Portal:Opera/Selected picture/70
Credit: Émile Desmaisons after François-Gabriel Lépaulle; restored by Adam Cuerden
Frontispiece to the first edition vocal score of Gaetano Donizetti's La favorite which premiered in 1840. The opera's story unfolds against the background of the Moorish invasions of Spain and power struggles between church and state. At its centre is a love triangle involving the King of Castile, Alfonso XI, his mistress ('the favourite') Léonor, and her lover Fernand. The frontispiece shows Rosine Stoltz and Gilbert Duprez, the original Léonor and Fernand.