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