About the work
Giralda ou La nouvelle Psyché is an opéra comique in three acts by Adolphe Adam, with a libretto by Eugène Scribe. It premiered on 20 July 1850 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.
Plot
The Queen of Spain stops on a pilgrimage at the mill of Ginès, who is due to marry the young Giralda that very day. Giralda secretly loves an unknown knight, Don Manoël, who pays Ginès to take his place at the altar. When Don Manoël has to go into hiding over a political offence, Giralda at first believes herself married to Ginès and to an elderly gentleman, Don Japhet; only once the Queen pardons Don Manoël can he openly declare himself Giralda's husband.
Cultural significance
This mix-up of bride, groom and stand-in belongs to the tradition of intrigue-driven librettos that Eugène Scribe shaped for the Opéra-Comique in the 1840s and 1850s.