Leader, Alfred Cave
Conducted by REGINALD BURSTON
Auber has been called the prince of opera comique. He began writing ballads and ' romances ' at the age of eleven and finished writing operas in his eighty-eighth year. As a youth he earned his living in London as a clerk, and during his spare time wrote numerous songs that attained a certain vogue. At the age of twenty-two Auber returned to Paris and made music his profession.
In 1811 Auber made his début as an opera composer : the work was called Julie, a resetting of an old libretto, which he was commissioned to do for an amateur society. This was the first of a series of some fifty operas that brought him fame and fortune.