Auber / Kabongo / Franco Le Philtre CD

The two leading operatic composers of their time were Rossini and Auber, one now f?ted, the other largely overlooked. In 1831 Auber and his long-standing librettist Eug?ne Scribe produced Le Philtre, which took the concept of petit op?ra to the extreme, even outdoing Rossini's Le Comte Ory in depicting a rural setting peopled not with Arcadian shepherds but with ordinary country folk. Auber's Franco-Italian style can be heard in the work's ensembles, while elsewhere the opera shimmers with rich arias, buffo elements and delightful cavatinas. Le Philtre was an unalloyed success receiving 243 performances and inspired Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore.