About the work
Christophe Colomb is an opera by Darius Milhaud to a libretto by Paul Claudel about the life and afterlife of Christopher Columbus. The work, with more than thirty roles across twenty-seven scenes, was premiered on 5 May 1930 at the Berlin State Opera in a German translation by Rudolph Stephan Hoffmann, conducted by Erich Kleiber.
Plot
A narrator and chorus comment on episodes from Columbus's life – from the Atlantic crossing to betrayal, imprisonment and death – while the staging cuts between the dying old Columbus and his younger self. Max Reinhardt's production included extensive film projections showing historical events and dream imagery.
Cultural significance
With chorus, spoken roles, film inserts and a running time of about three hours, Christophe Colomb ranks among the most elaborate opera productions of the Weimar Republic and among the early examples of the deliberate use of film on the opera stage.