Ascanio
Music by Camille Saint-Saëns · at Palais Garnier
Ascanio is a grand opera in five acts and seven tableaux by composer Camille Saint-Saëns. The opera's French libretto, by Louis Gallet, is based on the 1852 play Benvenuto Cellini by French playwright Paul Meurice which was in turn based on the 1843 historical novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. The name was changed to Ascanio to avoid confusion with the Berlioz opera Benvenuto Cellini. The opera premiered on March 21, 1890, at the Académie Nationale de Musique in Paris, in costumes designed by Charles Bianchini and sets by Jean-Baptiste Lavastre and Eugène Carpezat (acts I; II, scene 2; and III), Auguste Alfred Rubé and Philippe Chaperon and Marcel Jambon (act II, scene 1).
Text from the Wikipedia article "Ascanio", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (UK: , US: , French: [ʃaʁl kamij sɛ̃sɑ̃(s)] 9 October 1835 – 16 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Second Piano Concerto (1868), the First Cello Concerto (1872), Danse macabre (1874), the opera Samson and Delilah (1877), the Third Violin Concerto (1880), the Third ("Organ") Symphony (1886) and The Carnival of the Animals (1886). Saint-Saëns was a musical prodigy; he made his concert debut at the age of ten. After studying at the Paris Conservatoire he followed a conventional career as a church organist, first at Saint-Merri, Paris…
Text from the Wikipedia article "Camille Saint-Saëns", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Camille Saint-Saëns
- Henry VIII (1627)
- Déjanire (1898)
- Hélène (1904)
- L'ancêtre (1905)