Template:POTD/2022-11-14
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La Esmeralda is a grand opera in four acts composed by Louise Bertin, with a French-language libretto written by Victor Hugo, who adapted it from his 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. The opera premiered at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique in Paris on 14 November 1836, with Cornélie Falcon in the title role. There was some disruption at the premiere, as members of the audience who disliked the Bertin family shouted out that the work had been written by Berlioz, an accusation which Berlioz himself denied. La Esmeralda proved to be the last opera composed by Bertin although she lived for another 40 years. This drawing is Charles-Antoine Cambon's set design for act 3, scene 1, of La Esmeralda, in which Phoebus meets with Esmeralda, and Frollo spies on them and eventually stabs Phoebus with his sword.Illustration credit: Charles-Antoine Cambon; restored by Adam Cuerden