About the work
Opéra comique in three acts by Ferdinand Hérold to a libretto by Mélesville (Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier), first performed on 3 May 1831 at the Paris Opéra-Comique to mark the theatre's reopening under new management. The action is set in 16th-century Sicily near Melazzo.
Plot
The pirate Zampa forces the merchant Lugano to give him his daughter Camille's hand, though she is already engaged to Alphonse. At the wedding feast he mockingly places his ring on the hand of a marble statue depicting Alice, the woman he had once seduced and left to die. The statue closes its hand and will not release the ring; when Zampa presses ahead with the wedding regardless, the statue comes to life and drags him into the depths amid an eruption of Mount Etna, leaving Camille free to marry Alphonse.
Cultural significance
Zampa quickly became one of the most successful French operas of the 19th century, reaching nearly 700 performances at the Opéra-Comique by 1913 and finding early success in Germany and Italy as well. Today it is chiefly the overture that survives in the concert and wind-band repertoire, while the complete opera is rarely staged.