CHAPTER VII

.

Two composers, Auber and Felicien David -- Auber, the legend of his youthful appearance -- How it arose -- His daily rides, his love of women's society -- His mot on Mozart's "Don Juan" -- The only drawback to Auber's enjoyment of women's society -- His reluctance to take his hat off -- How he managed to keep it on most of the time -- His opinion upon Meyerbeer's and Halevy's genius -- His opinion upon Gerard de Nerval, who hanged himself with his hat on -- His love of solitude -- His fondness of Paris -- His grievance against his mother for not having given him birth there -- He refuses to leave Paris at the commencement of the siege -- His small appetite -- He proposes to write a new opera when the Prussians are gone -- Auber suffers no privations, but has difficulty in finding fodder for his horse -- The Parisians claim it for food -- Another legend about Auber's independence of sleep -- How and where he generally slept -- Why Auber snored in Veron's company, and why he did not in that of other people -- His capacity for work -- Auber a brilliant talker -- Auber's gratitude to the artists who interpreted his work, but different from Meyerbeer's -- The reason why, according to Auber -- Jealousy or humility -- Auber and the younger Coquelin -- "The verdict on all things in this world may be summed up in the one phrase, 'It's an injustice'" -- Felicien David -- The man -- The beginnings of his career -- His terrible poverty -- He joins the Saint-Simoniens, and goes with some of them to the East -- Their reception at Constantinople -- M. Scribe and the libretto of "L'Africaine" -- David in Egypt at the court of Mehemet-Ali -- David's description of him -- Mehemet's way of testing the educational progress of his sons -- Woe to the fat kine -- Mehemet-Ali suggests a new mode of teaching music to the inmates of the harem -- Felicien David's further wanderings in Egypt -- Their effect upon his musical genius -- His return to France -- He tells the story of the first performance of "Le Desert" -- An ambulant box-office -- His success -- Fame, but no money -- He sells the score of "Le Desert" -- He loses his savings -- "La Perle du Bresil" and the Coup-d'Etat -- "No luck" -- Napoleon III. remains his debtor for eleven years -- A mot of Auber, and one of Alexandre Dumas pere -- The story of "Aida" -- Why Felicien David did not compose the music -- The real author of the libretto 152

##