L'Etoile du Nord

L'Etoile du Nord ("The North Star") is an opéra comique[1] in three acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864)[2], with a French libretto by Eugène Scribe (1791-1861)[3].

The original text

Based on Meyerbeer's earlier 1844 German Singspiel Ein Feldlager in Schlesien (first performed in Berlin, ), the French work had its first performance at the Opéra-Comique, Paris, on 16 February 1854. The text published in Paris by Brandus, in Berlin by Schlesinger and in London by Beale and Co in 1854.

Translations and adaptations

A Dutch musical comedy called De Ster van het Noorden ("star of the north") was written in Cape Town by a local author, J.M. Belinfante (fl. 1860s-1880s) for performance by a local rederijkerskamer.

Performance history in South Africa

1872: Performed in Dutch as De Ster van het Noorden by Aurora II in the hall of the Germania Hall, Cape Town on 24 September, with Een Muzikale Gek (N.C. Koster).

1872: Performed in Dutch as De Ster van het Noorden by Aurora II in the hall of the Oddfellows Hall, Cape Town on 8 October, with Een Loterij (Melt J. Brink).

Sources

Facsimile version of the original 1854 Berlin text of the French opera[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27étoile_du_nord

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op%C3%A9ra_comique

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

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

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: p. 467

Ingmar Koch. 1997. Het ochtendgloren boven Kaapstad. Nederlandse rederijkers in Kaapstad, Tydskrif vir Nederlands & Afrikaans. (4de Jaargang, Nommer 2. Desember) [5]

Performance history in South Africa

1866: Performed as Lucretia Borgia by the Le Roy-Duret Company in the Harrington Street Theatre, Cape Town, on

Sources

D.C. Boonzaier, 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1932. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.203-205

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