About the work
Haydée, ou Le secret is an opéra comique in three acts by Daniel-François-Esprit Auber to a libretto by Eugène Scribe, first performed on 28 December 1847 at the Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique in Paris. It is based on Prosper Mérimée's novella "La partie de trictrac" (1830).
Plot
The Venetian admiral Lorédan is haunted by the memory of having once cheated his friend, the senator Donato, out of his fortune at a game of trictrac. Haydée, a slave girl from Cyprus, secretly loves Lorédan and stands by him through a chain of complications until her true origins are revealed and Lorédan's guilt is atoned for.
Cultural significance
With more than 520 performances at the Opéra-Comique by the end of the 19th century, Haydée remained a fixture of the house's repertoire; the title character is regarded as one of the most nuanced female roles in Scribe's librettos for Auber.