Jean Aumer

Jean-Louis Aumer was a French danseur and choreographer, who was born in Strasbourg on 21 April 1774, and who died in Saint-Martin-de-Boscherville in July 1833. Educated at the school of the Paris Opera Ballet, he joined the company in 1801 after an initial engagement with Jean Dauberval in Bordeaux. The Paris Opera's maître de ballet Pierre Gardel presented an obstacle which led Aumer to choose the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin as the venue for which to create his early ballets. Faced with the implacable competition from Gardel, Aumer left France for engagements in Kassel (1808–1814) and Vienna (1814–1820). Brief periods in Paris (1821–1822) and London (1824–1825) were followed by his return to the Paris Opera Ballet (1820–1831), where, enriched by the experience of working abroad, he engaged in a profound renovation of the French repertory, capped by his chef-d'œuvre, Manon Lescaut (1830).

His daughter Sophie-Julie married the danseur Étienne Leblond in 1826.

Works

• 1804 La Fille mal gardée, after Dauberval (Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin)
• 1805 Rosina et Lorenzo (Théâtre de la Porte St-Martin)
• 1805 Robinson Crusoé (Théâtre de la Porte St-Martin)
• 1805 Le Page inconstant, after Dauberval (Théâtre de la Porte St-Martin)
• 1806 Jenny ou le Mariage secret (Théâtre de la Porte St-Martin)
• 1806 Les Deux Créoles (Théâtre de la Porte St-Martin)
• 1808: Les Amours d'Antoine et de Cléopâtre (Opéra de Paris)
• 1814 Zéphire et Flore (Vienna)
• 1814 Louise et Alexis, after Le Déserteur de Dauberval (Vienna)
• 1814 Myrsile et Antéros (Vienna)
• 1815 La Fête de la rose (Vienna)
• 1815 Les Bayadères (Vienna)
• 1816 Les Noces de Thétis et de Pélée (Vienna)
• 1816 Les Deux Tantes (Vienna)
• 1817 Amour et Psyché (Vienna)

• 1817 Érigone ou le Triomphe de Bacchus (Vienna)
• 1818 Le Sommeil enchanté (Vienna)
• 1818 Aline, reine de Golconde (Vienna)
• 1819 Ossian (Vienna)
• 1820 Emma ou le Mariage secret (Vienna)
• 1820 Alfred le Grand (Vienna)
• 1820 Les Pages du duc de Vendôme (Paris Opera Ballet)
• 1821 Jeanne d'Arc (Paris Opera Ballet)
• 1824 Le Songe d'Ossian (London)
• 1825 Cléopâtre, reine d'Égypte (London)
• 1827 Astolphe et Joconde (Paris Opera Ballet)
• 1827 La Somnambule ou L'Arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur (Paris Opera Ballet)
• 1828 Lydie (Paris Opera Ballet)
• 1829 La Belle au bois dormant (Paris Opera Ballet)
• 1830 Manon Lescaut (Paris Opera Ballet)

Sources

• Babsky, Monique (1998). "Aumer, Jean-Louis", vol. 1, pp. 201–203, in International Encyclopedia of Dance (6 volumes), edited by Selma Jeanne Cohen. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-509462-6 (hardcover). ISBN 978-0-19-517369-7 (2004 paperback edition).
• Craine, Debra; Mackrell, Judith (2000). The Oxford Dictionary of Dance. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-860106-7.
• Pitou, Spire (1985). The Paris Opera: An Encyclopedia of Operas, Ballets, Composers, and Performers. Rococo and Romantic, 1715-1815. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-24394-3.

External links

• NY Times review by Roslyn Sulcas, June 28, 2007
• Aumer on Data.bnf.fr