About the work
Opéra-comique in three acts by André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry to a libretto by Michel-Jean Sedaine, based on Charles Perrault's fairy tale "Bluebeard" from "Contes de ma mère l'oye" (1697). It premiered on 2 March 1789 at the Salle Favart of the Comédie-Italienne in Paris.
Plot
Isaure is married against her will to the wealthy Raoul, who has already killed three previous wives out of jealousy. He tests her by giving her access to every room of his castle but one. Isaure opens the forbidden room, discovers the bodies, and flees with her lover Vergy; the murdered women's fathers and Vergy kill Raoul.
Cultural significance
Rather than the promised comedy, the work turned into a dark reckoning with feudal power, appearing just months before the French Revolution broke out — contemporaries read it as political commentary. Internationally successful, the story was later reset to music several times, notably by Jacques Offenbach (1866).