly resembling that of later Russian composers.

This is the most satisfying-sounding disc from Sterling, and though it's still a little distant, every detail of the orchestration is heard. Conductor B. Tommy Andersson does a fine job of interpreting this mega-obscure music. In sum, if you lament that you've already exhausted the main literature of the Romantic era, this disc of Auber's orchestral music will cause you to think again. ---Uncle Dave Lewis, AllMusic Review

Auber’s overtures, unlike many outwardly similar works of his contemporaries, utilize themes that later appear in the stage drama, in effect planting a seed in the listener’s mind that will sprout dramatically at a critical point in the action. Examples of this can be found in the four “grand opera” overtures (L’Enfant prodigue, Jenny Bell, La Sirene, and Le Premier jour de bonheur) featured here. As advanced as this might have been for its time, to our modern ears it all just sounds like some well written, festive, tuneful opera music–which can take on a wearying sameness if you play this entire disc at one sitting (I was reminded more than once of the ballet music from Gounod’s Faust). The disc also includes Vendome en Espagne and Le Dien et la bayadere, as well as the ballet music from La Muette de Portici. Even in light of the enthusiastic championing of Auber by the album’s producer, I still found corresponding works by the apposite Berlioz to be far more imaginative and exciting, and Meyerbeer’s to be more melodically distinctive. None to worry, fans of this prolific composer will be pleased with B. Tommy Anderson’s bracing and enthusiastic performances with the fully committed Gothenberg Opera Orchestra. The recorded sound is rather anemic, but decently balanced. ---Victor Carr Jr, classicstoday.com

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