About the work
Blaubart (French: Barbe-bleue) is a three-act opéra bouffe by Jacques Offenbach, with a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy based on the French Bluebeard fairy tale. It premiered on 5 February 1866 at the Théâtre des Variétés in Paris.
Plot
Despite his reputation as a wife-killer, the nobleman Bluebeard chooses the peasant girl Boulotte as his new bride, while at court the recovered Princess Hermia is betrothed to Prince Saphir. When Bluebeard sets his sights on Hermia instead, the planned double wedding is thrown into disarray.
Cultural significance
The comic resolution reveals that Bluebeard's alchemist Popolani had merely drugged, not killed, his previous wives, who reappear alive to marry their former suitors. The piece is one of Offenbach's better-known full-length opéras bouffes from his Variétés period of the 1860s.