About the work
Notre Dame is a Romantic opera in two acts by Franz Schmidt, who wrote the libretto together with Leopold Wilk after Victor Hugo's novel "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame." Composed as early as 1903–06, it was initially turned down by Gustav Mahler and Felix Weingartner and premiered only on 1 April 1914 at the Vienna Court Opera under Franz Schalk – a belated but resounding success that marked Schmidt's breakthrough as an opera composer.
Plot
In late-15th-century Paris, the archdeacon of Notre-Dame desires the dancer Esmeralda, while the bell-ringer Quasimodo adores her from afar and the officer Phoebus courts her. Jealousy and spurned love set off a chain of intrigue that, on the cathedral's steps and in its vaults, ultimately leads to Esmeralda's downfall.
Cultural significance
What has remained most popular is the first-act Intermezzo, still regularly performed as a stand-alone concert piece and the main channel through which Schmidt's late-Romantic orchestral sound has reached audiences beyond the opera house.