Daniel Auber

Born into an artistic family on 29 January 1782, Auber dabbled as an amateur until his family's money ran out in 1820 and he turned professional. He locked into a 41-year partnership with librettist Eugène Scribe that produced 39 operas, most of them hits, nearly all in the opéra-comique tradition. Their 1828 collaboration La Muette de Portici became the first French grand opera and cleared the path for Meyerbeer's monumental works. From 1842 he ran the Paris Conservatoire, expanding and modernizing it, and from 1852 directed the imperial chapel in the Louvre, writing liturgical music for the Second Empire. When the Franco-Prussian War brought siege and the Commune rose, he refused to leave the city he loved. He died in his Paris house on 12 May 1871, age 89, just before the government retook the capital.