About the work
Robert Bruce is an 1846 pastiche opera assembled for the Paris Opera: composer Louis Niedermeyer, working under Rossini's supervision, reworked music from Rossini's operas La donna del lago, Zelmira and others into a new, through-composed score. The French libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on Walter Scott's History of Scotland, tells of Scotland's fight for freedom from England. It premiered on 30 December 1846 at the Salle Le Peletier, with Paul Barroilhet as Robert and Rosine Stoltz as Marie.
Plot
The opera centres on Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, who leads the resistance against English occupation under Edward II. Between military conflict and a love story involving Marie, the opera unfolds a panorama of the Scottish struggle for independence that culminates in Robert's victory.
Cultural significance
Robert Bruce exemplifies the nineteenth-century practice of compiling new operas from an admired composer's existing music for a different audience. Unusually, its orchestra also gave an early outing to a newly invented instrument that would become known as the saxophone.