V1: Overtures

Daniel-François-Esprit Auber's amiable personality can be heard in music that reflected his own very particular Parisian elegance. His operas were hugely successful and their overtures as popular as those of Rossini and Suppé, appreciated as highly entertaining and for their vibrant energy and vast range of character. Auber could conjure the piety of nuns in Le Domino noir or the ferocity of Vesuvius's eruption in La Muette de Portici; the splendor of glorious Venice in Haydée or the saucy sensuality of La Circassienne, and it is easy to hear how his name was once a byword for taste and universal affection.