Template:POTD/2022-11-06
Les Huguenots is an opera by the German composer Giacomo Meyerbeer, based on the French Wars of Religion and with a French-language libretto by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps. One of the most popular and spectacular examples of grand opera, it premiered in Paris on 29 February 1836. The plot moves from day to night as the massacre of the Huguenots approaches. Act 1 is set in the daytime, in the hedonistic surroundings of a chateau belonging to a pleasure-loving Catholic noble. Act 2 is set in sparkling sunshine in the beautiful countryside. Act 3, with near riots between Catholic and Protestant factions, happens as dusk falls. Act 4, with the plotting to massacre the Protestants, occurs at night, and Act 5, with the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre itself, occurs in the darkness of the early hours of the morning. This lithograph depicts the set design for Act 2 of the opera's premiere performance, depicting the gardens of the Château de Chenonceau in west central France.Lithograph credit: Célestin Deshayes; restored by Adam Cuerden