About the work
Le calife de Bagdad is a one-act opéra comique by François-Adrien Boieldieu, with a libretto by Claude Godard d'Aucourt de Saint-Just. Not yet twenty-five, Boieldieu brought the work to the Paris Opéra-Comique on 16 September 1800.
Plot
Disguised as an ordinary citizen, Caliph Isaoun wanders the streets of Baghdad to live among his people unrecognised. He falls for the young Zétulbé and courts her incognito, before finally revealing himself as ruler and marrying her.
Cultural significance
The opera became Boieldieu's first major stage success and stayed in the Opéra-Comique repertoire well into the nineteenth century, reaching more than 800 performances there. Musically, Boieldieu uses only sparing 'Turkish' percussion for local colour in the overture, and lets one number pass through French, Italian, Spanish, Scottish, German and English idioms in turn — an unusual device for its time.