Auber starts a riot

Synopsis

Many operatic works have been described as “revolutionary,” but on today’s date in 1830, a performance of an opera helped to spark a real, take-to-the-streets kind of revolution.

The opera in question was by the French composer Daniel Auber, and entitled La Muette di Portici, or “The Mute Girl of Portici.” The opera’s story concerns a 17th century uprising by some patriots in Naples against their Spanish rulers, and is regarded today as one of the first examples of a genre known as “GRAND opera,” which means it included some stage spectacles worthy of Cecil B. DeMille. For example Auber’s opera ends with the title heroine casting herself into an erupting volcano.

The opera had premiered in Paris in 1828, but on today’s date in 1830 it was being staged at the Theatre La Monnaie in Brussels, a country then under the control of the Dutch. The opera’s story of evil occupiers and patriotic rebels must have touched a raw nerve in many in the Belgian audience.

Upon hearing the line in the opera: "a slave knows no danger, as death is better than living in chains," some in the audiences began a demonstration against the hated Dutch authorities.

The demonstration grew more and more heated, and then, just like the volcano in Auber’s opera, erupted out of the theater and into the streets. Symbols of Dutch authority were attacked, a new provisional government was formed, and by November that same year Belgium had declared its independence.

Music Played in Today's Program

Daniel Auber (1782-1871) La Muette de Portici soloists; Monte Carlo Philharmonic; Thomas Fulton, cond. EMI 49248

On This Day

Births

• 1880 - Austrian operetta composer Robert Stoltz, in Graz;

• 1902 - German-born American composer Stefan Wolpe, in Berlin;

• 1918 - American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, in Lawrence, Mass.;

Deaths

• 1742 - Portuguese composer José Antonio Carlos de Seixas, age 38, in Lisbon;

• 1774 - Italian opera composer Niccolò Jommelli, age 59, in Naples;

Premieres

• 1830 - Auber: opera, "La muette de Portici" (aka "Masaniello"), in Brussels, igniting political riots leading to expulsion of Dutch and the Belgian Revolution of 1830;

• 1948 - Henze: Symphony No. 1 at Bad Pyrmont;

• 1978 - Rorem: "Sunday Morning" at Saratoga Springs, New York, by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy;

Others

• 1830 - Auber: opera, “La muette de Portici” (aka “Masaniello”), in Brussels, igniting political riots leading to expulsion of Dutch and the Belgian Revolution of 1830;

• 1870 - Richard Wagner marries Cosima Liszt von Bulow;

• 1959 - On his 41st birthday, Leonard Bernstein conducts a tour performance by the New York Philharmonic in Moscow; The program includes Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" and Ives' "The Unanswered Question."