About the work
Giacomo Meyerbeer's grand opéra in five acts was premiered in 1836 at the Paris Opéra and is considered the showpiece of French grand opera. The libretto by Eugène Scribe treats the events surrounding the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572, when thousands of Huguenots — French Protestants — were murdered by Catholics in Paris. With this work Meyerbeer created one of the most successful opera evenings of the 19th century.
Plot
Paris, 1572. The Protestant nobleman Raoul de Nangis is invited to the Catholic court of Count de Nevers, where a feast of reconciliation is to be held. He falls in love with Valentine, daughter of the Catholic Count Saint-Bris — without knowing that she has already been promised to him. When the royal marriage is arranged and Raoul rejects Valentine through a misunderstanding, the conflicts come to a head. On St. Bartholomew's Night, while the Huguenots are massacred, Valentine secretly converts to Raoul's faith and is shot together with him by her own father.
Cultural significance
Les Huguenots was the most-performed opera in the world in the second half of the 19th century and was given more than 1,000 times at the Paris Opéra. Richard Wagner admired it at first but later distanced himself sharply from it. After the Second World War the work all but vanished from the stage on account of its enormous forces — seven principal roles, a large ballet, vast choruses. A notable rediscovery was achieved in 2018 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin under David Alden. The work is regarded as a prime example of grand opera before the Wagnerian music drama.