About the work
Comédie mêlée d'ariettes by Egidio Duni to a libretto by Charles-Simon Favart, drawn from Voltaire's tale 'Ce qui plaît aux dames', itself based on Chaucer's 'Wife of Bath's Tale'. The work premiered before the court at Fontainebleau on 26 October 1765, followed by its Paris premiere at the Théâtre-Italien on 4 December 1765.
Plot
The knight Robert must answer a court of love's question of what women most desire; failing to answer correctly, he is condemned to marry an old woman. She transforms into the beautiful Marton and turns out to be the fairy Urgèle, who has been testing Robert's honesty and fidelity.
Cultural significance
The premiere's lavish medieval staging – the scenery alone cost 20,000 livres – made the piece one of the most successful of its time, running for more than a hundred performances and paving the way for the medieval colour of later operas such as those by Grétry.