The two leading operatic composers of their time were Rossini and Auber, one now feted, the other largely overlooked. In 1831 Auber and his long-standing librettist Eugene Scribe produced Le Philtre, which took the concept of petit opera to the extreme, even outdoing Rossini’s Le Comte Ory in depicting a rural setting peopled not with Arcadian shepherds but with ordinary country folk. Auber’s Franco-Italian style can be heard in the work’s ensembles, while elsewhere the opera shimmers with rich arias, buffo elements and delightful cavatinas. Le Philtre was an unalloyed success receiving 243 performances and inspired Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore.