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Don César de Bazan

Music by Jules Massenet · libretto by Adolphe d'Ennery · premiered 1872 · at Opéra-Comique

Don César de Bazan is an opéra comique in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Adolphe d'Ennery, Philippe-François Pinel "Dumanoir" and Jules Chantepie, based on the play by d'Ennery and Dumanoir, which was first performed at Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in 1844. This in turn drew on the popular character of Don César de Bazan, in the 1838 drama Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo, though it has little connection with the plot of Hugo's drama. Massenet's opera was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 30 November 1872. It was the first full-length opera by Massenet to be produced, the one-act La grand'tante having been mounted five years earlier by the same company.

Don César de Bazan was not a success and it would be another five years, with the premiere of Le roi de Lahore in 1877, before Massenet rose to his place among the most prominent composers of his time. Don César de Bazan was initially performed 13 times at the Opéra-Comique. After the fire at the Salle Favart when the parts were lost, Massenet constructed a new version from the vocal score, and this was performed in Geneva in 1888, then Antwerp, Brussels, the French provinces and the Gaîté-Lyrique in 1912, and the Hague in 1925. The orchestral Entr'acte to Act 3, entitled "Sévillana", was in 1895 adapted as a showpiece for solo coloratura soprano, to words specially written by Jules Ruelle ("À Séville, Belles Señoras"). Though this song is still regularly performed, it does not form part of the operatic score. In 1901, two different plays based on Don César were staged in London. Gerald du Maurier adapted the story with simplified dialogue as A Royal Rival, which was produced by William Faversham. Victor Mapes expanded the plot and added more natural-sounding dialogue in his version, titled Don Caesar's Return, which starred James K. Hackett. A modern revival took place in several French cities in 2016, when the Frivolités Parisiennes staged a new production including an appearance at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin, conducted by Mathieu Romano.

Text from the Wikipedia article "Don César de Bazan", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the Composer

Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (French pronunciation: [ʒyl emil fʁedeʁik masnɛ]; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are Manon (1884) and Werther (1892). He also composed oratorios, ballets, orchestral works, incidental music, piano pieces, songs and other music. While still a schoolboy, Massenet was admitted to France's principal music college, the Paris Conservatoire. There he studied under Ambroise Thomas, whom he greatly admired. After winning the country's top musical prize, the Prix de Rome, in 1863, he composed prolifically in many genres, but quickly…

Text from the Wikipedia article "Jules Massenet", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Other Operas by Jules Massenet