Les Huguenots

Les Huguenots ("The Huguenots") is a French opera in five acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864)[1], with a libretto by Eugène Scribe (1791-1861)[2]en Émile Deschamps (1791-1871)[3].

The original text

The action takes place in the Touraine region, and then in Paris, in 1572, during a religious war between Catholics and Protestants. A Huguenot, Raoul de Nangis, has met a mysterious woman, who he has rescued and fallen in love with. He does not know at the time that Valentine, the daughter of St. Bris, is a Catholic and Marguerite de Valois’ lady in waiting. She is also engaged to marry the Count of Nevers. From her castle in Chenonceaux, Marguerite de Valois hopes to bring the two religions together. To achieve this, she orders Raoul to marry Valentine. However, convinced that Valentine is still engaged to Nevers - when in fact the engagement has been broken off – Raoul refuses to comply…provoking the Catholics’ ire. The young Huguenot dies in the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, along with Valentine, who, after converting to Protestantism in order to marry Raoul, is killed by her own father.

First performed by the Théâtre de l'Opéra de Paris at the Salle Le Peletier on 29 February 1836.

Translations and adaptations

Translated into English as The Huguenots

Translated into Dutch as De Hugenoten by an anonymous author. Published some time between 1836 and 1886. Later also published in Dutch by Holdert, Amsterdam, in 1925.

Performance history in South Africa

1886: Performed in Dutch as De Hugenoten in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, on 12 and/or 13 March by a combined group made up of members of the Rederijkerskamers Aurora II and De Eendracht, with Extractum Longum Vitum (A.A. van der Stempel).

1887: A fantasia on The Huguenots was arranged and played in June by the visiting violinist Eduard Remenyi as an interlude between the second and third acts of the Searelle Opera Company's presentation of the opera Maritiana (Fitzball and Wallace) in the Opera House, Cape Town, under the management of The Wheeler Brothers.

Sources

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Huguenots

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Meyerbeer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Scribe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Deschamps

https://www.opera-online.com/en/items/works/les-huguenots-meyerbeer-scribe-1836

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp. 451, 474

Ingmar Koch. 1997. Het ochtendgloren boven Kaapstad. Nederlandse rederijkers in Kaapstad, Tydskrif vir Nederlands & Afrikaans. (4de Jaargang, Nommer 2. Desember)[4]

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